What Went Down in Écône

Ed. Note: On July 1 the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) consecrated four bishops without a pontifical mandate. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), who founded the traditionalist group in 1970, likewise consecrated four bishops — also without a pontifical mandate — on June 30, 1988, leading to his automatic excommunication and that of the four bishops he consecrated, two of whom are still alive: Bernard Fellay and Alfonso de Galarreta. In 2009 the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops issued a decree remitting the excommunications. Despite a plea from Pope Leo XIV on June 29 to “please turn back!” and reconsider what he called a “schismatic act,” the SSPX proceeded with the consecrations. On July 2 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a decree announcing the automatic excommunications of the four new bishops, Fellay, and Galarreta. The decree admonishes clerics and laymen “not to adhere to the schism” of the SSPX lest they, too, “ipso facto incur the penalty” of excommunication. James Noel Ward, who traveled from Paris, was the NOR’s man on the ground for the consecration event, which took place at the SSPX campus in Écône, Switzerland. His report follows.

This summer I attended the four-day assembly hosted by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) in Écône, Switzerland, during which four new bishops were consecrated. In the widely available video of the consecration produced by the SSPX, I appear in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment as a chubby muddler in the bottom left-hand quarter of the frame (time stamp 41:48-42:00), wearing my brown seersucker suit, straw hat with a green band, and customary befuddled look. At that instant, I was musing, “What would Walker Percy and Flannery O’Connor think of this?” I had gone, in obedience, to the roped section to which security personnel had erroneously directed me, thinking I was a Portuguese speaker.

Here’s what I witnessed over those four days.

Monday, June 29

The event began with a Traditional Latin Mass at 9:00 AM in a sweeping, outdoor “meadow chapel” immediately below the dormitories, chapel, and classrooms that make up the SSPX’s seminary campus. A crowd of nearly 1,000, including the altar party, witnessed Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general emeritus of the SSPX, ordain five priests and three deacons, exhorting the newly ordained to “embrace your cross.” First blessings of the newly ordained priests followed, and many faithful availed themselves of the grace. A well-attended Pontifical Vespers and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament closed the day.

Tuesday, June 30

At 7:15 AM the newly ordained Fr. Pelayo Muskett Bunge (of Argentina) said his first Mass, followed by first Masses said by Frs. Benoît Braun (France), Juan Gandía (Spain), Vincent Richter (Belgium), and Carlos Hernanz Gallego (Argentina) in chapels throughout the campus. First Pontifical Vespers of the Precious Blood at 6:30 PM, with Bishop Fellay presiding, closed the day. It took place in the Seminary Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which was filled with vested seminarians and SSPX priests. The faithful gathered outside the church on the surrounding porches, as there was no room in the limited interior space.