The Society of St. Pius X consecrated four bishops without papal approval, and the Vatican responded by declaring the group in schism and excommunicating six of its bishops. Now, thousands of French Catholics who love the traditional Latin Mass but refused to follow the SSPX out of communion with Rome are channeling their energy in a different direction, organizing the largest papal event France has seen in years.

The contrast is sharp. While the SSPX chose defiance, traditionalist organizations loyal to the pope are mobilizing 10,000 volunteers to welcome Pope Leo XIV to Paris this September. Their message is plain: fidelity to the ancient liturgy does not require a break with the Chair of Peter.

Philippe Darantière, president of Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, the association behind the massive annual Pentecost pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres, told OSV News that his organization has been asked to help prepare for the pope's September 25, 26 events in the French capital. The Archdiocese of Paris tapped Notre-Dame de Chrétienté specifically because of its track record running large-scale gatherings.

"They turned to us because Notre-Dame de Chrétienté is known for its ability to organize large-scale gatherings that require significant logistical support."

That is not an idle boast. The group's 44th annual Pentecost pilgrimage in late May drew over 20,000 participants, a record, with traditional Latin Masses concelebrated along the route from Paris to Chartres. Two years earlier, the 42nd pilgrimage had drawn 18,000, itself a record at the time. The growth curve tells its own story about the health of traditionalist Catholicism inside the institutional Church.

The SSPX break and its fallout

The SSPX consecrations took place at the group's seminary in Écône, Switzerland. The Washington Examiner reported that four SSPX priests were illicitly consecrated as bishops on July 1, 2026, in direct defiance of explicit demands from Pope Leo XIV not to proceed. The Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith formally declared the SSPX in schism, naming six excommunicated clergy including bishops Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay alongside the four newly consecrated bishops.

The consequences extend beyond the clergy. Lay faithful who formally adhere to the SSPX are also considered schismatic and excommunicated, though those who attended SSPX Masses only for liturgical reasons and do not reject papal authority are exempt from that penalty.

The Vatican went beyond minimum canon law sanctions. Just The News reported that approximately 15,500 people attended the consecration ceremony in Switzerland and that the Vatican warned lay faithful who continue participating in SSPX Masses to stop or risk facing harsh sanctions, including excommunication themselves.

At the ceremony, a pseudo-mandate was read aloud declaring that "from Vatican Council II up to the present day, the authorities in the Church have been animated by a spirit that is contrary to that of the faith and have been acting against holy tradition." That statement captures the SSPX's fundamental posture: not merely a dispute over liturgical preference, but a wholesale rejection of the Church's governing authority since the 1960s.

Pope Leo XIV had personally urged the SSPX to halt the unauthorized consecrations before they took place. The group's superior general, Father Davide Pagliarani, had requested an audience with the pope but received only a letter that, in his words, "does not in any way respond to our requests."

History repeating

None of this is without precedent. National Review's Michael Brendan Dougherty warned before the consecrations that history appeared to be repeating itself. The SSPX was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to preserve the Traditional Latin Mass and resist post-Vatican II reforms. In 1988, Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without Rome's permission, resulting in automatic excommunications and a split that created the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, the FSSP, as a home for priests and seminarians who wanted the old rite but also wanted to stay in communion with the pope.

Dougherty noted that "it seems that the society as well as Pope Leo's curia have settled on the same old game that led to disaster 30 years ago." The SSPX is now a much larger organization than it was in 1988, which makes the rupture more consequential, and the decision by French traditionalists to stay loyal to Rome all the more significant.

The Vatican had made its position clear well before July 1, threatening excommunication if the SSPX proceeded. The group proceeded anyway.

Mobilizing for the papal visit

Against that backdrop, the papal visit to France, scheduled for September 25, 28, has taken on added weight. Pope Leo XIV will meet young people at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on the evening of September 25, then celebrate Mass the following afternoon at the Place de la Concorde, the largest square in Paris. Massgoers are expected all along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, stretching toward the Arc de Triomphe. The crowd could number nearly 500,000.

The Archdiocese of Paris estimates it needs 10,000 volunteers to pull it off. Notre-Dame de Chrétienté's logistics coordinator for the Chartres pilgrimage has become the deputy logistics coordinator for the youth vigil with the pope, Darantière said. The Scouts are also mobilizing.

Father Jean de Massia, a priest of the Fraternity of St. Peter and chaplain of Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, has been included in the team responsible for the spiritual preparation of the youth prayer vigil. His presence on that team is itself a statement: the FSSP exists precisely because it chose communion with Rome over the SSPX path in 1988. Now its priests are helping prepare the pope's visit.

Darantière described a moment during the Pentecost weekend that captured the spirit of cooperation between traditionalist and mainstream Catholic communities. The Chartres pilgrims and students from a diocesan youth gathering, ages 13 to 15, drawn from eight dioceses in and around Paris, each held a vigil of adoration on the evening of Pentecost, praying for one another.

"The organizers of both events knew each other and had planned that on the evening of Pentecost, before the Blessed Sacrament, the pilgrims on their way to Chartres and the young people from the 'Frat,' each on their own, would pray for one another during a vigil of adoration. It was a beautiful moment of communion."

The harder road

Darantière did not pretend the path is easy. Traditionalist Catholics who remain loyal to Rome occupy a position that requires constant navigation, attached to the old liturgy, sometimes viewed with suspicion by their own bishops, yet unwilling to follow the SSPX into schism.

"This line is sometimes difficult to follow."

He acknowledged that communication with France's bishops remains limited. "We do not communicate much with the bishops," he said, adding, "We therefore hope for great goodwill toward us on the part of the bishops." That candor reveals a real tension: the very Catholics now volunteering thousands of hours to welcome the pope still feel they lack a secure place at the table in their own dioceses.

Pope Leo XIV's leadership style, assertive and willing to stake out firm positions, will be tested by how he handles this dynamic during the France visit. Traditionalists loyal to Rome are doing exactly what the Church asks of them. Whether French bishops reciprocate that goodwill matters.

Darantière said many traditionalist faithful spread across France are already asking their priests to arrange buses to Paris to meet the pope. He has reached out to the superiors of various institutes to offer concrete assistance.

"Many of them, spread throughout France, are asking their priests if they are going to arrange for buses to come to Paris to meet the pope. So I reached out to all the superiors of the institutes concerned to tell them that we will provide them with very concrete assistance."

What the split reveals

Fox News reported that the SSPX's superior general framed the consecrations as serving "the good of the universal Church." But the SSPX's own pseudo-mandate, read aloud at the ceremony, rejected the authority of every pope and council since Vatican II. That is not a reform movement. It is a repudiation of the institution it claims to serve.

The French traditionalists who stayed tell a different story. Over 20,000 of them walked sixty miles from Paris to Chartres at Pentecost, praying the rosary, attending Latin Masses, and doing it all in full communion with Rome. Now they are volunteering by the thousands to welcome the pope to their country.

The Catholic Church faces pressures from many directions in 2026. But the French example suggests that the tradition-minded faithful are not the problem some in the hierarchy have treated them as. They are showing up, for the pilgrimage, for the pope, and for the Church.

Loyalty to tradition and loyalty to Rome are not competing commitments. The 20,000 who walked to Chartres and the thousands now organizing buses to Paris have made that case more powerfully than any theological argument could.