EWTN News reports (June 25, 2026) that more than 20 professors at the Franciscan University of Steubenville have issued an open letter urging the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) to abandon its planned consecration of bishops. This intervention, emerging from a flagship conciliar institution, perfectly illustrates the fundamental irreconcilability between the integral Catholic faith and the modernist ecclesiology imposed after 1958.
The Modernist Monopoly on “Tradition”
The professors claim to write “not as adversaries, but as fellow Christians who love the Church, which is built on Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.” This statement reveals the core modernist deception: the assumption that “Tradition” can be severed from the visible authority of the Church and redefined by theologians. Catholic doctrine teaches that Sacred Tradition is transmitted exclusively through the Magisterium of the Church, not through academic consensus. As Pope Pius XI warned in Quas Primas (1925), the Kingdom of Christ demands obedience to His authority, not dialogue between competing factions. These professors, products of the post-conciliar revolution, treat the Church as a voluntary association of believers rather than a perfect society established by Christ with visible, juridical authority.
The Heresy of “Communion” Without Unity of Faith
The letter insists that “The treasures of Catholic Tradition do not belong outside communion with Peter; they belong at the heart of the Church.” This statement presupposes that the current occupant of the Vatican is indeed the successor of Peter. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, the men who have occupied the Apostolic See since 1958 have promulgated heresies and destroyed the liturgy, thereby losing their authority. As St. Robert Bellarmine teaches, a manifest heretic ceases to be Pope. The professors demand “dialogue” with an apparatus that has systematically persecuted traditional Catholics for decades. True communion with Peter requires communion with the perpetual Magisterium, not with the modernist abomination of desolation sitting in the Vatican.
Schism Defined by the Persecutors
The professors warn that episcopal consecration without a papal mandate would constitute “a schismatic act.” This accusation inverts reality. The true schism began when the conciliar sect abandoned the Catholic Mass, dogmatic moral teaching, and the exclusive salvation of the Church. The SSPX, whatever its canonical status or past errors in judgment regarding the legitimacy of conciliar authorities, preserves the true Mass and sacraments. As Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law establishes, an office becomes vacant by public defection from the faith. The conciliar authorities defected from the faith; therefore, their mandates lack divine authority. The consecration of bishops to serve the faithful is not schism but the preservation of the Apostolic succession necessary for the survival of the Church.
Naturalism in Catholic Education
The article also features a segment from Father Colin Blatchford of Courage International regarding “Pride Month” events. While opposing the celebration of sins against nature, the approach exemplifies the conciliar obsession with “dialogue” and “accompaniment” rather than the proclamation of objective truth. The Church has always taught that sin must be named and rejected, not “walked with” as if it were a valid lifestyle. This therapeutic, naturalistic approach to morality is a direct fruit of the modernist condemnation found in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), particularly regarding the rejection of the absolute primacy of God’s law over human autonomy.
The Irreconcilable Divide
The intervention by Franciscan University demonstrates that the conciliar church views the existence of traditional Catholicism as a threat to its modernist project. The professors’ plea for “unity” is a call for the SSPX to surrender the Faith to those who have destroyed it. The integral Catholic position is clear: there can be no dialogue with heresy. The Church founded by Christ endures in those who profess the immutable faith and receive the valid sacraments, not in the structures of the post-conciliar revolution.
Source:
Franciscan University professors urge SSPX to desist from schism (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 25.06.2026