Leo urges SSPX to ‘turn back’ as breakaway traditionalists plan bishop consecrations

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Leo XIV is urging the Society of St. Pius X to abandon plans to consecrate new bishops without papal approval, a move the Vatican warns would constitute a schismatic act. The showdown could end nearly two decades of cautious rapprochement between Rome and the traditionalist society, which has long occupied a liminal space between communion and rupture.