Society of St. Pius X



The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX, also FSSPX) is a prominent traditionalist Catholic society which is "canonically valid but illicit," which seems to mean that it's "kind of" a part of the Catholic Church.

Basically, it is a 1950s Catholicism frozen in time. This includes Latin mass, opposition to evolution, fear of Hell and the Devil, no endorsement of Enlightenment values (and the French Revolution) and the occasionally uttered belief that we live in End Times. Quackery like homeopathy, relics and witchcraft are also widely believed by society members. Most members are old, though the church is slowly growing. This may be due to higher fertility rates, schools which prevent children from joining a peer group outside of the faith, and having missionaries in places like Africa. Some ideas are strangely nostalgic, like a children's magazine called the Eucharistic Children's Crusade or the belief that car accidents could be best prevented by prayer.

The Southern Poverty Law Center considers SSPX to be a "font of anti-Semitic propaganda". On the positive side, members generally follow the law, ignore politics, and pay taxes.

The founder of SSPX, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, supported the Vichy regime, the pro-Nazi government of France during World War II. Even in later years, SSPX hid war criminal in one of their monasteries. So there's that.

In 1988, Lefebvre "illicitly" ordained four new bishops, including the Holocaust denier, which led to their excommunication under John Paul II. This excommunication was reversed by Benedict XVI. Williamson was later ousted from the society after an interview in 2009 in which he denied the Holocaust and founded his own true church. There are now about half a dozen sects that have sprung from the SSPX.