# The Church and the SSPX: Cardinal Müller on a tragic conflict

**By:** Lothar C. Rilinger  
**Published:** 2026-05-28T13:24:00.000Z  
**Source:** [The Catholic Herald](https://thecatholicherald.com/article/the-church-and-the-sspx-cardinal-muller-on-a-tragic-conflict)

---

Cardinal Gerhard Müller discusses the Society of St Pius X, its planned episcopal consecrations and the risk of a new rupture with Rome

Lothar C. Rilinger

[

Lothar C. Rilinger

](https://thecatholicherald.com/author/lothar-c-rilinger)

The decrees of the Second Vatican Council were not accepted by all Catholics. Some were content with critical statements, but Bishop Marcel Lefebvre, who also served as Archbishop of Dakar, rejected key reforms initiated by the Council, including the declaration _Nostra aetate_, which addressed the new relationship between the Church and the Jews. He also rejected the 1965 liturgical reforms and the ecumenical movement.

His strict rejection met with fierce resistance within the Church. To institutionalise his conservative stance, he founded the Society of St Pius X in 1970. Through the mediation of the then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a compromise was reached, but in 1988 Lefebvre consecrated four bishops, an act considered schismatic by the Church and resulting in his excommunication. Benedict XVI lifted this ecclesiastical penalty through grace while upholding canonical and theological views.