Schisms don’t happen often in the Catholic Church. Which makes Pope Leo’s recent excommunication of the Society of Saint Pius X big news. This week on Jesuitical, hosts Zac and Ashley speak to Shaun Blanchard, Senior Lecturer in Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia, about the history of the SSPX, their illicit decision to ordain new bishops, and what their excommunication means for more traditional groups within the Catholic Church.

00:00 Why we're talking about the SSPX
01:42 Why the SSPX was excommunicated
04:55 Why Archbishop Lefebvre rejected Vatican II
9:38 Lefebvre's problem with religious liberty
14:20 Was this a debate over liturgy?
18:00 Ordaining bishops crosses a line
21:33 How 17th c. Jansenism illuminates the crisis
28:45 Restricting the traditional Latin Mass
35:05 How excommunication works
38:52 Implications for the traditional Latin Mass
47:16 There's no going back on Vatican II
49:48 Learning to appreciate Vatican II

Vatican declares excommunicated SSPX bishops, warns priests and lay faithful of schism: https://www.americamagazine.org/vatican-dispatch/2026/07/02/vatican-excommunicates-sspx-bishops-priests-and-some-lay-faithful
Analysis: SSPX excommunications show what Pope Leo means by church ‘unity’: https://www.americamagazine.org/news-analysis/2026/07/02/sspx-excommunications-pope-leo-unity
After SSPX excommunications, traditionalist Catholics face a difficult choice: https://www.americamagazine.org/news/2026/07/17/sspx-excommunicated-traditionalist-catholics
5 years after Pope Francis’ Latin Mass restrictions, traditionalist Catholics reflect on ‘Traditionis Custodes’: https://www.americamagazine.org/news/2026/07/27/traditionis-custodes-latin-mass-pope-francis-leo
After SSPX schism, some Catholics urge greater access to the older Latin Mass: https://www.americamagazine.org/news/2026/08/03/sspx-schism-latin-mass-pope-leo
Latin Mass, schism and cardinals in the media: The liturgy wars are back (and never really left): https://www.americamagazine.org/news-analysis/2026/08/04/liturgy-wars-latin-mass-pope-leo

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