One of the most sweeping excommunications in worldwide Catholic history is concentrated in the small, northeast Kansas town of St. Marys, where the ultra traditionalist sect Society of St. Pius X has built a huge church and taken over local politics.
In early July, the Vatican declared that priests, deacons, bishops, and lay people who formally adhere to the teachings of the Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX, are excommunicated.
SSPX has been at odds with the Vatican for decades, after it was founded in opposition to the Catholic Church’s move toward modernization.
Their 66,400-square-foot church, the Immaculata, costs $42 million. It seats 1,500 people and hosts a traditional Latin Mass where priests face away from the congregation and women wear head coverings.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said in 2023 it had been looking into accusations of child sexual abuse in SSPX and four Catholic dioceses for four years. The SSPX investigations have since been turned over to Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office, according to a spokesperson for KBI. At least one of those cases is “still under review,” a spokeswoman for Kobach’s office said, but declined to give a timeline for potential charges.
Kansas Reflector’s attempts to reach SSPX leaders for comment were unsuccessful.
Here’s what to know about SSPX, the excommunications, and what it means in Kansas.
SSPX in St. Marys
SSPX formed in the 1970s as a backlash to a gathering of Catholic leadership known as Vatican II. This gathering resulted in the Vatican allowing Catholic churches to host Mass in local languages instead of Latin, and began a
more tolerant approach to other religions.
SSPX settled into St. Marys in 1978, where they started St. Mary’s Academy and College.
Outside of Mass, women are encouraged to dress modestly and have large families. At the SSPX-run schools, students are separated by gender and discouraged from dating.
Members of SSPX have taken over elected positions. The SSPX-dominated city commission forced the local library to ban youth books that mention LGBTQ+ people from the local library. They shut down the community golf course and swimming pool, in part due to the lack of modest clothing at the sites.
Catholics are steadily leaving the church. They’re leaving in large part due to the Catholic Church’s teachings — especially on social and political issues — and scandals involving religious leaders.
While most other rural communities in Kansas have shrunk, St. Marys has seen a population jump of 50% to 2,800 since 1980, which the church and others attribute to SSPX.
“Traditional Catholicism is growing,” said Laura Garrison, who moved to St. Marys 10 years ago. “Many Catholics feel like they have been robbed of the rich and beautiful history of our faith since Vatican II.”
The late Pope Francis, who died last year, was widely considered a progressive pope. The current pope, Pope Leo XIV, is seen as more of a centrist.
“There is a clear animus, toward tradition, coming out of Rome,” Garrison said.
The excommunication
The official reason for the excommunications was SSPX consecrating new bishops without the pope’s approval.
Before the excommunication, SSPX had two aging bishops and announced their plans to consecrate new ones. The Vatican warned that officials involved in the consecrations would be excommunicated if they did.
Leo pleaded with the group not to move forward, but they did anyway on July 1 at an SSPX seminary in Écône, Switzerland. Each of the four new bishops — including SSPX Bishop Michael Goldade, who grew up in St. Marys — and the two who performed the ceremony were automatically excommunicated.
A day later, on July 2, the Vatican released a decree officially stating all SSPX priests, deacons, and all lay Catholics who “formally adhere” to SSPX are excommunicated, too.
There’s a difference between someone who may “formally adhere” and someone who attends SSPX Mass, though Kansas City Archbishop Shawn McKnight wrote that participation is sinful. Experts in canon law have said that an excommunication of a lay person would only happen if they reject the authority of the pope.
In an open letter, the superior general of the society, Rev. Davide Pagliarani, said the church will remain faithful to the Catholic Church.
This wasn’t the first time SSPX members were excommunicated.
In 1988, SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the pope’s approval. In response, Pope John Paul II excommunicated Lefebvre and other officials involved. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications in an attempt at reconciliation — but full communion was never restored.
Two of the bishops that were excommunicated in 1988 — then lifted in 2009 — were excommunicated again this month.
The Vatican left the door open for reconciliation, stating the church would “welcome with sincere affection and deep concern all those who wish to return to full communion.”
_ _ _
Story via Kansas Reflector
Photo: A sign in the center of St. Marys advertises the location of the Immaculata, a towering structure just a few streets away. (Photo by Thad Allton for Kansas Reflector)
