Society of St. Pius X - SSPX Today

SSPX Today

According to its own figures, the Society had (as of November 2009) 510 priests present in 31 countries and active in 32 more, 725 Mass centres, 117 religious brothers, 164 religious sisters, 200 seminarians in six seminaries, 88 schools, and 2 university-level institutes. The SSPX's main seminary is in Écône, Switzerland; others are located in the United States (Winona, Minnesota), France (Flavigny-sur-Ozerain), Germany (Zaitzkofen), Australia (Goulburn), and Argentina (La Reja). The largest proportion of the SSPX's priests (over 120) are stationed in France.

In the past, the SSPX received support from the following diocesan bishops:

• Salvador Lazo Lazo, Bishop of San Fernando de la Union, Philippines (now deceased)
• John Bosco Manat Chuabsamai, Bishop of Ratchaburi, Thailand (born (1935-10-31) 31 October 1935 (age 77), resigned on 24 July 2003)

In addition, the Society was supported by retired diocesan bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer, who on 20 August 1981 had resigned at the age of 77 from the governance of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Campos, Brazil and who participated in the 1988 Écône consecrations. After his retirement, he founded the Priestly Union of St Jean-Marie Vianney, which remained closely associated with the SSPX until 2001, when it reconciled with the Holy See.

The Society now has close links with the Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat, led by Father Basil Kovpak, a priest formerly of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church who was definitively excommunicated from the Catholic Church in November 2007 after having Bishop Richard Williamson of the SSPX illicitly ordain two priests and seven deacons for his society in violation of canons 1015 §1 and 1017 of the Code of Canon Law.

Archbishop Lefebvre, who as superior general had been unable to impose his will on the representatives of the Holy Ghost Fathers at their September 1968 general chapter, gave the Society a statute that excludes elected representatives from SSPX general chapters, in which the only participants are office-holders (appointed personally by the superior general) together with (in a more limited number) the most senior members. There are similar restrictions within the Districts into which the Society is divided.