Catholic News

The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) went from full communion with Rome to formal rupture in less than two decades, a break that has never been fully healed.

On May 13, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned that the episcopal consecrations without a papal mandate — which the society has announced will take place July 1 — will constitute a schismatic act entailing automatic excommunication, the very same scenario the SSPX bishops experienced in 1988.

Origins

The SSPX fraternity was founded in Switzerland as a priestly society of diocesan right by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and canonically erected in 1970 within the Diocese of Fribourg, with the approval of the Ordinary; that is, in full communion with Rome. The SSPX celebrates exclusively the Traditional Latin Mass and maintains doctrinal differences regarding certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The first cracks in the relationship with the Catholic Church emerged just four years after its founding. In 1974, following an apostolic visitation to the seminary he had established in the Swiss town of Écône, Lefebvre publicly expressed his rejection of various teachings of the Second Vatican Council, not only regarding liturgical matters but also concerning broader doctrinal issues.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, one of the leading international experts on Lefebvrism, the "truly insurmountable" stumbling block for the Lefebvrists was the document Dignitatis Humanae. Promulgated in 1965, this document represented one of the most audacious theological and pastoral shifts of the Second Vatican Council, in which the Church affirmed the principle of religious freedom for the first time.

Dispute over religious freedom

"According to Lefebvre, only the Catholic Church should be guaranteed the right to religious freedom; other religions may, at most, be tolerated," summarized the sociologist, who also explains that this entails a rejection by the Lefebvrists of any openness toward ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.

The core of the disagreement regarding Dignitatis Humanae was the subject of intense correspondence with the then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who held that position between 1981 and 2005 before being elected pope as Benedict XVI.

In a letter titled "Liberté religieuse. Réponse aux 'dubia' présentés par S.E. Mgr. Lefebvre," (Religious Freedom. Response to the 'dubia' presented by H.E. Archbishop Lefebvre) dated March 9, 1987 — one year prior to Lefebvre's excommunication — Ratzinger attempted to persuade Lefebvre that there was no rupture regarding religious liberty between the Magisterium preceding the Second Vatican Council and Dignitatis Humanae, and that the concept could be upheld on theological and philosophical grounds that exclude relativism.

"We have preserved the correspondence exchanged between the two, which reveals how, in the end, Cardinal Ratzinger concluded that Archbishop Lefebvre's positions were diverging from orthodoxy and from communion with Rome," Introvigne explained.

Introvigne, who interviewed Lefebvre on several occasions before his death in 1991, noted a little-known fact: the archbishop participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council as superior general of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit and even signed all the conciliar documents.

However, Lefebvre's views became more radicalized after the council when he "began to be concerned about what he considered to be progressive drifts within the Church — drifts which, in his view, were moving away from tradition," the expert explained.

In that context, in 1970, he founded a seminary in Switzerland with the aim of offering a traditional priestly formation. "Gradually, throughout the 1970s, he also began to formulate responses that led him toward positions of rupture," Introvigne noted.

The first rupture

These responses led, in 1975, to the canonical suppression of the fraternity by the bishop of Fribourg, a decision that Lefebvre challenged unsuccessfully.

A year later, the situation escalated with his suspension ab ordinum collatione (from the conferring of orders) and, subsequently, a divinis, which prohibited him from performing any sacred act, including the celebration of Mass.

Although these categories belong to the 1917 Code of Canon Law then in force, their legal effect today is unequivocal: Lefebvre was deprived of the lawful exercise of his ministry.

Despite this, he continued to ordain priests, and the fraternity continued to expand its activities, "all under objective conditions of canonical illegality;" that is, outside of ecclesial norms, as explained to ACI Prensa by professor of Roman Law, Father Pierpaolo Dal Corso.

1988: Episcopal consecrations and schism

The definitive breaking point occurred on June 30, 1988, when Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the required pontifical mandate, openly defying the authority of the Roman pontiff, John Paul II. According to Dal Corso, that act constituted "a wound of extreme gravity to the hierarchical communion of the Church" and had a clear schismatic dimension.

In the face of this new and grave act of insubordination, the then-Congregation for Bishops declared the Society of St. Pius X to be schismatic on July 1, 1988.

Dal Corso rejects the thesis of the supposed "state of necessity" invoked by the fraternity to justify the consecrations of 1988. Although the Code of Canon Law recognizes this concept as an exempting or mitigating circumstance, the Vatican clarified in 1994 that it was not applicable in this case, given the pope's explicit warning and the extreme gravity of the act.

"A state of necessity cannot be used to legitimize opposition to the authority of the Successor of Peter, nor to cast doubt upon the infallibility of the pope and the indefectibility of the Church," Dal Corso said.

The following day, John Paul II promulgated the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, in which he affirmed that Lefebvre, the bishop who consecrated with him, and the four men consecrated as bishops had incurred latae sententiae (automatically upon the commission of the offense) excommunication in accordance with Canon 1364 of the 1983 Code for the crime of schism. 

Lefebvre died in 1991 without having shown public signs of repentance, an indispensable condition for an eventual canonical reconciliation.

Gestures of rapprochement without full regularization

In subsequent pontificates, there were significant attempts at rapprochement.

In 2007, Benedict XVI promulgated the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which recognized the legitimacy of using the 1962 Missal, otherwise known as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, an act which the fraternity highly values.

"It was an important step toward rapprochement, as it legitimized from a merely liturgical standpoint celebrations according to the 1962 Missal of John XXIII; they never accepted the missal resulting from the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council," Dal Corso explained.

Two years later, in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication incurred for the specific offense of episcopal ordination without a pontifical mandate.

However, as Dal Corso emphasized, this remission "did not affect the excommunication for schism," which remained legally in force. The canonical status of the fraternity therefore remained irregular.

Pope Francis took further pastoral steps, granting SSPX priests the faculty to hear confessions and granting diocesan bishops or other local ordinaries the authority to give SSPX priests the ability to celebrate licitly and validly the marriages of the faithful who follow the Society's pastoral activity. These measures, however, did not entail full juridical regularization.

Now, under the leadership of the Italian priest Davide Pagliarani, the fraternity has announced new episcopal consecrations for July 1, 2026, a date chosen with seemingly deliberate intent. "It is the very same day as the consecrations of 1988. Beyond being a provocation, it symbolically signifies a reaffirmation of that stance," the expert explained.

Meanwhile, the prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, has reiterated that lacking the requisite pontifical mandate, should they take place, these episcopal ordinations will constitute a schismatic act.

Introvigne said the current scenario brings the situation back to the one that existed before the papacy of Benedict XVI. As long as the doctrinal rejection of certain parts of the Second Vatican Council persists, he said, "reconciliation is impossible. The future, as the saying goes, is in the hands of God."

Canonical status of the faithful

Regarding the faithful who adhere to the SSPX, Dal Corso said that the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts clarified in 1996 that excommunication for schism does not automatically apply to those who attend or participate in worship celebrated by the SSPX.

In this regard, Monsignor William King, JCD, professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America, told ACI Prensa that "if a person attends a Mass celebrated by a priest in schism, that individual is not excommunicated, unless he attends that Mass deliberately because he does not accept the authority of the pope or the authenticity of the Catholic Church." That is to say, for formal schism, it is necessary that the person freely and consciously embrace the essential core of schism: the denial of the pope's authority, outwardly manifested.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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Catholic political and social thought, one of the foundational intellectual traditions of Western civilization, is poised for renewal as a new international initiative seeks to bring it back into conversation with new generations and decision-makers of tomorrow.

CatholicPOST, the Association for the Renewal of Catholic Political and Social Thought, was born from the conviction — shared by a group of European scholars during the COVID-19 lockdowns — that the health crisis had exposed not only the fragility of modern Western societies but also a deeper anthropological confusion threatening their social foundations.

That vision took concrete form at the inaugural conference of the association, titled?"The Renaissance of Catholic Social Teaching," held March 9–10 at the Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest and attended by international academics and Vatican and Hungarian Catholic Church officials.

"COVID was a tragic moment in contemporary history, and it required thinking back again on the basics of social life," Professor Ferenc Hörcher — a Hungarian professor of political philosophy, historian of ideas, and the association's president — told EWTN News. "And that is something you can do best on the grounds of the Catholic tradition, pointing back to Aristotle and forward to the social teaching of the Church."

For Hörcher — also director of the Research Institute for Politics and Government at Ludovika?— the timing has only gained relevance with the election of Pope Leo XIV, whose choice of name evokes Pope Leo XIII, author of the landmark 1891 encyclical?Rerum Novarum, widely regarded as the founding text of modern Catholic social teaching.

Neglected intellectual inheritance

One of CatholicPOST's most urgent tasks is to restore Catholic social doctrine to its rightful place in intellectual life and academic discussion — a place it has progressively lost over the past century.

Secularization, according to the association's founders, has pushed Catholic intellectual traditions to the margins of public discourse. Even conservative academic circles, in their view, have often drawn more from Anglo-Saxon traditions with Protestant roots than from Catholic social thought.

"Catholicism finds itself in the second row," Hörcher said, "despite the fact that our modern and postmodern civilization is essentially built on it."

The association presents itself as a scholarly, nonpartisan platform, open not only to Catholics but also to thinkers willing to engage seriously with the tradition.

"The Church cannot enter directly into political debate — that is not its mission," Hörcher said. "But we, as Catholic intellectuals and practitioners in our own professions, can take that on."

Deeper stakes

The initiative of the group, consisting of, among others, American, Swedish, Maltese, and Hungarian scholars, emerges at a moment of mounting polarization across Western societies, as clashes over gender identity, family, bioethics, and the very understanding of the human person grow increasingly confrontational — and, at times, violent.

For Hörcher, this is precisely why a recovery of serious Catholic political and social thought matters. CatholicPOST, he said, aims to reconnect contemporary debates with an intellectual tradition capable of addressing questions of philosophical anthropology that go far beyond basic politics.

That ambition also helps explain the caliber of thinkers already orbiting the initiative, from French political philosopher Pierre Manent, a leading contemporary thinker on natural law and the moral foundations of political life, to scholars at the University of Notre Dame, home to the natural law tradition developed by John Finnis, and Princeton's James Madison Program, led by natural law theorist Robert George — a circle Hörcher is set to join for a year as a visiting scholar to Princeton's Department of Politics.

The initiative has also attracted attention in Rome. In his keynote speech at the Budapest conference, Father Avelino Chico, head of office at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, presented Catholic social teaching as a living intellectual tradition still evolving in response to the "new things" of each age — from industrial modernity in the time of?Rerum Novarum?to contemporary social challenges such as artificial intelligence, migration, ecological crisis, and widening inequality.

Chico portrayed Pope Leo XIV as continuing that trajectory, seeking to integrate the legacy of Leo XIII and Pope Francis through the lens of integral human development — an approach that takes seriously not only economic realities but also the spiritual, cultural, and political dimensions of human life.

Supporting new generations

The association is already planning a second conference in Kraków, a deliberate choice honoring Poland's enduring Catholic intellectual tradition and the legacy of St. John Paul II.

Registration in the U.S. is also underway, as CatholicPOST has roots in American educational institutions like Christendom College, as a result of its aim to strengthen its international footprint and deepen transatlantic academic ties.

For Hörcher, however, the deeper hope is not merely institutional growth but helping provide intellectual substance to what he sees as a broader spiritual movement among younger Westerners rediscovering Christianity. "We hope to give munition," he said, "intellectual support for those young people."

He sees CatholicPOST as part of a recurring pattern in Catholic history. "Each century brought a revival of Catholic political thought," he said, citing the neo-scholastic revival of 16th- to 17th-century Spain, the Holy Alliance of the post-Napoleonic Age, the social teaching inaugurated by Leo XIII, and the contribution of Catholic thinkers such as Jacques Maritain to the postwar rise of the human rights framework.

"These historical precedents help us envision what a new renaissance might look like — and why it is needed now."

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UDAIPUR, India — Nine Catholics have been behind bars for more than two weeks after parishioners chased out more than a dozen people who barged into a village church during Mass, shouting accusations of conversion, in a remote village in India's desert state of Rajasthan.

"We feel frustrated that our people were denied bail a second time today on the false allegation of conversion," Bishop Devprasad John Ganawa of Udaipur, a Divine Word missionary, told EWTN News on May 12.

"When the hooligans disrupted the Mass on May 1 shouting 'conversion,' our people forced them out. Instead of registering a criminal case against the intruders, the police have charged our people with 'conversion and attempt to murder' and arrested nine Catholics of Bandaria Parish," Ganawa explained.

'They took out a knife'

"I was saying the evening Mass at the substation of my parish at Kalinjara village when the incident happened," Father Arvind Amliyar recounted to EWTN News.

"During the Communion time over a dozen people stormed into the church, shouted 'conversion,' and started filming with cameras. When one of them took out a knife, our people snatched it and chased them out," Amliyar said.

"Soon police came and what happened then shocked me. Instead of finding out what had happened, they arrested four Catholics the same night," the priest said.

A Hindu mob then staged a protest outside the police station and demanded action against the parishioners, according to Amliyar. Police turned away Catholics who went to them twice, including at midnight the same day and the next day, refusing to register their complaint.

Police came knocking on May 4 at 2:30 a.m. and arrested five more parishioners, including Anil Rawat, 70, a retired headmaster of a government school who now runs a private school in the village.

Bail denied twice

The local magistrate court rejected the parishioners' bail application the next day, as they were charged with "serious crimes": conversion and attempted murder. Church lawyers then moved the case to the Banswara district court, which denied bail again on May 12.

"Now, we have to go to the High Court with senior lawyers," Amliyar said of the challenging situation facing the village church, which serves about 70 Catholic families. About 70 people were attending Mass when the intruders stormed in.

"I cannot understand what is going on. The police bluntly refused to register the complaint of our people and have filed a serious charge of conversion against our people and imprisoned them," Ganawa said of the first case of alleged conversion in Udaipur Diocese, where he has served as bishop for 13 years.

Anti-conversion laws 'reduced to a tool to harass minorities'

"This is another typical case of the widespread abuse of anti-conversion laws against Christians in several states, most of them ruled by the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]," A.C. Michael, a Catholic and national coordinator of the United Christian Forum, which monitors atrocities against Christians, told EWTN News from New Delhi.

Under the Indian criminal system, the burden of proof lies with the prosecution. However, under recently enacted or amended anti-conversion laws, Michael said, the burden of disproving the charge of conversion is shifted to the accused, making it difficult for defendants to secure bail from trial courts quickly, even in fraudulent cases.

Under the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, enacted in 2025, the burden of disproving the allegation of conversion falls on the accused.

As a result, Michael said, hundreds of Christians are languishing in jails in BJP-ruled states while protracted legal challenges drag on in higher courts.

"The shocking reality is that there has been hardly any conviction in so-called conversion cases. That is why the churches and Christian groups have moved the Supreme Court for abolishing the anti-conversion laws that have been reduced to a tool to harass minorities," Michael said.

He noted that the Supreme Court in May 2024 observed that certain provisions in anti-conversion laws may be in violation of Article 25 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate one's religion.

The Feb. 4–10 biennial assembly of more than 200 bishops in India in Bangalore also reiterated this concern in its final statement: "As many innocent individuals are incarcerated based on unfounded allegations of forceful religious conversions, we strongly demand the repealing of legislations which are inconsistent with religious freedom and right to privacy."

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ENUGU, Nigeria — A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained untouched after a fire severely damaged sections of Mother of Christ Specialist Hospital in Nigeria's Catholic Diocese of Enugu on May 10, the administrator at the facility said.

In an interview with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, on May 12, Sister Maria Chinaemerem Igwe said the incident has strengthened the faith of many Catholics and drawn Christians from other denominations to the hospital to pray and witness what she described as an extraordinary occurrence.

The Nigerian member of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Mother of Christ (IHM) said the fire broke out around 10 p.m. after most staff members had retired for the day.

"As I was coming, I saw flames going above the roof. Everybody around, nurses, workers, and students, had gathered trying to pour water through the windows because the fire had already broken the glass," Sister Maria recounted, noting that the fire destroyed the reception area, administrative offices, the CCTV control room, the doctors' lounge, and part of the children's ward before firefighters from the Enugu State Fire Service contained the blaze.

"Everything in the secretary's office was burnt to ashes — computers, printers, scanners, and documents. The CCTV room also got destroyed. The doctors' lounge, which included chairs, tables, televisions, and refrigerators, was burned," the hospital administrator said.

Sister Maria attributed the incident to a possible power surge linked to unstable electricity supply.

"The light was coming and going within seconds, and we suspected there was a surge that triggered the fire," she said.

Amid the destruction, however, the Marian statue beside the administrator's office door was left undamaged, despite nearby objects being affected by the flames.

"The water dispenser beside the statue melted, and the CCTV wire dropped and got burnt in front of Mother Mary, but the statue remained intact; even the tablecloth and flowers around it were untouched," Sister Maria told ACI Africa on May 12.

She explained that the statue forms part of a devotional practice at the hospital, in which departments host the Marian image for prayer every three months before passing it to another section.

"It happened that Mother Mary was staying in our department during this period," Sister Maria said, adding: "The fire started from our department, but she blocked it from entering the administrator's office, where we keep all the major hospital records and documents."

She further recalled that her personal office showed no evidence of fire damage. "My office was just normal. No smell of smoke, no flame, nothing," she said. "I started shouting, crying, and singing because I realized this was a great miracle."

According to Sister Maria, residents, worshippers, and curious visitors have continued to come to the hospital following the incident.

"Some of them said they saw it on Facebook and wanted to confirm whether it was true," she said.

"One lady from another denomination told me honestly that Catholics have Mother Mary and that Mother Mary is very powerful," Sister Maria recounted, saying that "their faith has increased. If it was 50% before, some people are now at 80% or 90%."

Reflecting on the incident, the Nigerian religious sister encouraged Christians to deepen devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

"Those who did not believe in the intercession of Mary should know that she is still interceding for us. If you have true devotion to her, she will never allow you to be ashamed," she said.

Sister Maria further said that the Catholic hospital, founded in 1957 and named after the Mother of Christ, has a long history of having the Blessed Virgin Mary as its patroness.

"This hospital is her house; anywhere the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is, we believe she is present there," the hospital administrator said, adding that the event has renewed faith among staff, patients, and visitors.

She continued: "Many non-Catholics are now coming here to pray and touch the place; this miracle has the capacity to convert people because they can see that the intercession of Mary is real."

No casualties were reported in the fire, but Sister Maria said the hospital suffered extensive financial losses.

"We lost 23 new HP desktop computers, printers, air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions, and many other items. But my greatest joy is that no life was lost because no amount of money is greater than human life," she said.

Sister Maria estimated that the destroyed equipment was worth more than 25 million naira ($18,253), while reconstruction of affected structures could cost approximately 1 billion naira ($738,000).

Appealing for support, she called on government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, benefactors, and former patients to assist the hospital's rebuilding efforts.

"Mother of Christ [Hospital] has served people for more than 70 years. We are calling on everyone, especially those born in this hospital, to come and assist us. No amount is too small," she said.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

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KAMPALA, Uganda — Uganda has postponed the 2026 Martyrs' Day celebrations, traditionally held on June 3 at the Namugongo Martyrs Shrine in the country's Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala, because of the Ebola outbreak in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), from where thousands of pilgrims travel annually for one of the world's largest Catholic gatherings.

In a press release obtained by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, on May 17, Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni said the decision follows consultations with key stakeholders in the east African nation.

"After consultations with the national epidemic response task force and religious leaders, we have decided to postpone the Martyrs' Day to a later date, which will be communicated," Museveni said in the two-page press release by Uganda State House.

The Ugandan president explained that the decision to postpone the annual celebration "was made because Uganda receives thousands of pilgrims annually from eastern Congo, which is currently experiencing an Ebola outbreak."

"To safeguard everyone's lives, it is essential that this important event be postponed," he added.

The Ugandan president, who was sworn in for his seventh consecutive term on May 12, expressed regret to pilgrims who had already begun journeys to the Namugongo Martyrs' Shrine in Kampala, saying that "the protection of life must come first."

"I encourage those who have begun their journey to return home, continue observing the precautionary measures, report anyone who is sick, and encourage those who are ill to seek medical care," Museveni said.

The DRC is facing a fresh Ebola outbreak linked to the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak on May 15 after several deaths were reported in the Ituri province. Health officials say investigations and contact tracing are ongoing, and there is currently no licensed vaccine specifically approved for the Bundibugyo strain.

On May 16, WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, citing risks associated with cross-border movement, delayed case detection, weak health systems, and insecurity in eastern Congo.

The outbreak has heightened fears of cross-border transmission because eastern DRC shares major movement corridors with Uganda and South Sudan.

Preparations for the annual Martyrs' Day pilgrimage had already begun. A May 15 report indicated that Bishop Francis Kibira of Uganda's Kasese Catholic Diocese had officially set off from Kabuyiri Shrine to receive pilgrims arriving by foot from DRC.

Another May 16 report indicated that pilgrims from Kenya's Catholic Dioceses of Eldoret, Kapsabet, Kericho, and Nakuru had also begun their journeys to Uganda.

The Namugongo Martyrs' Shrine stands on the site where St. Charles Lwanga and his companions — many of them pages in the royal court — were executed on the orders of Kabaka (King) Mwanga II of the Buganda kingdom.

Uganda Martyrs' Day commemorates 45 Christian converts aged between 14 and 50 who were killed between 1885 and 1887 because of their faith during the early years of Christianity in Uganda.

Among them were 22 Catholics who were beatified in 1920 and canonized in 1964. Their witness continues to shape Catholic life in Uganda and has become a significant symbol of Catholic identity and missionary faith worldwide.

The postponement forms part of Uganda's heightened surveillance measures aimed at preventing the spread of Ebola into the country amid regular movement of pilgrims and travelers across the border.

Earlier in February, the Uganda Episcopal Conference entrusted the Diocese of Kasese with organizing the 2026 celebrations.

In a Feb. 11 update, officials from the diocese's communications department said cooperation between the diocese and Kasese District Local Government reflected "a shared commitment" to ensuring "a well and spiritually uplifting event."

"The joint effort underscores unity, faith, and service as both institutions prepare to represent Kasese with dedication and pride at this significant national religious event," the officials said.

"Through coordinated planning and support," they added, "the district leadership is working closely with Church authorities to mobilize resources, facilitate logistics, and encourage community participation."

This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is set to reestablish a civil rights division focused on religious liberty and conscience protections that was initially created during President Donald Trump's first administration.

The move, announced May 18, restructures HHS' Office of Civil Rights (OCR) with three divisions: the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, the Civil Rights Division, and the Health Information Privacy, Data, and Cybersecurity Division.

"This reorganization … strengthens the [OCR's] ability to defend religious liberty, enforce conscience protections, and combat unlawful discrimination," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.

"Under President Trump's leadership, HHS will defend these rights with clarity, accountability, and resolve," he said.

During Trump's first administration in 2018, HHS established the office, but it was dissolved in 2023 under former President Joe Biden's administration. According to an HHS news release, the restoration is meant to ensure HHS can better prioritize religious freedom and conscience rights enforcement.

According to the news release, the restoration is meant to build on Trump's stated effort to eradicate "anti-Christian bias."

On April 30, the Department of Justice issued a report on eradicating anti-Christian bias, which accused HHS under previous leadership of imposing rules for providers to offer what it called "gender-affirming care for minors." The report stated that providers interpreted the rules as having "limited or no religious exemptions," as exemptions were reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Under Biden, HHS also removed some conscience protections for doctors and interpreted the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) as imposing a requirement on hospitals and emergency rooms to offer abortion in "emergency" situations, which prompted lawsuits by Catholic organizations.

"This reorganization reinstitutes a structure that rightly prioritizes civil rights and conscience and religious freedom alongside health information privacy and security," HHS OCR Director Paula M. Stannard said in a statement. "All three areas are deserving of subject-matter expertise and distinct senior executive leadership for OCR to best serve the American people."

In March, HHS's OCR launched investigations into 13 states for allegedly violating federal conscience protections for those who hold moral or religious objections to abortion.

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EWTN Studios has launched a new family series called "Fork in the Road" that follows three home-schooled siblings as they explore global cultures through food, faith, and family.

The EWTN original show was created in partnership with Little Fiat Studios and is available exclusively on EWTN+, the new streaming platform for EWTN's Catholic content.

The show was created by former actress Jessica Rey, known for her role in the Disney television series "Power Rangers Wild Force." Following her acting career, Rey left Hollywood and launched a successful fashion brand and later focused on her vocation as a Catholic wife, mother, and creator.

Through producing "Fork in the Road," Rey is creating and working alongside her three children to emphasize experiential learning and the opportunities home schooling provides.

"Our family has been living this travel and home-school life for over a decade," Rey told EWTN. "Families kept asking how we do it — how we school on the road, learn through food, find the sacred in everyday places. We finally decided to bring them along."

The new series follows a nearly 5% annual growth in home schooling, with 3.4 million K-12 home-schooled during the 2024-2025 school year.

"'Fork in the Road' is an invitation for families to see the world as a classroom and to recognize faith woven into every detail of the journey," Rey said.

The series features Rey's children — Nathanael, Estella, and Sebastian — as they discover cultures through the universal language of food and family in numerous nations including Austria, Croatia, Italy, and Portugal.

"Travel puts you face to face with beauty you can't explain away, and for us, that always points back to God," Rey said. "You can scroll past a photo of a cathedral or flip past it in a book, but standing inside one is something else entirely — when both the scale and the details take your breath away."

"And then we look over and see our kids with their mouths open, just completely undone by it. These moments are such a huge gift from God," she said.

The first season is live on EWTN+ and has been signed for a second season. Watch it now here.

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SUNAMGANJ, Bangladesh — As Catholics around the world mark Laudato Si' Week, a Caritas Bangladesh project in the country's remote northeastern wetlands is offering a quiet, concrete example of what the late Pope Francis' encyclical on care for creation looks like in practice.

In the Jamalganj area of Sunamganj district, about 4,000 families — roughly 20,000 people — are learning to grow food year-round on previously unused land in their backyards, raise poultry without chemical pesticides, and produce organic fertilizer from earthworms and cow dung.

The project, formally known as the Livelihood Diversification and Climate Resilience Project for the Haor Region, is run by Caritas Bangladesh, the charitable arm of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bangladesh. It began in July 2023 and is scheduled to run through January 2027.

'The taste of the food is better now'

Rubina Begum, 30, is one of the beneficiaries. On a small patch of uncultivated land beside her home, she grows gourds, eggplant, beans, and leafy greens — all without chemical pesticides or fertilizers.

"Caritas gave me earthworms and I am preparing fertilizer by releasing them into the cow dung. I am applying that fertilizer to the vegetable garden. I am using a kind of trap to kill the insects; I am using stove ash to kill insects. I am not using any kind of chemical pesticides or fertilizers," Begum told EWTN News.

Before joining the program a year and a half ago, she used conventional farming methods. The difference, she said, is tangible.

"When we used to farm earlier, the yield was low and the taste of the food is also better now than before. We are also selling vegetables in the market to meet the needs of our family. With this, we can do other household purchases," Begum, a mother of three, said. "At the same time, I am farming ducks and chickens at home, but earlier, due to the use of pesticides, I could not farm ducks and chickens at home; they would die."

Her husband, Samraj Miah, 40, is a day laborer. The Jamalganj area sits in Bangladesh's haor region — a basin of tectonic wetlands that floods for roughly four months each year, leaving families like theirs without work or income for extended stretches.

"I am grateful to Caritas. Because we are now able to live fairly comfortably by using the methods Caritas have taught us about vegetable cultivation and poultry farming," Miah told EWTN News.

He added that a cow or two would allow them to produce their own dung for fertilizer rather than sourcing it from neighbors, while also supplying milk for the family's nutritional needs.

A region where 90% live in poverty

According to the 2022 national census, the population of Jamalganj subdistrict is about 185,866 across an area of roughly 309 square kilometers. About 90% of the population lives below the poverty line, according to local government estimates.

Agriculture is the area's primary livelihood, but climate change has made it increasingly precarious. Seasonal flooding eliminates crop production for four months each year, with an additional two months of knock-on disruption — meaning families can face six months without reliable income.

Caritas Bangladesh's response extends beyond kitchen gardening. The project also provides sewing machines and training, seed funding for small businesses, support for traditional handicraft workers, and tree-planting initiatives.

Aruna Debnath, 72, and his wife received about 5,500 taka (about $45) in startup assistance from Caritas. With the money, they buy bamboo and other materials and now earn about 2,500 taka (about $20) per week making baskets, pots, and chicken nets from home.

"We used to work as daily wage laborers, but as we get older, it becomes very difficult to work as day laborers, and many times they don't even want to hire us. But after receiving financial assistance from Caritas, we are working from home," Debnath told EWTN News.

"I work at home on my own terms, take a break when it's hard, and then work again. With the income we earn, our family is living well," he said.

The couple acknowledged, however, that the rise of cheap plastic alternatives has undercut the market for their biodegradable bamboo products.

'A part of Laudato Si' and environmental conservation'

Swapan Nayek, the project supervisor, told EWTN News that Caritas Bangladesh is incorporating the teachings of Laudato Si', the late Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical on the environment and human development, into every project.

"Among our various activities, we focus more on kitchen gardening so that they can produce something throughout the year on the fallow land in their backyards to meet their family's needs and earn some income," Nayek said.

Tree planting and greening are central to the haor project, he added, calling vegetable cultivation and annual tree planting "a part of Laudato Si' and environmental conservation."

But Nayek was candid about the scale of the challenges. Beyond food insecurity, the haor region faces acute problems with sanitation, healthcare, and access to clean drinking water.

"In the haor, there is not only a problem of food but also problems of sanitation, healthcare, drinking water, and these places are big challenges for us. We are providing services on a small scale, which is insufficient," Nayek told EWTN News. He said more funding and vocational training are needed to expand the project's reach.

The project also partners with the Bangladesh government's Department of Agriculture. Suman Kumar Saha, the agriculture officer for Jamalganj, praised the collaboration.

"Caritas' field-level farmer selection and the technology and resources they have are, in a word, extraordinary. Since Caritas is working for the socio-economic development of women here, this is also very commendable," Saha told EWTN News. "The people of the haor are in great distress, and Caritas' training and education are working very well to help them overcome that distress."

For Begum, the aspirations are simpler and closer to home.

"I hope to make my children if not doctors, engineers or anything else, at least ideal farmers," she said.

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Inspired by Jesus' prayer in John 17:21, a new movie called "That They May Be One" is exploring the theme of Christian unity — both across history and in the present day.

The film blends documentary-style interviews with prominent figures in the faith community and reenactments that bring key moments to life. Perspectives from both Catholic and Protestant leaders are featured in the film, including interviews with Father Mathias Thelen, Pastor James Ward, evangelist Francis Chan, and Catholic biblical scholar Mary Healy, who also serves as a producer of the film.

The movie will be in theaters nationwide May 19 and 20.

Adriana Gonzalez, the Catholic executive producer behind the film, told EWTN News in an interview that the inspiration for the film came from her own passion regarding Christian unity as well as a talk she heard in 2020 given by Healy.

Gonzalez said she felt it was necessary to make the documentary because in today's society "there's greater division, greater animosity, so greater unity is just logically beneficial because we want to stand strong against a world that really attacks Christianity."

Another reason she believes this movie is needed "is because we do witness a move of God today and so much of it is based on unity in the Holy Spirit ... So, who knows when that last day will come, but yet, there is a preparation that moves forward in history and in the progression of the Church, and I do believe that unity is one of those things that must be wrought by the Holy Spirit to prepare the bride of Christ."

Gonzalez highlighted that this film also addresses some of the misconceptions many have regarding the pursuit of Christian unity, namely that it "waters down our Catholic faith."

One of the main reasons this fear needs to be debunked, she explained, is because "the Church itself calls all of her faithful to pursue unity in the body of Christ."

"This was established in the Second Vatican Council," she said. "St. John Paul II reiterated it in his encyclical Ut Unum Sint. And so it's a call from the Church herself to all the faithful, not just to the hierarchy, to all the faithful, to pursue unity."

Michael Girgenti, the actor who portrays Jesus in the film, added that he often sees Christians of many denominations focusing on "wanting to be right versus maybe teaming up on trying to bring others who don't know Christ to Christ."

He added: "The Church's mission until the end of ages is to gather as many souls and to unite them to Christ and that's literally what the documentary focuses on as far as like yes, there's a bunch of different denominations, but there's also even more people who reject the Lord, don't know the Lord, and we have to do what we can, together, to bring and show them the light of Christ."

Gonzalez emphasized another aspect of Christian unity that personally impacted her passion toward the topic and believes all Catholics should contemplate.

"What moves me toward really being passionate about this … is just thinking that our dear beloved Jesus — who is the center and head and core of everything in our faith — prayed this the night before he died," she shared. "It seems to me like 'Oh wow, that should be enough to compel every single Christian on the face of the earth to say, 'Lord, how can I be a part of an answer to this prayer that you prayed just hours before you knew you were going to get arrested and crucified?'"

Girgenti shared that he hopes Christian viewers of the film will be reminded that "it's not about trying to prove and convince everyone who's right" but instead would be "more inspired to just talk and preach about the Lord."

As for nonbelievers, he said he hopes "they accept the invitation to know him [Jesus]. I hope they accept the invitation to go deeper, to try to read Scripture, to try to go to church, and to follow the light that he is providing us always."

Gonzalez added that she hopes viewers will pursue a renewal in "falling in love with Jesus again because then one of the natural consequences of that is unity in the body of Christ."

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The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) went from full communion with Rome to formal rupture in less than two decades, a break that has never been fully healed.

On May 13, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned that the episcopal consecrations without a papal mandate — which the society has announced will take place July 1st — will constitute a schismatic act entailing automatic excommunication, the very same scenario the SSPX bishops experienced in 1988.

Origins

The SSPX fraternity was founded in Switzerland as a priestly society of diocesan right by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and canonically erected in 1970 within the Diocese of Fribourg, with the approval of the Ordinary; that is, in full communion with Rome. The SSPX celebrates exclusively the Traditional Latin Mass and maintains doctrinal differences regarding certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The first cracks in the relationship with the Catholic Church emerged just four years after its founding. In 1974, following an apostolic visitation to the seminary he had established in the Swiss town of Écône, Lefebvre publicly expressed his rejection of various teachings of the Second Vatican Council, not only regarding liturgical matters but also concerning broader doctrinal issues.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, one of the leading international experts on Lefebvrism, the "truly insurmountable" stumbling block for the Lefebvrists was the document Dignitatis Humanae. Promulgated in 1965, this document represented one of the most audacious theological and pastoral shifts of the Second Vatican Council, in which the Church affirmed the principle of religious freedom for the first time.

Dispute over religious freedom

"According to Lefebvre, only the Catholic Church should be guaranteed the right to religious freedom; other religions may, at most, be tolerated," summarized the sociologist, who also explains that this entails a rejection by the Lefebvrists of any openness toward ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.

The core of the disagreement regarding Dignitatis Humanae was the subject of intense correspondence with the then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who held that position between 1981 and 2005 before being elected pope as Benedict XVI.

In a letter titled "Liberté religieuse. Réponse aux 'dubia' présentés par S.E. Mgr. Lefebvre," (Religious Freedom. Response to the 'dubia' presented by H.E. Archbishop Lefebvre) dated March 9, 1987 — one year prior to Lefebvre's excommunication — Ratzinger attempted to persuade Lefebvre that there was no rupture regarding religious liberty between the Magisterium preceding the Second Vatican Council and Dignitatis Humanae, and that the concept could be upheld on theological and philosophical grounds that exclude relativism.

"We have preserved the correspondence exchanged between the two, which reveals how, in the end, Cardinal Ratzinger concluded that Archbishop Lefebvre's positions were diverging from orthodoxy and from communion with Rome," Introvigne explained.

Introvigne, who interviewed Lefebvre on several occasions before his death in 1991, noted a little-known fact: the archbishop participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council as superior general of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit and even signed all the conciliar documents.

However, Lefebvre's views became more radicalized after the council when he "began to be concerned about what he considered to be progressive drifts within the Church — drifts which, in his view, were moving away from tradition," the expert explained.

In that context, in 1970, he founded a seminary in Switzerland with the aim of offering a traditional priestly formation. "Gradually, throughout the 1970s, he also began to formulate responses that led him toward positions of rupture," Introvigne noted.

The first rupture

These responses led, in 1975, to the canonical suppression of the fraternity by the bishop of Fribourg, a decision that Lefebvre challenged unsuccessfully.

A year later, the situation escalated with his suspension ab ordinum collatione (from the conferring of orders) and, subsequently, a divinis, which prohibited him from performing any sacred act, including the celebration of Mass.

Although these categories belong to the 1917 Code of Canon Law then in force, their legal effect today is unequivocal: Lefebvre was deprived of the lawful exercise of his ministry.

Despite this, he continued to ordain priests, and the fraternity continued to expand its activities, "all under objective conditions of canonical illegality;" that is, outside of ecclesial norms, as explained to ACI Prensa by professor of Roman Law, Father Pierpaolo Dal Corso.

1988: Episcopal consecrations and schism

The definitive breaking point occurred on June 30, 1988, when Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the required pontifical mandate, openly defying the authority of the Roman pontiff, John Paul II. According to Dal Corso, that act constituted "a wound of extreme gravity to the hierarchical communion of the Church" and had a clear schismatic dimension.

In the face of this new and grave act of insubordination, the then-Congregation for Bishops declared the Society of St. Pius X to be schismatic on July 1, 1988.

Dal Corso rejects the thesis of the supposed "state of necessity" invoked by the fraternity to justify the consecrations of 1988. Although the Code of Canon Law recognizes this concept as an exempting or mitigating circumstance, the Vatican clarified in 1994 that it was not applicable in this case, given the pope's explicit warning and the extreme gravity of the act.

"A state of necessity cannot be used to legitimize opposition to the authority of the Successor of Peter, nor to cast doubt upon the infallibility of the pope and the indefectibility of the Church," Dal Corso said.

The following day, John Paul II promulgated the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, in which he affirmed that Lefebvre, the bishop who consecrated with him, and the four men consecrated as bishops had incurred latae sententiae (automatically upon the commission of the offense) excommunication in accordance with Canon 1364 of the 1983 Code for the crime of schism. 

Lefebvre died in 1991 without having shown public signs of repentance, an indispensable condition for an eventual canonical reconciliation.

Gestures of rapprochement without full regularization

In subsequent pontificates, there were significant attempts at rapprochement.

In 2007, Benedict XVI promulgated the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which recognized the legitimacy of using the 1962 Missal, otherwise known as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, an act which the fraternity highly values.

"It was an important step toward rapprochement, as it legitimized from a merely liturgical standpoint celebrations according to the 1962 Missal of John XXIII; they never accepted the missal resulting from the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council," Dal Corso explained.

Two years later, in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication incurred for the specific offense of episcopal ordination without a pontifical mandate.

However, as Dal Corso emphasized, this remission "did not affect the excommunication for schism," which remained legally in force. The canonical status of the fraternity therefore remained irregular.

Pope Francis took further pastoral steps, granting SSPX priests the faculty to hear confessions and granting diocesan bishops or other local ordinaries the authority to give SSPX priests the ability to celebrate licitly and validly the marriages of the faithful who follow the Society's pastoral activity. These measures, however, did not entail full juridical regularization.

Now, under the leadership of the Italian priest Davide Pagliarani, the fraternity has announced new episcopal consecrations for July 1, 2026, a date chosen with seemingly deliberate intent. "It is the very same day as the consecrations of 1988. Beyond being a provocation, it symbolically signifies a reaffirmation of that stance," the expert explained.

Meanwhile, the prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, has reiterated that lacking the requisite pontifical mandate, should they take place, these episcopal ordinations will constitute a schismatic act.

Introvigne said the current scenario brings the situation back to the one that existed before the papacy of Benedict XVI. As long as the doctrinal rejection of certain parts of the Second Vatican Council persists, he said, "reconciliation is impossible. The future, as the saying goes, is in the hands of God."

Canonical status of the faithful

Regarding the faithful who adhere to the SSPX, Dal Corso said that the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts clarified in 1996 that excommunication for schism does not automatically apply to those who attend or participate in worship celebrated by the SSPX.

In this regard, Monsignor William King, JCD, professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America, told ACI Prensa that "if a person attends a Mass celebrated by a priest in schism, that individual is not excommunicated, unless he attends that Mass deliberately because he does not accept the authority of the pope or the authenticity of the Catholic Church." That is to say, for formal schism, it is necessary that the person freely and consciously embrace the essential core of schism: the denial of the pope's authority, outwardly manifested.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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