Lefebvrians barred from churches. After Lourdes, Assisi

Rome. You may not enter. This is how one might summarise what happened on 6 September in Assisi, when the Italian community of the Society of Saint Pius X was prevented from entering the Basilica of Saint Francis. This was reported in a press release issued by the Italian district of the Lefebvrian Society. The group’s aim was to conclude their pilgrimage by singing the Creed inside the basilica, but the priests and faithful were denied access. The reason? Because they are “schismatics and excommunicated” following the illicit ordinations on 1 July in Ecône, which took place without the required papal mandate. In reality – and the FSSPX itself acknowledges this – it is not as though the doors were double-locked the moment the custodians caught sight of the Lefebvrian horde: entry was possible, but ‘in small groups for private prayer and not as a community for public prayer’. Hence the incident. 

The superior of the Fraternity’s Italian district refused permission, before delivering the closing address of the pilgrimage outside the basilica’s gates, where the Creed was then recited ‘as a public testimony of the Catholic faith’. Alongside this regret, however, there is controversy: the superior himself, Father Gabriele D’Avino, pointed out that “on 27 October 2026, members and representatives of all false cults – from Protestant denominations to Islam, from Judaism to Eastern and animistic beliefs – will pray publicly in the churches of the city of Assisi, as indeed already happened in 1986, specifically to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of that ecumenical gathering presided over by John Paul II. Once again – as the statement reads – there is a welcome for everyone, right down to the most remote pagans of the globe, but not for those who wish to remain children of the Roman Catholic Church without compromise”. 

The ban on pilgrimages to a Catholic site comes as no surprise. It had already happened a month ago in Lourdes, where the local bishop, Monsignor Jean-Marc Micas, had withdrawn the authorisation previously granted following the events in early July at Écône. The bishop explained that, in accordance with Vatican directives, “neither the celebration of Mass nor other sacraments nor public prayers may be authorised”. Naturally, as the Diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes clarified, “anyone who wishes to do so may freely go to the Grotto or any part of the sanctuary to pray there privately”. These are, in fact, the consequences of the decree with which Rome reacted to the four ordinations – valid but illicit – with which the Society of St Pius X forced the issue. The decree signed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and even more so the Explanatory Note, specified in fact that “sacred ministers” who are members of the Society “are in schism and must therefore be considered schismatics”. As for the lay faithful, “those who formally adhere to the Priestly Fraternity of St Pius X are to be regarded as schismatic and excommunicated”.

The Lefebvrians reduce everything to a rhetorical question: we consider ourselves Catholics and yet we are excluded from Catholic churches, in Assisi for example. Why are people of other faiths, who do not even claim to be Catholic (because they are not), admitted there? The same question had been raised a few weeks earlier by the French district of the FSSPX: “As simple children of the Catholic Church, who in no way claim to take the place of the Church and whose sole ambition is to remain faithful to her, we are forbidden to gather to pray publicly to our Heavenly Mother, whilst the previous year, in October 2025, the shrine at Lourdes welcomed, right up to the Chapel of Our Lady, a pilgrimage bringing together Christians and Muslims for four days around the figure of Mary, with a time of prayer, a Mass, a torchlight procession, a prayer at the Grotto and interfaith meetings. How can one not be astonished – or even take offence – that those who recognise neither the divine Motherhood of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, nor the dogma of her Immaculate Conception, nor the divinity of her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, have been permitted to do so, whilst a ban has today been imposed on the faithful of the chapels of the Society of St Pius X in the District of France, preventing them from coming to pray publicly to the Blessed Virgin Mary at her shrine in Lourdes”. This is where the next battle will be fought, and it promises to be rife with rhetoric. Perhaps a clear response from Rome would suffice, though none has yet been forthcoming.