Society of St. Pius V
Encyclopedia
The Society of St. Pius V (Societas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii Quinti), abreviated SSPV, is a Traditionalist Catholic
society of ordained priests formed in 1983 and based in Oyster Bay Cove, New York
. The priests of SSPV broke away from the Society of St. Pius X
over liturgical issues and maintain that many in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church no longer adhere to the Catholic faith but instead profess a new, modernist
, Conciliar religion. SSPV priests regard the question of the legitimacy of the present hierarchy and the possibility that the Holy See
is unoccupied (sedevacantism
) to be unresolved. The SSPV is led by its founder, Bishop Clarence Kelly
.
(SSPX), the traditionalist organization founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
. In 1983, Lefebvre expelled four priests (Fr. Clarence Kelly, Fr. Daniel Dolan
, Fr. Anthony Cekada
, and Fr. Eugene Berry) of the SSPX's Northeast USA District from the society, partly because they were opposed to his instructions that Mass be celebrated according to the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal issued by John XXIII. Other issues occasioning the split were Lefebvre's order that Society priests must accept the decrees of nullity handed down by diocesan marriage tribunals and the acceptance of new members into the group who had been ordained to the priesthood according to the revised sacramental rites of Pope Paul VI.
"The Nine" (as the four expelled priests plus five who voluntarily left were called in SSPX circles) balked at Lefebvre's imposition of the 1962 missal which they believed already included significant departures from the liturgical traditions of the Church (for example, adding the name of St. Joseph to the Canon of the Mass). A more basic reason (although "...[t]he 'pope question' was not raised at the time, and was not at issue") was the belief amongst the Nine that the men who had reigned as pope since the death of Pope Pius XII
(d. 1958) had not been legitimate popes (Canon 1325, no. 2, 1917). They held that these Popes had officially taught and/or accepted heretical doctrines and therefore had lost or never occupied the See of Rome (Canon 188, no. 4, 1917) Like the Society of St. Pius X, they believed that there had been novel interpretations of the traditional teachings of the Church on issues such as religious liberty
. One of the Nine, Fr. Dolan, admitted that while a member of the SSPX, he had concluded that the See of Peter was vacant.
"The Nine" set up a new priestly society under the leadership of Fr. Clarence Kelly, their former District Superior. The eight priests were Frs. Thomas Zapp, Donald Sanborn, Anthony Cekada, Daniel Dolan, William Jenkins, Eugene Berry, Joseph Collins, and Martin Skierka. Additional priests joined shortly thereafter.
The other priests founded independent ministries.
, Puerto Rico
, consecrated Fr. Kelly as a bishop. This was not announced until a few days after Bishop Méndez's death in 1995. Bishop Mendéz had already publicly ordained two seminarians of the SSPV to the priesthood in 1990.
On Wednesday, 28 February 2007, Bishop Kelly consecrated Fr. Joseph Santay of the Congregation of St Pius V, which also was founded by Bishop Kelly, to the episcopacy at Oyster Bay Cove, New York.
The SSPV has an associated congregation of Sisters, the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Our Savior, which was founded by the then Fr. Kelly in 1984. Their congregation's current motherhouse
and novitiate
are located in the Catskill
area of upstate New York, and it has two additional houses in the United States. The current Mother General is Mother Mary Bosco. The Sisters run schools in the locations of each of their houses, excepting the motherhouse, and are also involved in other types of charity work, such as visiting nursing homes.
The Society has a seminary
, which is also located in the Catskill area, NY
and is under the direction of Bishop Joseph Santay; its seminarians are ordained by Bishops Kelly and/or Santay and become members of the Congregation of St. Pius V (CSPV). Four seminarians have been ordained in the last three years. Another was ordained on 3 September 2008, bringing the total number of priests in the CSPV to six (including Bishop Santay). The priests of the CSPV are not members of the SSPV. They are ordained priests (or become brothers) for the Congregation of St. Pius V (CSPV). CSPV was formed because the Church desires her religious to be bound to an order (congregation) or diocese.
The SSPV operates only in North America.
Traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
society of ordained priests formed in 1983 and based in Oyster Bay Cove, New York
Oyster Bay Cove, New York
The Village of Oyster Bay Cove is a village located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 2,197 at the 2010 census...
. The priests of SSPV broke away from the Society of St. Pius X
Society of St. Pius X
The Society of Saint Pius X is an international Traditionalist Catholic organisation, founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre...
over liturgical issues and maintain that many in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church no longer adhere to the Catholic faith but instead profess a new, modernist
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
Modernism refers to theological opinions expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but with influence reaching into the 21st century, which are characterized by a break with the past. Catholic modernists form an amorphous group. The term "modernist" appears in Pope Pius X's 1907...
, Conciliar religion. SSPV priests regard the question of the legitimacy of the present hierarchy and the possibility that the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
is unoccupied (sedevacantism
Sedevacantism
Sedevacantism is the position held by a minority of Traditionalist Catholics who hold that the present occupant of the papal see is not truly Pope and that, for lack of a valid Pope, the see has been vacant since the death of either Pope Pius XII in 1958 or Pope John XXIII in 1963.Sedevacantists...
) to be unresolved. The SSPV is led by its founder, Bishop Clarence Kelly
Clarence Kelly
Bishop Clarence Kelly is a Traditionalist Catholic bishop. He was ordained a priest on April 13, 1973 at Ecône, Switzerland by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for the Roman Catholic Society of St. Pius X....
.
Founding
The SSPV developed out of the Society of St. Pius XSociety of St. Pius X
The Society of Saint Pius X is an international Traditionalist Catholic organisation, founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre...
(SSPX), the traditionalist organization founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Marcel Lefebvre
Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre was a French Roman Catholic archbishop. Following a career as an Apostolic Delegate for West Africa and Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, he took the lead in opposing the changes within the Church associated with the Second Vatican Council.In 1970,...
. In 1983, Lefebvre expelled four priests (Fr. Clarence Kelly, Fr. Daniel Dolan
Daniel Dolan
Daniel Lytle Dolan is a sedevacantist traditionalist Catholic bishop.A Detroit, Michigan native, Dolan began his preparation for the priesthood in 1965 at the archdiocesan minor seminary in Detroit...
, Fr. Anthony Cekada
Anthony Cekada
Anthony Cekada is a Traditionalist Catholic priest and author.Born in 1951, Cekada studied at St. Francis Roman Catholic Seminary College in Milwaukee, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Theology in 1973; he studied organ and musical composition at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. In 1975,...
, and Fr. Eugene Berry) of the SSPX's Northeast USA District from the society, partly because they were opposed to his instructions that Mass be celebrated according to the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal issued by John XXIII. Other issues occasioning the split were Lefebvre's order that Society priests must accept the decrees of nullity handed down by diocesan marriage tribunals and the acceptance of new members into the group who had been ordained to the priesthood according to the revised sacramental rites of Pope Paul VI.
"The Nine" (as the four expelled priests plus five who voluntarily left were called in SSPX circles) balked at Lefebvre's imposition of the 1962 missal which they believed already included significant departures from the liturgical traditions of the Church (for example, adding the name of St. Joseph to the Canon of the Mass). A more basic reason (although "...[t]he 'pope question' was not raised at the time, and was not at issue") was the belief amongst the Nine that the men who had reigned as pope since the death of Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
(d. 1958) had not been legitimate popes (Canon 1325, no. 2, 1917). They held that these Popes had officially taught and/or accepted heretical doctrines and therefore had lost or never occupied the See of Rome (Canon 188, no. 4, 1917) Like the Society of St. Pius X, they believed that there had been novel interpretations of the traditional teachings of the Church on issues such as religious liberty
Freedom of religion
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
. One of the Nine, Fr. Dolan, admitted that while a member of the SSPX, he had concluded that the See of Peter was vacant.
"The Nine" set up a new priestly society under the leadership of Fr. Clarence Kelly, their former District Superior. The eight priests were Frs. Thomas Zapp, Donald Sanborn, Anthony Cekada, Daniel Dolan, William Jenkins, Eugene Berry, Joseph Collins, and Martin Skierka. Additional priests joined shortly thereafter.
Splits
Within a few years, about half of the original nine SSPV priests separated from Fr. Kelly. Most of them formed an openly sedevacantist group, known as Catholic Restoration, under Frs. Dolan and Sanborn, who were later consecrated as bishops in the episcopal lineage of the Vietnamese Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc Pierre Martin.The other priests founded independent ministries.
Episcopal orders
On 19 October 1993, 86-year-old Bishop Alfredo F. Méndez, who until his retirement in 1974 had served as Bishop of AreciboRoman Catholic Diocese of Arecibo
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arecibo is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Puerto Rico and consists of the northern part of the island of Puerto Rico, an American commonwealth. It is led by Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, consecrated Fr. Kelly as a bishop. This was not announced until a few days after Bishop Méndez's death in 1995. Bishop Mendéz had already publicly ordained two seminarians of the SSPV to the priesthood in 1990.
On Wednesday, 28 February 2007, Bishop Kelly consecrated Fr. Joseph Santay of the Congregation of St Pius V, which also was founded by Bishop Kelly, to the episcopacy at Oyster Bay Cove, New York.
The SSPV today
The SSPV currently has five permanent priories, and its priests serve a network of chapels and churches in various parts of the United States and Canada.The SSPV has an associated congregation of Sisters, the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Our Savior, which was founded by the then Fr. Kelly in 1984. Their congregation's current motherhouse
Motherhouse
The term motherhouse is used by religious Orders and religious congregations to designate the principal house or community for that group. It can be either for the entire institute or for a region....
and novitiate
Novitiate
Novitiate, alt. noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a novice monastic or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether they are called to the religious life....
are located in the Catskill
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
area of upstate New York, and it has two additional houses in the United States. The current Mother General is Mother Mary Bosco. The Sisters run schools in the locations of each of their houses, excepting the motherhouse, and are also involved in other types of charity work, such as visiting nursing homes.
The Society has a seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
, which is also located in the Catskill area, NY
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
and is under the direction of Bishop Joseph Santay; its seminarians are ordained by Bishops Kelly and/or Santay and become members of the Congregation of St. Pius V (CSPV). Four seminarians have been ordained in the last three years. Another was ordained on 3 September 2008, bringing the total number of priests in the CSPV to six (including Bishop Santay). The priests of the CSPV are not members of the SSPV. They are ordained priests (or become brothers) for the Congregation of St. Pius V (CSPV). CSPV was formed because the Church desires her religious to be bound to an order (congregation) or diocese.
The SSPV operates only in North America.