• “But the Church against her past and her Tradition is not the Catholic Church; this is why being excommunicated by a liberal, ecumenical, and revolutionary Church is a matter of indifference to us.” (Marcel Lefebvre, Bishop Tissier de Mallerais, p.547)
  
  
• “I should be very happy to be excommunicated from this Conciliar Church… It is a Church that I do not recognize. I belong to the Catholic Church.” (Interview July 30 1976, published in Minute, no. 747)
  
  
• The following excerpts are taken from an 'Open Letter to Cardinal Gantin' written by "the Superiors of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, gathered around our Superior General" a week or so after the 1988 Consecrations, on this same topic of the Conciliar Church:
  
  

  Quote:“To be publicly associated with this sanction [of excommunication] which is inflicted upon the six Catholic Bishops, Defenders of the Faith in its integrity and wholeness, would be for us a mark of honor and a sign of orthodoxy before the faithful. They have indeed a strict right to know that the priests who serve them are not in communion with a counterfeit church, promoting evolution, pentecostalism and syncretism.” (Open Letter to Cardinal Gantin, July 6, 1988)
  
  “We have never wished to belong to this system which calls itself the Conciliar Church, and defines itself with the Novus Ordo Missæ, an ecumenism which leads to indifferentism and the laicization of all society. Yes, we have no part, nullam partem habemus, with the pantheon of the religions of Assisi; our own excommunication by a decree of Your Eminence or of another Roman Congregation would only be the irrefutable proof of this. We ask for nothing better than to be declared out of communion with this adulterous spirit which has been blowing in the Church for the last 25 years; we ask for nothing better than to be declared outside of this impious communion of the ungodly.” (Open Letter to Cardinal Gantin, July 6, 1988)

Quote:Menzingen, July 19, 2026

Dear Faithful,

A few days after the ceremony of July 1, I wish to address these few words to you.

First of all, I would like to thank you. For several years I have prayed to the Blessed Virgin that she would prepare hearts for this historic event. I must confess that I was deeply moved to see how all of you accompanied the episcopal consecrations with your prayers and your gratitude to Divine Providence.

On July 1, many faithful from all over the world were present at Écône, and they represented all of you. It was a tremendous joy to see them so numerous and so fervent. As you certainly know, a violent storm broke out during the ceremony: "At the brightness of His presence the clouds passed, ... The Lord also thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice" (Psalm 17 [18]:13–14).

At that moment, my joy only increased. On the one hand, I was the privileged witness of a liturgy of extraordinary beauty; on the other, before my eyes was another sight no less moving: an immense crowd of faithful remaining in place throughout the storm, praying to Our Lady for the new bishops, for the Church, and for the Pope. Among them were elderly women kneeling in prayer, as well as young mothers carrying their infants in their arms. It was the most beautiful image one could possibly give of the Society: faithful animated by an unshakable faith that nothing could disturb; souls for whom the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is truly the center of their lives.

You cannot imagine the consolation I experienced at that moment. The scene has been deeply engraved upon my memory, and I shall never forget it.

Until the very last day, I hoped for a gesture of goodwill—or at least of simple understanding—from the Holy See. But the consecrations have been condemned, and the severity of the sanctions imposed is without precedent. They are directed first against the bishops, but also against the members of the Society. Even the faithful are affected.

This condemnation, wholly unjust, represents an immense humiliation for people whose only desire is to defend the true Faith and to labor for the salvation of souls. Yet I want you to understand that this profound humiliation, which first affects the members of the Society, has a meaning in the eyes of God that must not escape you.

Ultimately, these consecrations were carried out for each one of you, dear faithful. Your souls are the true treasure entrusted to the Society, the treasure it cherishes above all else. A single soul possesses infinite value. If, in order to ensure for it the teaching of the true Faith and the administration of the true sacraments, it is necessary to pay the price of such humiliation, then it is worth paying, because a soul is beyond all price. The feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord—the price of our salvation—powerfully reminded us of this on July 1.

The sanctions are also intended to strike you in a rather cruel way. That is certainly painful, but do not be overly surprised. In the end, it is Tradition itself—which we cherish above all else—that is being excommunicated in all those who embody it. It is evident that, before God, such a condemnation cannot be valid, for it would condemn what lies at the very heart of the Church's own life.

But now, in the midst of this new storm, a question arises: what does Our Lord expect of you now?

It is within the soul of each one of you that the Faith must remain whole and alive. If Providence permits a crisis in which the teaching of the Faith is mysteriously obscured, that same Faith must nevertheless continue to live in souls, despite all the contrary winds that seek to extinguish it. If the outward splendor of the Church's official profession of Faith should disappear, the little candle that each of you received on the day of your baptism must remain burning in your heart and in your mind until your final day. In the end, that is the only thing that truly matters. That little flame is the first thing we received at the beginning of our Christian life, and it is also the only thing we shall keep until the end.

I entrust all of you to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom the Society of Saint Pius X has been consecrated in a very special way. May she always protect you amid every storm and every difficulty, and may she keep alive that little flame burning in your souls whenever all the contrary winds rage against it.

All graces come to us through her hands. It is she whom we must thank for the grace of these consecrations, and it is she to whom we must pray that the new bishops may become ever more docile instruments of her inspirations and may persevere faithfully until the end.

The Society will never abandon you. Never will your souls lose their value or their worth in the eyes of its priests.
May God bless you!