Society of Saint Pius X

Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is the largest radical traditionalist Catholic organization in the world, who rejected the Roman Catholic Church's reforms associated with the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), alleging that they deviated from the Catholic Church's traditions.

Background

The SSPX was founded by late French archbishop Marcel-François Lefebvre in Ecône, Switzerland in 1970 to resist the liberalized Roman Catholic Church. 




  Marcel-François Lefebvre was a supporter of the Nazi puppet state Vichy France, who said that the liberation of France was the "victory of Freemasonry against the Catholic order of Petain." 

The SSPX rejected mediation attempts from the Vatican over their theological disagreements and got excommunicated. Since then, the SSPX has been the biggest Catholic publisher of Holocaust-denying materials, with Canada being one of the countries that has banned SSPX publications.

Membership

In 2016, it is estimated by scholars that the SSPX has 103 chapels, 25 schools and up to 30,000 followers. E. Michael Jones, one of its loyal members, was also found to have promoted Nazism to his students.  As of October 2024, the SSPX has 700 priests worldwide, 180 of whom were based in France operating 250 places of worship.

Prominent members

Richard Williamson

One well known member of the society, Richard Williamson, denied the Holocaust in public for several times. Williamson denied the existence of gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp, 



  He also claimed that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was true and insisted that fewer than 300,000 Jews had died in the Holocaust in a Swedish TV interview,  which caused him to get fined €10,000 in Germany for Holocaust denial. Despite his longstanding antisemitism and Holocaust denial, the Roman Catholic Church reinstated him as a bishop, sparking controversy over the influence of radical traditionalist Catholics within the Church hierarchy.

Related pages

 Antisemitism
 Clerical fascism
 Supersessionism
 Roman Catholics and antisemitism in the 21st century

References

Category:Racism
Category:Fascism
Category:Catholicism
Category:Antisemitism
Category:Antisemitism in Europe
Category:20th century in Europe
Category:21st century in Europe
Category:20th century in France
Category:20th century in the United States
Category:21st century in the United States
Category:20th century in the United Kingdom
Category:21st century in the United Kingdom
Category:20th-century establishments in Europe
Category:20th-century establishments in France