Entering into the second year of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate, many have looked towards the consecrations of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) to get a sense of how the pontiff will approach the delicate issues facing the Church. The Pope had appealed for the Society to abandon its plans to consecrate four bishops, with the Vatican warning that such an action would incur an automatic excommunication, but for a second time, consecrations in Écône have led to schism.
It remains to be seen how he will approach the other great concern over schism, one which defined his predecessor’s papacy: the legacy of the German Synodal Way. Having commenced on December 1 2019, the Synodal Way overlapped at points with Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality, with the two operating separately to one another.
