Bishop Paul Morgan has issued a statement urging Catholics to not view the upcoming SSPX consecrations as a sign they have ruled out reconciling with the Vatican at some point in the future.
Unless there is an “unambiguous declaration” stating otherwise, “the Society would, and regardless of any possible sanctions, simply continue in its desire to be recognized by, and to cohabitate with the Conciliar authorities, hopeful of one day obtaining a side chapel in their ecumenical basilica,” Morgan said in recent Letters from Broadstairs update.
Broadstairs is the town located on the southeast coast of England where Morgan resides. His Excellency lives at the Regina Martyrum House, previously the home of Bishop Richard Williamson, who lived at the property beginning in the mid 2010s until his death in 2025. Williamson consecrated Morgan in 2022 during a ceremony in Ireland.
Morgan, 62, had a long and illustrious career with the Society until resigning in August 2017 following the SSPX’s announcement that it would comply with a Vatican decree permitting Novus Ordo clergy to witness the marriage vows of their faithful. Prior to then, Morgan was the first SSPX District Superior for the Philippines and, from 2003 until 2015, served as District Superior of Great Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia. His Excellency was particularly close with Philippine Bishop Salvador Lazo.
In his newsletter, Morgan expressed bewilderment at how some Traditional Catholics have reacted to the Society’s upcoming consecrations.
“We are somewhat alarmed by the rallying of hitherto lucid individuals and communities to the Society of Saint Pius X as if everything would return to normal in the combat for the Faith by virtue of the announced consecrations!” His Excellency exclaimed. “The forthcoming consecrations will not automatically make the Society revert to its previous position of keeping its distance from the Conciliar Church.”
German Cardinal Gerhard Müller was the Prefect of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith when Francis issued his letter on SSPX marriages in 2017. Müller said that the decision was made “despite the objective persistence of the canonical irregularity in which for the time being the Society of St. Pius X finds itself.” He expressed hope that it would result in the “full institutional regularization” of the Society.
Morgan and other clergy in the SSPX saw the decision as part of a step-by-step integration of the Society into the conciliar system. During an interview with the French Dominicans of Avrille in 2017, Morgan said that the SSPX’s embrace of Francis’ decision was a “compromise” as it revealed that they accepted “the principle that priests representing modern dioceses [are allowed to] come to us, in the bastions of Tradition.”
Seven high-ranking French priests known as “deans” also expressed opposition. In an open letter citing Archbishop Lefebvre, they stated that it is not morally possible to have “recourse to the current authorities.”
The laity “have not fled” from them “just so that we can impose them on them during one of the most important ceremonies of their life,” the letter read. “The Personal Prelature which is being held out to the Society of St. Pius X was supposed to recognize us as we are and keep us independent of the local Ordinaries. And yet the first decisions taken consist of unjustly submitting our marriages to those Ordinaries, before making the opening of our new houses tomorrow dependent upon their approval.”
“We invoke the Immaculate Heart of Mary not that she bring an end to our canonical situation which some judge to be irregular, but that the Church be liberated from modernist occupation,” they added.
In his statement, which was released on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, Morgan said that the SSPX would need to make a declaration rejecting, among other things, the “practical agreement on marriages … which subjected the bastions of Tradition to the modernist hierarchy” in order to show it has rediscovered “its previous position of keeping its distance from the Conciliar Church.”
“Certainly the Church needs validly consecrated bishops, not just to administer the sacraments, but most especially to preach the Faith and to denounce the modern errors which threaten the Faith,” he said.
To read His Excellency’s full statement, see below:
Letter From Broadstairs, June 2026
Nova et vetera
Écône Episcopal Consecrations
The Dispatch
Given the announcement that the Society of Saint Pius X intends to consecrate four new bishops with out papal mandate this July, a few words on the subject may be opportune.
Certainly the Church needs validly consecrated bishops, not just to administer the sacraments, but most especially to preach the Faith and to denounce the modern errors which threaten the Faith.
No doubt the Society also needs bishops so as to continue its world-wide apostolate, not least because the two remaining bishops are not getting any younger.
Having said that, it is important to realise that the forthcoming consecrations will not automatically make the Society revert to its previous position of keeping its distance from the Conciliar Church. “It is imperative for every priest who wishes to remain Catholic to be separated from the Conciliar Church until such time as it has returned to the traditional Magisterium of the Church and the Catholic Faith,” Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Spiritual Journey, 1990.
Hence the guiding principle was that of not entering into any practical agreements with modern Rome until Rome had returned to Catholic Tradition. Such a return would be manifested in Rome’s embracing the anti liberal and anti modernist encyclicals, the anti-modernist oath, the social reign of Christ the King, and a true consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This principle changed in 2012 when doctrinal discussions and increasing contacts with modern Rome resulted in the so-called “Rolls-Royce of a deal” proposed by Benedict XVI to Bishop Fellay, and this regardless of Rome’s persistence in the modern errors of liberalism, modernism and false ecumenism. The deal did not take place because of the Society’s refusal to accept the New Mass and Vatican II, but the damage had been done.
The 2015-16 ‘Year of Mercy’ under Pope Francis gave as one of its main intentions the Society’s reintegration in to the ‘Official Church.’ This intention was placed alongside that of the rehabilitation of divorced couples married outside the Church, as well as that of homosexual couples in stable relationships!
The same occasion saw the apparently unilateral granting of ordinary jurisdiction to the Society for its Confessions, due to its being on the so-called path to full communion with Rome.
In 2017, the Society entered into a practical deal with modern Rome regarding its marriages, effectively placing these latter in the hands of the local conciliar hierarchy.
Hence, in the unlikely event that the Society truly means to return to its former solid position, as maintained by the so-called Resistance, it would need to make an unambiguous declaration to this effect. Failing this the Society would, and regardless of any possible sanctions, simply continue in its desire to be recognized by, and to cohabitate with the Conciliar authorities, hopeful of one day obtaining a side chapel in their ecumenical basilica.
Such a declaration would also have to specifically include a rejection of the practical agreement on marriages as made in 2017 which subjected the bastions of Tradition to the modernist hierarchy. This is something quite different from a simple forfeiting of the so-called concessions acquired to date. Previously the Society’s marriages had been performed on the basis of supplied jurisdiction and the documents signed by the parties involved stated clearly the justifications for this.
Marriages performed in virtue of this agreement, by the local ordinary’s delegate or by delegation directly to a Society priest, are, in both instances, subject to the New Code of Canon Law and the Conciliar marriage tribunals. Thus they are potentially exposed to dubious ‘fast-track annulments’ which the concerned parties can now have recourse to in good faith! Far from strengthening the marriage bond, as the Society superiors claimed at the time, this practical agreement has in fact created a weakening of traditional Catholic marriages and families…
Other subjects which ought to be included in a declaration should also address: the pseudo-consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart by Pope Francis in 2022 (which was officially accepted by the Society at the time); the policy of no longer habitually performing conditional ordinations for those coming from the Conciliar Church; the moral dilemma caused by the Society’s official position regarding the Covid vaccinations…
So it is that we are somewhat alarmed by the rallying of hitherto lucid individuals and communities to the Society of Saint Pius X as if everything would return to normal in the combat for the Faith by virtue of the announced consecrations!
We see in this present confusion in Catholic Tradition an example of the diabolical disorientation prophesied by Our Blessed Lady at Fatima. May we continue to work and pray for a true consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that in Her promised triumph the Church will be delivered from the scourges and the agents of liberalism, modernism and naturalism…
+ Paul Morgan
Feast of the Sacred Heart June 12th 2026
