Fifty years after Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991) founded the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), the ultra-traditionalist religious order that opposes the Church reforms stemming from the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) is still attracting vocations.
It has 162 communities (or priories) in some 40 countries throughout the world and boasts of 675 priests. The SSPX also has more than 200 seminarians – some as young as 18 years old – that are trained at six seminaries located in the United States, France, Germany, Argentina and Australia.
Lefebvre opened the very first seminary on September 24, 1970 in Ecône, Switzerland. And on Thursday his traditionalist heirs will gather there to mark the priestly society’s golden jubilee. Read more