The Society of Saint Pius X has published a direct response to Cardinal Robert Sarah following his recent intervention in the French press regarding the episcopal consecrations announced by the Society. The text, signed by Abbé Étienne Ginoux, prior of the Society in South Africa, questions the appeal to obedience made by the cardinal and maintains that the current crisis in the Church requires distinguishing between fidelity to the deposit of faith and certain orientations coming from Rome that they consider incompatible with tradition.
Response to Cardinal Sarah
February 24, 2026
Source: District of Africa
In a tribune published in France in Le Journal du Dimanche on February 22, 2026, Cardinal Sarah, who in recent years has been a strong source of encouragement for numerous faithful, expresses concern over the announcement of episcopal consecrations by the Society of Saint Pius X.
The cardinal writes: «How many souls are at risk of being lost because of this new rupture?». One might ask whether it is truly the souls of the faithful who frequent the Society’s chapels that are in danger, or whether one should not rather fear for the salvation of those who follow the «prelates who renounce teaching the deposit of faith» or the «wolves disguised as lambs», precisely denounced by the prelate.
The remedy proposed by His Eminence to those who wish to «wage the combat for the faith, Catholic morality, and liturgical Tradition» is attachment to the Successor of Peter. Every Catholic should then accept what comes from the Pope without ever disobeying. However, this is not as simple as it seems, for is it not precisely from Rome that have recently come the opening of divorced and remarried persons to Eucharistic communion, the blessing of irregular couples, the affirmation that God wants the plurality of religions, the questioning of titles traditionally attributed to the Most Holy Virgin Mary and used by numerous popes, or even the attempt at long-term suppression of the traditional missal? Now, Cardinal Sarah himself has opposed many of these novelties in the name of Tradition.
On one hand, he shows us the example of the good combat for the faith, Catholic morality, and liturgical tradition; on the other, he invites us to obey those who are at the origin of the evils we combat. How to do so when even cardinals can spread heterodox opinions, reproved by the Guinean cardinal, without ever being troubled by the Church authorities? What to conclude, if not that we have no other option, before assenting, than to distinguish between teachings faithful to the faith of always and those that are the expression of a new thought, irreconcilable with previous magisterium? Although the current Pope has exercised the supreme pontificate for a short time, his appointments to the highest positions, as well as his speeches and homilies, do not allow one to foresee a notable change.
Finally, Cardinal Sarah proposes that we meditate on the beautiful example of heroic obedience of Padre Pio. We will be permitted, however, to point out the immense difference between the situation of the stigmatized of Pietrelcina and that of the Society of Saint Pius X. He accepted in faith, humility, and obedience a grave injustice that affected him personally, but which had no external consequences regarding the salvation of souls. The Society, on the other hand, rises against an injustice that affects the common good of the Church, wounded in its faith, its morality, and its liturgy, as the cardinal recognizes. How to remain silent when the faith and the salvation of the faithful are threatened? Is it not necessary, out of charity toward those souls, that some dare to oppose those who spread error?
Saint Paul publicly opposed Saint Peter in Antioch, before the first Pope recognized his error. Saint Athanasius, when the majority of bishops were approaching the heresy of Arius, was excommunicated by Pope Liberius, but continued preaching and enlightening souls. Padre Pio did well, therefore, in obeying unjust sanctions that concerned him personally, for nothing threatened the faith of the faithful. It is less well known that he refused to celebrate Mass according to the experimental missal of 1965 in the vernacular and that he continued celebrating the Mass of his ordination until his death in 1968, a few months before the entry into force of the liturgical reform. What would he have done then?
Your Eminence, we implore you to use your authority, your notoriety, and your pen to convince the Holy Father to put an end to the doctrinal, moral, and liturgical crisis that the holy Church is going through. Then the Society of Saint Pius X will no longer see itself in the need to ordain bishops without a pontifical mandate. Then there will be true unity and perfect communion in the Church of God: unity and communion in the faith.
Abbé Étienne Ginoux | F.S.S.P.X.