SSPX expresses ‘sorrow and incomprehension’ over Lourdes restrictions

(LifeSiteNews) — The Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (SSPX) issued a statement lamenting that Muslims are permitted to pray at the Lourdes shrine while SSPX priests are now forbidden from offering Mass there by the local bishop.

Fr. Gonzague Peignot, the superior of the SSPX’s French district, announced in an August 22 statement that the SSPX will still be leading a pilgrimage to Lourdes for private prayer after the bishop of Lourdes forbade the group from public liturgical activity at the shrine.

On August 13, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes banned the SSPX from celebrating Masses, sacraments, and public prayers within the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, citing the Vatican’s declared excommunication of the six SSPX bishops at the center of its recent episcopal consecrations without a papal mandate.

Bishop Micas said that SSPX priests and accompanying faithful could still go to the shrine to pray “privately.”

The SSPX has expressed “sorrow and incomprehension” over the prohibition, even as it submits to the local bishop’s decision.

“Simple sons of the Catholic Church, who in no way claim to replace the Church and who have no other ambition than to remain faithful to it, are forbidden to meet to pray publicly to their Mother in Heaven,” the French district said, according to AdVaticanum.

Fr. Peignot’s statement highlighted the astounding contrast between Bishop Micas’ permissiveness toward Muslim’s “ecumenical” prayer at the Shrine of Lourdes, and his restriction of the SSPX’s liturgy there. In October 2025, Christians and Muslims held a four-day pilgrimage that included a prayer service, Mass, torchlight procession, prayer at the Grotto and interreligious meetings, according to the SSPX. The pilgrimage group also entered the Chapel of Our Lady together.

“How can we not be astonished – even offended – that those who do not recognise the divine Motherhood of the most holy Virgin Mary, nor the dogma of her Immaculate Conception, nor the divinity of her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, have been allowed (at the sanctuary), while the faithful of the chapels of the Society of Saint Pius X are prevented from coming to pray publicly to the most holy Virgin Mary in her sanctuary of Lourdes,” the statement asked.

“While the doors of the sanctuary remain closed to public pilgrimage, the door to the Heart of the Mother of God never closes to her children,” the statement continued.

SSPX priest Fr. Jean-Michel Gleize echoed the statement during a sermon this past Sunday. While the SSPX may not have “those churches, those sanctuaries built by our ancestors to venerate the Virgin Mary,” he said, “We have the Virgin Mary. She remains in our heart; she remains in the sanctuary of our soul.”

In his announcement, Fr. Peignot assured Bishop Micas of the SSPX’s “respect and prayers, without resentment,” expressing the hope that he might eventually recognize its priests as “not rebels, but sons desirous of living and serving in the Catholic Church.”

The statement stressed that the Society’s mission is not merely to preserve the traditional Latin Mass but to uphold the Church’s perennial teaching and practice. They insist that it is essential to this mission to publicly reject the errors of the Second Vatican Council documents.