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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026

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Leo could have simply authorized the consecrations in the first place and avoided the problem

No, he could not have. Bishops are bishops of dioceses and are consecrated as part of their appointment to a specific job. The job they are being appointed to doesn’t, officially, exist. Bishops are not just sacrament machines.

The ‘they’re not being appointed to a job’ is both the SSPX’s main defense against schism and thé reason these consecrations would never be authorized.

The Vatican’s preference was, from a well placed trad perspective, to wait for Bp Galaretta to die, then watch while Bp Fellay pushes the rest of the SSPX into accepting a deal(before the consecrations Fellay led the pro-regularization faction in thé SSPX and Galaretta was affiliated with the anti, and this is likely why Galaretta was the principal consecrator. Fellay on his lonesome was very very unlikely to agree to additional consecrations without permission), and creating some sort of job necessitating a bishop would probably have been part of that deal.