Haus Jakob

The transcription of an announcement made during Spielhaus Jakob’s Weekly Rosary on July 4, 2026

My dear brethren,

As you might have heard, certain, if not all, members and adherents of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) have been excommunicated by the Vatican II Church, due to their unauthorised episcopal consecrations on July 1, 2026, which is said to be “an act of a schismatic nature” by the Vatican II Church. I hereby clarify that this so-called “schism” is not within the Holy Catholic Church.

The one reason is that the SSPX is never Catholic to begin with. Ever since its founding, the SSPX has been professing communion with the heretical Vatican II Counter-Church. They recognise the antipopes of the Vatican II Church as true Popes of the Catholic Church. The SSPX has done many good deeds in preserving certain aspects of Catholicism, Catholic Doctrines, and Traditions. However, they have overlooked an important Doctrine that heretics are excluded from the Catholic Church, and that heretics cannot be Popes.

I have heard some members of the SSPX arguing that a Pope will always be a Pope, just like your biological father is always your father. A “bad” Pope is like a father who is always drunk or so. He may not be capable of fulfilling his duties and obligations in a family as a father and husband, due to his drunkenness, but he is still the biological father of the children in that family. This analogy is completely wrong and heretical. It confuses biology with spirituality. If we are biologically humans, we will always be humans. It doesn’t matter what we do, what we believe, or how good or evil we are. A human who has murdered is still a human. A human who identifies himself as a cougar and bites people before running into the mountains will definitely not get away with what he has done as a wild animal would. However, we are members of the Catholic Church and can hold offices in the Church only for two reasons. One, we have been validly Baptised, and two, we continue to profess true Catholic Faith. A human person without one of these is still a human. He is still the biological parent of his biological children, but he is no longer a member of the Catholic Church. When a validly Baptised Catholic stops professing the true Catholic Faith or never professes the true Faith after reaching the age of reason, he becomes a heretic or schismatic, and he automatically leaves the Church and cannot continue to hold any office in the Church that requires the holder to be Catholic, such as the Papacy.

People love to talk about formal and material heresy, but there is only one factual state of one’s soul at one moment. One is either in the Church at this moment or outside of the Church at this moment. The Roman Catechism says that “Heretics and schismatics are excluded from the Church, because they have separated from her and belong to her only as deserters belong to the army from which they have deserted. It is not, however, to be denied that they are still subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, inasmuch as they may be called before her tribunals, punished and anathematized.” This means that a heretic or schismatic is outside of the Church in fact, even before they are anathematised. The Church still has the right to try them, to punish them, and to anathematise them, but without doing so, a heretic or schismatic has factually left the Church. Therefore, if a Pope becomes a heretic and has left the Church, according to St. Robert Bellarmine as well as normal logic, he cannot retain the Papacy the same way biological parenthood can be retained. Of course, if a heretic is elected to the Papacy, or if someone is elected by heretics to the Papacy, he cannot be a Pope. As for the SSPX, due to their communion with heretics and the heresies of their own, the SSPX never belongs to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

The other reason is that the entity that the SSPX has been excommunicated from is not the Catholic Church, but a heretical false church pretending to be the Catholic Church, pretending to have a Catholic hierarchy and the office to excommunicate someone from the Catholic Church. Not only is this church adhered to the heretical and erroneous Vatican II Council, but the head of this church—Robert Prevost, also known as Leo XIV—is also a notorious heretic who has openly professed heresies multiple times. For example, in the last two years, Prevost blasphemously claims twice that the Catholic Church “does not claim to possess a monopoly on truth” (Magnifica Humanitas, para. 25). Undeniably, the SSPX has many disagreements with the wider Vatican II Church, and the belief system of the SSPX may seem to resemble Catholicism more than the rest of the Vatican II Church. However, the disagreements or, as many would call it, the schism between the SSPX and the rest of the Vatican II Church is similar to the schism between the Puritans and the Anglican Church, or between High and Low Anglican Churches. They have different emphases and preferences, but neither of them is Catholic, and neither of them is more or less Catholic, so to speak, than the other.

Now how can we, the humblest members of the Roman Catholic Church, make such a judgment that Vatican II is heretical, and that there has been no Pope since the death of the last Pope, Pope Pius XII, on October 9, 1958? The short answer is that we cannot, and we have not made this judgment. We Catholics are not called to judge all the others, but we are also not meant to be completely ignorant about our Catholic Faith. John 15:15, our Lord says, “I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you.” We are required, in many cases under the pain of mortal sin, to know some basic things about our Catholic Faith, including the Commandments of God, the Precepts of the Church, the Doctrine of the Sacraments, and ordinary prayers such as the Apostles’ Creed.

When the Doctrine of Baptism says that every man is separated from God by his inheritance of original sin, and that only through Baptism, we can be united with our Lord and God Jesus Christ, we know someone who professes that “by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man” is a heretic, outside of the Catholic Church, and this is Vatican II—Gaudium et Spes (para. 22) in particular. There are many errors and heresies like this in Vatican II documents, and I won’t detail every single one of them here. The point is that we do not need a doctorate in Theology or philosophy to know that Vatican II is heretical, and that everyone who knowingly adheres to Vatican II is a heretic, neither do we necessarily make the judgment that Vatican II is heretical based on our finite intelligence. We can make this judgment based on basic Catholic Doctrines every Catholic is bound to know.

In other words, every Catholic must know that after he professes something like “by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man,” as in Vatican II, he is no longer a Catholic until his repentance. This is not a judgment made based on the personal opinions of some people, or some secret knowledge. This is a judgment made based on very basic Catholicism. Knowledge such as this is necessary for us Catholics to safeguard our own souls, even if we don’t use this to judge others. If Vatican II was a legitimate ecumenical council, it would be the only ecumenical council in Church history that is directly contradictory to what the Church consistently teaches and has taught through the previous Magisterium and ecumenical councils. If Catholicism, as interpreted by the Magisterium since Apostolic times, is a true Religion, Vatican II has to be false. If Vatican II was true, the Catholic Church would not be holy and Apostolic, because there would be no consistency in what the Church believes and teaches between now and Apostolic times. We can say that the Catholic Church has made the judgment that Vatican II is heretical, through Her consistent Tradition and Doctrine since Apostolic times. We merely pronounce this judgment that has already been made by our Holy Mother Church, as Her faithful sons and daughters.

Now come to the practical part: how should we Catholics treat the SSPX? First of all, there should be no difference in how we treat the SSPX after the so-called “excommunication” versus before, as the “excommunication” itself has no considerable impact on the relationship between the SSPX and the Holy Catholic Church. The SSPX was not Catholic before, and they are not Catholic after. We should treat the SSPX the same way we should treat all other heretics. Pray for their conversion and repentance. Go to them and evangelise them. However, it is noteworthy that we must not receive Communion from them. The consecration of bread and wine done by SSPX priests as well as by some Vatican II priests may or may not be valid, but the problem is that their words of consecration are said “una cum fámulo tuo Papa nostro Leóne” (one with Thy servant Leo our Pope). They are said together with a heretic who does not serve God, and who is not a Pope. Yes, we can pray for the repentance of Robert Prevost or Leo XIV, but we cannot pray together with him or pray for him as if he were a Pope. We cannot receive the Communion consecrated together with a heretic. Doing so would be to profess that Catholics are in communion with heretics, which we are not. Just as our Lord, during His earthly life, never shied away from interacting with sinners, not to show approval but to give those sinners opportunities to repent and to convert, we should also treat the members and adherents of the SSPX without approval, but with pity, with mercy, with the hope of their conversion, and with the knowledge that their souls will certainly be lost unless they convert to true Catholicism. Of course, in the same manner, we should also treat the members of the Vatican II Church, the Chinese Patriotic Church, the Protestants, and even infidels, such as Chinese communists.

We do not rebel against anyone. We do not protest against anyone. This is why we are Catholics, not Protestants. To rebel or to protest is oftentimes to act or speak against someone that has power. The SSPX has no power. The Vatican II Church has no power. Robert Prevost has no power. A non-Catholic government may have power over temporal matters, but it has no power over our souls. Our Lord said, “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matt. 28:18-20). We do not currently have a Pope, but it does not change the fact that we, the members of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, are the members of the Mystical Body of the all-powerful Lord. We obey Him. We obey what He has taught us through the Apostles and since Apostolic times. Our Lord Jesus Christ is still with us, even in the current time of crisis.

The Church of Christ our Lord is not only visible when there is a Pope, or when there are bishops and priests, or when liturgies are celebrated. The Church is visible in our true Catholic Faith. The Church is visible when we openly profess our Faith, when we pray, when we do penance, when we give alms. Each one of us, Catholic brothers and sisters, no matter how small, is the reason why the Holy Mother Church is visible and will stay visible until the consummation of the world. Now, let us pray and keep our Holy Mother Church visible today.

The compilation of our two announcements in response to SSPX’s Episcopal Consecrations in 2026