Society of St. Pius V

The Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV; Latin: Societas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii Quinti), is a Traditionalist Catholic society of priests, formed in 1983 and based in Oyster Bay Cove, New York. The priests of SSPV broke away from the Society of St. Pius X over liturgical issues, and hold that many in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church no longer adhere to the Catholic faith but instead profess a new, modernist, Conciliar religion. SSPV priests regard the questions of the legitimacy of the present hierarchy and the possibility that the Holy See is unoccupied (sedevacantism) to be unresolved. The SSPV is led by its founder, Bishop Clarence Kelly.

The SSPV developed out of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), the traditionalist organization founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. In 1983, Lefebvre expelled four priests (Fr. Clarence Kelly, Fr. Daniel Dolan, Fr. Anthony Cekada, and Fr. Eugene Berry) of the SSPX's Northeast USA District from the society, partly because they were opposed to his instructions that Mass be celebrated according to the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal issued by John XXIII. Other issues occasioning the split were Lefebvre's order that Society priests must accept the decrees of nullity handed down by diocesan marriage tribunals and the acceptance of new members into the group who had been ordained to the priesthood according to the revised sacramental rites of Pope Paul VI.

"The Nine" (the four expelled priests plus five who voluntarily left the SSPX) balked at Lefebvre's imposition of the 1962 missal which they believed included departures from the liturgical traditions of the Church (for example, adding the name of St. Joseph to the Canon of the Mass). A more basic reason was the belief amongst the Nine that the men who had reigned as pope since the death of Pope Pius XII (d. 1958) had not been legitimate popes (Canon 1325, no. 2, 1917), although Fr. Cekada later stated that "...[t]he 'pope question' was not raised at the time, and was not at issue". They held that these Popes had officially taught and/or accepted heretical doctrines and therefore had lost or never occupied the See of Rome (Canon 188, no. 4, 1917). Like the Society of St. Pius X, they believed that there had been novel interpretations of the traditional teachings of the Church on issues such as religious liberty. One of the Nine, Fr. Dolan, admitted that while a member of the SSPX, he had concluded that the See of Peter was vacant.

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