Breakaway Catholic group whose leaders were excommunicated has Kansas City-area ties
The traditionalist Catholic group whose bishops and priests were excommunicated last week for defying Pope Leo XIV has ties to the Kansas City area.
The Vatican excommunicated the Society of St. Pius X leaders on July 1, the day after two bishops consecrated four new bishops without the pope’s approval. Two of the new bishops were from France, one was from Switzerland and one was from the United States.
The Rev. Michael Goldade grew up in St. Marys, Kansas, home to a huge contingent of Society of St. Pius X followers and the world’s largest SSPX-built church. He served for seven years as the prior of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Kansas City, whose priests are SSPX members.
SSPX has other Kansas City-area connections as well. Its U.S. headquarters is in Platte City, which is within the boundaries of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
The ultraconservative breakaway group, which celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass and rejects the liberalizing reforms implemented by the Second Vatican Council, has been at odds with the Vatican for decades. And after two SSPX bishops consecrated the four new bishops last week in a highly visible ceremony in Écône, Switzerland, despite warnings that doing so would result in their excommunication, the Vatican followed through on its threat the next day.
But not only did the Vatican excommunicate the SSPX bishops and priests, it went a step further and said others who “formally adhere” to the group would face excommunication, the harshest punishment under church law.
Excommunicated bishop once led KC parish
The priests at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 3106 Flora Ave., attended the bishops’ consecrations last week.
Goldade was the prior of St. Vincent de Paul parish from 2014 to 2021, which included oversight of the church’s K-12 academy and a religious community. In 2021, he was named assistant to the SSPX district superior of the United States, and two years later became rector of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Virginia, which is run by the SSPX.
St. Vincent de Paul, where the priests celebrate the ancient Latin Mass, was formerly a parish church of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, said Ashlie Hand, a diocesan spokesperson, in an email to The Star. But it was closed in the 1970s and is no longer part of the diocese, she said. The church’s academy has always operated independently of the diocese, Hand said.
Bishop James V. Johnston, head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, issued a statement the day after the SSPX consecrated the four bishops.
“Yesterday’s illicit ordinations of four bishops by the Society of St. Pius X without a papal mandate are unfortunate and indeed, a source of grief,” Johnston said. “The Holy See has subsequently issued a Decree and Explanatory Note regarding the schismatic actions. As a result, I will be preparing guidance to assist our clergy, lay Faithful, and especially any of the lay Faithful who have worshipped locally with the SSPX at St. Vincent de Paul Kansas City.”
Johnston went on to address the issue of excommunication of others besides the bishops and priests.
“Despite the fruitful efforts of past decades from the Holy See and our local Church to move towards a fully-restored ecclesial communion, the schism which has occurred will impact those who choose to formally adhere to the Society of St. Pius X,” he said.
“While it is imperative to not abandon future efforts toward full communion and to fervently pray for such, those who wish to maintain communion with the Catholic Church, including valid reception of the sacraments of Matrimony and Penance (Confession), will no longer find that possible within the SSPX.”
‘A source of profound sorrow’
Archbishop Shawn McKnight, of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, said in a July 2 statement that the issue was “a source of profound sorrow for the whole Church because it wounds the visible unity that Christ desires for his body.”
The SSPX in St. Marys lies within the boundaries of the KCK archdiocese.
McKnight said that for years, the church has sought reconciliation and full communion with SSPX. Pope Benedict XVI lifted excommunications that had been previously ordered by their bishops, McKnight said, and Pope Francis granted SSPX priests the authority to hear confessions.
“He also authorized local diocesan bishops to grant the priests of the Society faculties to assist at marriages, faculties that Archbishop Emeritus Naumann and I have granted,” McKnight said.
But that ended last week, the archdiocese said.
“There is no affiliation whatsoever between the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Society of Saint Pius X,” Marissa Easter, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, said in an email on July 2. “The faculties we have granted for marriages with permission from Pope Francis cease today with the decree from the Holy See.”
Now, McKnight said, “Catholics may not knowingly take part in the Society’s liturgical celebrations, apostolates, or other activities. Such participation is not merely discouraged but is gravely contrary to the unity of the Church and, when undertaken with full knowledge and deliberate consent, is sinful.”
The warning about excommunicating those who “formally adhere” to SSPX has prompted a multitude of questions and was mentioned in a recent Q&A on St. Vincent de Paul’s website.
“Rome has threatened excommunication ‘to all who adhere to the schismatic act’ but it is unclear what they mean by the word ‘adhere,’” it said. “Does attending an SSPX Mass mean you’re excommunicated? I think that the difficulty in specifying what they mean by adhere will make it more or less an empty threat but nobody knows.”
