Following several days of retreat, the General Chapter of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) elected their fourth Superior General on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. The 41 capitulant members of the SSPX chose Father Davide Pagliarani to succeed outgoing Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, for a 12-year term.
Fr. Pagliarani is 46 and has been a traditional Catholic priest for 22 years. His priestly apostolate began in Rimini in his native Italy, took him to the missions in Singapore and other places in Asia, continued in Italy – as the country’s District Superior – and most recently was carried out in La Reja (Buenos Aires) as rector of the Society’s international Our Lady Co-Redemptrix Seminary there.
This election is an important occasion in the life of the Catholic Church. While much older orders, like the Franciscans or the Jesuits, also hold general chapters and regularly elect new superiors, the choice of a new head of the SSPX is especially significant. The Society founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre is only 48-years-old, but is the largest concentrated force – let alone society of apostolic life – at the service of the traditional Catholic Faith and Priesthood, actively working for the restoration of Tradition throughout the universal Church. Like Our Lady’s Apostolate, the Society is dedicated to spreading the Faith and fighting for the defense of the rights of Christ the King and His one, true Church, amid the many errors of our day infecting both our Church and modern world.
We have an additional reason to rejoice at this election, because like his predecessor, Bishop Fellay, Fr. Pagliarani is a friend of The Fatima Center. The Apostolate’s Italian branch, the Associazione Madonna di Fatima Onlus headquartered just steps from the Vatican, was happy to enjoy the kind support of Don Davide while still Italy’s District Superior.
The Fatima Center would like to extend its sincere thanks to Bishop Bernard Fellay for the generous support he gave us during his time as Superior General: in promoting Our Lady’s Message, for celebrating Fr. Nicholas Gruner’s Pontifical Requiem Mass in 2015, and for his speaking at our historic conference last November in Moscow.
We will continue to pray for the continuing success of the ongoing General Chapter, and look forward to the coming years of our collaboration with the SSPX, working together for the fulfillment of their holy Patron’s motto: omnia instaurare in Christo, “to restore all things in Christ,” in obedience to the requests of Our Lady of Fatima.