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Argentina receives a pope for the first time in 39 years.
The visit of Leo XIV has aroused enormous expectations. Local authorities expect millions of people to participate in the various religious events and celebrations that the American pontiff will lead during the three days he will remain in the South American country.
However, there is a Catholic group that seems to be left indifferent by the trip. This is the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius
On the South American website of the group, popularly known as the "Lefebvrians" or "Lefebvrists", in reference to their founder, the late French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, there are no articles that mention the papal visit, unlike other Catholic congregations and organizations.
However, this gap should not be surprising, because relations with Rome are at their worst moment in years, after last July its leaders decided to consecrate four bishops without authorization from Leo XIV.
The Vatican's response was immediate and forceful: it decreed excommunication, the most severe penalty within Catholicism, of both the four new bishops and the two religious who participated in their consecration, considering that they had committed an "act of a schismatic nature."
The decision was signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the heir body of the old Holy Office, who is Argentine.
Another element is added to this: Argentina was the first country in Latin America in which the SSPX was established almost half a century ago and it is where the movement has a most widespread presence in the Southern Cone.
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Four months after the excommunication, how has this measure affected the group in Argentina?
BBC Mundo tried without success to contact the SSPX authorities in the South American country to answer this question. However, he did manage to talk with faithful and people who sympathize with the organization.
"The faithful continue to attend mass and priories normally," said one of its lay members, who preferred not to reveal his identity and assured that he does not feel outside the Church.
This version was corroborated by Carlos Medina, an Argentine Catholic who attends Latin masses of both the fraternity and other traditional religious groups.
"I've talked to two friends who exclusively attend masses with them (the SSPX) and, for the most part, everything remains the same," he said.
The data seems to agree with Medina. Despite its confrontation with the Vatican, the organization maintains a network of 24 chapels and oratories in 11 provinces, in addition to three schools, according to the information available on its website.
Added to this are the novitiate in the town of El Pilar and the La Reja seminary, located near the sanctuary of Luján, one of the main pilgrimage centers in the country. In the latter, 50 seminarians are currently being trained, according to the newspaper "La Nación".
This structure makes Argentina the main institutional bastion of the organization in the Southern Cone, second only to Mexico.
And although there are no official statistics on the number of Lefebvrian faithful in Argentina, journalistic estimates place it below 1% of the Catholic population. In 2016, the newspaper "Clarín" reported that the group had 25 priests in that country.
The local press has also reported that judges, prosecutors and businessmen are members of the group. For her part, the current vice president, Victoria Villarruel, regularly attends masses in Latin in one of the fraternity's chapels, as journalist and writer Emilia Delfino, author of the book "La Generala", an unauthorized biography of the official, told BBC Mundo a few years ago.
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The apparent normality that reigns among the Lefebvrians does not surprise Argentine researcher María Bargo, who studied the group.
"I don't think they have many problems because this has already happened to them once," the expert, who currently works at the Social Research Institute of the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on a project on the political involvement of Christian conservatisms, recalled to BBC Mundo.
In 1988, then-Pope John Paul II excommunicated Lefebvre precisely for appointing bishops without his consent, a measure that was not lifted until many years after his death in 1991.
"I don't think the excommunication bothers them much, I say beyond considering it as an unjust act, because they believe that it is effectively the Church that is moving away from the true religion," he added.
The group considers the reforms of the Second Vatican Council a "historical error", as well as the dialogue with other religious confessions, which they call "false."
"If all religions have the same value, they (the faithful) could well seek their salvation with Buddhists or Protestants," its founder wrote in his 1985 book Open Letter to Confused Catholics.
The group's animosity toward interreligious dialogue was evident in the country in December 2013, when several young people linked to the SSPX broke into the Buenos Aires Cathedral during a ceremony commemorating Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), in which members of the Jewish community participated.
However, what has become its distinctive sign is its defense of the "Tridentine" mass and its criticism of the changes introduced during the pontificate of Paul VI.
"It is a half-Protestant, half-Catholic cult ritual," the founder of the fraternity denounced throughout his life.
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The advantage
But why does the SSPX continue to operate in Argentina after the excommunication? The answer is found in a letter that Benedict XVI signed in 2009 and in which he lifted the first sanction imposed on some Lefebvrian leaders. "Excommunication affects people, not institutions," wrote the German pope.
However, the declaration of having committed a "schismatic" act could affect the group, but it seems not to have done so because of the way the SSPX was organized from the beginning.
"They do not have parishes granted by a bishop. They have what they call parishes, what they call churches and seminaries, but it is a separate structure from the Church," Father Daniel Medina, dean of Canon Law at the Argentine Catholic University, explained to BBC Mundo.
"They have their own places and they have an association that, at the time, the Church recognized them so that they could operate in Argentina and, for that reason, they can celebrate worship," added the expert.
This was confirmed by Bargo, who noted: "they have always been outside the structure of the Church."
The traditionalist group arrived in Argentina with the help of its own founder, who visited the country in July 1977.
However, his trip was not without problems, since at first the military junta that was in power prevented him from entering, considering his visit "inappropriate" and because it did not want to disturb the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the Spanish newspaper "El País" reported at the time.
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However, the wayward prelate finally managed to enter Argentina and, although both military and ecclesiastical authorities tried to prevent him from officiating at public religious events, their efforts to stop the spread of his ideas in the country were unsuccessful.
Just five months later, on Venezuela Street in Buenos Aires, in what was formerly a fabric factory, the first of the SSPX chapels opened, which was financed with the contribution of faithful, according to a documentary by the group.
Despite his friction with the Argentine military authorities, Lefebvre praised them: "Thanks to a government that has principles, that has authority... that prevents bandits from murdering people."
The French archbishop was a declared anti-communist.
What has changed?
Although at first it seems that the clash with the Vatican has not affected the fraternity, Medina assured that it has been hit.
"They have lost the power to administer the sacrament of confession and to celebrate marriages, a power that Pope Francis had asked the bishops to delegate to them and that is not being given to them at this time," he said.
"The marriages they celebrate are null and void for the Church," he warned.
Regarding other religious activities, Medina indicated: "The masses they celebrate, of course, are valid but illicit. Baptisms and anointings of the sick are valid. But for marriage and confession they need a jurisdiction that they do not have."
Another element to take into consideration is that, unlike the excommunications of the 1980s, this time the sanction is not limited only to the six religious who participated in the episcopal ordinations last July, but also involves "the priests belonging to the society and the lay faithful who formally adhere to the Fraternity", whom the Vatican warned that they are "considered schismatics and excommunicated."
The warning has not been well received among the organization's lay members.
"In the first weeks, a feeling of anguish, confusion and discomfort was generated towards the authorities of the Church, something that I consider worrying because it could lead to resentment and, consequently, an estrangement," said the faithful consulted by BBC Mundo.
But returning to the papal visit, is it possible that the Lefebvrians will organize some protest or demonstration to make their case? Medina dismissed it outright.
"It is a fairly small group, which does not have a great popular diffusion, but rather is from the upper class, and has also never been conflictive, so I think it would not favor them," he noted.
The above was confirmed by a member of the group, who, under the condition of anonymity, declared: "I recognize the authority of the Pope as successor of Saint Peter, although I may have differences regarding certain doctrinal, pastoral or disciplinary decisions. These differences do not mean that I stop recognizing him as Pope."
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