Cardinal Koch, Prefect of Christian Unity, on the SSPX Consecrations: "We need to rethink Traditionis custodes, especially for those faithful who feel drawn to this liturgy without sharing the ideology of the SSPX."

The Illicit Episcopal Ordinations of the Society of St. Pius X

Interview with Cardinal Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity

[Update: we had erred in the transcription of the name of the interviewer, Prof. Dr. Jan-Heiner Tück. We thank the German-language edition of Communio for allowing us to publish our translation of their podcast. The podcast is available in German on Spotify.] 

Communicatio (Podcast of the German edition of Catholic Journal Communio)

July 2, 2026

Jan-Heiner Tück: Yesterday, on July 1, 2026, the two bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay, ordained 4 traditionalist priests as bishops in Écône, Switzerland, without a papal mandate. This brings the conflict history between the Popes and the Society of St. Pius X, which has been simmering since the 1970s, to a conclusion. In this episode of the podcast Communicatio, I am speaking about this significant event in the history of the Catholic Church with Kurt Cardinal Koch, who has been the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity since 2010. My name is Jan-Heiner Tück. I am a co-publisher and managing editor of the journal Communio.

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[Interviewer:] Cardinal Koch, how do you, as a theologian and bishop who comes from Switzerland and worked there for a long time, classify the illicit episcopal ordinations that took place yesterday in Écône in the Valais?