(LifeSiteNews) — Newly consecrated Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) Bishop Michael Goldade said the “modernist church,” which he called a “new religion,” “kills everything it touches.”
In an address following the SSPX episcopal consecrations on July 1, Goldade, an American, celebrated the creation of the new bishops as a “sign of the vitality” of the Church.
Bishop Michael Goldade of the SSPX says his consecration and that of three other bishops today are signs “of the vitality of Holy Mother the Church.” pic.twitter.com/uwKwJ6lRXg
— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) July 1, 2026
“Holy Mother the Church, the bride of Christ to whom it was given, and only to whom it was given the means to sanctify souls, to prepare souls for the kingdom of heaven,” said Goldade. “It contains all that is necessary for the salvation of souls. And this is a reminder of that life and the life source and our Lord Jesus Christ which is found in the Catholic Church.”
“You see in these beautiful cathedrals artistic renderings of life. You have vinery, greenery, flowing water. But it’s not just something natural. It’s a symbol of the supernatural life that comes through the Catholic Church,” continued Goldade. “She washes souls, she cleanses them of sin, she prepares them, she raises them up even to great, great sanctity. To martyrdom. To be members of heaven.”
“And we have to believe that. We have to have faith in that,” he added.
READ: Cardinal Müller urges Vatican to rethink Latin Mass restrictions after SSPX consecrations
“Of course today, we see such wreckage. If the Catholic Church in her tradition brings forth life, the modernist church is a desert. It kills. It kills everything that it touches.”
“It kills the supernatural life. It kills the sources of grace. It dries up everything. It has placed man in the place of God and therefore turned away from the sources of life,” said Goldade.
The American bishop said he had talked to many Catholics who supported the consecrations even though they were not SSPX or even traditionalists.
“(T)hese faithful, who do not understand the complexities of modernism, of the modernist disease … they see something is wrong, something is dying with this new religion. And that in fact it is Tradition which is making a restoration, which is giving life,” he said.
He went on to encourage and exhort Catholics to remain faithful to the “sacred entrustment the Lord has given His church.”
“If you are faithful, you will see beautiful fruits in your families. Beautiful growth in your parishes and schools. And many, many more vocations. Many young who want to sacrifice for Holy Mother the Church.”
Goldade’s speech echoes SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who decried the modernist infiltration of the Catholic Church, evident especially during and after the Second Vatican Council.
Pope Pius X discussed the errors of modernism, which he called the “synthesis of all heresies,” in his encyclical Pascendi Dominci Gregis.
Goldade, one of four newly consecrated SSPX bishops, most recently served as rector of Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Virginia. The other new SSPX bishops are Pascal Schreiber, of Swiss nationality; Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, of French nationality; and Marc Hanappier, also of French nationality.