Society of St. Pius V
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The Society of St. Pius V (SSPV) is an organization of Traditionalist Roman Catholic priests formed in 1983 and based in Oyster Bay Cove, New York. The SSPV is not canonically recognized by the Vatican or the local Roman Catholic authorities as a Catholic religious congregation; the latter often claim the SSPV is a schismatical body of clergymen.
The SSPV was founded by Father Clarence Kelly and eight other priests expelled from the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), of which Father Kelly was Northeast USA District Superior. They opposed the decision by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder and leader of the Society of St. Pius X, that the 1962 typical edition of the Roman Missal (traditional Latin liturgy), issued by Pope John XXIII, should be used. Their grounds for refusal were these: that it remains, at least, a debatable question whether there has been a legitimate pope since the 1958 death of Pope Pius XII; and that, accordingly, the 1962 typical edition of the traditional Roman Missal was of doubtful canonical legitimacy, even though considered sacramentally valid and not intrinsically erroneous.
In Society of St. Pius X circles, the group was and remains known as "The Nine". When Lefebvre expelled them from his Society, they formed their own, dedicated to Pope St. Pius V.
The other members of the original group were Frs. Thomas Zapp, Donald Sanborn, Anthony Cekada, Daniel Dolan, William Jenkins, Eugene Berry, Joseph Collins, and Martin Skierka.
Within a few years, about half of the initial nine SSPV priests separated from Father Clarence Kelly, most of them forming an openly sedevacantist group (refusing to acknowledge the present Pope) under Fathers Daniel Dolan and Donald J. Sanborn, who were later consecrated as bishops through the episcopal lineage of Roman Catholic Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc Pierre Martin. This group ([1]), also known as Catholic Restoration, based in Bp. Dolan's St. Gertrude the Great Church in West Chester, Ohio, a former SSPX chapel, now works closely with another sedevacantist group, the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI), based in Mount St. Michael, Washington. Initially, from 1995 to 1997, the group of Dolan and Sanborn vigorously attacked both the validity as well as the liceity of the SSPV's sacramental ministry - and vice versa. Later on however Sanborn, Dolan and Fr. Cekada agreed to acknowledge the validity of the remaining SSPV of Fr. Kelly.
The other seceders founded independent ministries.
In 1993, 86-year-old Chicago-born Bishop Alfredo F. Mendéz, C.S.C., who had resigned in January 1974 as Roman Catholic Bishop of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, consecrated Fr. Clarence Kelly to the Roman Catholic episcopacy. This was not announced until a few days after Bishop Méndez's death in 1995. Bishop Mendéz had already ordained two seminarians of the SSPV to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1990 during a public Mass according to the traditional Roman liturgy.
The Society currently has five permanent priories, with Mass locations varying from Long Island, New York to Montana, as well as many other mission chapels and churches in the United States and Canada.
In 1984, the then-Fr. Kelly founded a convent of Sisters, The Congregation of the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Our Savior. Their current mother-house and novitiate are located in the Catskill area of upstate New York. The Sister also have three other houses in the United States. The current mother general is Mother Mary Bosco. The Sisters also run schools at the locations of their houses, excluding at the location of the mother-house. The Sisters not only teach, but are also involved in other charity work, such as visiting nursing homes.
The Society also has a Seminary for young men who believe they have a vocation to the holy priesthood which is also located in the Catskill area, NY. The Seminary is headed by Fr. Paul Baumberger of the SSPV. Ordinations are conferred by Bishop Kelly. A first small group of SSPV seminarians have been ordained to the sacred priesthood in recent years.
