(LifeSiteNews) — The bishop of the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas, warned Catholics not to attend Masses offered by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) after the announcement of its bishops’ excommunications even though the San Angelo prelate has himself participated in an interfaith Hanukkah ceremony, an objectively immoral act.

Bishop Michael J. Sis issued a letter on Monday reiterating the Vatican’s claim regarding the SSPX: that priests of the SSPX “unlawfully administer the sacraments” and that “the sacrament of penance administered by them and marriages witnessed by them are now invalid.” Such a claim presumes the real excommunication of these priests, which canon lawyer Father Gerald Murray admitted has not been legally effected.

Novus Ordo bishop Michael Sis of San Angelo warns people not to be “attending Masses celebrated by the excommunicated SSPX clergy” – in 2023, he celebrated ‘Interfaith Hanukkah’ with Jews and Protestants – https://t.co/VAJ65PjHiS and https://t.co/xcEbdOw0vv pic.twitter.com/Cg0LGO3uWl

— Novus Ordo Watch (@NovusOrdoWatch) July 7, 2026

In Sis’ letter, he encouraged San Angelo Catholics to avoid SSPX Masses offered in Midland, Texas, in St. Michael the Archangel Chapel and to instead attend a traditional Latin indult Mass offered at St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church “with permission from the Holy See each Sunday.”

“To assist those Catholics who might have worshipped locally with the SSPX at the St. Michael the Archangel Chapel in Midland, and who would like to make it clear that they adhere to the universal Roman Catholic Church in union with Pope Leo XIV, the Holy See has provided protocols which I would be happy to make available to them,” wrote Sis, referring to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF)’s guidelines for SSPX clergy and laity who wish to “reconcile” with the Vatican after excommunications.

However, Sis has participated in an interfaith gathering denounced as sinful by traditional Catholic canon law and moral theology. In 2023, he helped coordinate and spoke at an “Interreligious Hanukkah service” attended by Jewish and Methodist faith leaders that concluded in a menorah lighting ceremony. The diocese’s announcement of the event was accompanied by a graphic of a tree adorned with symbols of different religions, including Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.

“For us to honor one another’s religions and to respectfully participate together in cultural and religious ceremonies, it’s a way for us to open our eyes to the experience of another, and to see how they practice their faith and honor God,” Sis explained at the time.

Catholic theology warns that communicatio in sacris (the communication in sacred things) with non-Catholics, including Jews, is, in many cases, gravely immoral.

As Father Thomas Slater, S.J. explains in A Manual of Moral Theology: 

“The ceremonies and practices of the Jewish religion signified that the Messiah was to come, and so now, after the coming of our Lord, they could not be employed without superstition. Inasmuch as falsehood in religion is a grave injury to God, this species of superstition is mortally sinful.”

Accordingly, the 1917 Code of Canon Law states that “It is not licit for the faithful by any manner to assist actively or to have a part in the sacred (rites) of non-Catholics.” (Canon 1258) Exceptional circumstances, it stated, could be tolerated for “grace reason”:

“Passive or merely material presence can be tolerated for the sake of honor or civil office, for grave reason approved by the Bishop in case of doubt, at the funerals, weddings, and similar solemnities of non-Catholics, provided danger of perversion and scandal is absent.”

It is in part because of the Second Vatican Council’s apparent repudiation of this teaching, such as in Unitatis Redintegratio, that the SSPX refuses to accept the entirety of the Council’s documents. It is for this reason in turn that the Society has been denied “regularization” and, subsequently, the sanction of Pope Leo XIV to consecrate bishops.

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