The Mountain Seminary
The Swiss valley narrows as you climb towards Écône, the fir trees thickening on the slopes, the air thinning. At 1,200 metres, the seminary of the Society of Saint Pius X sits like a fortress monastery, its windows overlooking the canton of Valais. It was here, on 30 June 1988, that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops in defiance of Pope John Paul II, triggering automatic excommunication and formalising a schism that would haunt the Church for decades. It was here, thirty-eight years later to the day, that history repeated itself — not as farce, but as tragedy compounded.