Bernard Tissier de Mallerais (14 September 1945 – 8 October 2024) was a French traditionalist Catholic prelate who served as a bishop of the Society of Saint Pius X from 1988 until his death in 2024.

Early life and ministry

Tissier de Mallerais was born in Sallanches, Haute-Savoie, France, on 14 September 1945. After obtaining a master's degree in biology, he entered the International Seminary of Saint Pius X at Fribourg in October 1969. On 29 June 1975, he was ordained priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre at Écône. He served first as a professor, then as vice-rector, and finally as rector of the seminary at Écône. In 1979, he was appointed Rector of the Seminary where he remained until 1983. For a year, he served as Chaplain at the Novitiate of the Sisters of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), until in 1984, he was elected to the post of Secretary General of the Society which he held until 1996.

Consecration and aftermath

In June 1988, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who sensed that he was approaching the hour of his death, consecrated de Mallerais and three other priests (Bernard Fellay, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta) as bishops. Lefebvre did not have a pontifical mandate for these consecrations, which was promised in exhausting negotiations, but always postponed or subjected to destabilizing conditions. On 1 July 1988 Cardinal Gantin issued a declaration stating that Lefebvre, bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer, de Mallerais, and the three other newly ordained bishops "have incurred ipso facto the excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Apostolic See." The validity of the excommunications is disputed by the SSPX. It argues that the consecrations were necessary due to a moral and theological crisis in the Catholic Church. Bishop de Mallerais argues of the validity and necessity of these consecrations in his article "Supplied Jurisdiction & Traditional Priests," stating: "in an exceptional situation the Church supplies for this absence of jurisdiction on the part of the priest or even the bishop," and "it is the case of necessity amongst the faithful which is responsible for the fact that traditional priests and bishops have a supplied jurisdiction with respect to your needs." By a decree of 21 January 2009 (Protocol Number 126/2009), issued in response to a request which Bishop Fellay made on behalf of all four bishops whom Lefebvre had consecrated on 30 June 1988, the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, by the power expressly granted to him by Pope Benedict XVI, remitted the alleged automatic excommunication which they had thereby incurred, and expressed the wish that this would be followed speedily by full communion of the whole of the Society of Saint Pius X with the Church, thus bearing witness, by the proof of visible unity, to true loyalty and true recognition of the Pope's Magisterium and authority.

SSPX bishop

In 1991, Tissier de Mallerais consecrated Licínio Rangel as bishop for the Priestly Society of St John Mary Vianney after the death of its founder, bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer. The duties of Tissier de Mallerais in the SSPX included the administration of the sacraments, particularly the sacrament of confirmation. He travelled extensively throughout the world, visiting SSPX chapels and communities.

Death

On 28 September 2024, Tissier de Mallerais suffered a skull fracture and internal haemorrhage due to a trip and fall on stairs in the seminary in Écône. He was temporarily placed into an induced coma. Tissier de Mallerais died on 8 October 2024, at the age of 79. His funeral was officiated on 18 October 2024 by Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, after which he was buried in the crypt of the International Seminary of Saint Pius X at Écône, where Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Bishop Vitus Huonder also rest.

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