The Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV; ), is a traditionalist Catholic society of priests, formed in 1983, and based in Oyster Bay Cove, New York, United States. The society broke away from the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) over liturgical issues. The SSPV regards the questions of the legitimacy of the present Catholic Church hierarchy and the possibility that the Holy See is unoccupied (sedevacantism) to be unresolved, but is practically sedevacantist. The society is headed by one of its co-founders, Bishop Clarence Kelly, and named after Pope Pius V, who promulgated the Tridentine Mass. History Founding The SSPV developed out of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), the traditionalist organization founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. In 1983, Lefebvre expelled four priests (Clarence Kelly, Daniel Dolan, Anthony Cekada, and Eugene Berry) of the SSPX's Northeast USA District from the society, partly because they were opposed to his instructions that Mass be celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal issued by John XXIII. Other issues occasioning the split were Lefebvre's order that Society priests must accept the decrees of nullity handed down by diocesan marriage tribunals and the acceptance of new members into the group who had been ordained to the priesthood according to the revised sacramental rites of Pope Paul VI. "The Nine" (the four expelled priests plus five who voluntarily left the SSPX) refused to accept Lefebvre's insistence on the 1962 Missal even though they were aware of his position before they were ordained. It was their opinion that it included departures from the liturgical traditions of the church (for example, inserting the name of Saint Joseph after that of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Canon of the Mass). According to the now-Bishop Donald Sanborn (one of "the Nine" priests), Lefebvre was imposing these liturgical and disciplinary changes in view of a reconciliation with the Vatican. A more basic reason was the belief amongst The Nine that the men who had reigned as pope since the death of Pope Pius XII (d. 1958) had not been legitimate popes (Canon 1325, no. 2, 1917), although Cekada later stated that "...[t]he 'pope question' was not raised at the time, and was not at issue." They held that these popes had officially taught and/or accepted heretical doctrines, and therefore had lost or never occupied the See of Rome (Canon 188, no. 4, 1917). Like the Society