Friday, July 3, 2026 - The Vatican announced Thursday, July 2, that priests and members of a breakaway Catholic group that ordained four new bishops in defiance of Pope Leo XIV’s wishes are in schism and excommunicated.
The Society of Saint Pius X, an ultra-traditionalist group,
went ahead with the ordinations on Wednesday without papal approval and despite
appeals from Leo to reverse the decision. In response, the Vatican’s doctrinal
office published a decree stating that the four newly consecrated bishops are
excommunicated, along with the two bishops who participated in the ordination
ceremony.
Excommunication means they are excluded from the sacraments
of the church. The office added in an explanatory note that priests belonging
to the society and lay members who formally adhere to the group are also in
schism and excommunicated.
The decree warns all clerics and the lay faithful not to
formally follow the society as they will automatically incur the penalty of
excommunication. In a final appeal to the group on Tuesday, Leo had warned that
the ordinations would be a schismatic act and a sin of extreme gravity, and the
ruling by the Vatican is wide-ranging in clamping down on the group.
Later Thursday, the doctrinal office set out the steps needed
for priests to be allowed back into regular church life, including writing
personally to the pope asking for the excommunication to be lifted, Vatican
News reported. Priests must also sign a profession of faith and make a pledge
not to publicly attack the pontiff and his teachings, among other
conditions.Leo has not commented publicly since the ordinations were carried
out.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state,
expressed deep sorrow about the ordinations, stating they break the unity of
the Church and incur very specific sanctions, fundamentally excommunication.
The society, known as the SSPX, was founded in 1970 in
Switzerland by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a French prelate, but five years
later was officially suppressed by the Bishop of Fribourg. In 1988 the group
ordained four bishops without papal approval, which led to their
excommunication at the time. The latest action from the Vatican goes further
than the sanctions in 1988, which were limited to the bishops.
While Pope Francis had previously allowed the society to
administer the sacraments of marriage and confession, the latest Vatican ruling
states that any marriage or confession offered by the group will now be
considered invalid.
The note does say, however, that the Church, as a caring
mother, will welcome with sincere affection and active care all those who wish
to return to full communion. At the heart of the splintering from the
mainstream church was Lefebvre and his followers’ opposition to church reforms
introduced in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council.
The Lefebvrists do not accept what the council taught on
religious freedom, on ecumenism, and reforms to Catholic worship, such as
celebrating Mass in languages other than Latin. One of the major reforms at the
council was a condemnation of all forms of antisemitism.
During his pontificate, Leo XIV has made church unity a
priority, with a foundation stone of that unity being the link between the pope
and bishop. On June 16, the pope pointed out to journalists that the
Lefebvrists refuse to accept certain fundamental elements of the Church,
beginning with several points of the Second Vatican Council.
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