A group of traditionalist Catholics directly defied Pope Leo XIV on July 1 by ordaining four new bishops without his consent, calling it their “sacred duty” during a ritual-laden ceremony at the society’s seminary in the Swiss village of Écône.
The Society of St. Pius X had received repeated warnings from the Vatican that their episcopal consecrations would constitute a schismatic act and trigger the automatic excommunication of all bishops involved. Last Thursday, the Vatican went further than expected, declaring that the four new bishops, the two bishops who consecrated them, all priests of the SSPX, and all lay Catholics who “adhere formally” to the group were now in schism and excommunicated.
In an eleventh-hour appeal, Pope Leo had published a letter dated June 29 addressed to the superior general of the society, Davide Pagliarani. “I implore you and ask you with all my heart: Turn back!” the pontiff wrote, saying the consecrations would be a “sin of extreme gravity” for threatening the unity of the church.
