By Daily Review Online
The Vatican has excommunicated priests and lay members of a breakaway ultraconservative Catholic group after it ordained four bishops without the approval of Pope Leo XIV, declaring the group to be in formal schism with the Roman Catholic Church.
In a decree issued on Thursday, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced that members of the Swiss-based Society of St. Pius X who formally adhere to the group are now excommunicated.
The decree came a day after the society consecrated four new bishops in Switzerland despite a direct appeal from Pope Leo XIV not to proceed.
The Vatican also stated that the group’s priests are celebrating the sacraments illicitly and cannot validly officiate marriages or hear confessions because the society rejects key teachings of the Catholic Church.
According to Catholic doctrine, only the pope has the authority to approve the consecration of bishops, a practice intended to preserve the Church’s apostolic succession tracing back to Jesus Christ’s original disciples.
The Vatican said the two bishops who led Wednesday’s ordinations, along with the four priests ordained during the ceremony, were automatically excommunicated. It further declared that all priests and lay members who formally belong to the Society of St. Pius X are now considered to be in schism, signifying a formal break from the Catholic Church.
The Society of St. Pius X had not responded to the Vatican’s latest decree as of Thursday. However, before the ordinations, the group defended its decision, saying it acted without papal approval because of what it described as “exceptional circumstances.”
Earlier this week, Pope Leo XIV appealed to the group to reconsider its actions, warning in a letter that “to tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity.”
“I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” the pope wrote.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin also condemned the ordinations, describing them as a source of “deep sorrow” and saying the act “deeply wounds the unity of the Church.”
Under Catholic law, bishops who participate in unauthorized episcopal ordinations incur automatic excommunication and are barred from receiving the sacraments until they repent and are reconciled with the Church.
The Society of St. Pius X, which claims about 600,000 followers worldwide, is known for opposing many of the reforms introduced by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.