Vatican excommunicates schismatic bishops and priests, and warns their followers

By — Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/vatican-excommunicates-schismatic-bishops-and-priests-and-warns-their-followers Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Vatican excommunicates schismatic bishops and priests, and warns their followers World Jul 2, 2026 12:19 PM EDT VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican responded aggressively Thursday to a traditionalist group that consecrated bishops without the pope's consent, declaring the Society of St. Pius X had formally broken with the Catholic Church. It also excommunicated its bishops and priests, and warned its faithful that they too face the harshest sanctions in the church. By declaring a schism and extending excommunications to potentially thousands of Catholics, the Vatican's doctrine office went above and beyond the minimum sanctions foreseen by the church's canon law to respond to the consecrations Wednesday of four new bishops. READ MORE: Defying Pope Leo XIV, traditionalists go ahead with bishop consecrations in Switzerland The society, known by its acronym SSPX, celebrates the ancient Latin Mass and opposes the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church, which it considers to be rife with heresies and errors. While a fringe movement on the Catholic right, the SSPX has been a thorn in the Vatican's side for five decades because it claims to be even more Catholic than the Holy See. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. During a ritual-filled, five-hour Mass on Wednesday at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland, the SSPX consecrated four new bishops in direct defiance of Leo, who had urged the group to hold off for the sake of church unity. An estimated 15,500 people and their children attended, a sign that the SSPX has plenty of supporters who came from around the world knowing full well they were defying Rome. The harshness of the response suggested that after trying to negotiate with the SSPX, the Vatican under Pope Leo XIV had had enough. A decree targeting bishops and faithful In a decree, the Vatican excommunicated the four new bishops and the two bishops who participated in the ceremony. It declared the consecrations a "schismatic act" and declared the society itself had created a schism, or intentional rupture with the Catholic Church. It declared SSPX priests — who number about 750 — to be schismatic, and therefore excommunicated, and invalidated the sacraments of confession and marriage that they administer. The Vatican warned the faithful to stop going to the society's Masses, declaring "those who adhere formally" to the society are considered themselves schismatic and excommunicated. The Vatican has previously described "adherence" to the SSPX as including those Catholics who share in the schism by placing their loyalties to the society above the pope, and those who pa