The Vatican has formally excommunicated six bishops and declared members of the breakaway Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) to be in schism after the group defied Pope Leo XIV by ordaining four new bishops without papal approval.
In a decree issued on Thursday, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith announced that the four newly ordained bishops, along with the two bishops who conducted the ordination ceremony in Écône, Switzerland, had incurred automatic excommunication. The action follows repeated appeals by Pope Leo XIV urging the group to abandon the controversial ordinations.
The Vatican said the unauthorized episcopal ordinations constituted a grave act of disobedience that deepened the separation between the Society and the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, those involved are barred from receiving or administering the sacraments until any canonical penalties are lifted.
In an accompanying explanatory note, the Holy See stated that priests belonging to the Society of Saint Pius X, as well as lay faithful who formally align themselves with the group, are also considered to be in schism and are subject to excommunication under Church law.
The decree further warned Catholic clergy and faithful worldwide against formally joining or supporting the Society, stressing that anyone who knowingly adheres to the group’s schismatic position would automatically incur the same ecclesiastical penalty.
The Society of Saint Pius X is an ultra-traditionalist Catholic movement founded in 1970. It has had a strained relationship with the Vatican for decades over disagreements concerning the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly on liturgy, ecumenism and Church authority.
The latest development marks the first major crisis of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate and signals the Vatican’s determination to preserve Church unity and reinforce papal authority. While previous popes sought dialogue with the Society, the latest ordinations were viewed by the Holy See as a direct challenge to the Church’s canonical order.
The Vatican’s decision is expected to have far-reaching implications for Catholics affiliated with the Society across several countries, as Church leaders continue efforts to prevent further divisions within the global Catholic community.
