Catholic Church Excommunicates Breakaway Traditionalist Bishops And Their Followers

The Vatican swiftly imposed its harshest penalty of excommunication against bishops belonging to an ultra-traditionalist group who participated in an illicit Wednesday ordination.

The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) consecrated four bishops in Switzerland without the permission of Pope Leo XIV, who, citing the “attentive and generous attitude” of his papal predecessors, had issued a heartfelt letter Monday reminding that to “tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity.” The Catholic Church’s teaching of apostolic succession traces the continuing teaching authority of the bishops back to the Apostles chosen by Jesus Christ during His ministry throughout the Roman Empire.

“I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” the supreme pontiff wrote. “I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit and, in some cases, even valid reception of the Sacraments, which they love and seek for their sanctification.”

With a “sorrowful yet hopeful heart,” Leo — in what amounts to one of the most serious divisions he has faced during his barely one-year papacy — concluded. He observed that “[t]he Church is open to a path of dialogue and understanding that the Holy Spirit can make possible and fruitful.”

The consecrations, amid the ornate trappings of an ancient liturgy in Latin, nevertheless defiantly took place before an estimated 17,000 onlookers in a meadow in Écône, Switzerland — home to the SSPX’s international seminary. They were conducted by two bishops who were previously excommunicated for similar illicit consecrations in 1988.

“The Society sincerely regrets that, owing to exceptional circumstances, these consecrations had to be conferred without the authorization of the Holy Father,” an SSPX statement reads. “It regrets in particular that the Superior General of the Society was not afforded the opportunity to meet personally with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, in order to set before him filially the grave reasons which rendered this ceremony necessary.”

“First of all, I want to express great sorrow,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Wednesday, accordingto EWTN News. “I want to express great sorrow because, speaking of the unity of the Church, an act like this deeply wounds the unity of the Church. … My hope is that, despite what happened today, dialogue can resume and that a solution can truly be found here as well.”

At the time, Parolin claimed to be unaware of “the timing and the manner” of the forthcoming decree of excommunication. The wait for the Church’s formal response, it turns out, would not be long.

“Notwithstanding the warnings addressed to the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta—having committed an act of a schismatic nature through the episcopal consecration of four priests without a pontifical mandate and against the will of the Supreme Pontiff—has incurred ipso facto [Latin for “the fact itself”] the penalties provided for by Canon 1387 and Canon 1364 § 1 of the 2021 Code of Canon Law,” a translation of the Italian decree by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith reads.