The Vatican has formally excommunicated six bishops of the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X and declared the traditionalist group in schism after it carried out unauthorized bishop consecrations despite the opposition of Pope Leo XIV.
The decision marks one of the strongest disciplinary actions taken by the Holy See against Catholic traditionalists in decades and deepens a long-running rupture with a group that has rejected key reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
In a decree released Thursday, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said the July 1 consecration of four bishops in Écône, Switzerland, was an “act of a schismatic nature” because it was performed without a papal mandate and despite the pope’s appeal for the group to step back.
The Vatican said Bishops Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay, who served as principal consecrator and co-consecrator, incurred automatic excommunication along with the four newly consecrated bishops: Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, and Marc Hanappier.
The decree went further than the bishops themselves.
The doctrine office said sacred ministers belonging to the Society of St. Pius X are now considered schismatics and are subject to excommunication under canon law. It also warned that lay Catholics who “formally adhere” to the society are to be considered schismatics and excommunicated under conditions laid out in earlier Vatican guidance.
The Vatican also warned Catholics that SSPX priests administer the sacraments illicitly, adding that confessions heard by them and marriages witnessed by them are invalid.
At the center of the dispute is one of the Catholic Church’s most sensitive questions of authority: who has the power to make bishops.
Under Catholic teaching and canon law, bishops cannot be consecrated without approval from the pope. The Vatican treats unauthorized episcopal consecrations as a grave offense because bishops are considered successors of the apostles and their appointment is tied directly to communion with Rome.
The SSPX, however, pushed through with the ceremony at its seminary in Écône despite repeated warnings from the Vatican.
The group has argued that the consecrations were necessary because of what it described as exceptional circumstances and a crisis in the Church. Vatican officials rejected that position, saying the act amounted to a direct challenge to papal authority and a rupture with the Catholic Church.
The confrontation places Pope Leo XIV in one of the first major internal Church crises of his papacy.
The pope, elected in 2025, has repeatedly called for unity while also affirming the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the landmark 1962 to 1965 gathering that reshaped modern Catholic life. Vatican II expanded the use of local languages in the Mass, encouraged dialogue with other Christian churches and non-Christian religions, and redefined the Church’s engagement with the modern world.
The SSPX was founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in opposition to those reforms. The group champions the old Latin Mass and has accused the post-Vatican II Church of doctrinal errors, modernism, and liberalism.
This is not the first time Écône has become the stage for a major Catholic rupture.
In 1988, Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the approval of Pope John Paul II, prompting the Vatican to declare the act schismatic and excommunicate Lefebvre and the bishops involved. Pope Benedict XVI later lifted the excommunications of the surviving bishops in 2009 as part of an effort to repair relations, but full reconciliation never materialized.
For years, the SSPX occupied an uneasy space on the Catholic map. It had no formal canonical status in the Church, but previous popes attempted limited outreach. Pope Francis, for instance, allowed SSPX priests to validly hear confessions during the Jubilee of Mercy and later extended that permission.
Thursday’s decree effectively ends much of that ambiguity.
By declaring SSPX clergy in schism and warning lay Catholics who formally adhere to the group, the Vatican is making clear that the dispute is no longer only about a handful of bishops. It is about whether the society and its followers recognize the authority of the pope and the legitimacy of the modern Catholic Church.
The move could affect SSPX communities across several countries, including its seminaries, schools, chapels, and religious houses. According to Reuters, the society had 1,482 formal members as of November 2025, including 733 priests and 264 seminarians from around 50 nations.
The Vatican, however, left a door open for return.
The decree said the Church would welcome those who wish to come back into full communion and instructed apostolic nuncios to help arrange procedures for individual cases through local Church authorities.
After years of warnings, negotiations, concessions, and failed attempts at reconciliation, the Vatican has drawn a hard line: bishops cannot be made against the pope’s will, and a movement that rejects that authority places itself outside full communion with the Catholic Church.