A traditionalist Catholic group has ordained four bishops without the approval of Pope Leo XIV, marking the first major public challenge to his authority since the beginning of his papacy. EDnews reports, citing CNN
The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) carried out the ordination ceremony on Wednesday in Écône, Switzerland, despite repeated warnings from the Vatican that the move would constitute a schismatic act under Catholic Church law.
According to canon law, the newly ordained bishops and those who participated in the consecrations incur automatic excommunication, excluding them from full communion with the Catholic Church.
The Vatican had urged the group to abandon its plans. In a last-minute appeal, Pope Leo warned that proceeding with the ordinations would be "a sin of extreme gravity." Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin expressed "deep sorrow" over the decision, saying it broke the unity of the Church while voicing hope that dialogue could eventually resume.
The SSPX, founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, rejects several reforms introduced by the Second Vatican Council, including changes to the liturgy and teachings on religious freedom and ecumenism. The group argues that it must preserve what it considers traditional Catholic doctrine.
The latest ordinations revive a decades-old dispute between the Vatican and the SSPX. In 1988, the society also consecrated four bishops without papal approval, resulting in their excommunication, although those penalties were later lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 as part of reconciliation efforts.
Despite having an estimated 700 priests and around 600,000 followers worldwide, the SSPX remains outside the full canonical structure of the Catholic Church, and the Vatican views the unauthorized ordinations as a serious breach of ecclesiastical unity.
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