Pope excommunicates SSPX sect after it mints its own bishops

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday excommunicated four new bishops belonging to a breakaway traditionalist group, the Society of Saint Pius X. The previous day, the group consecrated the bishops at a ceremony attended by thousands of people at a seminary in Switzerland. The consecrations occurred in defiance of the pope’s repeated warnings. Leo also excommunicated the two bishops who performed the ceremony. Their actions created a schism or intentional break with the Roman Catholic Church, he said.

Excommunication prohibits a person from officially receiving sacraments, including marriage, as well as participating in public worship or holding any ecclesiastical office. However, the Society of Saint Pius X, or SSPX, declared on Wednesday that it would not recognize disciplinary steps from church authorities. Founded in 1970, the group has opposed modernizing reforms in the Catholic Church, with its own seminaries and over 700 of its own clergy. An estimated 15,000 people attended its consecration ceremony on Wednesday.

The pope’s excommunication order extended beyond the automatic requirements of canon law—it also applied to all priests associated with SSPX, and all lay faithful who continue following the group. However, a letter attached to the excommunication order stated that the Catholic Church would welcome back everyone who wanted to reconcile. The church had developed internal procedures for doing so, the letter said, though it didn’t explain what steps would be required.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the bishops’ consecrations for details on why SSPX did so despite papal disapproval.