Vatican says SSPX in schism, affirms excommunication of laity and clerics

The Catholic Church’s preeminent traditionalists now find themselves firmly outside its communion, and the Vatican laments that they have only themselves to blame.

The Holy See recognized on Thursday the self-inflicted excommunication of the Society of St. Pius X after the priestly fraternity defied the pope with an illicit consecration of bishops. Four priests were consecrated on Wednesday in a meadow of Écône, Switzerland, despite explicit demands from Pope Leo XIV not to proceed.

According to Catholic doctrine, illicitly consecrating a bishop without the approval of Rome, or receiving such an illicit consecration, activates the automatic and immediate penalty upon one’s soul. But just in case the SSPX didn’t get the message, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a terse document on Thursday making the excommunication explicit.

“This Dicastery, in the faithful exercise of the functions entrusted to it, considers it necessary to state that this act constituted the delict of schism, with the canonical consequences for the sacred ministers and lay faithful involved,” Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez wrote in a communique. “The sacred ministers belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X are in schism and must therefore be considered schismatics … and are subject to the excommunication prescribed by law.”

Newly consecrated Bishops, from left, Marc Hanappier, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, Michael Goldade, and Pascal Schreiber wearing their miters and holding their pastoral staffs, stand at the end of their consecration ceremony in a tent set up outside the Society of St. Pius X seminary in Econe, Switzerland, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

An explicit decree was separately issued recognizing excommunicated clerics by name. They are the two bishops of the SSPX who conducted the consecrations, Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay, as well as the four priests elevated to the episcopacy — Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, and Marc Hanappier.

Notably, the Dicastery made explicit that it was not only the clerics who are implicated in the schism, writing, “As regards the lay faithful, those who formally adhere to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X are to be considered schismatics and excommunicated.”

It was clarified separately that “laypeople who have attended the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X solely for liturgical or spiritual reasons” are not considered schismatic or excommunicated — as well as “laypeople who, while aware of the tensions with the Holy See, do not reject the Magisterium or the authority of the Roman Pontiff.”

The Society of St. Pius X is a traditionalist Catholic community that has, for decades, drifted in and out of communion with the Catholic Church. The priestly fraternity, named in honor of the anti-modernist Pope St. Pius X, was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in response to liturgical reforms issued by the Second Vatican Council (also known as Vatican II).

SSPX leadership has always maintained that they are not schismatic, only committed to tradition and opposed to theological errors they claim have plagued the church since Vatican II.

But there was little sense of fidelity to the Holy Father at the Wednesday ceremony, where celebrants replaced the reading of a papal mandate with a tirade against the Holy See, accusing the pope and the magisterium of replacing the Gospel with “fables.”

“From Vatican Council II up to the present day, the authorities in the Church have been animated by a spirit that is contrary to that of the faith and have been acting against holy tradition,” the pseudo-mandate read. “They will no longer endure sound doctrine, turning their hearing away from the truth and turning toward fables,” a bishop’s notary said ahead of the consecrations.”

The society later released a statement that it “sincerely regrets that, owing to exceptional circumstances, these consecrations had to be conferred without the authorization of the Holy Father.”

The message released on Thursday from the Dicastery said that the Catholic Church, as “a caring mother, will welcome with sincere affection and lively concern all those who wish to return to full communion.” It added that apostolic nuncios — the pope’s personal representatives to foreign nations — will “make available the procedures that Ordinaries may use in the various cases.”

Pope Leo XIV attends a meeting with bishops, priests, deacons, religious, seminarians and pastoral workers, in the cathedral of Saint Anne in Las Palmas at the Canary Island, Spain, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

That process will include finding a legitimate Catholic authority to take them under their supervision, submitting a letter to the Holy See with proof of ordination, and signing a “profession of faith and declaration of adherence.”

Clerics seeking reunion with Rome must be “willing to accept the Second Vatican Council and the legitimacy of the novus ordo Missae [new mass], even while remaining attached to the usus antiquior [the traditional Latin mass].”

SSPX DEFIES POPE LEO XIV, BREAKS FROM CATHOLIC CHURCH WITH ILLICIT CONSECRATION OF NEW BISHOPS

The SSPX has repeatedly requested a chance to meet with Pope Leo in person to discuss their theological grievances. Those requests have been uniformly denied, and with the current state of schism, now seem unthinkable.

The excommunication of the SSPX can only be lifted by the pope, who has not publicly commented on the situation since his letter on Tuesday urging the society not to proceed was ignored.

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