The Vatican declared 2 July that the six bishops involved in the Society of St Pius X’s unauthorized episcopal consecrations had incurred automatic excommunication and said its clergy “are in schism and therefore must be considered schismatics.”
The decree from Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, marks the strongest Vatican action against the traditionalist society since its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without papal approval in 1988, leading to similar Vatican censure.
While the society claims it was compelled to ordain new bishops 1 July in Ecône, Switzerland in order to guarantee to celebrate what they consider the true Mass, Vatican officials and scholars say the dispute that culminated in the excommunications has never primarily been about the traditional Latin Mass.
Founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in opposition to reforms following the Second Vatican Council, the Society of St Pius X grew into an international traditionalist movement with hundreds of priests, seminarians and schools around the world.
