Pope Leo XIV’s first major confrontation with a breakaway Catholic movement concluded Thursday as the Vatican declared the Society of St. Pius X in schism and excommunicated bishops who defied the pontiff by ordaining new bishops without his approval.
The Holy See acted one day after the Society consecrated four new bishops at its seminary in Écône, Switzerland, despite a personal appeal from the pope urging the group to abandon what the Church termed a “schismatic act.”
In a decree released Thursday, the Vatican excommunicated the four newly consecrated bishops and the two bishops who participated in the ceremony, labeling the ordinations a deliberate schism from the Catholic Church.
The decision follows decades of attempts by successive popes to reconcile with the traditionalist movement, which rejects many reforms of the Second Vatican Council, including celebrating Mass in local languages rather than Latin.
Only the pope has authority to approve the consecration of Catholic bishops, a safeguard intended to preserve Church unity and apostolic succession.
The sanctions also reverse recent concessions granted to the Society as the Vatican sought full communion; the decree states the group can no longer validly administer the sacraments of confession and marriage and urges Catholics attending its Masses to distance themselves.
The action comes after a rare personal appeal by the pope to the Society’s leader, Rev. Davide Pagliarani, urging cancellation of the consecrations and warning that the ordinations would deepen the long‑standing division.
This dispute marks the first major test of Leo’s pontificate, which has emphasized healing divisions within the Church, including outreach to conservatives and traditionalists who felt alienated under previous leadership.
During Wednesday’s ceremony, Pagliarani asserted the ordinations were not opposed to the pope but served the Church, claiming that love for the pontiff motivated resistance to perceived humiliation.
Founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the Society of St. Pius X has long opposed what it regards as theological errors introduced by the Second Vatican Council; Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 after a similar consecration without papal approval.
Those excommunications were lifted in 2009 in an effort to restore dialogue, though the Society never returned to full communion and remains outside the Church’s formal structure.
Despite its status, the Society continues to grow, reporting hundreds of priests, seminarians and religious members serving followers in dozens of countries, making it one of the largest traditionalist Catholic movements operating outside Vatican authority.
