What to know about the breakaway traditionalist Catholics defying Pope Leo XIV

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican has gone above and beyond the minimum sanctions to respond to an ultratraditionalist society that consecrated four bishops without the pope’s consent.

In a decree Thursday, the Vatican's doctrine office declared the Society of St. Pius X in schism and decreed the excommunication of its bishops and priests.

The society, known by its acronym SSPX, celebrates the ancient Latin Mass and opposes the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church, which it considers to be rife with heresies and errors.

During a ritual-filled, five-hour Mass on Wednesday in Econe, Switzerland, attended by some 15,500 people and their children, the SSPX consecrated four new bishops. The consecrations were in direct defiance of Pope Leo XIV, who had urged the SSPX to hold off for the sake of the church’s unity. ---More...

BREAKING: Holy See declares all 6 SSPX bishops are excommunicated

Bishop Galarreta committed "an act of a schismatic nature through the episcopal consecration"

All four bishops consecrated received "have ipso facto incurred the latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the… pic.twitter.com/DaLw7sfidm

— Michael Haynes ???????? (@MLJHaynes)July 2, 2026