Breakaway Catholic group excommunicated after defying warnings from Pope Leo
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Rome — The Vatican announced Thursday that priests and members of a breakaway Catholic group that ordained four new bishops in defiance of Pope Leo XIV’s wishes are in schism and excommunicated.
The Society of Saint Pius X, an ultra-traditionalist group, went ahead with the ordinations on Wednesday without papal approval and despite appeals from Leo to reverse the decision.
In response, the Vatican’s doctrinal office on Thursday published a decree saying that the four bishops are excommunicated, along with the two bishops who participated in the ordination ceremony. Excommunication means they are excluded from the sacraments of the church.
It added in an explanatory note that priests belonging to the society and lay members who “formally adhere” to the group are also in schism and excommunicated.
The decree warns all “clerics and the lay faithful” not to formally follow the society as they will automatically incur the penalty of excommunication.
In a final appeal to the group Monday, Leo had warned that the ordinations would be a “schismatic” act and a “sin of extreme gravity,” and the ruling by the Vatican is wide-ranging in clamping down on the group.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, expressed his “deep sorrow” on Wednesday about the ordinations, saying they “break the unity of the Church and incur very specific sanctions – fundamentally, excommunication.”
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Content retrieved from: https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/02/europe/vatican-excommunicates-breakaway-catholic-group-intl.
