Vatican excommunicates SSPX bishops and members after unauthorized ordinations
The Society of St. Pius X consecrated four bishops without papal approval in Écône, Switzerland, prompting the Vatican to declare the society in schism and excommunicate its clergy and lay members. AP News reported that the group had planned a livestreamed ceremony on July 1, warning that the act would violate canon law and trigger automatic excommunication. EWTN News quoted Cardinal Gerhard Müller describing the planned ordinations as a schismatic act while affirming the validity of the Traditional Latin Mass. According to dw. com, Pope Leo XIV sent a letter to the Society urging it to cancel the consecrations and cautioning that proceeding could cause a schism and excommunication.
DW. com confirmed that the Society carried out the ordination ceremony in Switzerland, appointing four new bishops in a five-hour service that breached canon law. AP News added that the Holy See labeled the rite schismatic and subject to excommunication. CNN reported that the Holy See announced the Society’s priests, bishops and lay adherents were in schism and had been excommunicated. NPR cited the Vatican’s statement that the four newly consecrated bishops, the two bishops who performed the rites, and all SSPX clergy were expelled from communion, and that the faithful were warned against receiving its sacraments. A later NPR report reiterated the excommunication of the four bishops, the society’s clergy and lay members for schism following the Écône ceremony.
