Defying Pope Leo XIV, traditionalists go ahead with bishop consecrations in Switzerland

Michie · Jul 1, 2026

ECONE, Switzerland (AP) — A group of traditionalist Catholics directly defied Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday by consecrating four bishops without his consent, dismissing the resulting excommunications and break with the church by declaring it was a “sacred duty” to defend the Catholic faith.

Continued below.

Defying Pope Leo XIV, traditionalists go ahead with bishop consecrations in Switzerland

A breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics has directly defied Pope Leo XIV by consecrating four bishops without his consent. The Society of St.

apnews.com

jas3 · Jul 1, 2026

Good for them. In the years I was attending Catholic churches, the SSPX chapel was unique in the reverence and sincerity of faith I found there.

RileyG · Jul 1, 2026

jas3 said:
Good for them. In the years I was attending Catholic churches, the SSPX chapel was unique in the reverence and sincerity of faith I found there.

Thankfully, we have a FSSP chapel in my city. It's very beautiful and reverent.

RileyG · Jul 1, 2026

I sincerely hope they come back into full communion, instead of irregular communion. That is all.

jas3 · Jul 2, 2026

As expected, the excommunication has been declared within a day:

Excommunication decreed for Lefebvrian episcopal ordinations - Vatican News

A document signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, defines the rite celebrated on 1 July ...

www.vaticannews.va

Funny how quickly they bring the hammer down on traditionalists while modernists do their thing with impunity.

Arcangl86 · Jul 2, 2026

jas3 said:
As expected, the excommunication has been declared within a day:

Excommunication decreed for Lefebvrian episcopal ordinations - Vatican News

A document signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, defines the rite celebrated on 1 July ...

www.vaticannews.va

Funny how quickly they bring the hammer down on traditionalists while modernists do their thing with impunity.

I'm not aware of any cases of modernists ordaining bishops against the explicit wishes of the Pope, or anything of similar severity. So it's not an apple to apples comparison.

iluvatar5150 · Jul 2, 2026

Arcangl86 said:
I'm not aware of any cases of modernists ordaining bishops against the explicit wishes of the Pope, or anything of similar severity. So it's not an apple to apples comparison.

Also, it sounds like this group had been stepping out of line for a while and hadn't really responded to gestures to bring them back into the fold.

High Fidelity · Jul 2, 2026

iluvatar5150 said:
Also, it sounds like this group had been stepping out of line for a while and hadn't really responded to gestures to bring them back into the fold.

It's quite interesting because it seems like there are Chinese Bishops that have been problematic without rebuke, but SSPX gets the Vatican's full attention.

If I were to consider Catholicism it would be an SSPX parish. I don't agree with this or the past Pope on certain issues, or their authority to speak on them from their walled-off city-state surrounded by guards.

RileyG · Jul 2, 2026

iluvatar5150 said:
Also, it sounds like this group had been stepping out of line for a while and hadn't really responded to gestures to bring them back into the fold.

Technically, they were always in irregular communion and never _technically_ opposed the Pope.

Now they have overstep boundaries that the Vatican has finally responded.

RileyG · Jul 2, 2026

High Fidelity said:
It's quite interesting because it seems like there are Chinese Bishops that have been problematic without rebuke, but SSPX gets the Vatican's full attention.

If I were to consider Catholicism it would be an SSPX parish. I don't agree with this or the past Pope on certain issues, or their authority to speak on them from their walled-off city-state surrounded by guards.

There’s always the FSSP which is in full communion and is bursting at the seams

they have the traditional Latin Mass with very beautiful parishes. Been to one myself a couple of times in my city

jas3 · Jul 4, 2026

RileyG said:
Technically, they were always in irregular communion and never _technically_ opposed the Pope.

Now they have overstep boundaries that the Vatican has finally responded.

They did the same thing in 1988, so either they opposed the pope then or they didn't oppose the pope now.

Their position is that they don't oppose the pope in general, but that his authority doesn't include requiring people to act against the faith; he can't instruct someone to celebrate a clown mass or apostatize, for example. They would then argue that the pope has no authority to require them to allow the faith as it was prior to Vatican II to die out and be replaced by the new postconciliar faith through withholding permission for episcopal consecrations.

Their "Crisis in the Church" podcast series is very good at explaining their history and their position.

jas3 · Jul 8, 2026

Something I missed earlier but picked up on following yesterday's "Ancient Faith Live" podcast is that this excommunication is even more vindictive than the one in 1988: not only are the bishops themselves excommunicated, but even the priests and laity of the Society are excommunicated, so instead of 5 people this time, it's more like 600,000.

So this would seem to be the broadest excommunication Rome has issued since the Protestant Reformation.

RileyG · Jul 8, 2026

jas3 said:
Something I missed earlier but picked up on following yesterday's "Ancient Faith Live" podcast is that this excommunication is even more vindictive than the one in 1988: not only are the bishops themselves excommunicated, but even the priests and laity of the Society are excommunicated, so instead of 5 people this time, it's more like 600,000.

So this would seem to be the broadest excommunication Rome has issued since the Protestant Reformation.

Yikes! That’s not good!

Defying Pope Leo XIV, traditionalists go ahead with bishop consecrations in Switzerland

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