Traditionalist Catholics Defy Pope, Consecrate Four Bishops

A breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), on Wednesday defied Pope Leo XIV in consecrating four bishops without his sanction.

Midway through the mass in the Swiss Alps, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta placed his hands on the head of the four new bishops — a ritual that confers the Holy Spirit from one bishop to another and which recalls Christ's gesture to his apostles.

Under church law, this is an act that could lead to automatic excommunication of those involved and a schism with the Vatican.

Why has the SSPX performed the consecrations?

The SSPX believes it alone is upholding church tradition and the Catholic faith and rejects the modernizing reforms introduced by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Among other things, it insists on holding masses in Latin and opposes the ecumenism — the cultivation of ties to other denominations and faiths — that the Council advocated.

It has justified the consecrations by invoking a "state of necessity” to minister to its faithful, with only two of the original four bishops surviving to tend to a community with 800 places of worship in 77 countries.

The SSPX superior, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, responded to a letter from the pope appealing to the group not to go ahead with the consecrations by asking him to wait before declaring any penalty.

The SSPX has identified the new bishops as Pascal Schreiber of Switzerland, Michael Goldade of the United States, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry of France and Marc Hanappier, also of France.

A solemn consecration ceremony — with souvenir wine

The ceremony, which was live-streamed on YouTube, took place in the mountain valley of Econe, Switzerland, where the group has its seminary.

It was attended by thousands of faithful.

The ceremony took place 38 years to the day after the group consecrated four bishops, an act that incurred automatic excommunication for the bishops — a penalty that was lifted again in 2009.

In the church, being excommunicated excludes an individual from the sacraments, rites and spiritual fellowship of fellow Catholics.

Wednesday's ceremony had the air of a celebration, with registered participants offered the chance, for example, to buy a souvenir set of wine with bottles adorned with episcopal ensignia.

Participants were also to receive a baseball cap with the "Econe2026” seal on it.

What is the SSPX?

The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) was founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and other Catholics who opposed the liberal reforms to the church introduced by the Second Vatican Council.

It was once at the center of a controversy over one of its original bishops, Richard Williamson, who denied the Holocaust in a 2008 interview — a crime in Germany and several other European countries

The group drew criticism for delaying his dismissal but ended up banning him in October 2012.

Lefebvre himself, who died aged 85 in 1991, was a supporter of the "collaborationist" Vichy regime in France during World War II, and, in more recent times, backed the far-right National Front led by the late Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Edited by: Zac Crellin