Hong Kong Catholic diocese urges worshippers to avoid masses by excommunicated conservative group

Hong Kong’s Catholic diocese has urged worshippers to avoid masses led by a conservative group excommunicated by the Vatican after a priest from the fraternity was reported to be holding regular events in the city.

The diocese’s call came about a month after the Vatican excommunicated followers of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) over the group’s decision to consecrate four new bishops against the direct instruction of Pope Leo XIV.

In a statement on Monday, the diocese said the traditional Tridentine Latin mass had reportedly been celebrated for years at a rented venue in Hong Kong by a visiting priest who belonged to the group.

“Out of pastoral solicitude, Cardinal [Stephen Chow Sau-yan] exhorts them to refrain from doing so in the future, so as to avoid any contact with the above-mentioned priestly fraternity which rejects the teachings of Vatican II and is up to now not in communion with the Universal Catholic Church,” it said.

The Tridentine Latin mass is the older form of the liturgy, replaced after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s in favour of services in local languages.

The diocese added that those who found attending the Tridentine mass spiritually beneficial might instead attend equivalent rites offered by the officially recognised Tridentine Liturgy Community.

On July 2, the Vatican declared that members and lay faithful associated with SSPX were in formal schism with the Holy See, one day after the group consecrated four bishops without papal authorisation.