VATICAN CITY, July 2 - The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a firm decree on Thursday declaring that priests and lay Catholics who belong to the breakaway Society of St. Pius X are in schism with the wider Catholic Church and have been excommunicated.
The Vatican organ, which serves as the Church's principal doctrinal watchdog for its roughly 1.4-billion-member global community, said the ultra-traditionalist Society now celebrates the sacraments illicitly. The decree states explicitly that the group cannot validly officiate marriages or hear confessions.
What the decree says
The Dicastery reiterated the long-standing Church teaching that only the pope may authorize the consecration of bishops, a safeguard the Vatican says preserves continuity with Jesus’ twelve apostles, regarded as the first priests and bishops. The recent ordinations held in Switzerland without the approval of Pope Leo prompted the latest, more expansive declaration.
In outlining consequences, the decree named the two bishops who led the unauthorized ordination as excommunicated, and confirmed that the four priests who were made bishops in the ceremony are also subject to excommunication. Beyond those individuals, the Vatican went further than some had anticipated: it stated that all priests of the Society of St. Pius X and all Catholics who formally adhere to the society are now in schism and excommunicated.
Reaction from the Society
The Society was not immediately available for an official response to the Vatican decree. After a Mass in Écône, Switzerland, a man who identified himself as Father Benedict but said he was not authorized to speak for the group told Reuters that members expected to continue their activities unchanged.
"We (will) just keep going," he said. "We do respect the pope. We will keep praying for him."
He also criticised the Vatican’s move, saying it demonstrated the Society had been shut out by the Holy See. "This sanction shows that, I mean, we did not close the door to the Holy Father, to the Holy See," Benedict said. "They shut it in our face. So that’s the sad reality."
Nature and gravity of the break
The Church regards the unauthorized ordination of bishops as a grave act that, under canon law, leads to automatic excommunication for those participating in the ceremony, leaving them "out of communion" with the wider Church and barred from receiving sacraments until they repent and seek forgiveness.
The Vatican's decree frames the current situation as a formal rupture - a schism - signaling a severe breach in unity that requires formal reconciliation steps to restore full communion.
Issues at stake: Vatican II and liturgical practice
The Society of St. Pius X rejects essential teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s gathering of bishops that instituted multiple reforms, including efforts to repair relations with Jews and other Christian denominations and the allowance for Mass to be celebrated in vernacular languages rather than only in Latin. The society contends the older Latin rite carries a particular sense of mystery and formality which it seeks to preserve.
Massimo Faggioli, a scholar of the papacy, said Pope Leo is firmly committed to the reforms of Vatican II and does not wish to compromise on them. "He has no regrets, no doubts about the fact that this is the Church of Vatican II," Faggioli told Reuters. "He has shown that he doesn’t want to compromise on that."
In public remarks in June, Pope Leo described the divisions with the Society of St. Pius X as "painful" but referred to the reforms of Vatican II as "fundamental elements" of Church teaching, adding, "We must move forward."
Context and organization details
The Society, whose followers are sometimes called Lefebvrists after founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, reports a membership of 733 priests worldwide. Its leadership has longstanding, fraught relations with the Vatican and has argued it needed to ordain bishops to ensure the society has sufficient prelates to lead its communities.
Historically, Lefebvre himself was excommunicated in 1988 after ordaining four bishops without papal permission. Later, Pope Benedict XVI took steps to re-engage with the Society, lifting the remaining excommunications of four clergy who had been involved in the 1988 ordinations as part of a broader effort to renew dialogue.
What remains unclear
The decree makes the Vatican's current canonical position explicit but does not outline specific next steps for reconciliation beyond the established requirement that those excommunicated repent and seek forgiveness. The Society's immediate intention, as expressed by Father Benedict, appears to be to continue its ministry despite the Vatican ruling.
How the situation will evolve, whether members will seek formal reconciliation, and how the decree will affect local communities served by Society priests are matters the Vatican and the Society have not detailed in the decree or accompanying statements.
Reporting for this piece incorporated official statements from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and direct comments from individuals present in Écône, Switzerland.