The Vatican warned the Society of St. Pius X on Wednesday, May 13. They said if this Swiss group goes ahead and makes four bishops without the Popes okay they will be automatically kicked out of the Church. The Society of St. Pius X is very traditional. They are based in Switzerland. They want to make these bishops.. The Vatican says no you need the Popes approval. If they do it anyway they will face excommunication. This means they will not be part of the Catholic Church anymore. The Vatican is serious, about this. They want the Society of St. Pius X to follow the rules. Cardinal VÃctor Fernández, head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, said the planned ordination ceremony would mark “a grave offence against God and entail the excommunication established by the Church.” The warning marks the first known excommunication threat issued during the papacy of Pope Leo XIV.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office told the Society of St. Pius X that any ordination of bishops without papal consent would create a “schism” — a formal rupture with the pope — from the 1.4-billion-member Church. The Society, known by its French acronym SSPX, announced in February that it would proceed with the ordinations in July, citing a need for more senior clergy to lead its global operations.
Cardinal Fernández said in a Vatican press release: “I reiterate what has already been communicated. The episcopal ordinations announced by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X do not have the corresponding pontifical mandate. This action will constitute ‘a schismatic act,’ and ‘formal adherence to the schism constitutes a grave offense against God and entails the excommunication established by the law of the Church’.”
The statement added that Pope Leo XIV was praying for enlightenment so that SSPX leaders “may reconsider the extremely grave decision they have made,” according to the Associated Press.
The planned ordinations are scheduled for July 1, 2026. Under Canon 1382, ordaining bishops without a pontifical mandate triggers automatic excommunication for both the consecrating bishop and the person being ordained. Excommunicated persons are barred from receiving the Church’s sacraments, holding Church office, and, if they die while excommunicated, from receiving a Catholic burial.
The looming consecrations represent the first tangible crisis for Pope Leo, who has sought to ease tensions with Catholic traditionalists that worsened during the papacy of Pope Francis, his predecessor, after Francis restricted the spread of the old Latin Mass. The SSPX’s position makes the challenge particularly delicate: while the group has no legal standing within the Catholic Church, many traditionalist Catholics who remain loyal to Rome are nonetheless sympathetic to the SSPX and are watching how Leo responds.
The Scope of the Society
The SSPX has two bishops. It also has a total of 733 priests. There are 264 seminarians. Additionally it has 145 brothers and 88 oblates. The SSPX also has 250 sisters. These people come from 50 countries. The group operates schools, seminaries, and parishes across multiple continents, functioning in practice as a parallel Catholic institutional structure despite lacking Vatican recognition.
The group’s growth since 1988 poses a real challenge to Rome, as it amounts to a parallel Catholic church operating outside official Church structures. That scale makes a mass excommunication politically and pastorally complicated for any pope to execute.
Background
The Society of St. Pius X was founded by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in opposition to many of the reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council, a landmark Vatican gathering of bishops in the 1960s that pursued a range of changes for the global Church, including the shift from Latin to local languages in Mass. The society has continued to celebrate the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass and rejects what it calls liberal theology.
In 1988, Pope John Paul II excommunicated members involved in the consecration of four bishops without papal approval. Pope Benedict XVI subsequently sought to renew dialogue with the society and lifted four remaining excommunications. Despite that partial reconciliation, the SSPX has never been formally reintegrated into the Catholic Church and retains no canonical status.
It is a strict teaching of the Church that only the pope can authorise the consecration of new bishops, in order to maintain the Church’s ties to Jesus’ 12 apostles, who are considered the first priests and bishops. That doctrine is the direct legal basis for the excommunication threat.
What Happens Next
The Society of Saint Pius X has not said it will cancel its plan to ordain priests on July 1. This is even after they got a warning on Wednesday. News organizations, like Reuters and the Associated Press are saying this. The Society of Saint Pius X is still going ahead with its July 1 ordination plan. The Vatican statement appeared to be a final attempt to halt the ceremony before it takes place. If the ordinations proceed as scheduled, automatic excommunications would apply immediately under existing Church law without requiring a further papal decree. Pope Leo XIV has not issued a direct personal statement beyond the doctrinal office’s release, though the Vatican confirmed he wishes the act to be avoided. The SSPX’s response to the warning had not been published as of Wednesday evening.
