Vatican excommunicates SSPX bishops and declares entire clergy schismatic after unauthorised ordinations

The illicit ordinations

On Wednesday 1 July 2026, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) consecrated four new bishops at its seminary in Écône, in the Swiss canton of Valais. The ceremony was carried out by the Spanish bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, assisted by the Swiss bishop Bernard Fellay. The four men elevated to the episcopate were Pascal Schreiber (Switzerland), Michael Goldade (United States), Michel Poinsinet de Sivry (France) and Marc Hanappier (France). The ordinations went ahead despite a clear prohibition from Pope Leo XIV and advance warnings from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which had stated that such an act would trigger automatic excommunication.

In diesem Geist und erfüllt von christlicher Liebe bitte ich euch und ersuche euch von ganzem Herzen: Kehrt um!

The Pope made a final personal appeal in a letter sent on Tuesday to Davide Pagliarani, the superior general of the SSPX, describing a rupture as a “sin of the utmost gravity”. The letter was ignored.

Swift response from Rome

Within twenty-four hours the Holy See acted. On Thursday 2 July, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed a decree confirming the latae sententiae excommunication of all six bishops involved. The decree, published in the morning, characterises the ordinations as an “act of a schismatic nature” that constitutes a practical rejection of the Roman primacy.

The essential point is that of the Council: will the Second Vatican Council be accepted or not?

Cardinal Parolin, the Secretary of State, expressed his regret on Wednesday evening but stressed that the unity of the Church had been wounded. The decree also revokes the concessions granted by Pope Francis during the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015, which had allowed the faithful to receive valid confession and marriage from SSPX priests. Henceforth, those sacraments administered by the fraternity are declared invalid.

A widening schism

Beyond the six bishops, the Vatican’s declaration extends to all clergy of the SSPX, priests, deacons, religious, and even to lay people who formally join the fraternity. They are now regarded as schismatics and, while not formally excommunicated by name, are threatened with the same penalty. The SSPX claims around 700 priests and more than half a million adherents worldwide.

Decades of tension

Founded in 1970 by the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the SSPX has always rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), including the use of vernacular languages in the liturgy, religious freedom, and dialogue with other faiths. A previous crisis erupted in 1988, when Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal approval; he and the new bishops were excommunicated by John Paul II, though the penalty was lifted by Benedict XVI in 2009.

That gesture of reconciliation drew international criticism because one of the 1988 bishops was the British Holocaust denier Richard Williamson. The current rupture, observers note, marks the definitive failure of years of doctrinal talks aimed at bringing the SSPX back into full communion.

Political and ideological dimensions

The SSPX is not merely a liturgical dissident group. Several German and Swiss theologians point to its deeper opposition to democracy, the secular state, and human rights, positions that have made the fraternity attractive to far-right circles. The Swiss public broadcaster SRF quoted the Turin-based scholar Massimo Introvigne, who noted that certain aspects of the SSPX’s beliefs resonate with extreme-right political movements.