Breakaway Catholic Group Plans Unauthorized Bishop Consecrations

The ultratraditionalist Society of St. Pius X plans to consecrate four bishops without papal consent, an action that will automatically excommunicate those involved under Catholic canon law. The ceremony represents the first major crisis for Pope Leo XIV, who has prioritized church unity and easing tensions with traditionalists that intensified during the previous pontificate.

The society was founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Those meetings changed the Catholic Church's relations with other Christians, Jews and people of other faiths, and permitted Mass in local languages instead of Latin.

In 1975, the society's founder was suspended and the group was suppressed by the Vatican. Three years later, the founder consecrated four bishops without papal approval, resulting in excommunications for all five men. The society has continued to operate without legal status in the church and now maintains two bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters across 50 nationalities.

Under church law, consecrating a bishop without papal consent triggers automatic excommunication for both those performing the consecration and those receiving it. The Vatican does not need to issue a formal decree for the penalty to take effect. The penalty does not affect the validity of the consecrations themselves.

Francis granted limited concessions to the society, allowing Catholics to receive valid confessions from its priests and permitting its priests to celebrate marriages legitimately. Those measures began as a one-year gesture during the 2015 Jubilee of Mercy and were later extended indefinitely.

Pope Benedict XVI also sought reconciliation, relaxing restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass in 2007 and lifting the excommunications of the four SSPX bishops in 2009. One of those bishops later left the society after public disputes over authority.