Vatican Excommunicates Six SSPX Bishops After July 1 Consecrations

The Vatican excommunicated six SSPX bishops and some lay members on July 2, 2026, after the society consecrated four bishops without papal approval in Écône, Switzerland, the day before. Newsweek reported that the Vatican described the consecrations as an act of a schismatic nature and extended the penalty to lay members who formally adhere to the Fraternity.

The SSPX has approximately 30,000 faithful in the United States, 124 priests, and 115 chapels, according to its most recent figures.

Excommunication bars recipients from the sacraments and full participation in Catholic Church life. Jim De Piante, a church organizer at the St. Anthony of Padua Chapel in Mount Holly, North Carolina, told Newsweek that some members felt frightened but viewed the decree as meaningless under canon law provisions for acting out of necessity.

He described the excommunications as a tactical error that would drive more Catholics toward the SSPX and estimated that only about a dozen of 300 regular attendees at his chapel might stop coming. De Piante noted jokes among members referencing the 1988 excommunications of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and said the society recovered quickly from those earlier penalties.

He added that the mood at the Écône consecrations was euphoric and that the SSPX continues to grow, with his chapel expanding from one Mass of about 100 people to two services with over 300 worshippers.

Superior General Davide Pagliarani stated in a letter to the pope that the SSPX received the excommunications with deep sadness and rejected them as objectively unjust and invalid. He defended the consecrations as an extreme measure to save souls and said the society had no intention of breaking away from the Catholic Church.