Vatican excommunicates 6 ultraconservative bishops over ordination

The Vatican on Thursday excommunicated six bishops from the ultraconservative Society of St Pius X and said any lay believers who "formally adhere" to the group would suffer the same fate.

The Vatican decree comes a day after the traditionalist breakaway group consecrated four new bishops, defying a plea from Pope Leo XIV not to do so.

The decree called the ceremony "an act of schismatic nature".

For the Holy See, consecrating bishops without the approval of the pope is a direct act of insubordination, leading to the automatic excommunication of the bishops involved.

The excommunication covers the newly-ordained bishops and the two existing bishops who presided over the ceremony in Econe in southwest Switzerland.

The rite was attended by thousands of worshippers from around the world.

The society's Superior General Davide Pagliarani called it a "historic" day during his homily.

"Are we breaking with the Church in order to keep the faith? That is a false dilemma. We belong to the Church first through faith, through the integral profession of the Church's faith," he said.

The Society of Saint Pius X, which has around 600,000 followers, comprises fundamentalist Catholics who strongly oppose the liberal reforms imposed by the Vatican II Council in the 1960s.

Founded in 1970 by divisive French bishop Marcel Lefebvre, the group triggered a rift with the Vatican by consecrating four bishops in 1988.

Wednesday's new consecrations took place in the very same spot, in the meadows near the society's seminary in Econe, a village in the Rhone valley, with the Alps towering above.

The accompanying mass in Latin lasted five and a half hours.

Consecrating bishops without the pope's approval is, for the Holy See, an act of insubordination that automatically leads to the bishops' excommunication.

"I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!" Pope Leo wrote in a letter to the society on Monday, calling it a "schismatic act".

"To tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity," the pontiff said.

The Vatican's number two Pietro Parolin said the Church felt "deep sorrow" over the ordinations.

"An act of this kind deeply wounds the unity of the Church," he told reporters on Wednesday.