Breakaway fundamentalist Roman Catholics yesterday ordained eight priests at their seminary in the Swiss village of Econe, in renewed defiance of a ban by the Vatican.
The ceremony by the Society of St Pius X, which was declared "illegitimate" by the Church, marked a second snub for Pope Benedict XVI's authority after four other ordinations over the weekend in Germany.
In January the Pope had lifted the excommunication of four of the society's "bishops", including Holocaust denier Richard Williamson, in a gesture of reconciliation.
It was meant as a prelude to talks on healing the 39-year schism between the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the traditionalists, provided the latter accepted the Vatican's doctrine. Instead, the Pope's move has infuriated many Catholics and Jews, while what the Vatican regards as illicit ordinations by the traditionalists have gained pace.
The leader of the Society of St Pius X, French traditionalist "bishop" Bernard Fellay, said in his sermon yesterday that the order would carry out a total of 27 ordinations in Germany, Switzerland and the United States this year. Bishop Fellay said he was "surprised by the fuss surrounding our ordinations when in many countries the Church is short of priests".
Some 2,500 worshippers attended the ceremony outside the chapel at Econe, which was celebrated mainly in Latin. The Vatican said last week it would maintain its position "as long as issues concerning doctrine are not clarified", adding that the Pius X group had "no canonical status in the Church".
The Pope said in March that while the bishops excommunicated by his predecessor John Paul II had been "invited" back into the fold, they "do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church".
Pope Benedict said that the traditionalists must recognise "the authority of the pope and the Second Vatican Council".
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the Society of St Pius X, had consecrated the bishops of his order in 1988. He had broken away from the Church in 1970 in protest at reforms passed by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.