The four candidates lay face down on the ground, their heads buried in red velvet pillows, as the Litany of the Saints rose in plainsong across a pasture in the Swiss village of Écône. Under grey Alpine skies, hundreds of robed priests processed with candles and crosses into a large tent, incense drifting over a congregation of some 15,000. The ceremony, a Latin Mass lasting more than five hours, was streamed live in seven languages. By its end, the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) had four new bishops — two French, one American, one Swiss — consecrated without the mandate of Pope Leo XIV, who had pleaded with the group in a personal letter to turn back from what he called a “schismatic act”.

The Vatican’s response came within twenty-four hours. A decree from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, declared that the two consecrating bishops and the four newly ordained had incurred automatic excommunication. In a move that surprised many observers, the decree went further: all priests of the SSPX and any lay Catholics who “formally adhere” to the society were declared to be in schism and excommunicated. The Holy See also revoked earlier concessions — granted by Pope Francis during the 2015 Year of Mercy — that had allowed the faithful to validly receive confession and marriage from SSPX priests. From Rome, the message was unambiguous: the sacraments administered by the society are now illicit, and penance and matrimony celebrated by its clergy are invalid.

The rupture replays a drama that first unfolded in 1988, when the society’s founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without papal consent and was himself excommunicated. Those penalties were lifted by Benedict XVI in 2009 in an effort at reconciliation, but the SSPX never accepted the doctrinal reforms of the Second Vatican Council. It continues to reject the Council’s teachings on religious liberty, ecumenism, and the use of vernacular languages in the liturgy, holding fast to the Tridentine Mass celebrated in Latin with the priest facing the altar. Today the society claims some 600,000 followers and over 750 priests across more than seventy countries, with a particularly active presence in the United States and France. The Écône ceremony was not a clandestine affair: attendees could purchase commemorative baseball caps and gift packs of Swiss wine labelled with a bishop’s mitre, while the live-stream carried the ancient rites to a global audience.

Among the faithful gathered in the meadow, the mood was one of defiant joy. “It actually makes me feel quite strong,” Rita Reid, an SSPX worshipper from Jersey, told British media after the excommunications were announced. “Even if they excommunicate us, go ahead, bring it on, it’s not going to make one bit of difference.” The society itself expressed regret that it had been forced to act without papal approval, but described the consecrations as “a very great grace for the Fraternity itself and for the whole Church”. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin spoke of “deep sorrow” and a wound to the unity of the Church, while the German cardinal Gerhard Müller, a conservative voice, told Italian press that the excommunication was automatic and necessary. As the long ceremony ended, the four new bishops stepped forward to bless the crowd. A Swiss worshipper wept, calling it “a magnificent moment” — a gesture of pastoral intimacy that, for those present, momentarily eclipsed the juridical thunder from Rome.