Vatican Excommunicates Four SSPX Bishops After Defying Papal Warning

The Holy See has formally declared four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) excommunicated, after the traditionalist group pressed ahead with an unauthorized episcopal consecration ceremony despite a direct, personal appeal from Pope Leo XIV to abandon the plan.

The consecrations  of Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, and Marc Hanappier — took place July 1 at the Society’s seminary in Écône. Just a day earlier, the Pope had reportedly described the planned move as a “sin of extreme gravity” and urged the Society to reconsider.

 

The decree, signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, confirmed that both consecrating bishops — Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay — and the four newly consecrated bishops have incurred excommunication. The Vatican characterized the ceremony as “an act of a schismatic nature.”

Under the Code of Canon Law, an unauthorized episcopal consecration triggers excommunication automatically, without need for trial or formal declaration. Canon 1382 states that a bishop who consecrates someone a bishop without a pontifical mandate incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See (The Holy See)  as does the person receiving that consecration.

This penalty rests on Canon 1013, which establishes that no bishop may confer episcopal consecration without prior confirmation that the Pope has authorized it.

The Vatican has additionally framed the act as schismatic under Canon 751, which defines schism as the withdrawal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or a rupture of communion with the Church’s members under his authority. That characterization carries its own penalty under Canon 1364, which likewise imposes automatic excommunication on those who commit schism.

The episode closely mirrors events from thirty-eight years ago. SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 under the same canons after consecrating four bishops without Vatican approval. Those excommunications were lifted in 2009, but the Society was never fully reconciled with Rome — and that fragile arrangement has now collapsed again.

Not all canon lawyers agree the schism designation is airtight. Some scholars have argued for decades that an unauthorized consecration is illicit but not automatically schismatic under Canon 751, unless there is clear intent to establish a rival hierarchy  a position SSPX defenders have repeatedly invoked, alongside Canons 1323–1324, which allow for penalties to be excused under grave fear or emergency circumstances. The Vatican has consistently rejected both arguments, maintaining that open defiance of a direct papal order meets the threshold for schism regardless of intent.

For now, the Holy See’s position is unambiguous: the four bishops, their consecrators, and SSPX laity who formally align with the group are considered outside communion with Rome — a rupture the Vatican says was entirely avoidable.