JUST IN: Vatican Excommunicates Hundreds Of Thousands Of Christians

The Vatican has excommunicated the bishops of a conservative Catholic splinter group and warned its followers that formally sticking with the movement could put them outside the Roman Catholic Church.

The stunning decree came after the Society of St. Pius X, known as SSPX, consecrated four new bishops in Écône, Switzerland, without papal approval and against Pope Leo XIV’s direct appeal.

The Vatican said the group’s six bishops were excommunicated after the unauthorized consecrations, escalating a decades-old battle between Rome and one of the church’s most defiant traditionalist movements.

The decree also warned that lay members who “formally adhere” to the group “are to be considered schismatic and excommunicated”.

The Vatican later clarified that not every person who attends an SSPX service is automatically excommunicated.

Instead, it said the penalty applies to those who “habitually participate” in SSPX celebrations and “formally share its doctrinal positions”.

Rome also made clear that those who leave the SSPX would be welcomed back “with sincere affection”.

The SSPX was founded in 1970 in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s church gathering that reshaped Catholic worship and its relationship with the modern world.

The society rejects key Vatican II changes, including the wider use of local languages in Mass instead of Latin and the church’s push for greater dialogue with other Christian denominations and other faiths.

Its services remain much more traditional, with priests facing the altar and the communion bread placed directly into the mouths of kneeling worshippers.

Women in SSPX communities often cover their heads during services, and members tend to hold more socially conservative views than many Catholics in mainstream parishes.

Rita Reid, a 76-year-old SSPX worshipper from Jersey in the Channel Islands, said the Vatican’s move did not shake her loyalty.

“It actually makes me feel quite strong.

“Before the consecrations yesterday I said to my husband, ‘Do you know what? Even if they excommunicate us, go ahead, bring it on, it’s not going to make one bit of difference.'”

For Reid, SSPX ceremonies are much more “profound”, where she feels “the true presence of Jesus”.

She said there is no comparison with the standard Catholic Mass, which she described as “so weak and wishy-washy”.

Reid said she used to attend both modern Catholic services and SSPX ones, but complained that traditional teachings, including no sex before marriage, were no longer emphasized in the standard Mass.

“I think a lot of young people now that go to novus ordo [the standard liturgy] think ‘oh well, it’s all right, we can do these things’.”

The society has a major presence in the U.S. and France and also holds Masses across the United Kingdom, including at locations from Shetland to Devon, with its main British center in Wimbledon, South London.

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The latest rupture echoes a major clash in the 1980s, when SSPX bishops were excommunicated for defying Rome by consecrating bishops without approval.

That earlier decision was later reversed as the Vatican tried to repair relations with the traditionalist group.

This time, the response from Rome was sharper and broader than many observers expected.

It was widely expected that the bishops involved in Wednesday’s consecrations would face excommunication.

But the warning aimed at lay faithful who continue to formally adhere to the group stunned many Catholics and pushed SSPX farther from Rome than it has been in years.

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Excommunication is one of the harshest penalties in the Catholic Church.

It means a baptized Catholic is considered out of communion with the church and cannot receive sacraments such as confession, Communion or marriage in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican also warned that SSPX priests are administering sacraments unlawfully.

The Vatican said on Thursday: “The sacred ministers of the Society of St Pius X administer the sacraments illicitly, while the sacrament of penance they administer and the marriages they witness are invalid.”

The decree leaves SSPX members with a stark choice: remain with a group Rome now says is in schism, or return to full communion with the Catholic Church and leave behind the movement they believe has preserved tradition.

For many SSPX faithful, however, the blame does not fall on them.

They argue it is the Vatican, not the traditionalists, that moved away from the faith they believe was handed down.

For Pope Leo XIV, the crackdown is a clear message that unity has limits when a group openly defies papal authority.

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