The Vatican has taken aggressive action against the traditionalist group, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), declaring it to be in schism with the Catholic Church. This move came after the SSPX defiantly consecrated four new bishops without papal consent. The Vatican's doctrine office, in a decree issued on July 2, excommunicated the four newly consecrated bishops, as well as the two existing SSPX bishops who participated in the ceremony. It also declared SSPX priests, estimated to number around 750, to be schismatic and excommunicated, and invalidated the sacraments of confession and marriage administered by them. The Vatican warned faithful Catholics to stop attending SSPX Masses, stating that "those who adhere formally" to the society are also considered excommunicated. This decision reverses previous concessions made to the SSPX by the Vatican in an effort to bring the group back into communion with Rome.
The SSPX, founded by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, opposes the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly the shift from Latin Mass to vernacular languages. The group estimates that between 400,000 and 600,000 people attend its Masses worldwide. While the Vatican clarified that sanctions do not apply to those attending SSPX Masses solely for "liturgical or spiritual reasons" who accept the Pope's authority, the extension of excommunication to priests and potentially thousands of lay faithful has been deemed an "unusual severity" by some canon lawyers. Marc-André Mabillard, media manager for the SSPX, expressed shock at the harshness of the sanctions, calling them "unjust."
This aggressive response from the Vatican, under Pope Leo, highlights the institution's concern about the SSPX representing a parallel, ultra-Catholic church that has grown since its original break from Rome. While the SSPX is a small fraction of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic faithful, it boasts six bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates, and 250 religious sisters across 50 nationalities. Joseph Shaw, head of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, expressed sympathy for the ordinary SSPX faithful, particularly noting that the invalidation of marriages will cause "massive pastoral problems." Pope Benedict XVI had previously lifted excommunications of SSPX bishops in 2009 as part of an outreach effort, but the SSPX now has no legal standing in the church.
