Vatican Excommunicates Six SSPX Bishops After Unauthorized Consecrations in Switzerland

On July 2, 2026, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a decree declaring that six bishops of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) have incurred automatic excommunication for an “act of a schismatic nature.” The decree followed the SSPX’s unauthorized consecration of four new bishops the previous day in Écône, Switzerland — a ceremony Pope Leo XIV had personally pleaded with the society to cancel. Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the dicastery’s prefect, signed the decree, which also warns SSPX clergy and lay faithful against formally adhering to the schism.

This is not the first time the Church has faced this exact situation. The SSPX’s founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, incurred the same penalty in 1988 after he consecrated four bishops without papal approval — including Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay, the same two bishops who presided over this year’s ceremony in Écône. Pope John Paul II excommunicated Lefebvre and those four bishops within days of that consecration. In 2009, as part of a broader effort at reconciliation, Pope Benedict XVI lifted those excommunications, a decision that opened years of doctrinal dialogue between Rome and the SSPX without ever resolving the underlying dispute over the Second Vatican Council. This week’s decree effectively repeats history, and does so on stricter terms than either John Paul II’s or Benedict XVI’s approach, leaving the society once again outside full communion with the Church. The full Vatican News article below explains the canonical basis for the decision and what it means for the society moving forward.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE