{"id":1371,"date":"2026-07-02T08:12:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T08:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2026-07-02T08:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T08:12:04","slug":"vatican-declares-society-of-st-pius-x-in-schism-excommunicates-bishops-and-invalidates-sacraments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=1371","title":{"rendered":"Vatican declares Society of St. Pius X in schism, excommunicates bishops and invalidates sacraments"},"content":{"rendered":"
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VATICAN CITY (AP) \u2014 The Vatican responded aggressively Thursday to a traditionalist society that consecrated bishops without the pope\u2019s consent, declaring the Society of St. Pius X<\/span> in schism, excommunicating its bishops and warning its faithful.<\/p>\n

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The Vatican\u2019s doctrine office went above and beyond the minimal sanctions foreseen by the church\u2019s canon law to respond to the consecrations Wednesday<\/span> of four new bishops at the society\u2019s Econe, Switzerland, seminary.<\/p>\n

The society, known by its acronym SSPX, celebrates the ancient Latin Mass and opposes the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church, which it considers to be rife with heresies and errors and has accused of straying from the Catholic faith.<\/p>\n

In a decree, the Vatican excommunicated the four new bishops and the two bishops that participated in the ceremony. It declared the consecrations a \u201cschismatic act\u201d and declared the society itself had created a schism, or intentional rupture with the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

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The Vatican warned the faithful who go to the society\u2019s Masses to stop, declaring \u201cthose who adhere formally\u201d to the society are considered themselves schismatic and excommunicated. It also invalidated the sacraments of confession and marriage that the society\u2019s priests administer.<\/p>\n

The sanctions, especially those targeting the faithful and the sacraments they can receive, were particularly harsh and reversed concessions the Vatican had granted the SSPX in recent years.<\/p>\n

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French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the SSPX in 1970 in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the 1960s meetings known as Vatican II revolutionized the church\u2019s relations with other Christians, Jews and people of other faiths and allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin.<\/p>\n

Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal consent in 1988. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four bishops and declared the consecrations a \u201cschismatic act.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 lifted the excommunications as part of his yearslong outreach to the group, but the SSPX today has no legal standing in the church and with Thursday\u2019s decree is declared to be in schism.<\/p>\n

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