ECONE, Switzerland — A group of traditionalist Catholics directly defied Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday by consecrating four bishops without his consent, dismissing the resulting excommunications and break with the Holy See by saying it was necessary to defend the Catholic faith.
The Society of St. Pius X, which opposes modernizing reforms in the Catholic Church, conducted the five-hour ceremony at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland, despite an appeal by Leo to call it off.
The American pope warned in a letter Tuesday that consecrating bishops without his approval amounted to a “sin of extreme gravity” that will actually harm their faithful.
The consecrations amounted to a crisis for Leo, who has prioritized church unity and healing tensions with traditionalists that worsened during the Pope Francis pontificate.
The SSPX, as the society is known, represents a parallel, ultra-Catholic faith to the Holy See. It now has six bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians training in five seminaries, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates, and 250 religious sisters representing 50 nationalities, according to SSPX statistics.
Bells tolled through the misty Alpine mountain valley as hundreds of priests walked two-by-two to the altar under a tent to start the service and then again at the end. An estimated 16,500 faithful who prefer the traditional Latin Mass over modern liturgies attended, sitting in a field through a downpour alongside their children who were too numerous for organizers to count.
The Mass, rich in velvet and gold-trimmed vestments, chanting, and incense, was livestreamed on the society’s YouTube channel, with simultaneous explanations in several languages. The highly organized religious extravaganza underscored the society’s international reach, despite its schismatic outsider status, and its appeal to conservative, traditionalist Catholics wary of the modern, secular world.
At the start of the Mass, a priest read aloud a statement justifying the consecrations as a necessary “sacred duty” and dismissing the resulting penalties. “We consider every punishment and censure brought to bear against this step will have no validity,” he said.
In the consecration rite, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, who himself was excommunicated after being consecrated without papal consent in 1988, placed his hands on the head of each of the four new bishops. The ritual confers the Holy Spirit from one bishop to another and recalls Christ’s gesture to his apostles. After they received their miter hats, gloves, and pastoral staffs, the four made a procession through the crowd, blessing the faithful as bishops.
According to church law, consecrating a bishop without a papal mandate incurs the harshest penalty in the Catholic Church: automatic excommunication for the four new bishops and the bishop administering the rite. It also amounts to a schismatic act, an intentional rupture of church unity.
The society was founded in opposition to Vatican II
French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the SSPX in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the 1960s meetings known as Vatican II revolutionized the church’s relations with other Christians, Jews, and people of other faiths, and allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin.
In 1988, Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal consent. The Vatican promptly excommunicated him and the four bishops and declared the consecrations a “schismatic act.” Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 lifted the excommunications, but the SSPX today has no legal standing in the church.
The SSPX has accused the church of being rife with heresies and errors and said that only it is upholding the true faith of Christ. It has justified the consecrations, citing a “state of necessity” to minister to its faithful.
It identified the new bishops as Pascal Schreiber of Switzerland, Michael Goldade of the United States, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry of France, and Marc Hanappier, also of France.
Catholic faithful don’t incur penalties for attending SSPX services, but they also can attend Latin Masses celebrated by priests in communion with the Vatican.
The Vatican didn’t immediately comment on the consecrations and it wasn’t clear how or if it would declare the excommunications or any other penalties. The SSPX acknowledged in a statement late Wednesday that the consecrations did not have papal approval.
The ritual had a joyous air
Everything about Wednesday’s ceremony had the air of a joyous celebration. Participants received a baseball cap with the “Econe2026” seal on it.
And in perhaps the most obvious sign of a celebration, registered participants could buy a souvenir set of wine to commemorate the “historic” event for 75 Swiss francs ($92.50). The “Cuvee des Sacres” gift box featured pinot noir, syrah, Petit Arvine, and Fendant, each bottle with a label depicting a bishop’s miter, his ring, a cross or crozier staff.
The field, located under giant power lines, was awash in smiling nuns, priests posing for photos, youths handing out bottled water, black-clad security guards with earpieces, and orange-vested volunteers who occasionally cut short journalists’ interviews with the faithful. During the downpour, priests administered Communion under yellow and white umbrellas, the colors of the Holy See.
Arlina Onglao, a 71-year-old travel agent from the Philippines, said she wanted to be on hand for the “historic event” and didn’t care about the prospect of excommunications of the bishops. She said the Vatican had “lost credibility.”
“I don’t think it’s going to scare any of us. Me, I’m not scared,” she said. “I feel like I’m on a safer road to heaven.”
Many Catholics not in Econe, including conservative and traditional ones, opposed the consecrations as an act of severe disobedience that hurts the church.
“You can’t serve tradition while disobeying the church and her authority,” said the Rev. Robert Gahl, an ethics expert at the Catholic University of America.
