On 2 July 2026, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith made public a decree signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, in which it was announced that the leaders of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius The sanction comes twenty-four hours after the consecration of four new bishops in the hamlet of Écône, in Switzerland, celebrated without the Pope’s mandate and against the explicit will of Leo XIV. Thirty-eight years after the first break in 1988, the history of the Lefebvrians repeats itself again.
Who are the Lefebvrians
The Lefebvrians are the members and faithful linked to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Piiacronym FSSPX or, in English, SSPX). The movement was born in 1970 in Switzerland by will of Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre, French archbishop and former superior general of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit, who had participated in the work of the Second Vatican Council only to become one of its most severe critics. For Lefebvre the conciliar reforms (the new liturgy in the current language instead of Latin, ecumenical openness and religious freedom) represented a break with the Catholic tradition, and not its development. The Fraternity intends to preserve the 1962 missal and the priestly training prior to the Council; today it has around 700 priests, a thousand friars, nuns and seminarians, and claims half a million faithful worldwide.
The first excommunication of 1988
The point of no return between Rome and the Society dates back to June 30, 1988. Despite repeated warnings from John Paul II, Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without pontifical authorization, together with the Brazilian bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer. According to canon law, anyone who consecrates a bishop without a mandate from the Pope and anyone who receives that consecration will incur excommunication latae sentiaethat is, automatic, therefore without a trial, with the punishment ready to be activated through the act itself. John Paul II formalized the sanction with the apostolic letter Ecclesia Deidefining the consecration as a «schismatic act» which entailed «a practical rejection of the Roman Primacy». Lefebvre died in 1991 without ever recognizing the validity of the sentence, claiming that he had acted out of necessity to save the Church from the post-conciliar crisis.
The revocation of Benedict XVI and the attempts at rapprochement
On January 21, 2009, Benedict XVI revoked the excommunication of the four bishops ordained in 1988, in a gesture designed to reopen doctrinal dialogue. However, he clarified that it was a disciplinary act, not a full recognition, therefore the Fraternity would remain without a canonical status in the Church until the differences over the Second Vatican Council, religious freedom and ecumenism were resolved. In the following years other popes tried to ease the tension, including Ratzinger himself, with the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of 2007, expanded the use of the Tridentine mass, while Francis, on the occasion of the 2016 Jubilee, recognized the validity of confessions and marriages celebrated by SSPX priests. The Fraternity, however, never accepted full institutional regularization, and the issue of the Council remained on the table.
The new consecrations of 2026 and the excommunication of Leo XIV
In the spring of 2026 the SSPX announced its intention to consecrate four new bishops (the Swiss Pascal Schreiber, the American Michael Goldade and the French Michel Poinsinet de Sivry and Marc Hanappier) to guarantee the continuity of the episcopal succession, given that of the four bishops ordained in 1988 only two, Bernard Fellay and Alfonso de Galarreta, were still alive. On May 13, Cardinal Fernández had already warned that an ordination without a pontifical mandate would constitute a schismatic act. On 29 June Leo The appeal was not followed up and on July 1, in Écône, de Galarreta consecrated the four priests with Fellay as co-consecrator. The following day the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith declared latae sententiae excommunication for all six, explicitly recalling the precedent of 1988.
What changes for priests and faithful
The Vatican decree establishes that the sacred ministers of the Fraternity are to be considered schismatics and that the sacraments of penance and marriage administered by them are invalid. For lay faithful, excommunication is triggered only in the case of formal membership of the Fraternity, according to the criteria established already in 1996 by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. Occasionally attending Lefebvrian masses is permitted (without sharing the spirit of rupture with Rome) and there is no risk of incurring punishment. The Vatican has, however, urged the faithful to refrain from participating in the Fraternity’s celebrations, leaving open, as already in 1988, the door to a possible return to full communion.
Sources: Decree and explanatory note of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican News / Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei, John Paul II, 1988 / Explanatory note on excommunication for schism, Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, 1996
