The Society of Saint Pius X consecrated four bishops without papal mandate on July 1. Under canon law, the excommunication was automatic. Rome’s decree the following day simply recorded it.
Six bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X are excommunicated following unauthorized episcopal consecrations held on July 1 at Écône, Switzerland. A decree published the next day by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith does not impose the penalty — under canon law, excommunication latae sententiae takes effect automatically at the moment the act is performed. Rome’s intervention was confirmatory, not punitive.
The consecrations took place against the explicit will of Pope Leo XIV, who had written to the Society on June 30 asking that they not proceed, warning of a “sin of extreme gravity,” and who said publicly on June 16: “Do not do this. Let us try to live in communion in the Church. But it is their choice.”
The SSPX said that some 17,000 people from 70 countries attended the open-air ceremony on the grounds of the SSPX seminary. A torrential downpour fell on the crowd as the host was consecrated; by the Mass’s close, the sun had returned.
The decree, signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, together with Archbishop John J. Kennedy, Secretary of the Disciplinary Section, and Monsignor Armando Matteo, Secretary of the Doctrinal Section, is unambiguous in its canonical reasoning. “Notwithstanding the admonitions addressed to the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X,” it states, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, “having performed an act of a schismatic nature through the episcopal consecration of four presbyters, without pontifical mandate and against the will of the Supreme Pontiff, has incurred ipso facto the penalties provided for by canon 1387 and canon 1364 §1 of the CIC 2021.”
The decree then formally declares: “Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry and Marc Hanappier have incurred ipso facto the excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Apostolic See.” As for Bishop Bernard Fellay — excommunicated once before in 1988 alongside three other bishops consecrated by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, an excommunication lifted by Benedict XVI in 2009 — the decree states that having “participated directly in the liturgical celebration as co-consecrator, thereby publicly adhering to the schismatic act, he has incurred the excommunication latae sententiae provided for by canon 1364 §1 of the CIC 2021.”
The decree closes with a direct warning to the Society’s broader membership: “Clerics and lay faithful are cautioned not to adhere to the schism of the Society of Saint Pius X, as they would incur ipso facto the penalty of excommunication latae sententiae.”
An explanatory note accompanying the decree states that “multiple attempts” to bring the Society back into full communion “have proved fruitless” and that the situation has “worsened” with the new consecrations — justifying the formal use of the word schism, which the Society itself rejects.
SSPX Superior General Father Davide Pagliarani had asserted in his homily at Écône that the Society faced a “false dilemma” between fidelity to the faith and ecclesial communion, effectively rejecting the Pope's framing of the act as a break with the Church.
The special permissions granted by Pope Francis in 2015 and 2017 allowing SSPX priests to celebrate confession and marriage are now void. Among the lay faithful — the Society claims around 600,000 members worldwide — the penalty applies only to those who formally and consciously adhere to the schism rather than to communion with Rome. Those who attend SSPX Masses without consciously rejecting papal authority are in a different canonical situation.
The decree closes by stating that the Church stands ready to welcome back “with sincere affection” all those who wish to return to full communion, and invites them to contact their nearest apostolic nunciature.
