An ultra-traditionalist breakaway Catholic group consecrated four new bishops on Wednesday in defiance of Pope Leo XIV, who had pleaded with them to turn back from what he called a “schismatic act”.
At a ceremony in Econe in southwest Switzerland, attended by thousands of worshippers from around the world and witnessed by AFP, the last two remaining bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X consecrated four new ones.
Two were French—Michel Poinsinet de Sivry and Marc Hanappier—one American, Michael Goldade; and one Swiss, Pascal Schreiber.
The society’s Superior General Davide Pagliarani called it a “historic” day during his homily.
“Are we breaking with the Church in order to keep the faith? That is a false dilemma. We belong to the Church first through faith, through the integral profession of the Church’s faith,” he said.
By going ahead without the pontiff’s approval, all six bishops are de facto excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
But at the start of the ceremony, the society’s secretary general, Foucault Leroux, said they considered “that all penalties and censures… are null and void.”
The Society of Saint Pius X, which has around 600,000 followers, comprises fundamentalist Catholics who strongly oppose the liberal reforms imposed by the Vatican II Council in the 1960s.
Founded in 1970 by the controversial French bishop Marcel Lefebvre, the group triggered a rift with the Vatican by consecrating four bishops in 1988.
Wednesday’s new consecrations took place in the very same spot, in the meadows near the society’s seminary in Econe, a village in the Rhone valley, with the Alps towering above.
The accompanying mass in Latin lasted five and a half hours.
The four priests lay face down on the ground while the Litany of the Saints was sung before receiving the laying on of hands from the bishop—the key moment, followed by the anointing.
Swiss worshipper Marie Borgeat, 30, cried during the ceremony and said it was “a magnificent moment” when the bishops stepped forward to bless the faithful afterwards.
