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A traditionalist Catholic group has defied Pope Pope Leo XIV by ordaining four bishops without Vatican approval, marking the first major challenge to his authority since the start of his papacy.
The ordinations were carried out on Wednesday by the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) during a ceremony in Écône attended by about 15,000 worshippers.
Under Catholic canon law, the newly ordained bishops and those who conducted the ceremony incur automatic excommunication for carrying out episcopal ordinations without papal approval.
Before the ceremony, Pope Leo had appealed to the group to abandon its plans, warning that the ordinations would constitute a schismatic act and a grave sin that threatened the unity of the Catholic Church.
The SSPX, founded in 1970 by Marcel Lefebvre, rejects several reforms introduced by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, including changes to Catholic worship and teachings on religious freedom and ecumenism.
The group argues that the Church is facing a "state of emergency" due to what it describes as modernist influences, insisting that appointing bishops is necessary to preserve traditional Catholic doctrine.
One of the newly ordained bishops, Michael Goldade, heads the society's seminary in the United States.
Although the SSPX has about 700 priests and an estimated 600,000 followers worldwide, Church leaders view its actions as a significant threat to Catholic unity.
Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, said the group risked creating a parallel structure within the Church despite repeated efforts by Pope Leo to encourage dialogue and reconciliation.
The Vatican had not issued a formal response following the ordinations at the time of reporting. However, Pope Leo had earlier indicated that while he remained open to dialogue, the Church would move forward if the group proceeded with the consecrations.
