Vatican excommunicates all members of ultra-conservative SSPX group
Kyiv • UNN
The Vatican announced the automatic excommunication of all members of the ultra-conservative SSPX group for consecrating bishops without the Pope's consent. The society, which counts up to 200,000 followers, rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
The Vatican has excommunicated a group of ultra-conservative Catholics who defied Pope Leo by consecrating bishops without his consent, creating a schism in the Roman Catholic Church, The Guardian reports, writes UNN.
Details
In a statement on Thursday, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, who heads the Holy See's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that a group from the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), founded in the Swiss village of Écône in 1970, "committed an act of a schismatic nature," which, according to canon law, is punishable by automatic excommunication.
The Vatican went further than expected and stated that all SSPX priests and all Catholics who are "formally affiliated" with the group are in schism and excommunicated.
Schism is a term denoting a serious, formal break within the church.
Pope Leo made a last-ditch effort to persuade the society to stop the ordinations, which took place during a ritual ceremony on Wednesday, calling them a "schismatic act" and a "sin of extreme gravity."
But the society stated that consecrating bishops who are "fully faithful" to the "tradition" of the Catholic Church is a "sacred duty."
An estimated 16,500 people gathered in Écône for the ceremony, "including members of Forza Nuova, an Italian neo-fascist political party, and Futuro Nazionale, a new far-right force that threatens Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's chances of securing a second term in next year's general election."
"Although the SSPX is a breakaway group, with about 1,500 priests, seminarians, and other members, it has succeeded in attracting followers, estimated at 150,000-200,000 people worldwide, particularly in the United States, France, and Argentina," the publication notes.
The society rejects key changes resulting from the Second Vatican Council — a landmark gathering of cardinals, patriarchs, bishops, theological experts, and others in the Vatican between 1962 and 1965 — including the permission to celebrate Mass in local languages. Until then, it was conducted only in Latin. It also rejects dialogue with other religions and does not recognize other Christian churches.
These ordinations mark the first major crisis for Leo. Since his election in May last year, the first North American Pope has made church unity a priority and has made particular efforts to heal rifts with traditionalists that deepened during the papacy of his predecessor Francis.