Econe (Switzerland): 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 a “schismatic act”.

At a ceremony in Econe in southwest Switzerland, attended by thousands of worshippers from around the world, the last two remaining bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X consecrated four new ones: two French, one American and one Swiss.

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.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2026