Vatican excommunicates six ultraconservative bishops

The Vatican has excommunicated six bishops from the ultraconservative Society of St Pius X and said any lay believers who "formally adhere" to the group would suffer the same fate.

The Vatican decree comes a day after the traditionalist breakaway group consecrated four new bishops, defying a call from Pope Leo XIV not to do so.

The decree called the ceremony "an act of schismatic nature".

Only the pope may authorise the consecration of new bishops, so as to maintain the Church's ties to the 12 apostles, who are regarded as the first priests and bishops.

The Vatican had ‌warned the ordination, which was broadcast on social media, would incur excommunication.

The excommunication covers the newly-ordained bishops and the two existing bishops who presided over the ceremony in Econe in southwest Switzerland.

The rite was attended by thousands of worshippers from around the world.

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.

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 divisive French bishop Marcel Lefebvre, the group triggered a rift with the Vatican by consecrating four bishops in 1988 without permission from Pope John Paul II.

The current leadership announced in February it planned to ordain new bishops in July, without Vatican approval, citing a need for more ‌prelates to lead the society.

"I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!" Pope Leo wrote in a letter to the society on Monday, calling it a "schismatic act".

"To tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity," the pontiff said.

The Vatican's number two Pietro Parolin said the Church felt "deep sorrow" over the ordinations.

"An act of this kind deeply wounds the unity of the Church," he told reporters.

In March last year, the Bishop of Derry warned parishioners that someone posing as an ordained priest was conducting illicit Masses in the diocese.

A defrocked priest reportedly operating in Derry was believed to be aligned to a breakaway faction from the SSPX, known as SSPX Resistance Ireland.