A breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), on Wednesday defied Pope Leo XIV in consecrating four bishops without his approval.

Midway through the mass in the Swiss Alps, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta placed his hands on the head of the four new bishops — a ritual that confers the Holy Spirit from one bishop to another and which recalls Christ’s gesture to his apostles.

Under church law, this is an act that could lead to automatic excommunication of those involved and a schism with the Vatican.

The SSPX believes it alone is upholding church tradition and the Catholic faith and rejects the modernizing reforms introduced by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Among other things, it insists on holding masses in Latin and opposes the ecumenism — the cultivation of ties to other denominations and faiths — that the Council advocated.

It has justified the consecrations by invoking a “state of necessity” to minister to its faithful, with only two of the original four bishops surviving to tend to a community with 800 places of worship in 77 countries. 

The SSPX superior, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, responded to a letter from the pope appealing to the group not to go ahead with the consecrations by asking him to wait before declaring any penalty.

The ceremony, which was live streamed on YouTube, took place in the mountain valley of Econe, Switzerland, where the group has its seminary 38 years to the day after the group consecrated four bishops. An act that incurred automatic excommunication for the bishops — a penalty that was only lifted in 2009.

In the church, being excommunicated excludes an individual from the sacraments, rites and spiritual fellowship of fellow Catholics.