The Vatican has formally declared that the bishops involved in the July 1 episcopal consecrations at Écône, Switzerland, have incurred automatic excommunication for proceeding without papal approval.According to a decree issued on July 2 by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the consecrations constituted what Rome describes as “an act of a schismatic nature” because four priests were elevated to the episcopacy without a pontifical mandate and despite the explicit opposition of Pope Leo XIV.The ceremony took place at the Society of Saint Pius X seminary in Écône, the same location closely associated with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the historic consecrations of 1988.

Originally published in Radical Fidelity. Read original article