Vatican Declares Society Of St. Pius X In Schism

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has responded aggressively to a traditionalist society that consecrated bishops without the pope’s consent. The Vatican on Thursday declared the Society of St. Pius X in schism, excommunicating its bishops and warning its faithful. The Vatican’s doctrine office went above and beyond the minimal sanctions foreseen by the church’s canon law to respond to the consecrations Wednesday of four new bishops at the society’s Econe, Switzerland, seminary. The Vatican has excommunicated the four new bishops and the two bishops that participated in the ceremony. It declared the consecrations a “schismatic act” and declared that the society itself had created a schism, or intentional rupture with the Catholic Church.