Breakaway Catholic group in Switzerland ordains four new bishops

Four new bishops from a breakaway Catholic group dedicated to the old Latin mass were ordained in southwestern Switzerland on Wednesday, in defiance of an appeal by Pope Leo XIV.

Thousands turned out to watch the ordination of the bishops from the Society of St. Pius X in the tiny Alpine hamlet of Écône, two days after a personal plea from the Pontiff.

"I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!," Leo wrote in a letter on Monday to Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the Society, urging the group not to undertake what he described as a "schismatic act."

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

The Vatican has warned the ordination, which was broadcast on social media, would incur excommunication. Consecration without papal consent incurs automatic excommunication for both the person consecrated and the bishop conducting the ceremony.

An ultra-traditionalist group, the Society of St. Pius X denies the central teachings of the Second Vatican Council, a landmark Vatican gathering of bishops in the 1960s that pursued various reforms for the global Church.

The Society, which says it counts 733 priests worldwide, has long had tense relations with the Vatican.

Its late founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated in 1988 after ordaining four bishops without permission from then-Pope John Paul II.

Benedict XVI, John Paul's successor, sought to renew dialogue and lifted four remaining excommunications.

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.

-Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Alistair Bell/Reuters