The Society of St Pius X pressed ahead on Friday with an episcopal consecration carried out without papal approval, drawing warnings of possible excommunication from Vatican officials. The traditionalist group performed the rite despite direct appeals from Pope Leo XIV.

The SSPX, founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, has long operated on the margins of the Catholic Church. Its four bishops were consecrated without Rome's permission in 1988, an act that Pope John Paul II declared incurred automatic excommunication under canon law. Pope Benedict XVI lifted those excommunications in 2009, but the society's canonical status has never been fully regularised.

Vatican canonists said the fresh consecration would deepen the rupture between the society and Rome. According to canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law, any ordination of a bishop without a pontifical mandate prescribes automatic excommunication for both the consecrating and consecrated bishops.

The move complicated efforts by Pope Leo XIV, elected in 2025, to draw traditionalist communities back into full communion. Church observers at Catholic outlets including the National Catholic Register said the consecration signalled the SSPX's determination to secure its succession independently of the Vatican.

A statement attributed to the society's superior general defended the decision as necessary for the survival of its priestly mission. "We act not against the Church but for the preservation of the faith," the statement said, according to the SSPX's official communications office.