Vatican excommunicates traditionalist bishops ordained without papal mandate

The Vatican declared that four bishops consecrated by the Society of Saint Pius X in Switzerland were automatically excommunicated for conducting a schismatic episcopal ordination without papal approval. Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández cited canon 1387 and canon 1364 § 1, stating that both the principal consecrator, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, and the co‑consecrator, Bishop Bernard Fellay, incurred latae sententiae excommunication.

Traditionalist groups linked to the Lefebvre movement are planning further unauthorized consecrations. In Scotland, the Redemptorist Transalpine community announced a bishop‑ordaining ceremony on Papa Stronsay, also without a papal mandate, prompting the local bishop of Aberdeen to label the act a serious disobedience and warn of another potential schism within the Catholic Church.