Switzerland Vatican Defiant Traditionalists

The Vatican has responded aggressively to a traditionalist society that consecrated bishops without the pope’s consent. The Vatican on Thursday declared that the Society of St. Pius X had formally broken with the Catholic Church and it excommunicated its bishops. It also warning its faithful they also could face the harsh sanctions. The Vatican 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 seminary in Switzerland. The Vatican has excommunicated the four new bishops and the two bishops that participated in the ceremony. It declared that the society had created a schism, or intentional rupture with the church.