Excommunication isn’t only a subject of ancient Church history. Learn about the 20th century role it played in Rome's dealings with the Society of St. Pius X and how that same instance of disobedience is still reverberating in the 21st century.
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We are in the 1960s. The Second Vatican Council has just reformed the liturgy, our relationship with other religions, and the language of the Church. For many believers, it's a breath of fresh air. But for French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, it's a betrayal of tradition. Because of this, he founds his own fraternity of priests, the Society of Saint Pius X, to safeguard the traditional liturgy and doctrine.
Rome tries to engage in dialogue for years, but that dialogue steadily frays. On June 30th, 1988, in Icone, Switzerland, Lefebvre takes the step Rome has long feared. Alongside Brazilian Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, he consecrates four new bishops without the Pope's permission. In fact, directly against a formal warning received just two weeks prior.
Here, canon law leaves no room for interpretation. A bishop who consecrates another without a papal mandate incurs, along with the person consecrated, an automatic excommunication, latte sententiae. No trial is necessary. The law itself mandates it, a rule in place since 1951.
That very same day, the Holy See officially declares Lefebvre, De Castro mayor, and the four new bishops excommunicated. Two days later, on July 2nd, John Paul II signs the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei, defining the act as schismatic. Lefebvre dies three years later, in 1991, without ever reconciling with Rome.
But history, as always, holds a plot twist. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifts the excommunication on the four surviving bishops. The door swings back open, at least partially. Yet on July 1st, 2026, exactly 38 years later, in Icone, history repeats itself almost identically. The Society of St. Pius X consecrates four new bishops once again, without a pontifical mandate.
And among the two main consecrating bishops this time is none other than one of those four bishops rehabilitated back in 2009, Bernard Fillet. The man who had secured Rome's forgiveness 17 years later goes right back to breaking the exact same rule. The very next day, the Vatican declares a schism once again, and the excommunication strikes anew.
