On Wednesday, the largest traditional Catholic order of priests in the world, the Society of Saint Pius X, consecrated four bishops without a papal mandate.
The Vatican’s response was swift and brutal. Today, it announced that not only have the four new bishops and the two consecrators been excommunicated but, shockingly, so will all the priests and faithful who continue to adhere to the Society’s work – an edict that will likely affect more than a million Catholics worldwide.
Over a million traditional Catholics could now be cut off from the Church for the crime of wanting to practise the faith as it was before the Second Vatican Council
This comes across as startlingly harsh, especially as the penalty of excommunication for consecrating bishops without a mandate has only existed since 1951. Pius XII established it to prevent the Chinese Communist party from appointing bishops loyal to Beijing. Ironically, today the CCP appoints bishops without a mandate for the explicit purpose of guaranteeing loyalty to communism and receives the Vatican’s automatic blessing. By contrast, over a million traditional Catholics have now been cut off from the Church for the crime of wanting to practise the faith as it was before the Second Vatican Council.
