As the Vatican excommunicated four bishops of the ultra-traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X this week, notice was also served that the society’s priests and lay Catholics who formally adhere to it are also considered cut off from the Roman Catholic Church — a move that raises the spiritual stakes for thousands of followers worldwide.

A Catholic splinter group consecrated four bishops on Wednesday, despite a direct appeal from Pope Leo to call it off.

Decades after triggering a rift with the Vatican by consecrating bishops in 1988, the Society of Saint Pius X is doing it again on Wednesday in defiance of Pope Leo XIV.