Traditionalist Catholic group defy Pope Leo XIV to consecrate bishops

A traditionalist Catholic group consecrated four bishops without Pope Leo XIV's consent in rural south Switzerland despite the pontiff's earlier pleas against the move.

The consecrations could incur automatic excommunication for the involved clergy, who have been at odds with the Vatican for decades primarily over theological and liturgical disagreements.

Members of the Society of Saint Pius X, otherwise known as SSPX, gathered at the misty alpine mountains of the Swiss canton of Valais to witness the consecration of four bishops which were earlier condemned by the pope as schismatic.

This as Pope Leo indicated in a letter to the society on Tuesday that their actions would amount to "a sin of extreme gravity".

During the mass, a priest dismissed the warnings in a statement, with a bishop subsequently consecrating the four men.

According to church law, the act incurs the harshest penalty of the Catholic Church in the form of automatic excommunication.

The SSPX was founded in 1970 by former French priest Marcel Lefebvre, who opposed the reforms of the church made during the Second Vatican Council.