Pope Leo XIV excommunicates entire ultra-traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X

The pontiff just excommunicated a reactionary splinter group committed to undermining the church. Democratic leaders could learn something.

Pope Leo XIV was already in a tough spot when he acceded to the highest office of the Catholic Church just over a year ago. His predecessor and ally Pope Francis managed to move the needle on migrant and LGBTQ rights globally from within one of the world's oldest institutions—which antagonized many of the church's most revanchist elements. Observers the world over were eager to see whether the onetime bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, would pursue a similarly progressive pontificate, or attempt to conciliate the reactionaries. He answered decisively with a recent surprise move that political leaders contending with growing reactionary movements could stand to learn from.

As he ascended the steps of St. Peter's Basilica for his public introduction, the Chicago-born pope was already caught between constituencies that wanted to build on Francis's transformations and those intent on turning back the clock. Archconservative elements of the church eager to take back the reins after a decade-plus of Francis were initially mollified by Leo's "traditional" presentation. Less of a public firebrand than his mentor, he cut a diplomatic figure that a friend memorably called "a dignified middle of the road." But the most hard-line traditionalists proved impossible to satisfy. The fringe, ultraconservative Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), long a thorn in the Vatican's side, forced a showdown earlier this month. Dignified, middle-of-the-road Leo responded by unilaterally excommunicating not only the leaders but potentially adherents of the order.

Background on SSPX

SSPX was formed in 1970 by French prelate Marcel Lefebvre in direct opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which among other things:

• Gave individual churches more leeway to run their own affairs
• Eased up on requiring traditional practices like the Latin mass
• Expanded dialogue with other religions
• Diluted the pope's own power by expanding the power of bishops

The order took its name from the early-20th-century Pope Pius X, whom it lionizes for his "unmasking of Modernism," which it considers the ultimate heresy. ("Modernism," in a Catholic context, is a term a bit like "woke"—it can mean drastically different things depending on who's deploying it, but generally refers to attempts to reconcile the church with modern culture.)

While many of SSPX's specific grievances would be arcane even to practicing Catholics, at its root is disgust with a (slightly) more open and democratic church that had understood that it needed to adapt to changing times, and a desire to strong-arm it back to insularity and intolerance. Its concerns map neatly onto the culture-war outrages that animate the contemporary far right, political and religious.

The order, which counted under 1,500 members as of 2025, trains seminarians and holds liturgies around the world. The number of laypeople who attend their masses is contested, but The Guardian estimates between 150,000 and 200,000.

A History of Tension

The institutional church never quite knew what to make of the Lefebvrists, as SSPX members are sometimes known, as they kept pushing the envelope.

• 1988: After repeated warnings from church officials including Pope John Paul II, Lefebvre himself participated in the unauthorized consecration of four new bishops, after which he and all of those who participated were excommunicated. He died three years later, still at odds with the church.
• 2009: Pope Benedict XVI made the decision to reverse the excommunications of the four bishops, including Holocaust denier Richard Williamson, capping a series of efforts to bring the SSPX reactionaries back into the fold.
• 2017: Even Pope Francis extended a hand, allowing SSPX priests to officiate marriages.

The Final Break

Fifteen years after Benedict's reversal, SSPX did it again. Earlier this month, the society conducted the unsanctioned (and livestreamed) consecration of four new bishops at its seminary in Écône, Switzerland, before an audience of thousands, after repeated warnings from the Vatican.

Leo shocked observers by declaring that the society had not just committed a schismatic act but was now itself fully schismatic from the church. He excommunicated:

• Its bishops (including two who had already been excommunicated in 1988 before the effective pardon)
• Its priests
• Certain laypeople who remained faithful to it

The Vatican set out a relatively onerous procedure for priests and adherents to return only after renouncing the order.

The severity of the sanction was surprising to many, given Leo's known preoccupation with church unity and "synodality," or a commitment to dialogue.