Vatican splits with traditionalists as Pope Leo moves against breakaway sect

The Vatican excommunicated six bishops from the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X on Thursday, a day after the traditionalist group defied Pope Leo XIV by consecrating four new bishops without the Vatican's approval. According to France 24 and the New York Times, the decree marks the first major crisis of Pope Leo's papacy and represents an open schism within the global Catholic Church. The society, which denies key tenets of Catholic doctrine, claims around 600,000 followers worldwide, the BBC reported.

The Vatican's move goes beyond the six bishops: lay believers who formally adhere to the breakaway group will face automatic excommunication, France 24 reported. The sect has long resisted the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, maintaining a traditionalist liturgy and theology at odds with the modern Church's direction. The society's defiance of the Pope's direct plea for unity forced his hand, according to reporting from Rome by France 24's Seema Gupta.

The excommunication carries symbolic weight across Italy's Catholic landscape. The traditionalist movement has deep roots in southern parishes, where older congregations have resisted post-Vatican II changes and maintained Latin Mass communities. The split reflects a broader tension within global Catholicism between reformist and traditionalist visions—one that has played out in local dioceses across Puglia and the Mezzogiorno, where conservative liturgical practice runs strong.