Pope excommunicates 500,000 Catholics from ultra-conservative rebel sect

More than 500,000 Catholics from an ultra-conservative breakaway sect have been excommunicated from the Vatican in a rare move by Pope Leo XIV.

Followers of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) have been censured by the church after it consecrated four new bishops in Geneva against the Vatican's direct instructions.

As part of the decree, the Society's total of six bishops were excommunicated.

On top of this, the decree added any lay members who "formally adhere" to the group "are to be considered schismatic and excommunicated".

The group dates back to the 1970s, when they were formed in opposition to the modernising reforms made by the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s at what was known as the Second Vatican Council.

Named after the traditionalist pontiff who ran the church from August 1903 until his death in August 1914, the group rejected the Vatican's attempts to repair its relations with Jews and other Christian denominations.

The Society, whose followers are sometimes known as Lefebvrists after their founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, says it counts 733 priests worldwide.

Its leadership, which has long had tense relations with the Vatican, says it needed to ordain new bishops to have enough prelates to lead the group.

One member of the group, who said he was not authorised to speak but identified himself as Father Benedict, told reporters after a Mass in Econe, Switzerland, he expected the group would just continue on as before.

He said: "We (will) just keep going. We do respect the pope. We will keep praying for him."

However, Father Benedict also criticised the decree from the Vatican.

Father Benedict said: "This sanction shows that, I mean, we did not close the door to the Holy Father, to the Holy See.They shut it in our face. So that's the sad reality."

Members of the traditionalist Catholic Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) went about their day in Econe, Switzerland

The sect has a significant following in Britain, with its main centre based in Wimbledon, south London.

Rita Reid, an SSPX worshipper from Jersey in the Channel Islands, told the BBC: "It actually makes me feel quite strong.

"Before the consecrations yesterday I said to my husband, 'Do you know what? Even if they excommunicate us, go ahead, bring it on, it's not going to make one bit of difference.'

She added the ceremonies are much more "profound", where she feels "the true presence of Jesus".

It is not the first time the SSPX has been at odds with the Vatican.

In 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre, alongside and four bishops he had ordained without the permission of the then pope, John Paul II, were excommunicated, including a British bishop, Richard Williamson.

Williamson made headlines in February 2009 when he was convicted in Germany for denying the Holocaust.

In 2009, the conservative Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications on the SSPX.

Marco Politi, a Vatican journalist and author, suggested the schism would not have a dramatic impact on Pope Leo or the church.

Pointing to the roughly 1.4 billion Catholics in the world compared with the society’s small number of followers, he told The Guardian: "Everyone saw that Pope Leo tried to find an agreement with them, and the reaction shows his firm stance.

"The other element is that even though there are the most conservative factions in the Catholic Church, when one goes against the pope and gets excommunicated, they are rarely on the side of the excommunicated.”