DDF: SSPX bishops, priests excommunicated; SSPX priests’ confessions henceforth invalid

July 02, 2026

In a decree issued this morning, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that the Society of Saint Pius X’s four new bishops, along with the prelates who consecrated them, incurred the penalty of automatic excommunication under the Code of Canon Law.

Citing canons 1364 and 1387, the prefect and secretaries of the dicastery declared that Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta and the bishops he consecrated yesterday—Bishops Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry and Marc Hanappier—were ipso facto excommunicated.

The dicastery also decreed that Bishop Bernard Fellay, “having participated directly in the liturgical celebration as a co-consecrator, having thus adhered publicly to the schismatic act,” also incurred the automatic excommunication envisioned by canon 1364.

“Clerics and lay faithful are admonished not to adhere to the schism of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, because they would ipso facto incur the penalty,” the dicastery added in its decree.

Explanatory note: application to priests, laity

In an explanatory note signed by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s prefect and secretaries, the dicastery stated that “from the time of St. Paul VI until the latest talks held recently at this Dicastery, the many attempts to bring the adherents of the movement begun by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre back to full communion with the Catholic Church have proved to be in vain.”

“This situation has been further aggravated by the recent episcopal consecrations celebrated without a pontifical mandate, against the will of the Holy Father, in open violation of canon law,” the dicastery continued. “Therefore, this Dicastery, in the faithful exercise of the functions entrusted to it, considers it necessary to point out that this act constituted the crime of schism, with the canonical consequences for the sacred ministers and for the lay faithful involved. In fact, as already declared in 1988, ‘such disobedience—which brings with it a practical rejection of the Roman Primacy—constitutes a schismatic act” (cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei, 3).”

The dicastery then stated that henceforth, “the sacred ministers belonging to the Priestly Society of St. Pius X are in schism and must therefore be considered schismatics being subject to the excommunication provided for by law” (canon 1364).

After stating, in its decree, that the laity who adhere to the schism incur automatic excommunication, the dicastery made its own the provisions of a 1996 explanatory note issued by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. The dicastery cited n. 7 of the 1996 note, which states:

In the case of the other members of the faithful, on the other hand, it is obvious that an occasional participation in liturgical acts or activities of the Lefebvrist movement, without adopting the attitude of doctrinal and disciplinary disunity of that movement, is not sufficient for one to speak of formal adherence to the movement. In pastoral practice it can be more difficult to judge their situation. Above all, the intention of the person must be taken into account, and the translation of this interior disposition into acts. The various situations must therefore be judged on a case-by-case basis, in the competent forums of the external and internal forums.

In today’s explanatory note, the dicastery then stated:

The holy People of God are warned that the sacred ministers of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X are illicitly administering the sacraments and that the sacrament of penance administered by them and the marriages they assist at are invalid.

In doing so, the dicastery implicitly revoked Pope Francis’s decision that penitents “can validly and licitly receive” receive sacramental absolution from SSPX priests (Misericordia et Misera, 2016, n. 12). In 2017 the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei allowed local bishops the possibility of granting SSPX priests the faculties that would allow them to receive matrimonial consent, so as to ensure the validity of marriages.

The dicastery concluded:

The Church, as a caring mother, will welcome with sincere affection and deep solicitude all those who wish to return to full communion. The Apostolic Nuncios will have at their disposal the procedures that the Ordinaries can use in different cases.

Finally, all the faithful are exhorted to remain firm in communion with the Roman Pontiff, with the Bishops in communion with him and with the whole Church, and to abstain from participating in the celebrations and activities promoted by the above-mentioned Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X.

 

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Further information:

• Decreto del Dicastero per la Dottrina della Fede (7/2/26)
• Nota Esplicativa del Dicastero per la Dottrina della Fede (7/2/26)