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The Vatican excommunicates the bishops
Date: July 2, 2026 Source: https://havresaintjoseph-tradition.fr/le-vatican-excommunie-les-eveques/
Le Vatican excommunie les évêques
https://www.vaticannews.va/fr/vatican/news/2026-07/consecrations-episcopales-lefebvristes-excommunication-decretee.html

The sentence was handed down this July 2nd; excommunication has been declared against the consecrating bishops and the priests consecrated as bishops in Écône.

The sentence goes even further, extending to priests and the faithful:

"In this regard, from now on:
1. Sacred ministers belonging to the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X are in schism and must therefore be considered schismatic (cf. Ecclesia Dei, 5 c; Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Explanatory Note on the excommunication for schism incurred by adherents of the movement of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, August 24, 1996, 5-6), and are therefore subject to the excommunication provided for by law (can. 1364 § 1).
2. Regarding the lay faithful, those who formally adhere to the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X under the conditions established by the 1996 Explanatory Note of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts (cf. ibid., 7), which is still in force and which this dicastery endorses, must be considered schismatic and excommunicated.
3. Finally, the holy People of God are warned that the sacred ministers of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X illicitly administer the sacraments, and that the sacrament of penance they administer as well as the marriage they celebrate are invalid.

The Church, like an attentive mother, will welcome with sincere affection and deep solicitude all those who wish to return to full communion. Apostolic nuncios will establish the procedures that Ordinaries can use according to the various cases.

Finally, all the faithful are exhorted to remain firmly in communion with the Supreme Pontiff, with the bishops in communion with him, and with the entire Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, 22; can. 751 of the Code of Canon Law), and to abstain from participating in the celebrations and activities organized by the aforementioned Priestly Society of Saint Pius X."

**The Consequences**

It must therefore be understood that all granted faculties (confessions, marriages) cease. Consequently, the Society of Saint Pius X goes back years, to before all the "steps" jointly desired by it and by Rome in 2014.

We hope that the Authorities of the Society will find again a clear and strict doctrinal line, which was its own until 2012: "no practical agreement without a doctrinal agreement". In 2012 this principle was watered down, which led it to expel from its midst Bishop Williamson, consecrated in 1988.

**The Homily of the Consecrations and an Application to Bishop Williamson**

The Superior General, in his homily of this July 1st (it is surprising that he was the one to speak for consecrations, but this is not the place to discuss it), gave advice to the future bishops. Here it is:

"(...) And what advice can we give you?
Your mission, what you are about to do, is so delicate, so important, so great, that I prefer to let Our Lord Himself speak by quoting the Gospel.
What advice does Our Lord give you today? What advice did Our Lord give to the Apostles when He sent them out to preach?
'Behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.'
The lamb: a very beautiful image of Our Lord, a very beautiful image of the bishop.
This means that you must preach first through the innocence of your life; it is the innocence, the purity of your life, of your morals, that will give moral authority to everything you are going to preach.
To be a lamb also means, and above all, perfect docility, perfect submission to the will of God. Just as Our Lord is constantly submissive to the will of His Father, likewise you, to an even superior, greater degree starting today, must always seek His will.

But do not forget one thing: Our Lord, who is the Lamb of God, is also the Lion of Judah.
How can one be a lamb and a lion?
It is because Our Lord, as much as He is docile to the Father's will, never bends before the spirit of the world. Having to serve the Father perfectly, He necessarily collides with the spirit of the world, with the spirit of the prince of this world.
And likewise the bishop: as much as he is docile to the will of God, so much does he constantly claim before the world the rights of Our Lord, and not the rights of man.
And a lion never flees, a lion does not retreat, and above all, a lion does not bend. Never bend before this spirit of the world, do not budge, do not retreat; consecration will give you an irresistible strength.
Starting today, all over the world, there are people watching you, listening to you. In thirty, forty years, they must be able to say:
'They did not bend. They did not bend their knees before this spirit of the world. They bent their knees only before Our Lord the King.'
That is the most beautiful thing they can say of you at your death, the most beautiful memory you can leave. And Our Lord gives you another piece of advice:
'Be simple as doves and prudent as serpents.'
Why must we be like serpents? Why must a bishop be like a serpent?
This is to discern, grasp, capture the duplicity, ambiguity, and cunning that are in the world and among the enemies of the Cross. Your worst enemies will not attack you head-on; they will try to make you slide gradually into a perception of the faith, of Christian life, of relations with the world, that is a bit more up-to-date; you must know this.
When you feel this danger, step back, pray, observe, take counsel, evaluate, and remain motionless before reacting, like a serpent. When you react, when the Holy Spirit gives you the necessary light to act, do so, and never look back.
This is what it means to be like a serpent: to grasp the duplicity, ambiguity, and cunning that are in the world, and to speak and preach like doves: simply, without duplicity and without fear, without equivocation, without ambiguity. The duplicity you must discern in others must never be your own.

And what else does Jesus say? What does Our Lord say?
'Brother will deliver up brother, and the father his child, and you will be hated by all because of Me, because of My name. Do not fear all that, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.'
Do not fear all that, Our Lord tells us. Let me handle it, let me judge, I will intervene myself when necessary.
He has only one concern. Which one?
'Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven.'
Everyone who acknowledges My rights, My divinity, My Church, My faith.
'Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth, but a sword.'
These are the words of Our Lord that He addresses to you in particular.
In few moments, when the consecrating bishop gives you the crosier, Our Lord will give you a sword: His sword, the sword of the Gospel, the sword of the faith. It is by faith, and only by faith, that we can overcome the world, and the world is already overcome by faith.
This sword, starting today, belongs to you in a special way, and God is going to give you a special strength to wield it, to use it in season and out of season.
'A man's enemies will be those of his own household.'
We cannot be understood by everyone; we cannot agree with everyone.
Is this a tragedy? Is this something incomprehensible? No. It is the law of the Gospel, it is the law of the Cross.
These are the pieces of advice that Our Lord, through the Gospel, gives to you today."

How can one not recognize in these pieces of advice (though the preacher did not say so) the figure of Bishop Richard Williamson?

A bishop whose priestly and especially episcopal life shone with the brilliance of the lion: "a lion never flees, a lion does not retreat, and above all, a lion does not bend. Never bend before this spirit of the world, do not budge, do not retreat; consecration will give you an irresistible strength."

We hope and pray that the new bishops will remember this British bishop, prudent as a serpent (through the consecrations of six bishops in this time of apostasy) and strong as a lion.

May the Society recognize that the strong word, the courageous action of Bishop Williamson was a benefit for the whole Church, and not only for that ridiculous and despicable (at least despised) portion which is Catholic Fidelity, small but strong in its Faith.

Finally, we hope that the Society of Saint Pius X, as in 1988 after its first excommunication, will publish before Rome a docuмent similar to the one it issued the day after the consecrations, the "operation - survival" of Tradition, the text of which we present here:

**Open letter from the superiors of the SSPX to Cardinal Gantin, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, dated July 6, 1988**

Écône, July 6, 1988
Eminence,

Gathered around their Superior General, the Superiors of the districts, seminaries, and autonomous houses of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X think it well to respectfully express to you the following reflections.

You thought it your duty, by your letter of last July 1st, to notify His Excellency Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, His Excellency Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, and the four bishops they consecrated on June 30th last at Écône, of their *latæ sententiæ* excommunication. Please judge for yourself the value of such a declaration coming from an authority which, in its exercise, breaks with that of all its predecessors up to Pope Pius XII, in the worship, teaching, and government of the Church.

As for us, we are in full communion with all the popes and all the bishops who preceded the Second Vatican Council, celebrating exactly the mass they codified and celebrated, teaching the catechism they composed, standing up against the errors they repeatedly condemned in their encyclicals and pastoral letters. Please judge, therefore, on which side the rupture lies. We are extremely pained by the blindness of spirit and the hardness of heart of the Roman authorities.

On the other hand, we have never wanted to belong to this system which calls itself the Conciliar Church, and defines itself by the *Novus Ordo Missæ*, indifferentist ecuмenism, and the secularization of all Society. Yes, we have no part, *nullam partem habemus*, with the pantheon of religions of Assisi; our own excommunication by a decree of your Eminence or of another dicastery would only be the irrefutable proof of it. We ask for nothing better than to be declared *ex communione* with the adulterous spirit that has been blowing in the Church for twenty-five years, excluded from impious communion with infidels. We believe in the one God, Our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and we will always be faithful to His unique Spouse, the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church.

Therefore, to be publicly associated with the sanction that strikes the six Catholic bishops, defenders of the faith in its integrity and its entirety, would be for us a mark of honor and a sign of orthodoxy before the faithful. The latter indeed have a strict right to know that the priests to whom they address themselves are not in communion with a counterfeit Church, which is evolutionary, pentecostal, and syncretistic. United with these faithful, we make our own the words of the prophet (1 Kings, vii, 3): *Preparate corda vestra Domino et servite Illi Soli: et liberabit vos de manibus inimicorum vestrorum. Convertimini ad Eum in toto corde vestro, et auferte deos alienos de medio vestri.* "Prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve Him alone: and He will deliver you out of the hands of your enemies. It is with all your heart that you must return to God; take away the strange gods from among you."

Trusting in the protection of Her who has crushed all heresies throughout the entire world, we beg you to accept, Eminence, the assurance of our devotion to Him who is the unique way of salvation.

At Écône, July 6, 1988

Followed by the signatures of the Superior General, of all the Superiors of districts, seminaries, and autonomous houses of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X throughout the entire world:
• Father Franz Schmidberger, Superior General,
• Fathers Paul Aulagnier, Superior of the District of France,
• Franz-Joseph Maessen, Superior of the District of Germany,
• Edward Black, Superior of the District of Great Britain,
• Anthony Esposito, Superior of the District of Italy,
• François Laisney, Superior of the District of the United States,
• Jacques Emily, Superior of the District of Canada,
• Jean-Michel Faure, Superior of the District of Mexico,
• Gérard Hogan, Superior of the District of Australia and New Zealand,
• Alain Lorans, Director of the Seminary of Écône,
• Jean-Paul André, Director of the Seminary of Flavigny,
• Paul Natterer, Superior of the Seminary of Zaitzkofen,
• Andrés Morello, Superior of the Seminary of La Reja,
• William Welsh, Director of Holy Cross Seminary in Australia,
• Michel Simoulin, Rector of the Saint-Pie X Institute in Paris,
• Patrice Laroche, Vice-Director of the Seminary of Écône,
• Philippe François, Superior of the Autonomous House of Belgium and Luxembourg,
• Roland de Mérode, Superior of the Autonomous House of the Netherlands,
• Georg Pfluger, Superior of the Autonomous House of Austria,
• Guillaume Devillers, Superior of the Autonomous House of Spain,
• Philippe Pazat, Superior of the Autonomous House of Portugal,
• Daniel Couture, Superior of the Autonomous House of Ireland,
• Patrick Groche, Superior of the Autonomous House of Gabon,
• Franck Peek, Superior of the Autonomous House of Southern Africa.
Excerpt from Fideliter No. 64 of July-August 1988, pages 11 and 12

Just as Bishop Williamson preached in season and out of season, let us pray the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, so that the Society may return to solid foundations and abandon its views of reconciliation with neo-modernist, conciliar Rome.

"It is imperative for every priest who wishes to remain Catholic to separate himself from conciliar Rome until it has returned to the traditional magisterium of the Church and the Catholic faith." (Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, "Spiritual Journey", 1990)

Father Dominique Rousseau
July 2, 2026