The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said a lay person’s ‘formal adherence’ incurring excommunication must be ‘judged cases by case’.
The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) submitted a canonical appeal against the decree issued by the Holy See confirming the excommunications of its members following the illicit ordination of four bishops.
In a communiqué on Monday, the society said it had submitted a “preliminary recourse” to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) on 11 July “which constitutes the mandatory preliminary step before the possible introduction of a hierarchical recourse [and] has the effect of suspending the execution of the decree”.
It cited Canon 1353 of the Code of Canon Law: “An appeal or a recourse against judgements of a court or against decrees which impose or declare any penalty has a suspensive effect.”
According to the DDF decree on 2 July, the “inherently schismatic act” of consecrating bishops without papal mandate incurred latae sententiae excommunication – that is by the act itself – on both the two bishops involved in the liturgy and the four who received episcopal consecration.
This was the same formulation by which Rome excommunicated the society’s founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the four bishops he consecrated illicitly in 1988.
In an explanatory note alongside this month’s decree, the DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández said the excommunication also applied to all SSPX priests and laypeople who “formally adhere” to the society. He also said it revoked all permissions for its priests to hear confessions and preside at marriage granted by Pope Francis.
In a letter to Pope Leo on 3 July, the SSPX superior general Fr Davide Pagliarani claimed the excommunication was “objectively unjust and invalid”, and the society’s leadership and new bishops have made a series of statements since denying the effect of the decree.
According to SSPX figures from November 2025, it has a presence in 77 countries, with more than 700 priests across the world. Of these, more than 250 of these based in France and 140 in the United States. It also reported a significant presence in Germany, Switzerland and Argentina, and has 10 priests based in the United Kingdom.
Estimates of lay people who participate in SSPX activities range from 200,000 to 700,000. The DDF’s explanatory note referred to a 1996 note from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts which said a lay person’s “formal adherence” incurring excommunication must be “judged cases by case”.
Several bishops in the US responded to the excommunication with warnings to Catholics in their dioceses not to attend SSPX liturgies, emphasising the sacraments its priests celebrate are “illicit”.
“This means that the celebrations are not permitted by the law of the Church and the cleric offering the sacrament commits the canonical and moral fault of disobedience in each instance,” said Bishop John Iffert of Covington, Kentucky.
He said SSPX Masses “are an abuse of the Eucharist, insofar as they make the sacrament of unity into an occasion of division within the Church”.
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a letter to his diocese repeating that SSPX priests “are now to be regarded as schismatic” and encouraging those who frequent its liturgies to attend a chapel served by the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP), a traditionalist group in full communion with Rome formed by priests who left the SSPX after the excommunications of 1988.
Elsewhere, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia urged those “who have been attached to the SSPX and who desire the spiritual nourishment of the Church and the extraordinary form of the Mass to become active in any one of the eight locations in our diocese where this is currently possible”.
In Norway, Bishop Fredrick Hansen of Oslo said that Mass in the old rite is available at one church in his diocese and “if there is a need for it, and if it would be for the good of the Church and of souls, I will also expand this form of Mass celebration in our local Church”.
The Bishop of Cubao Elias Ayuban Jr, whose diocese houses the largest SSPX chapel in the Philippines, also said he would consider allowing the wider celebration of the old rite following the excommunication.
“While the Mass of the 1962 Roman Missal (Traditional Latin Mass) will continue to be celebrated in the Diocese of Cubao, we shall explore the possibility of providing additional Traditional Latin Masses accessible to a greater number of devotees in accordance with the prescriptions of Traditionis Custodes,” said Ayuban, a 54-year-old Claretian missionary who studied canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
The diocese’s territory, in the northern part of the country’s capital region, includes the SSPX-run Our Lady of Victories Church in Quezon City.
In a pastoral letter, Ayuban also urged the Diocese of Cubao to welcome SSPX members “with charity, understanding and patience”.
“Through preaching and catechism, may we avoid condemnation but approach the matter with pastoral tact and sensitivity,” said the bishop, who was the first Filipino bishop publicly to address the excommunication.
The illicit consecrations took place in Switzerland, at the SSPX headquarters in Écône where the society was founded in 1970.
Bishop Charles Morerod of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, who in 2019 allowed some SSPX members to celebrate anniversary Mass at St Maurice Church in Fribourg, said it was not “conceivable to grant such a request if it were made today”.
“When I agreed to the use of a church in the diocese at that time, it was in a spirit of goodwill, in a context where rapprochement between the SSPX and Rome was still possible,” Bishop Morerod told kath.ch.
“However, the episcopal consecrations of 1 July 2026, which were carried out after numerous warnings, outstretched hands and calls for dialogue from the Vatican, demonstrate that they have absolutely no willingness to enter into any process of reconciliation.”