Catholic rebels under excommunication threat say they would rather die than renounce ultra-traditional principles

excommunication threat – The Vatican warned the ultra-traditionalist Society of St. Pius X it risks excommunication for ordaining bishops without the pope’s approval. The group says members would rather die than renounce their principles.

A threat of excommunication is now colliding with an uncompromising message from within the Roman Catholic Church, as an ultra-traditionalist Catholic group told the Vatican its members would not yield their position even at the cost of their lives.

The Society of St.. Pius X (SSPX). which has repeatedly clashed with Pope Leo and with Vatican authority over decades. says it wants to remain in the Church but insists it would “rather die than renounce” its principles.. In a letter to the pope written by SSPX Superior General Davide Pagliarani. the group argued it has warned the Vatican for more than 50 years about what it calls modernist “errors” damaging Catholic faith and morals.

Pagliarani’s letter. dated Thursday. also complained that the Vatican’s response has amounted largely to “canonical sanctions.” He wrote that SSPX members “have no other desire than that of living and being confirmed in the Roman Catholic Faith. ” adding. “we would rather die than renounce” their principles.

The dispute has sharpened around the group’s announced plan to ordain bishops without papal approval. Earlier this month, SSPX said it intends to carry out those ordinations in July.

On Wednesday, Vatican officials warned the planned ordinations would cross a legal and spiritual line.. The Vatican said such a move would constitute a schismatic act.. Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández. the discipline chief. wrote that the episcopal ordinations announced by the SSPX do not have the corresponding papal mandate.

Fernández said the act would therefore “constitute a schismatic act” and that “formal adherence to the schism constitutes a grave offense against God and entails the excommunication established by the law of the Church.”

SSPX’s leadership has long argued against modernist reforms, and the group’s current stance traces back to its founding in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Since then, the organization has positioned itself in open tension with the papacy over issues including liturgy and doctrine.

In February, SSPX said it would ordain bishops without the pope’s approval. The Vatican’s warning on Wednesday signals that if the plan proceeds, members involved could face excommunication under Church law.

The Vatican’s message landed amid a long-running confrontation between SSPX and the papacy, one that has involved repeated accusations and counter-accusations over obedience, authority, and what each side regards as safeguarding Catholic teaching.

It is a developing story and updates may follow.

SSPX excommunication Vatican Pope Leo ultra-traditionalist Catholic Catholic Church