In defiance of Pope Leo XIV’s plea, thousands of people have flocked to a small Swiss village to witness the ordination of four new Catholic bishops. The four—two from France, one from Switzerland, and one from the United States—are members of the contentious Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), commonly referred to as Lefebrvistes after Marcel Lefebvre, the organization’s founder.
The Vatican’s major modernizing measures from the 1960s and 1970s, such as allowing Mass to be celebrated in congregational languages rather than just Latin, are rejected by the Society. Earlier last week, Pope Leo urged SSPX officials to postpone the ordination, calling it a “schismatic act” that would “tear the seamless garment of Christ” in his final plea.
However, the society disobeyed the Pope, who is seen by millions of Catholics as God’s earthly representative, and carried out the ordination on Wednesday morning under cool grey Alpine skies. At least 15,000 people flocked to Écún to witness hundreds of robed priests move through the hamlet and into a pasture where a sizable tent had been erected while carrying candles, crosses, and incense.
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