In a large tent in a field, with thousands of faithful Catholics watching, four new bishops will be consecrated on Wednesday. The several-hour ceremony is framed by organ music and singing.
"It's a historic day. Something very important is happening now. It won't end here," Catholic Jean-Pierre Stauffer, who was present during the consecration, told AFP.
But not everyone is as excited about the ceremony.
“Please, turn around!”
In an open letter , published on the Vatican website on Tuesday, Pope Leo writes, “Please, turn around!” Consecrating a bishop without his permission means breaking with the Catholic Church and entering into schism, the pope says, which leads to excommunication - exclusion from the full communion of the Catholic Church.
But the priestly brotherhood did not listen to the Pope, but carried out the episcopal consecrations anyway.
This is not the first time that the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) and the Holy See have been at odds. Exactly 38 years ago on this day, the SSPX fell into schism when the breakaway group's founder, French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, along with another bishop, ordained four priests as bishops against the will of Pope John Paul II.
All six were excommunicated and the conflict between the priestly brotherhood, or the “Lefebvrists” as they came to be called, and the Vatican lasted for 21 years.
After long negotiations, Pope Benedict XVI decided in 2009 to let the group back into the fold.
Opposed reforms
The SSPX was founded by Lefebvre in 1970 in protest against the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The archbishop opposed the Mass reform that led to Catholic masses no longer being celebrated in Latin, but in the vernacular.
Today, the SSPX continues to celebrate Mass in Latin and accuses the church of being full of heresies and errors such as modernism and liberalism. The priestly brotherhood believes that only they uphold the true faith of Christ - and explains the ordinations in Écône by citing an “emergency” to serve its faithful, writes the AP.
Many other Catholics see the ordinations as serious disobedience to the Pope that harms the entire Church.
The SSPX has around 600,000 followers worldwide.
