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A leading lay figure at a Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) chapel in North Carolina has said Pope Leo XIV made a "tactical error" earlier this month when he excommunicated the priestly fraternity's six bishops and some lay people, adding that the move would end up strengthening and growing the traditionalist group.

Jim De Piante, a church organizer, music director and project manager at the St. Anthony of Padua Chapel in Mount Holly, told Newsweek that while some SSPX members were "a little bit frightened" by the excommunications, they saw the decree as "meaningless" because Canon law "says that if you act out of necessity, that exonerates you." This is a theological argument many SSPX members and supporters have used, but the Vatican disputes that interpretation.

Rome's July 2 excommunications came after the SSPX consecrated four bishops without papal approval in Écône, Switzerland, the day before. In a decree, the Vatican said it was "an act of a schismatic nature" and excommunicated the four newly consecrated bishops and the two bishops who performed the ceremony. It also extended the penalty to lay members who "formally adhere to the Fraternity"—potentially affecting about 30,000 SSPX faithful in the United States, along with 124 priests serving 115 chapels, according to the society's most recent figures.

Excommunication is the Catholic Church's most severe ecclesiastical penalty, barring a person from receiving the sacraments—such as Holy Communion, confession and marriage—and fully participating in the life of the church. For Catholics, who believe the sacraments are the ordinary means through which they receive eternal salvation, it carries profound spiritual significance.

Still, several Catholic theologians Newsweek spoke with predicted the excommunications would rally existing SSPX members rather than drive them away, with one predicting they would "dig their heels in."

"The church has always thrived and expanded during periods of adversity," De Piante said. "And so this is adversity."

Conversely, former SSPX member Lou Massett, who recently published Traddyland , a book about his experience in the fraternity, told Newsweek he believed the excommunications would cause division in the society and between families.

He agreed that many SSPX members would "absolutely" double down, but that rather than strengthening the group, things would "become more volatile and more hostile."

Newsweek has contacted the Vatican for comment via email.

How 1988 Precedent Is Shaping Response

For many SSPX members, the latest excommunications have drawn immediate comparisons with the society's biggest confrontation with Rome almost four decades ago. In 1988, the Vatican excommunicated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who founded the SSPX, after he consecrated four bishops without papal approval.

De Piante said that history has shaped how many members have responded to Leo's decree, with some dismissing it outright and others meeting it with humor rather than alarm.

"The vast majority are like, 'Yawn, I want to keep doing what I'm doing,'" he said, while another group had simply "a good laugh" about the Vatican's announcement.

"There's jokes going around, 'Party like it's 1988' or '1988 copy paste,'" he added. "We've done 1988."

De Piante acknowledged that the 1988 excommunications initially cost the society some priests and faithful, saying the group "took a little bit of a bump." But he argued the SSPX "recovered very, very quickly" and has since "outstripped" those losses.

The church organizer said he expected only a small number of members to leave the SSPX. At his chapel in North Carolina, he estimated that "maybe a dozen out of 300" regular Sunday attendees would stop coming because they were troubled by the excommunications.

De Piante also noted the atmosphere at Écône, where he attended the consecrations, describing the mood among supporters as "euphoric."

Citing Cardinal Gerhard Müller, De Piante said the latest decree risked becoming a "tactical error" that would drive more Catholics toward the SSPX rather than away from it. "Rome erred," he added.

The SSPX's official response struck a more sober tone. In a letter to the pope published the day after the Vatican's decree, Superior General Davide Pagliarani said the society had received the excommunications with "deep sadness," while rejecting them as "objectively unjust and invalid." He defended the consecrations as "an extreme measure to save souls" and said the SSPX had no intention of breaking away from the Catholic Church.

Division Among Traditionalist Catholics

While De Piante argues that confrontation with Rome ultimately strengthens the SSPX, Massett said the 1988 consecrations came at a cost. Although they united many members, he said they also fractured families, friendships and the wider traditionalist Catholic movement.

Massett, who attended school with newly consecrated Bishop Michael Goldade before later leaving the SSPX, said he witnessed those divisions firsthand.

"It was galvanizing. It was divisive," he said. "The kids I went to school with, we couldn't hang out with them anymore because they didn't support the society."

He said Catholics who chose to attend the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter—the Vatican-approved traditionalist order founded by priests who left the SSPX after the 1988 consecrations—were viewed with suspicion by many within the society. Massett recalled friendships ending and even family members refusing to attend one another's weddings because they worshipped at different traditional Latin Mass communities.

"I firmly believe things are going to get worse," he said.

De Piante said the excommunications come as the SSPX continues to expand, arguing that the movement's growth reinforces his belief that Rome has misjudged its impact.

According to the society's latest figures, the SSPX now has 772 priests worldwide, up from 707 in 2021, while the number of seminarians has risen from 201 to 236 over the same period. Its network has also grown to 823 Mass centers, 772 schools, 117 priories and 187 retreat houses.

De Piante said that growth has been visible in his own community, with the St. Anthony of Padua Chapel expanding from a single Sunday Mass attended by about 100 people to two packed services drawing over 300 worshippers.

"We have steady growth," he said. "We have 360 people in two Masses in a church that was built for 150 people."

He said the society's growth was being driven by three factors: large families, Catholics seeking out traditional liturgy after restrictions on the Latin Mass and relocations to areas with established SSPX communities and schools.

"The society is growing and is going to continue to grow," De Piante said. "We can't build churches fast enough."

Why Pope Leo Excommunicated the SSPX

The Vatican said the excommunications were not simply a response to the consecration of four new bishops but to what it described as a deliberate act of disobedience that threatened the unity of the Catholic Church.

In its July 2 decree, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said the bishops had carried out the consecrations "without pontifical mandate" despite repeated warnings from Rome that doing so would constitute a schismatic act. Under canon law, a bishop who consecrates another bishop without papal approval incurs automatic, or latae sententiae , excommunication.

The move followed weeks of failed efforts to prevent the ceremony. Before the consecrations, Leo invited the SSPX's superior general to the Vatican, while Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned that proceeding would have "very grave consequences" for the bishops involved.

Although relations between Rome and the SSPX have fluctuated for decades, successive popes had sought reconciliation through doctrinal discussions and pastoral concessions. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the 1988 excommunications, and more recently, Pope Francis recognized the society's faculties to hear confessions and witness marriages. The unauthorized consecrations marked a decisive breakdown in those efforts, prompting Leo to impose the church's strongest canonical penalty.

Rome’s Long-Term Challenge

The Vatican has repeatedly said its goal is not simply to punish the SSPX but to bring its clergy and faithful back into full communion with the Catholic Church. Since the excommunications, bishops across the United States have encouraged SSPX members to come "home."

Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, said in a statement on July 3: "My heart goes out to [SSPX members] at this painful moment, and I want them to know that they remain very much a part of our diocesan family. I also wish to offer a word of reassurance. This excommunication does not fall upon those who have simply attended these liturgies out of a sincere desire to worship and who have never intended to reject the authority of the Holy Father or the teaching of the Church."

This confrontation also leaves Leo facing one of the first long-term tests of his papacy, which began in May 2025. If the SSPX continues to grow despite the excommunications—as De Piante predicts—it will raise fresh questions about whether the Vatican's toughest disciplinary measures are capable of reversing the movement's decades-long expansion.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Shakeema Edwards .

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