Camilla Veras Mota

Two Brazilian priests who joined the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X have been excommunicated after the ultraconservative group ordained four bishops in Switzerland without Vatican approval. The sanctions mean that certain sacraments performed by the priests are invalid or illicit, while the FSSPX disputes the practical effects and maintains that the priests and sacraments remain valid. The dispute, which echoes the group's 1988 break with Rome, has widened to include formally affiliated laypeople and is testing Pope Leo XIV's handling of traditionalist currents. In Brazil, diocesan authorities attempted to persuade the priests to leave the fraternity, but both maintained their allegiance. The group has expanded its network of Latin-mass chapels in Brazil despite remaining a small movement on the margins of Catholicism.