VATICAN CITY ¨C The Vatican said on Thursday that priests and lay Catholics who are part of a breakaway right-wing Catholic group that ordained bishops without Pope Leo¡¯s approval are in schism with the wider church and now excommunicated.
In a strong decree, the Dicastery for ?the Doctrine of the Faith, the top watchdog authority for the 1.4-billion-member church, also ?warned ?Catholics globally that the Swiss-based Society of St. Pius X now ?celebrates the sacraments illicitly.
The ultra-traditionalist group, which denies key church teachings, cannot officiate marriages or hear confessions validly, the decree said.
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