Pope tells breakaway Catholics not to ordain new Bishops

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Pope Leo has urged a breakaway sect of hyper-traditionalist Catholics to cancel its plans to consecrate four new bishops, calling the move a “sin of extreme gravity”. It is the first big theological test for the new pontiff, who has already sparred with Donald Trump over the Iran war. The group, called the Society of Saint Pius X, is due to hold a ceremony today in Switzerland. It was founded in 1970 after the Second Vatican Council, which permitted Mass to be held in local languages rather than Latin, and has about 750 priests serving 600,000 parishioners, mostly in Switzerland, France and the US. This pales in significance to the global Catholic community of 1.4bn. But Leo has put unity at the centre of his papacy and sought to repair relations with conservatives who disliked the liberal leanings of Pope Francis.