The sect, the Society of St. Pius X, defied a direct plea from Pope Leo XIV and sought to consecrate four bishops without the Vatican’s approval.

ROME — The Vatican on Thursday said it had excommunicated top clerics in an archconservative Catholic sect as well as any parishioners who remain loyal to the group that claims hundreds of thousands of followers largely in the United States and Europe, triggering the most serious schism in decades within the world’s largest Christian faith.





