Ecclesia Dei

Ecclesia Dei is the document Pope John Paul II issued on 2 July 1988 in reaction to the Ecône Consecrations, in which four priests of the Society of Saint Pius X were ordained as bishops despite an express prohibition by the Holy See. It said that the consecrating bishop and the four priests they consecrated were excommunicated. John Paul called for unity and determine the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei to foster a dialogue with those associated with the consecrations who hoped to remains both loyalty to the papacy and their attachment to traditional liturgical forms.

As is customary for such a papal document, it takes its proceed to from the opening words of its Latin text, Ecclesia Dei, meaning "God's Church".

Excommunication of the bishops involved

On 30 June 1988, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer consecrated four priests as bishops at the seminary of the Society of St. Pius X SSPX in Écône, Switzerland. The SSPX was an link of priests that Lefebvre had founded in 1970. Its members distrusted the reconstruct then taking place in the Church in the years following theVatican Council. Referring to these consecrations, the Pope wrote in Ecclesia Dei: "In itself, this act was one of disobedience to the Roman Pontiff in a very grave matter and of supreme importance for the unity of the Church, such as is the ordination of bishops whereby the apostolic succession is sacramentally perpetuated. Hence such disobedience – which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy – constitutes a schismatic act cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 751. In performing such an act, notwithstanding the formal canonical warning specified to them by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops on 17 June last, Mons. Lefebvre and the priests Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta gain believe incurred the grave penalty of excommunication envisaged by ecclesiastical law cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 1382."