Rebel Catholic group in Switzerland unrepentant over excommunication

ECONE, Switzerland, July 2 - Members of a breakaway Catholic group excommunicated over the ordination of four bishops were unrepentant on Thursday, accusing the Church of straying from the true faith and saying Pope Leo had failed to hear their concerns.

At their seminary in the southwest Swiss hamlet of Econe, priests and lay Catholics from the Society of St. Pius X said they would carry on as before and remain focused on preserving Church traditions.

"We are at peace with what has happened as you can see from all the faces," said a Mexican deacon, pointing to a small crowd kneeling one-by-one to receive blessings from one of the newly ordained bishops in a car park after an open-air Mass. He asked not to be named, saying he was too junior to be a spokesperson.

'IT HURTS TO BE PUNISHED BY YOUR DAD'

The Vatican's top watchdog authority, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the Swiss-based society was in schism with the wider Church and warned Catholics the group now celebrated the sacraments illicitly.

Members gathered in the blazing sun, some drinking beer as a nun played songs on the recorder in the hamlet surrounded by Alpine vineyards where Wednesday's ordinations were held.

One priest from the society said the Vatican's decision was unfair and invalid.

"We do respect the pope. We will keep praying for him," said Father Benedict, who declined to give his full name. "It hurts to be punished by your dad," he added, referring to the pope, "because you know you didn't do anything wrong."

He said the Society had tried to meet with Pope Leo for more than a year to explain its case and was saddened Leo had only reacted at the "very last minute".

"This sanction shows that, I mean, we did not close the door to the Holy Father, to the Holy See," Benedict added. "They shut it in our face."

'THEY EXCOMMUNICATED THEMSELVES'

The Vatican said dialogue had been offered to the society outside of a direct meeting with the pope.

"The Holy Father did not excommunicate the Lefebvrists. They excommunicated themselves," said Nicholas Cafardi, dean emeritus of Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, using a term used to describe members of the group founded by Marcel Lefebvre.

The ultra-traditionalist right-wing group established in 1970, which denies key Church teachings, cannot officiate marriages or hear confessions validly, the Vatican said.

The step of ordaining bishops without Church approval is considered so grave that excommunication was automatic, it added.

The group split over sweeping reforms enacted by the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council including the abandonment of the old-style Latin Mass and moves towards dialogue with non-Catholics.

Traditionalists blame the modernising Council for what they see as problems in the Church, including the numbers of men and women who have left religious life.

Jean-Yves Cottard, a visiting priest from France who belongs to the society, said group members were not "schismatics."

"The pope is kind with everyone and why not also with us?" REUTERS