Vatican excommunicates bishops from ultraconservative group A priest from a dissident Catholic sect excommunicated earlier this week told the faithful, this Sunday (5), that the group will be accepted back into the Catholic Church under the command of a different pope. The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X — a rebel group of ultraconservative Catholics — was excommunicated after four bishops were ordained without Pope Leo's approval on Wednesday (1). The group showed no regret over the schism with Rome, saying the pontiff failed to listen to their concerns. "One day there will be another pope who will open the door and welcome us back. Just like Pope Benedict [XVI]," Father Georg Kopf said during a mass held in the town of Wil in northeastern Switzerland. Founded in 1970, the fraternity is based in Switzerland, but has followers around the world. The group accuses the Church of deviating from the true faith, maintains the practice of the traditional Mass in Latin and rejects formal dialogue with non-Catholics. History of ruptures This is not the first time that the group has faced a rupture with the Vatican. In the late 1980s, the fraternity's founder, Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without the approval of Pope John Paul II, which resulted in the excommunication of those involved. This photograph shows the tonsure of consecrated French bishop Michel Poinsinet de Sivry during the schismatic consecration of bishops by the Society of Saint Pius "I am convinced that there will be another pope like him, who will give tradition its rightful place again. Of course, we would like that to happen tomorrow," Kopf added. The Vatican said it offered dialogue to the group before the schism and that the ordination of bishops without the Church's approval is considered an infraction so serious that excommunication is automatic. "Nothing that happened on July 1 was intended to establish a parallel church or to break away from Rome," Kopf said in his sermon, delivered in German. "On the contrary, it was precisely out of love for the Church and the Pope that these ordinations were carried out, to ensure the salvation of souls."