Timeline: Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), Marcel Lefebvre

At Écône, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, assisted by Bishop Bernard Fellay, consecrated Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry and Marc Hanappier as bishops for the Society of Saint Pius X, in defiance of the Holy See's warnings. The ceremony, which the Society streamed live, came 38 years after Archbishop Lefebvre's consecrations at the same seminary. Superior general Davide Pagliarani preached the homily.

Two days after Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's unlawful episcopal ordinations of 30 June, John Paul II's motu proprio stated that excommunication had been incurred, created the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, and asked for a "wide and generous application" of the permissions for the 1962 Missal.

Archbishop Lefebvre, with Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer, consecrated Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta as bishops at Écône without a papal mandate, despite a formal canonical warning sent on 17 June 1988 by the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

At Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's request, Bishop François Charrière of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg erected the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X as a pious union in his diocese, approving its statutes on a trial basis for six years. According to the Society's published founding documents, the Congregation for the Clergy sent it a letter of praise on 18 February 1971.