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. The consecrating bishop and the four priests consecrated were excommunicated. John Paul called for unity and established the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei to foster a dialogue with those associated with the consecrations who hoped to maintain both loyalty to the papacy and their attachment to traditional liturgical forms. As is customary for such a papal document, it takes its name from the opening words of its Latin text, Ecclesia Dei, meaning "God's Church". Ecclesia Dei is also the name an Italian Traditionalist weekly published by the Society of Saint Pius X and later founded in the 1990s. Excommunications of those involved The SSPX is an association of priests that Marcel Lefebvre founded in 1970. Its members distrusted the changes then taking place in the Church in the years following the Second Vatican Council. On 30 June 1988, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer consecrated four priests as bishops at the seminary of the Society