Bernard Fellay
Bernard Fellay | |
|---|---|
| Superior General Emeritus of the Society of St. Pius X | |
Fellay, circa 2008 | |
| Elected | July 1994 |
| Term ended | 11 July 2018 |
| Predecessor | Franz Schmidberger |
| Successor | Davide Pagliarani |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 29 June 1982 by Marcel Lefebvre |
| Consecration | 30 June 1988 by Marcel Lefebvre |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 April 1958 |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Alma mater | The International Seminary of Saint Pius X |
| Motto | Spes nostra (Our hope) |
| Coat of arms | |
Ordination history of Bernard Fellay | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Bernard Fellay FSSPX (born 12 April 1958) is a Swiss traditionalist Catholic prelate who served as superior general of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) from 1994 to 2018.
In 1988, Pope John Paul II announced that Fellay and three others were automatically excommunicated for being consecrated as bishops by SSPX Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, an act that the Holy See described as "unlawful" and "schismatic". Lefebvre and Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer, who co-consecrated the four bishops, were also automatically excommunicated. At the time of his consecration, Fellay was the youngest Catholic bishop in the world, at 30 years old.
In January 2009, at Fellay's request, the Congregation for Bishops, on instructions from Pope Benedict XVI, rescinded the excommunications.