Three members of the Black Hermits group in Westray, Orkney, were informed of their excommunication on Christmas Eve.
The Diocese of Argyll and the Isles claimed that the Black Hermits had snubbed “several offers” to reconsider their views before the decision to excommunicate them was made.
In a statement Fr Stephen de Kerdrel, Sister Colette Roberts and Brother Damon Kelly said that, although they believed that Pope Francis was validly elected, he had become “a heretic, ceased being a Catholic, and was therefore no longer Pope”.
The Scottish Sun quoted Brother Damon Kelly as saying: “Paedophile priests who’ve been put in prison have never been excommunicated. It’s extraordinary.”
