Bishop Williamson, who was dismissed from the Society of St Pius X in 2012, told followers the ordination will happen in Brazil on March 19.

Last year, he presided at the ordination of a bishop, also in Brazil.

Bishop Williamson said the new bishops are needed to sustain "the resistance".

Canon law stipulates that anyone involved in the ordination of a bishop without approval from the Holy See incurs automatic excommunication.

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According to Reuters, French Bishop Jean-Michel Faure said the new group rejected Pope Francis and what it called his "new religion".

Bishop Faure and Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson both incurred automatic excommunications last month after the latter consecrated the former without Rome's approval.

Bishop Faure also said the new group would not engage in dialogue with Rome until the Vatican turned back the clock.

"We follow the popes of the past, not the current one," Bishop Faure, 73, told reporters at Santa Cruz Monastery near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

"It is likely that in maybe one or two years we will have more consecrations," he said, adding there were two candidates ready to become bishops.

Bishop Williamson and Fr Faure had both been expelled from the Society of St Pius X.

Bishop Williamson has said he does not wish to start a new movement.

Bishop Faure said the Resistance group would not engage in dialogue with Rome, as the SSPX has done.

"We resist capitulation, we resist conciliation of St Pius X with Rome," he said.

Bishop Faure said he was not sure what it would take for Rome to return to its old traditions but conflict could be a catalyst.

"If there is another World War . . . maybe the Church will go back to the way it was before," he said.

Bishop Faure told the Guardian the Vatican was smashing tradition, and going against the teachings of Pius X.

"We do not follow that revolution. The current pope is preaching doctrine denied by Pius X. He is less Catholic than us," Bishop Faure said.

The Vatican's response to the ordination was unequivocal.

"Excommunication is automatic," a spokesman said.

He added: "For the Holy See, the diocese of Santa Cruz in Nova Friburgo does not exist. Faure can say what he wants, but a Catholic, and even more so a bishop, obeys and respects the Pope."

Sources

• Reuters
• The Guardian
• Image: Dominicainsavrille

The Rorate Caeli blog reported the planned consecration this month of Fr Jean-Michel Faure at the monastery of Santa Cruz in Nova Friburgo in Brazil.

March 19 is the likely date.

Bishop Williamson was one of four bishops ordained by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, against the orders of Pope John Paul II.

As such, Bishop Williamson and the other bishops involved incurred excommunications.

The excommunications of Bishop Williamson and three other traditionalist Society of St Pius X bishops were lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

A scandal erupted, however, when it emerged that Bishop Williamson had previously claimed in a Swedish television interview that the Nazis did not use gas chambers and killed no more than 300,000 Jews.

The Vatican claimed that it had not known about Bishop Williamson's extreme anti-semitic beliefs, despite the fact that evidence of this could easily be found on the Internet.

The affair turned into a major public relations disaster, attracting criticism from Jewish groups, Catholic leaders and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A month after the Swedish interview went to air, the SSPX partially sanctioned Bishop Williamson by removing him from his position as the head of a seminary near Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Bishop Williamson was suspended by Pope Benedict until he repudiated his denial of the Holocaust.

In 2012, Bishop Williamson was expelled from the SSPX, for distancing "himself from the leadership and the government of the Saint Pius X Society . . . and refusing to show respect and obedience deserved by his legitimate superiors".

Now, following this month's episcopal consecration, according to Rorate Caeli, a new penalty of excommunication will fall upon Bishop Williamson and those he consecrates.

A second episcopal consecration by Bishop Williamson in Brazil has also been rumoured.

Fr Faure, who was ordained a priest by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1977, left the SSPX in 2013.

Sources

• Rorate Caeli
• Jewish Daily Forward
• The Telegraph
• Image: BBC