Zaitzkofen, Germany - A controversial group of Catholic traditionalists ordained three priests in Germany Saturday despite warnings from local bishops that they had no right to do so.

The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) made headlines earlier this year when Pope Benedict XVI ended the excommunication of four of its leaders. It has ordained its own priests in recent weeks in ceremonies in the United States and France.

The ordinations were carried out at an SSPX seminary in the Bavarian town of Zaitzkofen, where an SSPX bishop, Richard Williamson, made remarks last year questioning the scale of the Holocaust.

The local Catholic bishop of Regensburg earlier accused the group of defying his authority.

Father Stefan Frey, head of the seminary, told 1,500 guests Saturday, "We deplore the verbal bullying we have been receiving in recent days from several German bishops."

The Vatican also said in advance that the ordinations would not be permissible under church law. SSPX is formed of people who reject modern developments in Catholic practice.

Frey said the Vatican, unlike German church representatives, had not demanded that SSPX priests cease administering Catholic sacraments.

Frey conceded that SSPX was still operating in what he called a "grey area" under church law.

Swedish, Polish and Swiss seminarians aged 26 to 30 were declared priests in the Saturday ceremony.

SSPX opposes changes introduced to Catholicism by the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, including detente with Judaism and a conversion of worship from Latin to vernacular languages.

The pope has urged the SSPX to rejoin the church, but has been assailed by other Catholics for allowing the traditionalists to use old, anti-Jewish prayers. (dpa)