[Slugworth]

It definitely benefits the Church to excude from communion those who offend her unity by denying her teachings or her authority.

Have you read Ecclesia Dei in its entirety, or did you read it the way you read Canon Law? Read paragraph 6c:

"...respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition,

That's me. Respect my feelings.

by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962."

The bishops have, in large part, defied this papal directive - to make the Tridentine Mass widely available. If they are in open defiance of the Pope, they are schismatic & excommunicated, by your own definition.

[steadfastconservative]

I've read Ecclesia Dei but I wonder if you have. Paragraph 3 is particularly important since it states specifically that Lefebvre and the four bishops committed a schismatic act. You stated earlier that the decree merely implied that their act was schismatic.

Although Par. 6 c does call for a wide and generous indult to be given to the older form of the rite, you cannot equate any bishop's failure to grant this indult with the defiant act of disobedience to the pope that Lefebvre committed. The earlier document that Ecclesia Dei references, "Quattuor abhinc annos" (Oct. 3, 1984), permits bishops to grant the indult to groups who request it but does not require them to do so. Ecclesia Dei is clearly exhorting bishops to be more generous in granting the indult but it is not requiring them to do so. It may be argued that a bishop who does not grant the indult is failing to abide by the spirit of these directives, but it cannot be argued that he is guilty of defying the pope's authority or that he has committed an act of schism.

Really, your arguments are absurd.