According to a Spanish cardinal, the superior
general of the Society of St. Pius X once said that if the group's
leader had seen the Mass celebrated properly, he may not have broken off
from the Church.
Cardinal Antonio Canizares, prefect of the Congregation for Divine
Worship, made this statement on Jan. 15 in response to questions from
reporters after he delivered an address on Vatican II at the Spanish
Embassy to the Holy See.
“On one occasion,” Cardinal Canizares recalled, “Bishop (Bernard)
Fellay, who is the leader of the Society of St. Pius X, came to see me
and said, ‘We just came from an abbey that is near Florence. If
Archbishop (Marcel) Lefebvre had seen how they celebrated there, he
would not have taken the step that he did.’”
“The missal used at that celebration was the Paul VI Missal in its strictest form,” the cardinal added.
The Paul VI Missal contains the ordinary form of the Mass promulgated
after the Second Vatican Council and is one of the points of contention
that led to the schism with the Society of St. Pius X, founded by
Archbishop Lefebvre.
The Lefebvrists have insisted on continuing to celebrate the Mass
according to the missal promulgated by Pope John XXIII in 1962.
Cardinal Canizares later spoke with a reduced number of reporters and
further amplified his remarks about the Lefebrvists and the Paul VI
Missal.
He elaborated on the idea that if the schismatic archbishop had seen
the new Mass celebrated properly and reverently, he may not have
rejected it.
“Even the followers of the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop
Lefebvre, when they participate in a Mass that is properly celebrated,
say, ‘If things were this way everywhere there would have been no need
for what happened’ and for what really caused this separation,” he said.
The cardinal went on to explain that Vatican II offered more than simply changes.
“If offers a vision of the liturgy in continuity with the entire
Tradition of the Church and the theological reflection it makes about
the liturgy,” he said. “The changes are a consequence of this
theological reflection within ecclesial Tradition.”
To show that the liturgy should not be a cause for division, Pope
Benedict XVI published the Motu Propio “Summorum Pontificum” in 2007 to
establish universal use of the 1962 missal.
The Holy Father has taken several other steps towards reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X.
On Jan. 21, 2009, he lifted the excommunications imposed on the four
bishops ordained by Lefebfvre in 1988, including Bernard Fellay.
In doing so, however, he stressed that they should give “full
recognition to the Second Vatican Council,” as well as to the
magisteriums of the popes after Pius XII as a condition for full
communion.
In addition, Pope Benedict XVI gave the society the chance to end the schism in 2011 by accepting a doctrinal preamble.
In 2012, the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” charged with the
ongoing dialogue with the Society of St. Pius X, announced that the
society had requested “addition time for reflection and study” of the
proposed preamble.