Dialogue toward reconciliation will continue between the Society of St. Pius X, which operates St. Mary’s Academy and College in St. Marys, and the Vatican, Catholic bloggers report. Earlier this month, Andrea Tornielli, the Vatican reporter for the Italian daily Il Giornale, revealed the contents of the Roman Catholic Church’s latest overture to the SSPX, which the late Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre started in 1970 as a response to the Second Vatican Council.
Lefevbre and his followers objected to Vatican II’s documents on religious freedom, ecumenism and a switch to celebrating Mass in the local language instead of Latin.
In order to assure the SSPX had leadership after his death, Lefevbre in 1988 consecrated four bishops without the authorization of Pope John Paul II, who had warned Lefevbre not to do so through then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI.
When Lefevbre proceeded, the Vatican excommunicated him and his four bishops, which include the current SSPX leader Bernard Fellay.
Since 2000, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos has engaged in off-and-on attempts to bring the SSPX back into the Roman Catholic fold, including the latest which, Tornielli reported, asked from SSPX a positive response to five conditions by June 30.
Although Bishop Fellay, secretary general of the SSPX, described that as an “ultimatum” and in a sermon said it was an effort by the Vatican to get the SSPX “to shut up,” he did respond before the deadline.
Both secular and Catholic news services used words like “rejects” and “snubs” in describing the SSPX response, but in his Wednesday blog, Tornielli, said Fellay’s response was sufficient to continue talks.
Father John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist Catholic blogger, provided this Enlish translation of the comment by Tornielli, which were published in Italian:
“I have learned from a certain source that, contrary to what has emerged in certain articles, the response of the (SSPX) to Cardinal Castrillon’s letter has not been at all negative. The cardinal was pleased with it, responded to Fellay and immediately passed the SSPX’s letter to Benedict XVI. Beyond the deadline of the end of June, the Lefebvrites asked for some time — it seems — to seek a way to adhere to the five points.”
Zuhlsdorf added what Tornielli wrote “is consistent with what my own sources have sent me.”
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