A joint panel of experts set up to study relations with the ultraconservative Roman Catholic Society of Pius X met in the Italian capital, Rome, on Monday, the Vatican said.The Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson is a member of the Pius X society, which rejects key reforms passed by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
The "Ecclesia Dei" panel met "with the aim of examining the doctrinal differences still outstanding between the Society and the Apostolic See," said the Vatican statement.
It described the climate of the panel's first meeting as as "cordial, respectful and constructive" and said it identified "the main doctrinal questions".
Religious freedom, the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council reforms, in keeping with Catholic doctrinal tradition, the unity of the Church and ecumenism and the relationship between Christianity and non-Christian religions are among the issues to be studied by the joint panel in weekly or even twice-weekly meetings over the next few months, the panel said.
In January, Pope Benedict XVI provoked outrage from Jews and Catholics worldwide by lifting the earlier excommunication of the Saint Pius X society's four bishops, including Williamson, who has denied the World War II Nazi Holocaust when six million Jews were exterminated.
The Vatican subsequently rejected the ordination of priests by the hardline Catholic fraternity and reiterated that it had no status within the Catholic church.
Benedict's predecessor Pope John Paul II excommunicated Williamson and three other bishops.
The move came after traditionalist leader and Fraternity of Saint Pius X founder Marcel Lefebvre ordained them as bishops of his separatist church in 1989.
The fraternity rejected reforms passed by the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, including a declaration which ended a church doctrine under which the Jews were held responsible for killing Jesus Christ.
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SIC: AKI