"The doctrinal Preamble has been delivered to Monsignor Fellay and to the superiors of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, so that they can examine it and provide a response, which we hope will be a favourable, positive and affirmitive one." "It is always possible to ask for clarifications which we will be sure to give within a reasonable period of time. I think it is out of place to dwell on the problem of what will happen if the difficulties are judged to be serious."
These were the words of the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Monsignor Guido Pozzo, to whom Benedict XVI entrusted the "negotiations" for the much hoped for reentry of Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre's followers into communion with the Catholic Church.
"Whoever is Catholic body and soul", the prelate explained to Gloria TV microphones, "can live fully and well in the Catholic Church, wherever the Catholic Church exists and grows."
This, he clarified, "is not just a statement of principle, it is an existential affirmation that corresponds to the reality of the Catholic Church."
And even though he admits that "some difficulties do exist, partly because of the critical situation in which many Catholics find themselves in this and other countries," Monsignor Pozzo is optimistic about the success of the path of reconciliation with the traditionalists who ran into Lefebvre's schism, a path the Pope wished to begin three years agowith the motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum".
This liberalises the use of the old Latin missal and allows a pardon to be given, remitting the excommunications of the four bishops whom Lefevre himself had consecrated illicitly.
"I don't believe, the interviewer recalled, that any cases of this kind have ever arisen at any time in history and so the answer is very simple: whoever is truly and completely Catholic, not only has the right to be in the Catholic Church, but lives well in it and is happy being part of it."
The Secretary of the Pontifical Commission of Ecclesia Dei believes the widepread "upset stomachs" that the Pope's decisions have caused, are the result of "a widespread prejudice against the liturgy celebrated according to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite."