The shot heard round the world.
According to Vatican Insider Andrea Tornielli, the SSPX has signed the doctrinal preamble paving the way to reconciliation with Rome. A momentous day.
ANDREA TORNIELLI
CITTÀ DEL VATICANOThe response of the Society of Saint Pius X has arrived in the Vatican and it is positive: according to the informal information gathered by Vatican Insider, Bishop Bernard Fellay would have signed the doctrinal preamble that the Holy See had proposed last September as a condition to reach full communion and canonical regularization.
An official confirmation of the received response should take place in the next few hours. From what has been learned, the text of the preamble sent by Fellay proposed some non-substantial modifications regarding the version delivered by the Vatican authorities: as it may be recalled, the same Ecclesia Dei Commission had not willed to make the document (of [only] two, yet complex, pages) public, precisely because the possibility remained of introducing eventual small modifications which would not, nonetheless, distort its meaning.
The preamble contains, subtantially, the “professio fidei”, the profession of faith [Rorate note 1] required of those who are put in charge of an ecclesiastical position. And it thus establishes a “religious submission of will and intellect” be given to the teachings that the Pope and the College of Bishops “enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium”, even if not proclaimed and defined in a dogmatic sense, as in the case of the greater part of the magisterial documents. The Holy See has mentioned repeatedly to her partners in the Society of Saint Pius X that signing the doctrinal preamble would not mean putting and end “to the legitimate discussion, study, and theological explanations of specific expressions or formulations present in the documents of the Second Vatican Council.”
Kaboom!
April 18, 2012 at 1:56 am
All smiles here and wooo-hooo-ing but it's not at all official yet. Still speculation!
I love our Papa and Bishop Fellay, don't you?
God bless them richly.
April 18, 2012 at 2:09 am
Pope Saint Pius X, pray 4 us!
Fantastic and welcome news!
Pray for the SSPX, much internal strife for them coming,but what welcome news for the Church!
God bless His Excellency Bernard Fellay and God Bless His Holiness THE GERMAN SHEPHERD!!!
April 18, 2012 at 2:21 am
This is so exciting. I have prayed so much for this to come to pass and cannot wait to hear official word of the clear beginnings of a resolution and path to regularization for the Society!!!
April 18, 2012 at 2:26 am
"In the end my immaculate heart shall triumph."
God bless the Society. Il Papa is sending the reinforcements.
April 18, 2012 at 2:52 am
I'm thrilled about this, but I still don't understand what the resolution will look like. I mean the SSPX essentially believes that the Church went off the tracks at Vatican II, and since then we've been borderline apostate.
How can you reconcile that with the teachings of the Church, and the position of Pope Benedict, which value Vatican II and see no such split?
April 18, 2012 at 3:55 am
Whooh-hooh!
April 18, 2012 at 7:41 am
If anyone knows, outside the actual circle of clergy, it's probably Tornielli.
Whoever his contact is (a priest? bishop?), he's not on my "go to" list for confession. Obviously, someone can't keep a secret to save his life.
April 18, 2012 at 12:58 pm
What Elizabeth said.