The response of the Pope to the doctrinal preamble presented by the SSPX has been presented to Bishop Fellay. If he agrees to whatever the Pope’s response is, the deal is done.
The dialogue between the Holy See and the Lefebvrians has reached a crucial point. Having carefully examined the content of the doctrinal preamble including the modifications requested by the Society of St. Pius X, Benedict XVI has allegedly taken a decision and communicated it to Cardinal and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, William Levada, and the dicastery’s secretary, Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, during an audience with them last Saturday.
*[Update:] French religious news agency I.Media confirms the information that the Superior General is in Rome and adds the following (it is now 1430 in Rome):
The Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX), Bp. Bernard Fellay, was called to the Vatican to meet, in the afternoon of June 13, 2012, the officers of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), I.Media has learned. Following this meeting, the Prefect of this Dicastery, Cardinal William Levada, will deliver to the FSSPX authority the conclusions of Benedict XVI at the end of the discussions aiming at bringing the Society to full communion with Rome. [Via Le Salon Beige]
June 13, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Praying for reconciliation, I have many friends in SSPX who are straying far from Rome in their hearts. I pray they reunite before its too late to return.
June 13, 2012 at 3:43 pm
The feast of St. Anthony. Pray that these souls may not be lost!
June 13, 2012 at 4:10 pm
Leticia, Your friends are not "in" the SSPX unless they are priests, even if they may assist at mass at one of their churches. I have done this from time to time myself, and have found the priests to be loyal to the Catholic Church and the Pope. They do not think well of the "spirit of Vatican II" but rarely mention it. How many here can say they think the Church is better because of VII? Since V II was not a dogmatic council, this not necessarily evidence of "straying from Rome" in their hearts or otherwise. I know many of their adherents who truly love and are faithful to the Church, but deplore the damage done by the descent into modernism that has occurred in the last fifty years or so. I know that your experience may be different, but I do not think that it is widespread. Amy, the bishops have had their excommunications lifted by Pope Benedict. The priests were all validly ordained, anyway. The CDF wrote a letter some years ago saying that assistance at an SSPX mass fulfills the Sunday mass obligation (this was before the lifting of the excommunications). So even if there is no reconciliation, there is no reason to believe that souls are not being lost only for assisting at an SSPX mass, if they are not intending to be in schism. The same is true of their priests. There is a huge misunderstanding around this deliberately created by liberals in the Church who hate tradition. I personally hope that there is a full reconciliation, but I also hope that it is not the beginning of the end for them as it has been for other traditional groups, who have come into full communion and then are immediately required to celebrate the Novus Ordo mass or conform to some modernist belief or practice. The SSPX have done so much to keep tradition alive. If it is God's will, may they continue! I will pray for this. I hope others will to. Kitt
June 13, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Correction: I was not the CDF but the Ecclesia Dei Commission who gave permission to assist at an SSPX mass. I think it was written around 2003 by Cardinal Hoyos. Kitt
June 13, 2012 at 4:26 pm
@Anonymous which Traditional groups were forced to say the Novus Ordo? The FSSP still only say the Tridentine liturgy, regardless of the size of their chappels. The Society of St John imploded and killed itself; no need of any "help" from the Vatican or liberals there. The former Anglicans are not being forced to celebrate the Novus Ordo. Bringing the SSPX to the conclusion that the Novus Ordo is indeed valid would not force them to celebrate it.
As an aside, the Opus Dei crew never opted to adopt the Tridentine liturgy, even though their founder never celebrated the Novus Ordo…not once. Cowards? Maybe the SSPX will force them to draw a line in the sand as to whether or not they really ARE a traditional order or if it's just a bunch of marketing.
June 13, 2012 at 5:00 pm
praying for unity! maybe some Orthodox are next to come back (I can dream….)
June 15, 2012 at 5:52 pm
It is not accurate that St Josemaria "never celebrated the mass using the Novus Ordo". He did…once and never again, but many of their priests do one or both, usually doing the Novus Ordo in latin (internally) but ALWAYS reverently and beautifully.
I came to the church hearing the Novus Ordo in Latin and reverently in English. SSPX has been wrong, HAS been distancing themselves from the church, but should always been commended for sticking to tradition (generally as a group) by their desire for communion and a desire for fidelity and unity with Rome. For the vast majority of SSPX guys, their heart was mostly in the right place, and so were their minds. But they are humans like all of us, so they made the regrettable error that they are working to fix now. I pray for their quick, total, and eternal reunification to the Church, and for them to continue their faithfulness to tradition and the truth as well they humanly can, and with God's help, toward perfection.
June 17, 2012 at 6:28 am
TODAY’S GALATIANS
“O you senseless Galatians,” cries out St Paul (Gal.III, 1), tearing a strip off one of his beloved flocks that was back-sliding, or wanting to go back from the New Testament to the Old Testament so as to satisfy Judaizers that would make them serve again “under the elements of the world” (IV, 3). It is remarkably easy to apply the Apostle’s tirade to the Traditional Catholics who are presently being tempted to slide back under Conciliar authorities so as to satisfy Nostra Aetate. But then it is the same world, flesh and devil, so with apologies to St Paul, let me adapt some verses from the Epistle to our own times:–
“O you senseless Tradcats ! Who has bewitched you, that you should not follow the Tradition of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as it has been set before you ? This only would I learn of you: have you been leading Catholic lives for several years thanks to Vatican II, or thanks to Catholic Tradition ? Are you so foolish that having experienced the fruits of Tradition you now want to give it up by putting yourselves back under the Conciliar authorities ? Were all those fruits in vain (III, 1-4) ?
“I am astonished that you are so soon drifting away from the line of Archbishop Lefebvre who called you into the grace of Christ, and instead towards the new gospel of Vatican II, which is no gospel at all, but these modernists are troubling you, and they want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But if ourselves or an angel from Heaven were to try to tell you that the Council was not really that bad, throw him out and don’t listen ! Let me say it again: anyone pretending that the Archbishop would have been in favour of a deal today with Conciliar Rome should be thrown out ! Whose interests are we seeking ? Are we trying to please the Romans or to please God ? If these Romans liked me, I would be no servant of Christ ! (I, 6-10).
“Before you came to Tradition you were serving under churchmen who were turning the Church over to the world. But now, after you found Tradition, how can you be wanting to go back with the world, under the Conciliar authorities (IV, 8,9) ? Am I become an enemy of the SSPX because I tell the truth ? Those misleading you pretend to be looking after your interests, but they want you to forget about the Archbishop so as to serve their own interests (IV, 16,17). Stand fast, and do not come under the sway of the Council again (V, 1). You were doing well. How can you now be letting yourselves turned away from the Truth ? Whoever is doing this to you is no servant of God ! I do believe you will come to your senses, but whoever is misleading you bears a grave responsibility. Do you think I would be so persecuted if I was preaching the world ? Whoever is corrupting Tradition needs the knife for more than just circumcision (V, 7-12) !
“Those wanting the SSPX to go through Vatican II B are merely trying to avoid being persecuted for the Cross of Christ. They want you to be worldly, keeping only the outward appearances of Tradition. They want back in with the Judaizers in Rome, but God forbid that I should want anything other than the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world. Whoever follows Tradition in this way, peace be to them, and mercy (VI, 12-16).”
Now read St Paul’s own Epistle. Let nobody pretend that the Word of God no longer applies !
Kyrie eleison.
*
June 17, 2012 at 6:32 am
Bishop Tessier Sermon, Winona Consecrations, June 15th, 2012:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Q71vLJ7Ww&feature=colike
*
June 17, 2012 at 9:05 pm
I think in this situation both sides are to blame. First the Vatican in the early 1970's under Pope Paul could have exempted them from having to say the New Mass (like Padre Pio was) but did not as well as John Paul II's excommunication of them. But on the other hand the Society itself mostly Lefebre called Pope Paul a Modernist and they think in terms of a Old Rome and a New Rome.