Traditionalist SSPX Calls Vatican Offer ‘Clearly Unacceptable’

Religion News Service ^ | 6/26/12 | Alessandro Speciale

[marshmallow]

(RNS) A breakaway traditionalist Catholic group on Monday (June 25) slammed as “clearly unacceptable” a Vatican doctrinal document that was supposed to lay the foundation for the group's reconciliation with Rome.

The move comes after three years of complex negotiations between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), and was revealed just as Pope Benedict XVI appointed a high-profile American archbishop to a key post to oversee relations with traditionalists.

A letter by the Rev. Christian Thouvenot, secretary general of the SSPX, to SSPX bishops and regional leaders was leaked on the Internet on Tuesday (June 26). Thouvenot later confirmed its authenticity.

The letter says that the SSPX superior general, Bishop Bernard Fellay, told the head of the Vatican doctrinal office, American Cardinal William J. Levada, that “he couldn't sign” the Vatican's doctrinal offer during a meeting on June 13.

Benedict has actively sought reconciliation with the group since his election to the papacy in 2005. In 2009, he lifted the excommunication of the four SSPX bishops and started doctrinal talks in the hope of healing a decades-old rift within the Catholic Church.

The negotiations led to a Vatican proposal that was delivered to Fellay last September. The “Doctrinal Preamble” was aimed at overcoming the doctrinal differences between the Vatican and the group, which rejects the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), including church acceptance of ecumenism and religious freedom, and its rejection of anti-Semitism.

In his letter, Thouvenot writes that Fellay proposed his own version of the Preamble last April which, “according to several agreeing sources,” seemed to “satisfy the Supreme Pontiff.” But he added that cardinals in Levada's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith "amended" the text and it "now reintroduces, substantially, the propositions of September 2011.”

During his June 13 meeting.........

[allmendream]

“its rejection of anti-Semitism”

Yep, that was enough for the likes of Mel Gibson's father to break away from the Catholic Church!

And unless the Church is willing hop on board the anti-Semitism train - it is unlikely that there will be any reconciliation!

[icwhatudo]

From the comments section:
“I would imagine that the Pope sees the astounding injustice in banning an organization which fully accepts all Councils and all Church teachings up until 1960, while at the same time keeping in full communion those who REJECT all Councils and all Church teachings BEFORE 1960: sometimes including the Divinity of Christ, the Real Presence in the Eucharist, the reality of sin, etc. Compared to such issues “ecumenicalism”—whatever that even means—is small potatoes.”

[Shadow44]

I have to admit I am sympathetic to traditional Latin Mass groups, which made me somewhat open to the idea of reconciliation.

Then I saw the kind of vitriolic statements against Jews by some of the clergy. They deserve to be estranged.