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An ultraconservative group plans to ordain 13 Roman Catholic priests in Minnesota — even though their elevations likely won't be recognized by the Vatican. The St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, part of the Society of St. Pius X, will host the ordinations of 12 U.S.-based priests and another from France in Winona on Friday. The Vatican says ordinations by the society aren't legitimate, even though Pope Benedict XVI recently lifted the excommunications of its leaders. The society was founded by those opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council and especially its outreach to Jews and other religions. The...

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH concerning the remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre ( Rome , March 10, 2009) Dear Brothers in the Episcopal Ministry! The remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre without a mandate of the Holy See has for many reasons caused, both within and beyond the Catholic Church, a discussion more heated than any we have seen for a long time. Many Bishops felt perplexed by an event which came about unexpectedly and...

Here, now, is the full text of the Pope's letter regarding the lifting of the SSPX excommunications itself, which has already been published in the most prestigious and reliable German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in an NLM translation: Dear brethren in the Episcopal ministry! The lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 without a mandate of the Holy See has led, both within and outside the Catholic Church, for a variety of reasons, to a discussion of such vehemence as we had not experienced for a long time. Many bishops felt at...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has written a letter to the world's bishops defending his decision to lift the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops and expressing regret that it gave rise to misunderstandings and polemics, according to Italian newspapers. The pope said the controversy over Bishop Richard Williamson's statements denying the extent of the Holocaust was "a misadventure that was for me unforeseeable" and acknowledged that the Vatican should have paid more attention to information easily available on the Internet, the reports said. The pope said he was particularly saddened at the reaction of some Catholics who seemed...

Points to Unity as "Explicit Duty" of a Pastor VATICAN CITY, JAN. 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is offering a personal explanation for his decision to remove the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops ordained without papal permission. The Pope spoke today at the general audience of the decree made public Saturday, which lifted the excommunication of four prelates of the Society of St. Pius X, illicitly ordained to the episcopate by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988. The move has been criticized as an affront to Jewish-Catholic relations because one of the four, Bishop Richard Williamson, told an interviewer that he...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Two newspapers say Pope Benedict XVI has decided to lift the excommunications of four bishops consecrated 20 years ago by the late French ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.Lefebvre rebelled against the Vatican's modernizing reforms of the 1960s, including replacing Latin with local languages at Mass.Benedict has already reached out to the rebels in the hopes of bringing them back into the Church by making it the old Mass more readily available.The Italian newspapers Il Giornale and Il Riformista said Thursday that Benedict has now decided to meet their demand that the excommunications be lifted. The newspapers said,...

According to multiple reports from reliable Vatican-watchers, Pope Benedict XVI will soon lift the decree of excommunication imposed upon four traditionalist bishops who were consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988. Italian journalists report that the Pope's action will be made public within a matter of days. The move would be a major step toward reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). SSPX leaders-- including the bishops living under the decree of excommunication-- have consistently stated that before ending their break with the Holy See, they would insist on the removal of that excommunication and the...

Vatican City, Jan 22, 2009 / 10:18 am (CNA).- Andrea Tornielli, the Vatican expert of the Italian daily "Il Giornale" announced today that Pope Benedict XVI has decided to revoke the decree of excommunication of the four bishops consecrated by French Bishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, creating a schism in the Catholic Church.The suspension of the excommunication of the Lefebvrist bishops has been making the rounds of several conservative blogs, mostly in Spanish, since Monday. "The decree, which the Pontiff has already signed, will be published around the weekend. Therefore, the superior of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, Bernard Fellay,...

Rome, Jan 13, 2009 / 01:54 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who died in 1991 and was excommunicated for ordaining four bishops in 1988 without the Pope’s permission, did indeed sign every document of Vatican II—the same documents he would later harshly criticize, according to a recent article in the Italian magazine Panorama. The article entitled, “In the Secret Heart of the Vatican,” written by Ignazio Ingrao, states that among the documents kept at the Vatican Secret Archives “are those of the Second Vatican Council, which unmasked an historic falsehood spread by the traditionalists,” led today by schismatic Bishop Bernard Fellay, who...

Conditions which result from the meeting of June 4, 2008, between Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos and Bishop Bernard Fellay 1. The commitment to a response proportionate to the generosity of the Pope. 2. The commitment to avoid every public intervention which does not respect the person of the Holy Father and which may be negative to ecclesial charity. 3. The commitment to avoid the claim to a Magisterium superior to the Holy Father and to not propose the Fraternity in contraposition to the Church. 4. The commitment to display the will to act honestly in full ecclesial charity and in...

Rome, Oct 30, 2007 / 01:05 pm (CNA).- In an interview with Italian journalist Paolo Luigi Rodari, the author of the blog “Palazzo Apostolico,” Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, said the schismatic movement demands not only a “correct interpretation” of Vatican II, but that the Council documents actually be changed. Fellay defended his fellow excommunicated bishop, Ricard Williamson, identified by some in the media as leader of the “intransigent wing” of the fraternity.  Fellay said, “Williamson and I are in agreement that it would be difficult to re-enter to the Church as it...

If there were ever a concrete demonstration that the traditionalist dimension of the Church tends, as I often say, to attract the sort of person who is happy only when he is unhappy, (but not exclusively, thanks be to God) it would be the The Remnant, a newspaper which is quite literally related to the paper for which I write each week, The Wanderer. As we can say with any paper, sometimes The Remnant gets it right and their articles are pretty insightful. Often, well… In another entry on this blog a commentor said something about an article by Christopher...

"Lefebvrists: the agreement is closer - The pact is ready, but Fellay has not yet decided" from Rome [Il Giornale - report by Andrea Tornielli] All is ready for the agreement between the Holy See and the Fraternity Saint Pius X, founded by the "rebel" Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The Vatican forwarded several weeks ago precise propositions to reach peace [a peaceful solution] and the reentrance of the Lefbvrists into full communion with Rome. The negotiations, begun in 2000, have, as is well known, accelerated after the election of Benedict XVI, who, last August received the superior of the Traditionalists, Bishop...

Integrism's Facade and the Magisterium By Stephen Hand “…we are witnesses today of a new integralism [read: extreme traditionalism] that may seem to support what is strictly Catholic but in reality corrupts it to the core. It produces a passion of suspicions, the animosity of which is far from the spirit of the gospel. There is an obsession with the letter that regards the liturgy of the Church as invalid [read: not legitimate or theologically suspect] and thus puts itself outside the Church. It is forgotten here that the validity of the liturgy depends primarily, not on specific words, but...

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 9, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI has appointed three new members to the commission that is working for a return to full communion for members of the Society of St. Pius X. The three appointed to the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" are Cardinals William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux and president of the French episcopal conference; and Antonio Cañizares Llovera, archbishop of Toledo and primate of Spain. The commission's president is Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy. The Commission "Ecclesia Dei" was instituted...

Il Papa vuol togliere la scomunica ai seguaci di Lefebvre - di Andrea Tornielli - Andrea Tornielli da Roma La notizia corre online, sui siti Internet tradizionalisti. Qualcosa si muove nelle relazioni tra la Fraternità San Pio X e il Vaticano: presto il Papa potrebbe far cadere la scomunica che ha colpito i vertici del gruppo fondato dal monsignor Lefebvre, che conta quattro vescovi, 480 preti e centinaia di migliaia di fedeli in tutto il mondo. E qualcosa si muove davvero: la mattina di lunedì 13 febbraio, alle 10.30, Benedetto XVI ha convocato nel palazzo apostolico una riunione con i...

So the Saint Pius X Fraternity announced the audience given on 29 August by Benedict XVI to the Superior Monsignor Fellay. 30Days had a telephone conversation with the successor of Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre in the headquarters of the Fraternity, in Menzingen, Switzerland. ... What reasons pushed you to ask for an audience?    FELLAY: First of all love for the Church. And then the fact that there is a new Pontiff, and it was natural for us to ask for an audience to reverence and pay homage to the new Successor of Peter, our Pope. That was the first reason. Then in...

The Vatican has, in the past few weeks, been involved in two different exercises of fence-mending. One front was that opened with traditionalist Catholics after Vatican II. The other front was the very recent breach with Israel. The latter seems to be the easier one. It was nothing more than "a storm in a teacup", said the Apostolic Nuncio to Israel, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, when describing Israel's recent diplomatic incident with the Holy See. These comments refer to July's conflict that arose when representatives of Israel's government publicly accused Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI for not having condemned...

Pope Benedict XVI met with the head of the ultraconservative movement founded by the excommunicated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre on Monday amid a renewed push to bring the "schismatic" group back into Rome's fold.Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the meeting between the pope and Monsignor Bernard Fellay, secretary general of the Society of St. Pius X, was held "in a climate of love for the church and a desire to arrive at perfect communion.""While knowing the difficulties, the desire to proceed by degrees and in reasonable time was shown," Navarro-Valls said in a statement.Lefebvre founded the Switzerland-based society in 1969, which...

CASTELGANDOLFO, Italy: Pope Benedict XVI, who has made reconciliation among Christians a priority of his pontificate, will on Monday meet the leader of a schismatic group of ultra-traditionalists, according to a statement by the group. The Vatican has neither confirmed nor denied that the meeting will take place, but if it does it could be the first step to bringing the defiant traditionalists back into the Catholic fold, observers said. Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, based in Econe, Switzerland, will meet the Pope at his country residence here, the Fraternity said in...