SSPX: What Rome Gets (Update from Rocco Palmo's sources)

WITL ^ | February 14, 2006 | Rocco Palmo

[NYer]

Andrea Tornielli runs his summary of yesterday's meeting in today's Il Giornale, reporting that the summit ran "several hours."

The summit of the dicastery heads "did not solve the argument," Tornielli writes, saying that a second meeting of its kind -- scheduled for 23 March -- "represents a novelty in the Vatican and indicates that the Pope intents to listen to and value the work of his collaborators in the Curia, just as he did when he led the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," while at the same time not letting slip one bit of his own desision-making authority.

Tornielli relates that two notable interventions were made.

According to the report, the first came from Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments who, according to Il Giornale, said something along these lines: that "freeing the Old Mass" in the hoped-for universally mandated wide sense (i.e. Roman legislation which gives no degree of discretion to the bishops in their local churches) "is not possible," while it remains necessary that some sort of "instrument" can be found in light of the request of the faithful disposed to the Pian Rite. The advocated solution was said to be "a new indult... which explicitly repeats to the bishops the appeal voiced long ago by John Paul II, who told them to be 'generous' towards the Traditionalists." And, as part of the conditions, priests who celebrate the Old Mass would be obliged to, "at the very least," participate in the concelebration of the (Novus Ordo) Holy Thursday Chrism Mass with their bishop.

The other side was, predictably, taken by Cardinal Dario Castrillion Hoyos, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and president of Ecclesia Dei (which handles the implementation of the indult) who has been the Holy See's point man on discussions with the SSPX. According to Tornielli, Castrillion took the line that Bernard Fellay did in his August audience with Benedict XVI -- that the Holy See "cancel" the excommunications "as Paul VI did when meeting with the Orthodox," at which point the mutual excommunications of 1054 were simultaneously expunged.

Lastly, after several weeks of reports -- broken here -- of what the Society would receive in exchange for its return to communion with the Catholic church: the nullification of the excommunications, autonomous juridical status, etc., Tornielli runs for the first time what Rome would demand from the Society in exchange, according to Castrillion's line of argument.

In sum, it would involve three consents and acknowledgments from the Society's leadership:

1. The acceptance of the Second Vatican Council (seemingly as a valid ecumenical council whose decrees carry weight in terms of Tradition, as opposed to a simply pastoral one which lacked force).
2. Obedience to the Pope
3. The validity of the postconciliar liturgy

And there you have it.... More as it comes in.

[Frank Sheed]

Vatican remains quiet on Pope's high-level consultations

Vatican, Feb. 14 (CWNews.com) - Vatican officials remained quiet today about the issues discussed at a February 13 meeting between Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) and the leaders of the Roman Curia.

The primary topic for the high-level meeting was reportedly a plan to regularize the status of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), the traditionalist group that broke from Rome in 1988.

Prior to the meeting, Vatican sources had indicated that the Holy Father was pushing for reconciliation with the SSPX. Pope Benedict reportedly wanted to solicit opinions from the Roman Curia regarding a plan to establish a special canonical structure for the traditionalist group (such as an apostolic administration or a personal prelature).

The plan may also have included Vatican responses to two demands made by SSPX leaders: that a decree of excommunication be lifted for the bishops illicitly ordained by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and that all priests be given the right to celebrate Mass using the old Tridentine rite.

After the February 13 meeting, however, Vatican officials decline to comment on the plan, or to relay the discussions that had taken place. The Italian media carried only one substantive (but unconfirmed) report about the outcome of the media, saying that the Pope would meet with Curia leaders again on March 23, presumably to continue the discussions.