Posted on 12/21/2011 2:15:10 PM PST by NYer
The traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has delivered its official response to a Vatican offer for reconciliation, but the response is not what the Holy See expected, reports leading Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli.
Last week the SSPX submitted a response to the “Doctrinal Preamble” that was presented to the traditionalist group in September as the possible basis for a reconciliation with the Holy See. The document allowed for some amendment or clarification, but the Vatican made it clear that the SSPX would be expected to accept the essence of the statement, acknowledging the authority of Vatican II, before the traditionalist group could be regularized.
Bishop Bernard Fellay, the head of the SSPX, had already disclosed that the group would not accept the Doctrinal Preamble as it stands. His public comments seemed to indicate that the SSPX would suggest amendments to the document. (The text of the Doctrinal Preamble has not been made public. Bishop Fellay explained that it will remain confidential until a final decision has been made.)
However, according to Tornielli, the formal response submitted by the SSPX to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is neither an agreement nor a proposal for changes in the document. Tornielli suggests that the SSPX response seems to be a bid to gain some extra time for internal discussions, because Bishop Fellay—who appears to be leaning toward an accord with the Holy See—faces stiff opposition from hard-line traditionalists within the group.
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Ping!
The SSPX folks need to get with the program. This footdragging isn’t helping.
What can they HOPE to achieve with this footdragging? Sympathy? An edge? What?
I don't get it.
I hope that there is a way to get agreement with the SSPX but I am thinking that this is going to be difficult for a number of reasons.
Many of the members of the Society who had a willingness to accept V2 came over back in ‘88 with the founding of the FSSP. What’s left are the uber-traditionalists.
It doesn’t help that many (most probably) bishops are fighting Summorum Pontificum with passive resistance and by imposing further requirements not in the original motu proprio.
Furthermore, while most of the bishops at V2 likely didn’t intend the chaos and wickedness in the Church in the post-conciliar years; but when reading the council documents, it’s clear that they left enough room for this to happen. Coupled with weak leadership from Paul VI, the infiltrators and liberals had a grand old time taking a wrecking ball to the pre-conciliar church.
I can’t say I blame the SSPX for being cautious.
As the SSPX is neither unprincipled nor Protestant, they shouldn't do this.
Wrong. The novus ordoites need to get with the program.
Not how it works, sorry. I’m a convert. The SSPX folks have to come over, just like I did. They don’t get to tell the church how to run things until they agree to serve the Pope.
I don’t see any reason why they should be treated any different from me. The Pope has been very generous and fair, but he’s not getting the reaction that comes from those who are sincerely willing to come over.
“Not how it works, sorry. I’m a convert. The SSPX folks have to come over, just like I did. They don’t get to tell the church how to run things until they agree to serve the Pope.”
We you became Catholic, did you officially “agree to serve the Pope” or agree to obey the creed? Many occasions in Catholic history, obeying the creed required opposing the pope. Now is one of those times.
The SSPX will remain in “imperfect communion” with the Holy See until the Second Coming if the Old Believers’s schism in the Russian Orthodox Church sets any precedent.
The latter are still protesting against liturgical and disciplinary changes that were made in 1666-67.
Let us pray that is not the case.
>>Coupled with weak leadership from Paul VI,<<
And JPII who didn’t help much with leadership. He isn’t getting his sainthood on his leadership abilities.
I agreed to do two things -
to Obey the Creed, and God’s ministers here on earth, of whom the Pope is the head.
It is not one or the other, but both.
Are the SSPX willing to accept that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, and the universal head of the Church? Until then, there is no union.
The SSPX seem to want to have their cake and eat it to, they must do as all the rest of us did.
“Are the SSPX willing to accept that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, and the universal head of the Church?”
Yes, actually they do. That is one of the many reasons I think that caused the Pope to lift the excommunications and to engage in these intramural discussions.
I was a protestant. I do not believe that the reasons that Luther left are extant to the Church today. I decided it was time for me to come back to Rome.
I don’t have any sympathy for the SSPX folks. Yes, obedience is hard, but if I can come over, so can they, and they grew up with the Church, while I did not.
“...but if I can come over, so can they,...”
Come over from where? They are Catholic. The reason they are in this series of discussions is in obedience. What are you claiming, that they are NOT Catholic?
Then it is time for them to come over into the fulness of the church, and to cross the rubicon.
Yes, it’s scary. I remember my confirmation. I could have turned aside. I could have chosen to go in a different direction, but I chose to take that uncertain step forward, and leave my doubts and misgivings behind.
“Then it is time for them to come over into the fulness of the church, and to cross the rubicon.”
You appear to be claiming that the SSPX are NOT fully Catholic. Why?
Then why are they footdragging, if they, by their own admission, see nothing wrong with the decision of the Pope, but want more time?
If there is nothing wrong with the Pope’s decision, then it is time. We need to be one, together in Christ, and not divided.
“Then why are they footdragging, ...”
What do the speed of the discussions have to do with you or the Catholicity of the SSPX?
“If there is nothing wrong with the Pope’s decision,...”
What decision of His Holiness are you referring to? The Motu Proprio acknowledging that the SSPX has been right these many years and that the Tridentine Mass was NEVER suppressed? Or the decision by the Holy Father to lift the excommunications acknowledging that the SSPX clergy are actually, in fact, not excommunicated?
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