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With the much-anticipated "doctrinal dialogue" between the Holy See and the Society of St Pius X soon to get underway in Rome, the recently de-excommunicated head of the traditionalist group has taken to showing his cards: “The solution to the crisis is a return to the past,” [Bishop Bernard Fellay] has told a magazine published by the SSPX in South Africa. Fellay said Pope Benedict agrees with the SSPX on the need to maintain the church’s links to the past, but still wants to keep some reforms of the Second Vatican Council. “This is one of the most sensitive...

Fr. Federico Lombardi Rome, Italy, Sep 23, 2009 / 02:11 pm (CNA).- The director of the Holy See’s press office, Father Federico Lombardi, denied again today that Pope Benedict knew Bishop Richard Williamson held Holocaust diminishing beliefs before the Pontiff lifted the excommunication of the Pius X Society bishop. Such charges only “lead to creating confusion for no reason,” he said. Responding to questions from journalists about a Swedish TV report scheduled to air Thursday night, the Vatican spokesman said today that there is “absolutely no basis for stating or insinuating that the Pope had been informed beforehand.”Father Lombardi also...

WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPT. 21, 2009 (Zenit.org)- Sometimes there are no fireworks. Turning points can pass in silence, almost unobserved. It may be that way with the "Great Schism," the most serious division in the history of the Church. The end of the schism may come more quickly and more unexpectedly than most imagine. On Sept. 18, inside Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer palace about 30 miles outside Rome, a Russian Orthodox Archbishop named Hilarion Alfeyev, 43 (a scholar, theologian, expert on the liturgy, composer and lover of music), met with Benedict XVI, 82 (also a scholar, theologian, expert on the...

Doctrinal negotiations between the Vatican and the ultra-traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) are due to start “in the next few days,” according to Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, and Rome will not “let the Lefebvrists off easy for everything.” In particular, he told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper in Bavaria over the weekend, “the SSPX will be told very clearly what is not negotiable for the Holy See. This includes such fundamental conclusions of the Second Vatican Council as its positions on Judaism, other non-Christian religions, other Christian churches and on religious freedom as a basic human right.” Here...

The success of future talks with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) depends to a great extent on whether the parties can come to an understanding about Vatican II. The questions are not new: even after the Lefebvrite schism the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei has discussed the disputed points with traditionalist believers. But how are we to understand the requirement that someone should take up unreservedly a position based on the Council? Moreover the demand for complete acknowledgment of all the conciliar documents is made by people who for their part are far from complying with this demand. The...

Because of the good progress of the last few years with the SSPX, His Holiness has now taken the next, logical step. Pope Benedict has now implemented what he said he would do concerning the ad hoc Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei".  He has fused it into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, making the Prefect of the CDF, ex officio, the Commission’s President and retaining the office of a Secretary and giving it also staff. The Pope did this by means of a new Motu Proprio, Ecclesiae unitatem, signed on the anniversary of the establishment of the PCED...

Do Vatican II’s teachings on ecumenism and religous liberty really conflict with Traditional Catholic teaching? In his first Envoy article on traditionalist apologetics [see “All Tradition Leads to Rome,” Volume 4.6], canon lawyer Pete Vere identified seven common arguments offered by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) in defense of their schism, and how he overcame these objections during his journey back to the Catholic Church. Some readers responded that this schism, initiated by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, isn’t merely about the Latin Mass. The SSPX also takes issue with the Second Vatican Council, particularly on the...

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...

ZE09061510 - 2009-06-15Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-26184?l=englishPius X Society: Restructuring of Ecclesia Dei Imminent Faces Threat of New Excommunications in Germany By Kris Dmytrenko TORONTO, Canada, JUNE 15, 2009 (Zenit.org).- An announcement that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will now oversee discussions with the Society of St. Pius X is imminent, says the society's general superior. Bishop Bernard Fellay revealed to ZENIT that the congregation told him to expect the publication of a statement issued "motu proprio" (on his own initiative) by Benedict XVI on the new structure of Ecclesia Dei before June 20. The bishop confirmed that he met...

Vatican City - The Vatican said Wednesday is would consider "illegitimate" any attempts to ordain new priests by an ultra-traditionalist Catholic group involved in a recent row over Holocaust denial. In a statement, the Vatican quoted a letter by Pope Benedict XVI addressed in March to Catholic bishops, in which he stated that members of the renegade Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) would be barred from official roles within the Church unless they agreed to fully abide with its teachings. Such teachings included the so-called Second Vatican reforms of the 1960s, when local languages replaced Latin in the mass...

OXFORD, England – Officials in the Diocese of Regensburg, Germany, have said plans by the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X to ordain new priests without Vatican consent at a local seminary will lead to their excommunication. “This will be uncanonical, since they have no entitlement to conduct their own ordinations,” said diocese spokesman Jakub Schotz. “Our bishop is waiting for Rome to advise on how to respond. But it will almost certainly result in the excommunication of the priests and the bishop who ordains them,” Schotz said. The spokesman was reacting to an announcement by the society that it...

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...

MENZINGEN, Switzerland, MARCH 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the communiqué released Thursday by the superior-general of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay, which responds to the March 10 letter sent by the Pope on the situation regarding the society. * * * Pope Benedict XVI addressed a letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, dated March 10, 2009, in which he made them aware of the intentions which guided him in this important step which is the Decree of Jan. 21, 2009. After "an avalanche of protests was unleashed" recently, we greatly thank the Holy...

Pope Benedict XVI addressed a letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, dated March 10 2009, in which he made them aware of the intentions which guided him in this important step which is the Decree of January 21, 2009. After "an avalanche of protests was unleashed" recently, we greatly thank the Holy Father for having placed the debate at the level on which it should take place, that of the faith. We fully share his utmost concern for preaching to "our age, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out...

Not that it's the least bit surprising or even inaccurate, but here is how the Pope's letter is being presented by many media outlets (from Google):• "Text of pope letter in which he acknowledges Vatican mistakes in ... - Los Angeles Times• "In Letter to Bishops, Pope Admits ‘Mistakes’" - New York Times• "Pope admits mistakes over Holocaust-denying bishop" - AFP• "Pope Admits to ‘Mistakes’ in Handling of Holocaust Denier" - Bloomberg• "Pope acknowledges Vatican mistakes in bishop case" - The Associated Press• "Pope: We should have Googled Holocaust bishop" - CNN International (Really? He mentioned "Google" in his letter?...

In our days, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel, the overriding priority is to make God present in this world and to show men and women the way to God. Not just any god, but the God who spoke on Sinai; to that God whose face we recognize in a love which presses "to the end" (cf. Jn 13:1) – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen... The remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre without a...

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...

A letter of Pope Benedict XVI to all Bishops of the world on the removal of the excommunication of the Bishops of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX) and on all aspects involving the subsequent problems related to Bishop Richard Williamson is set to be released tomorrow (Thursday). Several Italian news sources provide some excerpts of the letter this morning, and we will provide a translation as soon as possible.

The Society of St. Pius X and Vatican II: Where's the Beef? Christopher A. Ferrara REMNANT COLUMNIST, New Jersey Doctrinal Council?(Posted 03/05/09 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) The letter of February 3, 2009 from the four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X to Pope Benedict XVI contains a commendable expression of gratitude to the Pope for his “paternal  kindness and for the apostolic courage” he displayed in lifting the excommunications of 1988. It did indeed require apostolic courage for the Pope to make a gesture so clearly opposed to the one thing the world demands of the Pope these days: conformity...