This important article was posted by Gabriel in another thread but its import was sadly lost amongst a barrage of facetious juvenility.

The journalist, Wensierski, is a friend and collaborator of "He who shall remain nameless" and Fr. Pfluger and is undoubtedly well-informed as to the content of Menzingen's response to NewChurch.

So here we have it - "The letter makes clear that conflicting positions on Vatican II is "not decisive" for the future of the Catholic Church. In short, the Society of St. Pius X is no longer demanding that the Vatican II reforms be repealed".

Spiegel Online International
04/16/2012

Healing a Schism
Vatican and Breakaway SSPX Seek Common Ground

By Peter Wensierski in Rome


For decades, the ultra-conservative Society of St. Pius X has been on the outside of the Catholic Church and looking in. Now, with Pope Benedict XVI intent on healing the schism, the group -- known as SSPX -- has written a letter that could pave the way for an agreement.

For the pope's 85th birthday on Monday, his own brother showed up in Rome empty handed. But the brothers of the controversial Catholic splinter group Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) were more generous. They sent a letter -- and its contents may be the greatest gift yet to the papacy of Benedict XVI. The pope has long wanted to heal the schism with the SSPX and bring the conservative followers of the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre back into the fold. That hope may now become reality.

The Catholic traditionalist Lefebvre founded the SSPX in 1969 in answer to the reforms pushed through by the Second Vatican Council, also known as Vatican II, earlier that decade. The group has grown to include tens of thousands of followers and hundreds of priests -- a "painful wound in the body of the church," Benedict XVI has said.

Even when SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson made global headlines in 2009 by publicly denying the h0Ɩ0cαųst, the pope remained steadfast. Indeed, talks between the Vatican and the SSPX continued a short time later once Williamson, a native of Great Britain, had been marginalized. Now, it looks as though an agreement may be imminent.

Not everyone in the church is likely to be pleased by such a rapprochement. Liberal and left-leaning Catholics have long been opposed to the idea of allowing the SSPX back into the fold, granting them the right to once again consecrate priests and letting them celebrate mass according to the old rites. The Bishops' Conference of France is likely to protest as well. But the German pope Josef Ratzinger is determined.

Utmost Discretion

The friendly letter from the SSPX to Benedict XVI arrived at the Vatican during Easter. In the Vatican's Secretariat of State -- the source of several docuмents that were leaked in recent months in the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal -- has classified the SSPX letter as secret and the issue is being handled with the utmost discretion. It is only to be made public following the pope's birthday celebrations.

Sources say that the letter is currently being analyzed. Not everyone within the Secretariat is supportive of Benedict's desire to reunite with the SSPX. Currently, talks with the St. Pius brothers are focused on several outstanding details as well as the timing of the pending agreement.

Following lengthy negotiations between the Catholic Church and the SSPX regarding a possible reunification, the Vatican had requested a response by Sunday. Specifically, the SSPX was to rethink its strict opposition to the Second Vatican Council -- which began 50 years ago this year -- as well as "several doctrinal principles and criteria relating to the interpretation of the Catholic doctrine."

Cardinal William Levada, in his position as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had communicated the ultimatum to SSPX leader Bishop Bernard Fellay during talks at the Vatican and asked him to once again reexamine its positions.

The new letter is significant in that it seeks to tone down the conflict. Points of disagreement are no longer to be seen in terms of who is "more Catholic" than the other. The letter makes clear that conflicting positions on Vatican II is "not decisive" for the future of the Catholic Church. In short, the Society of St. Pius X is no longer demanding that the Vatican II reforms be repealed.

'God's Will Be Done'

Levada had demanded that Fellay sign a "doctrinal preamble" as a prerequisite for any further rapprochement. Yet despite what the SSPX calls Levada's "disagreeable tone," the breakaway traditionalists have "justifiable hopes for a satisfactory solution" -- particularly given that the healing of a division within the Church is at stake.

The German Cardinal Josef Becker, an advisor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a participant in the talks with the SSPX, said recently that it is difficult to find common ground in the positions held by the Catholic Church and the Society of St. Pius X. But, he added, each side must "try to understand" the other. He also said that the Church must re-examine all Vatican II texts to understand them from today's perspective.

SSPX leader Fellay, for his part, recently made a request of his followers. In light of the letter he recently sent to the pope, he asked them to "double their fervor and magnanimity in prayer and sacrifice in these holy days and during the weeks following Easter, so that God's will be done."

Maximilian Krah (Facebook)

Quote:
Activities and Interests
Other Columbia University, Thomas de Maizière, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Angela Merkel, London Business School, KDStV Chursachsen, 116. Mittelschule Dresden, Kreuzgymnasium, Columbia University, Columbia Business School Executive MBA Program, LinkedIn, Mittelstandsvereinigung der CDU Dresden, CDU Dresden, Hotel Sacher, Josef Ackermann, Agent Provocateur, Joachim Gauck, Exzellenz für Dresden, Junge Union Dresden, Junge Union Sachsen & Niederschlesien, Lufthansa, Lufthansa Senator Status, The Oratory of S Philip Neri in London (Brompton Oratory), Pushkin Cafe, Russian Ministry for Economic Development, Sankt Petersburg, Moscow, Patrick Schreiber, GUT JAIDHOF, DesignerHeels, vorne-sitzen.de, Ipad 2, Boris Johnson, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, EINSTEIN KAFFEE Dresden, Bobby Jindal, Friedrich Merz, Columbia Business School, Russian Standard Deutschland, gerne-katholisch.de, EB&Flow, CDU Dresden - Ortsverband Zschachwitz, CallaJet.de (Privatjet Charter Broker), German Embassy Washington, CDU-Fraktion Sachsen, Bishop Bernard Fellay, Henryk M. Broder, The Economist, Support German Troops, Donald Rumsfeld, Dmitri Shostakovich, Wir wollen Guttenberg zurück, DER SPIEGEL, Nicolas Sarkozy, Royal Opera House, Semperoper, FÜR Stuttgart 21, Benedikt XVI, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, SPAM, CDU Hamburg, EMBA Global Asia 2012and 47 more

In an exchange with a Facebook friend of Max Krah, 'Dumb Ox' stated

Quote

Certainly you have no idea, Alice.

No idea at all.

By the way, Alice; as you publicly admit that you are a Facebook Friend of The Crow, and as you also raise the subject of "invitation to 'Like'" items posted on his Facebook account, I trust that a fine Catholic lady such as yourself will not mind me asking whether, following The Crow, you also 'liked' the full-frontal photograph of the naked lady posing on the hotel balcony?

She is a stunner isn't she!

Do you wonder, as I wonder, whether the nuns and teenage Catholic girls at the SSPX school in Germany that The Crow manages should be warned about The Crow's Facebook "likings" of such things as the "erotic sadomasochistic" film, as Nine-and-a-Half Weeks is described at Wikipedia, photographs of naked women posing for the camera, or even the Agent Provocateur "sexy" Lingerie company that advertises "whips"?

Should we not tell them, Alice? The Crow is a ""really nice guy", after all.

Maximilian Krah said ...
Dear Mr. Schneider, the SSPX is since it was founded in 1970 as a sect abused, what has so far at least slowing its spread most, but not prevented. Why the change in the event that the negotiations drag on, should be is not clear. And, neither Rome nor Menzingen have an interest to cancel the contact. So it's just a question. Agreement or further negotiations now I hope to reach an agreement. There is no "unique selling proposition", because the charm of the SSPX is not in the canonical unsettled situation - which is more of a burden, albeit a portable - but in the traditional pastoral care, catechesis and liturgy. The groups that operate here like the SSPX, but are regularized, have all the feed, the trouble with Rome, there is no need for it. But other groups are holding significantly less than the SSPX, which is the focus of the whole "traditional sector" and therefore, logically, for the entire "field" has held the spiritual lead.



14th March 2012 15:05