http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/lefebvriani-40072/03/28/2015
The Society of St. Pius X dismisses Rome’s hopes as too optimistic Negative reaction to statements made by Bishop Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission «Ecclesia Dei»
ANDREA TORNIELLI VATICAN CITY
The big freeze persists between the Vatican and the group founded by Marcel Lefebvre. A clear indication of enduring opposition after the negative reaction of the Society of St. Pius X to the words of Bishop Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Council “Ecclesia Dei”, who in an interview with IMedia, spoke of “internal problems” within the Lefebvrian group and said that “it will take some time for them to resolve things internally”. He went on to say that their superior, Bernard Fellay “can obtain a large enough consensus before going ahead” with the reunification in full communion with the Catholic Church.
After the illegitimate consecration of a new bishop on 19th March in Brazil by Richard Williamson – one of the four bishops ordained in 1988 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without a Papal mandate, infamous for his h0Ɩ0cαųst denial and expelled from the Society of St. Pius X in 2012 – the Society have issued a statement saying that it does not recognise his act.
This was seen as a positive step by the Vatican. The statement also contains a reminder that both Williamson and the newly ordained Jean-Michel Faure “are not members of the Society of St. Pius X as of 2012 and 2013 respectively
due to the harsh criticism they had formulated against any relations with the authorities in Rome.”The statement goes on to say that “the Society of St. Pius X condemns the episcopal consecration of Don Faure who,
despite the claims of the consecrator and the consecrated, is in no way connected with the consecrations in 1988. All declarations made by Mons. Williamson and Don Faure effectively prove that they no longer recognise the authorities in Rome, unless in a purely rhetorical manner”.Following these events, which indicate internal tensions between the followers of Mons. Lefebvre (as the expelled Williamson also refers to himself), Bishop Pozzo, who closely follows the contact between the Holy See and the Society, was responding to questions about the current situation. The process of dialogue and discussion initiated in 2000 by John Paul II made further progress under Pope Benedict XVI, who tried to appease the Society and agreed to certain conditions set by Fellay: namely the liberalisation of the Tridentine mass according to the missal in use in 1962, before the reforms followed at the Council (2007); the lifting of the excommunications imposed latae sententiae in 1988 on the four bishops ordained by the Society’s founder, Lefebvre himself.
The latest move by Lefebvre was to dismiss the words of Bishop Pozzo as too optimistic and react with hostility to his statement about “internal” conflict in the Society. This despite the fact that the problems and tensions are irrefutable, as confirmed by the expulsion of Williamson and others, who accuse the Society and its leaders of being too yielding to Rome, even though there have been no accords.
The Holy See had proposed an introductory agreement to Fellay for him to sign: after accepting their two preconditions and following lengthy doctrinal discussions, Pope Ratzinger had asked the Society of St. Pius X to accept a reading of the Second Vatican Council according to the hermeneutics of the reform in continuity. The Vatican had also studied a canonical form for the Society, which would have been transformed into a personal prelacy, ultimately depending on the Pope, and which would have preserved the use of the Tridentine Mass.
These latest statements highlight once again that the real problem in the relations between the Vatican and the Society is not the interpretation of the Council, but the Council itself: the Society seems to regard some of its docuмents as unacceptable. But those docuмents were voted for practically unanimously by all the bishops of the Catholic Church (in many cases by Lefebvre himself) in communion with and under the guidance of Pope John Paul VI.
If the final, real condition for an accord is for the entire Catholic Church in communion with the Pope to return to how it was prior to the Second Vatican Council and recognise that the Society of St. Pius X has been right all along in its doctrinal positions, the prospects of unity appear as remote as ever.