Judgement day has come for Lefebvrians and the Vatican

[Dawn Marie]

Judgement day has come for Lefebvrians and the Vatican

Fellay with some priests and faithful

Tomorrow morning, the Holy See will deliver a two page document to Bishop Fellay, which the Fraternity of Saint Pius X will have to make a decision about

Andrea Tornielli
vatican city

 

The relationship between the Lefebvrians and the Holy See is a decisive step “of no return”, as the Holy See describe it. The superior of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay will enter the Palace of the Holy Office accompanied by his collaborators, the abbot Niklaus Pfluger and abbot Marc-Alain Nely.

 

Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Monsignor Guido Pozzo will be there to greet them.

Vatican Insider has learnt that the Lefebvrian superior will be handed a two page document, containing the Church’s appraisal of the doctrinal discussions held in recent months between the Vatican and the Fraternity, approved by the Pope. It is an altogether brief but accurate document, which contains the answers to the problems raised in the discussions regarding the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council’s texts on religious freedom, ecumenism and ecclesiology.

Monsignor Fellay, who so far, has not been implicated in the discussions, as the Frateriny’s superior, does not yet know the content of the document that will be submitted to him. The former Holy Office will be asking him to take his time in evaluating it and to then offer a response within a reasonable space of time, if not immediately. In short, the Lefebvrians will have to adopt a position: they can ask the Holy See for further clarifications but they cannot beat around the bush any longer.

 

The Holy See considers the acceptance of the document as an essential condition for full communion, which would also provide for a legal settlement for the Fraternity founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, probably through the constitution of a similar ordinariate to the one expected for the Anglicans.

Readers will recall that in recent years, Benedict XVI has taken a number of important steps to heal the mini – schism caused by Lefebvre with the illegitimate Episcopal ordinations that took place in 1988.

 

The Fraternity had agreed to resume discussions on two conditions, which it put to Rome: the first was the liberalisation of the old preconciliar missal; the second was that the excommunications would be revoked.

 

Pope Ratzinger implemented liberalisation using his own motto Summorum Pontificum (2007), then in 2009 he saw to the revocation of the excommunications of four bishops that had been ordained by Lefebvre. Unfortunately, the moment was tarnished by the so called “Williamson case”, which came about as a result of the shocking answers one of the four bishops, Richard Williamson gave in an interview, in which he denied gas chambers ever existed.

 

Now it is decision time: the Lefebvrians have met with the Holy See, the former have presented a set of problems regarding the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and now they are waiting for answers, in accordance with the conciliar hermeneutics proposed by Benedict XVI ever since the beginning of his Pontificate. As of tomorrow morning, the decision will be placed in the hands of the Lefebvrians. It is common knowledge that part of the Fraternity aspires to full communion while another part, Williamson included, tend to stress that it is impossible to reach an agreement with the post – conciliar Catholic Church.

 

The match taking place within the group of traditionalists, under Lefebvre, will not be an easy one. In the Vatican there are those who draw parallels between this and what has happened in recent times with Anglicans, who were offered an ordinariate by the Pope which allowed them to keep many of their traditions: “We accepted the comparison with Anglicans who wanted to enter into communion again with Roman Catholic Church. Those who did not want this were left out…”

 

[Dawn Marie]

prayers for tomorrow

[John-mary chijioke mbah]

Our mother of perpetual help, come to the aid of your children.