The Vatican summons the head of the Lefebvrists

On September 14, Bishop Fellay with the Holy See will discuss a possible agreement

Andrea TornielliVatican City

Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Lefebvre, has been summoned to the Vatican next 14 September. It is the first summit after the doctrinal talks last year in Rome, where there were clashes between the Holy See and Lefebvrian
delegations.

As readers will recall, since 2009 the Commission Ecclesia Dei, which deals with the Society of St. Pius X, has been incorporated in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and it has been entrusted to the leadership of Monsignor Guido Pozzo.

The doctrinal discussions, which addressed all of the nodes considered problematic by Lefebvre, who believes that, in some places, the Second Vatican Council represents a break with the tradition of the Church, have been concluded in recent months.

Now the Vatican should subject to Fellay some memoranda of understanding, clarifying doctrinal points, as for the Council, on the interpretation of the continuity in the reform suggested since December 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI as the more authentic interpretation of the texts of Vatican II.

A proposal for a canonical adjustment will be submitted to the Society only if doctrinal difficulties are overcome, and that will resolve the current situation, in which the Lefebvrist community finds itself now.

Although the Pope, in a gesture of goodwill, nullified the excommunication of the four bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in January 2009, bishops and priests of St. Pius X still live in a state of canonical irregularity.

The proposal which has been studied by the Vatican, would allow Lefebvrists the establishment of an ordinariate similar to that offered by the Pope has to Anglicans who wanted to come into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. In this way, the Fraternity would depend on the Holy See (and specifically on the Ecclesia Dei Commission) and could retain its characteristics without having to answer to the diocesan bishops.

The meeting of 14 September, that Vatican Insider is able to confirm, therefore, represents a new step in the journey of these troubled years. But it is premature to provide conclusions: in fact, it is known that within the SSPX there coexist different sensitivities and some consider difficult to reach an agreement.

It should be noted that Pope Ratzinger, who wanted to close the Lefebvre mini-schism, has already completed two very significant steps in the direction requested by the Fraternity: he has liberalized the old pre-Conciliar Missal and has lifted the excommunications in force since 1988.

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