Pope Francis may
be on Verge of Deal with Pseudo Traditionalists
No
Surprise! Who didn’t see this coming???
Pope Francis may soon
offer the Society of Saint Pius X regular canonical status within the Catholic
Church without requiring acceptance of certain texts of the Second Vatican
Council with which they disagree, a prerequisite that heretofore had been seen
as a deal-breaker for the traditionalists.
It also appears the
society may itself be poised to take such a historic step, urging that “perhaps
only Pope Francis is able to take this step, given his unpredictability and
improvisation”, according to an internal Society of St. Pius X document that
was leaked to the press in recent weeks.
The Society of St. Pius
X is a breakaway group founded by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre,
who objected to some of the reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council
(1962-65), including the introduction of a new Mass in vernacular languages and
the broad expansion of ecumenical and inter-faith dialogue.
The memo, titled
“Considerations on the Church and the position of the Society of Saint Pius X
in it”, outlines six reasons why the group should accept an offer of
regularization by Pope Francis, provided “an appropriate ecclesial structure”
is ensured. It also addresses possible objections raised against such a move.
“It seems the time to normalize the
situation of the society has come,” the memo reads.
The document, dated
Feb. 19, was written by Father Franz Schmidberger, rector of the society’s
seminary in Germany. Schmidberger had served as superior general of the society
from 1982 to 1994.
In the memo,
Schmidberger asserts that the Vatican has been “gradually lowering its demands
and recent proposals, no longer speak of recognizing neither the Second Vatican
Council nor the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae,” referring to the
post-Vatican II Mass.
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‘Bishop Fellay the
Traitor!’
|
On April 10, Bishop
Bernard Fellay, the current superior general of the society, said before some
4,000 pilgrims in the French city of Le Puy-en-Velay that there is a “profound
change” in its relationship with the Vatican, triggered by the “dire situation”
of the Church: “in the midst of this disorder … comes this whisper: ‘No, we
cannot force you to accept the Council.’ They perhaps will not say it so
clearly, but they did indeed say it to us after all.”
Albeit carefully, these
assertions are to some extent matched by similar utterances from Rome.
Italian Archbishop
Guido Pozzo, secretary for the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei – the Vatican office of the responsible for
doctrinal discussions with the society – said in an April 6 interview with La
Croix that “as far as the Second Vatican Council is concerned, the ground
covered in the meetings over the past few years has led to an important
clarification: Vatican II can be adequately understood only in the context of
the full tradition of the Church and her constant magisterium.”
“Certain questions can remain ‘subject to
discussion and clarification’,” Pozzo added.
Similarly,
Schmidberger’s memo asserts that whilst the group would like to “return from
its ‘exile'”, further discussions would be expected: “We will not be silent, moreover,
we will point out the errors by name. Before and after our normalization.”
Reliable sources inside
the society have confirmed to CNA that the leaked memo from Schmidberger, which
apparently was meant for circulation among the leadership, is indeed authentic.
Comprising seven
sections and running to three pages, it concisely covers a summary of the
history of the relationship with Rome and an outline of arguments for a full
reconciliation, to the practical considerations of such a move. It even
includes a kind of “FAQ”-section, answering the most frequently raised concerns
of a reconciliation with Rome from the perspective of those in the society more
hesitant.
Schmidberger cited
several reasons that the time to regularize the canonical situation of the
society has some, including that fact that “any abnormal situation lends itself
to normalization.” He noted the danger in losing the realization that the
society’s situation is abnormal, and seeing it instead as normal: if the
priests of the society “feel comfortable in this situation of liberty with
respect to dependence on the hierarchy, then this implies a gradual loss of the
sensus ecclesiae.”
The memo also noted
that there are members of the Church’s hierarchy who are sympathetic, but that
they can only collaborate after regularization, and that the society will need
new bishops in the future and that licit consecration should be pursued.
In its conclusion, the
text argues that if “God wants to come to the effective aid of His Church,
which is bleeding from a thousand wounds, he has thousands of different means
of doing so. One of these is the official recognition of the SSPX through the
Roman authorities.” It then closes with a prayer for the intercession of the
Virgin Mary.
It has been speculated
that the normalization of the society would be accomplished by recognizing the
group as a “personal prelature,” a canonical structure which so far has only
been used for Opus Dei.
The society’s formal
break with Rome came in 1988, when Lefebvre and Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer
consecrated four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II.
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