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<H2 class=date-header>Wednesday, January 21, 2009</H2><!-- Begin .post -->
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<H3 class=post-title>Welcome Home, SSPX? </H3>
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<DIV style="CLEAR: both"></DIV>Moving quickly along the wires comes word that, "within the coming days," the Holy See will lift the excommunications of the four bishops of the Society of St Pius X, whose illicit ordinations in 1988 by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre placed the top rank of the lead traditionalist group in <A href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/motu_proprio/documents/hf_jp-ii_motu-proprio_02071988_ecclesia-dei_en.html"><FONT color=#5588aa>formal schism.</FONT></A><BR><BR>The tag-team of Italy's most reliable Vatican scribes -- <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Il Giornale</SPAN>'s <A href="http://blog.ilgiornale.it/tornielli"><FONT color=#5588aa>Andrea Tornielli</FONT></A> and <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Il Riformista</SPAN>'s <A href="http://www.paolorodari.com/"><FONT color=#5588aa>Paolo Rodari</FONT></A> -- have both reported that a decree banishing the sanctions is "ready" and slated for imminent
release.<BR><BR>In his dispatch, Tornielli wrote that the pontiff is slated to use the "formula requested by [Bernard] Fellay" -- Lefevbre's successor at the Society's helm, with whom the newly-elected Pope met in summer 2005. Rodari added that the decree is to come from the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, signed by its president, Archbishop Francesco Coccopalmerio, at the Pope's expressed behest.<BR><BR>If executed, the development would bring to a close years of false starts and daunted hopes on the part of the Holy See, which has actively pursued the Switzerland-based group in the hope of reconciliation. The timing of the leaks -- and reports that the decision will likely be released before Sunday's 50th anniversary of John XXIII's decision to call what would become <A href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/"><FONT color=#5588aa>Vatican II</FONT></A> -- is enough to raise eyebrows; best
known for its adherence to the <A href="http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/TextContents/Index/4/SubIndex/66/TextIndex/17"><FONT color=#5588aa>pre-Conciliar Missal</FONT></A> or Tridentine Mass, the SSPX has, over time, objected to the Council's teachings on religious freedom, the nature of the church, ecumenical dialogue and <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Nostra Aetate</SPAN>'s reboot of the church's stance toward Judaism.<BR><BR>The Society has maintained that the 1962-65 gathering was a "pastoral" assembly as opposed to a dogmatic one, with one of its bishops, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, going so far as to call for the church to <A href="http://truerestoration.blogspot.com/2006/04/interview-with-bishop-bernard-tissier.html"><FONT color=#5588aa>"erase"</FONT></A> the Council.<BR><BR>"You cannot read Vatican II as a Catholic work," the cleric said in a 2007 interview with <A href="http://www.remnantnewspaper.com/index.htm"><FONT
color=#5588aa><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">The Remnant</SPAN>,</FONT></A> a traditionalist journal.<BR><BR>Two of Benedict's more distinctive moves on Peter's chair -- 2005's <A href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/december/documents/hf_ben_xvi_spe_20051222_roman-curia_en.html"><FONT color=#5588aa>programmatic speech</FONT></A> centered on the concept of a "hermenutic of continuity" and <A href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm"><FONT color=#5588aa><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Summorum Pontificum</SPAN>,</FONT></A> the 2007 <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">motu proprio </SPAN>relaxing restrictions on the use of the 1962 Missal -- bore the prominent stamp of seeking to satisfy the Society's qualms over returning to full communion.<BR><BR>The Vatican-Econe negotiations long overseen by Rome's lead delegate to the traditionalist communities, Columbian Cardinal Dario Castrillion Hoyos, the
last <A href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2008/06/in-last-best-offer-rome-puts-expiration.html"><FONT color=#5588aa>major effort</FONT></A> at reconciliation fell apart last summer after the Society reportedly gave no response to a series of conditions proposed by the Holy See, including its assurances that it would avoid "the pretext of a magisterium superior to the Holy Father" and "avoid any public intervention that does not respect the person of the pope and that could 'be negative for ecclesial charity.'"<BR><BR>The most likely scenario for a reconciled SSPX would seemingly involve the formation of a personal prelature or apostolic administration for the group, whose 700-plus chapels and six seminaries are spread across the globe. The Society counts close to 500 priests and 200 seminarians in over 60 countries.<BR><BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><A href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2009/01/welcome-home-sspx.html">http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2009/01/welcome-home-sspx.html</A><BR> </DIV>
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<DIV><EM><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000bf>Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.</FONT></EM></DIV></FONT></EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000bf><EM><FONT face="comic sans ms">Ps 42:1</FONT></EM></FONT></DIV>
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