Some (negative) news on the Lefebvrite front

My friend John Thavis in Rome has a CNS story entitled: Lefebvrite bishop says no progress on reconciliation with Vatican. Click here for the whole thing.  My emphasis.

EXCERPTS:

"I think probably the pope would like things to go quicker, and he’s probably facing a lot of opposition from the cardinals, from within," Bishop Fellay said Aug. 24.

In the interview, Bishop Fellay said the group had sought as a "sign of good will" the restoration of the Tridentine rite, the liturgy that was replaced after Vatican II. He said the Vatican should simply declare that the Tridentine rite can be used freely because it was never really abrogated.

"This would bring lots of graces, so it would be a help. We certainly say it would be a step, but it is not the whole thing," he said.

Bishop Fellay made clear that the society’s differences with the Vatican were broad. In the society’s view, he said, the church has experienced a "great, great decline" over the last 40 years — in liturgy, discipline, faith formation and education.

"We have pointed out to the authorities that a big part of the problem may come from the novelties introduced with the council," he said.

The question is not so much what the church should do about the Lefebvrite society, he said, but how the church should solve these more basic internal problems.

"We are absolutely persuaded that when church authorities take these problems in hand, then we will no longer be a problem," he said.

 

Okay… well… it is hard to disagree with any of that, is it?

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7 Comments

  1. Certainly, it’s hard to disagree with what they say here. However, at least in the view of Church doctrine, isn’t the problem with SSPX the fact that they won’t obey orders from Rome? If the Church does in fact “solve these more basic internal problems” (which it needs to do, preferably sooner than later), the obedience and fidelity of the SSPX will still be the question. They seem to be saying here that the *Church* will no longer find a problem with *them* after cleaning up its act, implying that the sole problem is on the part of the Vatican.

    On another note, does anyone else find it interesting that the whole idea behind the universal rite established by the Council of Trent was to unify the Church in the face of the Protestant Reformation, ensuring that the faith and life of the Church was regulated throughout Christendom, yet in recent decades we have introduced many new rites into the Catholic Church? Not only do we have the Novus Ordo and the Tridentine, but we have the Anglican rite and the Eastern rites. A group of Lutherans are currently seeking to be reconciled with Rome and to use their own “Lutheran rite.” I’m not so sure this “diversification” is a bad thing — after all, the universal Church includes an amazing array of spiritualities — but I wonder if we shouldn’t keep an eye out for a modern reformation triumvirate (the sequel to Calvin, Luther, and Zwingli).

    Just a thought.

  2. Norman says:

    I view his remarks with a good deal of scepticism. The SSPX simply continues to engage in propaganda about “modernist Rome” and “eternal rome”, their imagined legitimacy and the spurious “state of necessity” and so on without taking any steps on their own towards reconciliation.

  3. Jon says:

    Regarding the indult side of this equation; just wait till October. And pray. Pray hard.

  4. Jon: Yes, and especially to the Guardian Angels of all those involved in the decision making. Together under the direction of the Holy Spirit, may they bend what is rigid and warm what is cool.

  5. Henry Edwards says:

    In the society’s view, he said, the church has experienced a “great, great decline” over the last 40 years—in liturgy, discipline, faith formation and education.

    Surely no one can disagree with “the society” on this. No one who’s lived in the same world with the rest of us these last 40 years.

    “We have pointed out to the authorities that a big part of the problem may come from the novelties introduced with the council,” he said.

    Though perhaps it might be more accurate to say “after the council” rather than “with the council”?

    The question is not so much what the church should do about the Lefebvrite society, he said, but how the church should solve these more basic internal problems.

    Indeed, what to do with the SSPX is surely pretty trivial compared with “these more basic internal problems”.

  6. mjh says:

    There is a problem with the illicit ordination of bishops, one of whom presumes to dictate terms to the leadership of the Catholic Church.

  7. efinerty says:

    Why October?

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