CATHOLICISM
The end of the excommunication
For lefebvristes?
Having retied the dialogue with the Brotherhood of Mgr. Lefebvre, the pope intends to raise the excommunication which strikes lefebvristes for 18 years.
Monseigneur Lefebvre ( SIPA)
The pope Benoît XVI intends to raise the excommunication which strikes since about 18 years the leaders of the priestly Brotherhood Saint Pie X, traditionalist Catholics hostile to the innovations of the Council Vatican II, brings back(reports) the Italian every day life(daily paper) Il Giornale.
The Milanese newspaper clarifies that the Supreme Pontiff is going to gather(reunite) in mid-February his main councillors " to discuss the possibility of raising the excommunication " who strikes the bishops ordered illegally by Mgr. Marcel Lefebvre, the French founder of the Brotherhood died in 1991.
Vatican made no comment for the moment.
Last August, for the first time since the schism of 1988, the dialogue had been retied between Vatican and the Brotherhood Saint Pie X. The pope had granted(tuned) an audience, in his summer place of residence of Mansion Gandolfo, to the superior general of the Brotherhood, Swiss Bernard Fellay, the successor of Mgr. Lefebvre.
Present in 59 countries
Based in 1987, the Brotherhood denounces(cancels) the "modernism" and the " dogmatic erring ways ", according to her, which followed the Council Vatican II at the beginning of the 60s.
Strong of four bishops, 480 priests, present in 59 countries, she(it) marks her(its) affection in the " mass of always ", in Latin, and do not hide his(her,its) aversion for a " ecumenism which establishes in fact the equality of the religions " and symbolized by the meeting of Sat(Based) in January, 2002.
The decision of Mgr. Lefebvre to crown bishops, whose break with Rome and the excommunication of the " rebel priests " Bernard Fellay, in June, 1988 to Ecône ( Switzerland), without the approval of Vatican, pulled(entailed).
After the interview of Mansion Gandolfo last August, organized at the request of Mgr. Fellay, Vatican quite as the Brotherhood had underlined their will to pursue the contacts.
"Panzerkardinal"
Benoît XVI, when he was still only the cardinal Josef Ratzinger, had appeared to the Council Vatican II as a liberal theologian. He then evolved towards more conservative theses, in the point to see itself decked out by his detractors of the nickname of "Panzerkardinal".
He however reaffirmed his commitment in favour of the dialogue between the religions, as his meetings with Protestant, Jewish and Moslem responsibles illustrated him(it) recently, during the world Days of the Youth in Cologne.
Franz Schmidberger, a priest of the Brotherhood who also met the pope, declared the last year to Il Giornale that the crisis between the traditionalists and Rome was attributable in the " numerous distortions arisen from the Council and in a certain way of including the ecumenism and the freedom of religion ".
On at least a point, that of the mass in Latin, said of "Saint-Pie V", the traditionalists have good hope to obtain a softening of the position of Vatican. Since 1965, a special license of the bishop is necessary to celebrate this mass.