Chances of reconciliation between the traditionalist Society of St Pius X and the Vatican look slim.
Father Paul Morgan, a district head in Britain, said in a November newsletter that despite recent talks between society leaders and Vatican officials, the group is far from agreeing to Rome’s proposal.
On September 14 at the Vatican presented SSPX General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, points of doctrine that the Vatican needed clarified before finally healing the decades-long rift between the two sides.
Initial talks left reconciliation open, however Fr. Morgan’s recent comments showed their dissatisfaction with the Vatican’s preamble.
The main issues with the document is it “contained all those elements which the society has consistently rejected, including acceptance of the new Mass and of Vatican II as expressed in the new catechism.”
Morgan wrote in his newsletter that “the document itself conveys the impression that there is no crisis in the church and those at the meeting were of the view the preamble was clearly unacceptable.
“Time has certainly not come to pursue any practical agreement as long as the doctrinal issues remain outstanding,” Morgan said.
Fr. Morgan said the group agreed at the meeting that the society should continue pressing its doctrinal stance in talks with the Vatican due to “Rome’s persistence in the modern errors.”
Morgan also also took issue with Pope Benedict’s recent interfaith prayer gathering in Assisi. He called the event a “scandal” which “replaces faith with religious liberty as the means to obtain world peace.”
Society leaders, however, were quick to distance themselves from Fr. Morgan’s remarks and the newsletter was removed from the group’s website.
The Society of St. Pius X was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve in 1970 as a response to what he described as errors that had crept into the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council.
Source
- CNA
- Image: Sancte Pater