A former official at the Vatican office responsible for reaching out to Catholic priests in schism with the church over the Second Vatican Council has been returned to the post.
Guido Pozzo, a curial official who was made an archbishop in the interim period, is once again the secretary for the pontifical commission “Ecclesia Dei.”
Archbishop Pozzo has already served as secretary of the Pontifical Commission, from July 8, 2009 to Nov. 3, 2012.
He had been removed from the commission to become head of the Office of Papal Charities, where he has served until his re-appointment as Ecclesia Dei secretary Aug. 3.
Ecclesia Dei was founded in 1988, months after the head of the Society of St. Pius X illicitly consecrated four bishops, a “schismatic act” according to the document of Blessed John Paul II establishing the Pontifical Commission.
The office is meant to facilitate “full ecclesial communion” of those associated with the Society “who may wish to remain united to the Successor of Peter in the Catholic Church.”
Since the 2007 motu proprio of Benedict XVI providing for a more liberal use of the liturgy as it was said prior to the reforms of Vatican II, the Ecclesia Dei has also served those who have a special dedication to this traditional form of the Roman liturgy.
On July 2, 2009, Benedict XVI linked the Pontifical Commission to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, noting that the problems in dialogue with the Society of St. Pius X were “doctrinal in nature.”
A traditionalist organization of priests, the society is known for sharply criticizing the council, a 1962-65 meeting of the world’s bishops that led to wide reforms in the Catholic church.
During his first stint at the pontifical commission, the archbishop participated in a number of discussions with members of the Society of St. Pius X on their possible formal reunification with the church.
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