The Catholic News Agency (CNA), however, quoted Mueller as saying hope must be maintained for full communion between the Society of St. Pius X and the Catholic Church.

"I'm always confident in our faith and optimistic. We have to pray for goodwill and for unity in the Church," Muller reportedly told Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register in September.

The news came amid reports that the archbishop said there would be no further talks with the traditionalist society, after an interview with North German Radio which was aired October 6.

The Register's two-part interview was posted online Oct. 2 and 4.

Mueller's comments to North German Radio were the first from the Vatican on deadlocked talks meant to reintegrate the Society of Saint Pius X into the Church after a 21-year schism.

In the radio interview Mueller said: "I don't believe there are now any more new discussions."

"We can't leave the Catholic faith at the mercy of negotiations. There are no compromises there," he said.

He, however, added that "In a pastoral sense, the door is always open", adding it is now up to Pope Benedict XVI to decide which position to take with regards to the movement.

The Society of St. Pius X, which claims about 150,000 followers around the world, broke away from the Catholic Church in 1970 and established a seminary in Écône, Switzerland.

The movement wishes to have the traditional Latin mass restored, and rejects the Church's approach to religious freedom and ecumenism.

Relations with the Vatican have been strained since French bishop Marcel Lefebvre defied orders from Pope John Paul II in 1988 and consecrated four bishops.

This led to Lefebvre and the bishops being excommunicated. The excommunication was remitted in January 2009.

In recent weeks, SSPX leaders have indicated a two-year series of talks with the Vatican had hit an impasse because Rome's insistence that they accept reforms of the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council was a deal breaker for them.

Since becoming pope in 2005, Benedict has met the head of the society, promoted the old Latin Mass it champions and lifted excommunications imposed on the group's four bishops.

Sources

• CNA/EWTN News
• Reuters
• RFI English
• Image: CNA

Three conditions for SSPX reconciliation with Rome have been revealed in a letter from its secretary-general, Father Christian Thouvenot, to regional superiors.

Part of the first condition is "The freedom to accuse and even to correct the promoters of the errors or the innovations of modernism, liberalism, and Vatican II and its aftermath".

Before the SSPX letter was made public, the newly installed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Mueller, had declared: "The assertion that the authentic teachings of Vatican II formally contradict the tradition of the Church is false."

Archbishop Mueller is also president of the pontifical commission "Ecclesia Dei", the Vatican body responsible for dialogue with the Society of St Pius X.

The archbishop said he is optimistic about SSPX reconciliation, but the teachings of the Church — including the dogmatic content of the Second Vatican Council — will never be up for re-negotiation.

"An ecumenical council, according to the Catholic faith, is always the supreme teaching authority of the Church," he said.

Archbishop Mueller explained that different texts of Vatican II hold different levels of teaching authority, and distinctions should be made between pastoral pronouncements and authoritative doctrinal statements. "Whatever is dogmatic can never be negotiated," he said.

Two other conditions in Father Thouvenot's letter — which is not the SSPX's official reply to the Holy See — are the right to use the traditional liturgy exclusively and the right to have at least one bishop — neither of which is seen as a stumbling block to reconciliation.

The letter also expressed the desire for a separate ecclesiastical court of the first instance; the exemption of SSPX houses from diocesan bishops; and a pontifical commission "for the tradition", with the majority of the members and the president in favour of tradition.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Vatican Insider

Image: Monks and Mermaids

With the appointment of Müller, who is one of the harshest critics of the Society of St. Pius X in Europe, hopes for a reproachment and eventual recognition of the Society are practically dead. It is hard to believe that there could ever be an increase of understanding and good will between this man and the Society. It is not only due to Müller's criticism of the Society in Germany (which is headed by one of the Society's most moderate regional superiors, no less), but also because of Muller's extremely liberal and Modernist theological opinions.

This is a man who has quite openly denied the dogma of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, transubstantiation, the universal salvific nature of the Catholic Church, and is also an enthusiastic supporter of Liberation Theology.

Müller should be investigated by the CDF, not given control of it!

This fact will not be lost on the leaders of the Society in their upcoming general chapter, but more than this, Müller's appointment ensconces a lock-step refusal to question any of the troublesome tenants contained in some documents of the Second Vatican Council.

As a diehard ecumenist, who questions the universal salvific nature of the Catholic Church, only a naïve fool would expect any measure of openness to a criticism of post-conciliar ecumenism or religious freedom on the part of Müller.

Sources

• UCA News — used with permission
• Image: Dominus mihi adjutor