COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE HOLY SEE: MEETING BETWEEN THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH AND THE FRATERNITY OF SAINT PIUS X
On September 14, 2011, at the office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a meeting was held between His Eminence, Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of this Congregation and President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, His Excellency, Archbishop Luis Ladaria, S.J., Secretary of this Congregation, and Monsignor Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, and His Excellency, Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, and Fathers Niklaus Pfluger et Alain-Marc Nély, General Assistants of the Fraternity
Following
the petition addressed on December 15, 2008, by the Superior General of
the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X to His Holiness, Pope Benedict
XVI, the Holy Father had taken the decision of lifting the
excommunication of the four bishops consecrated by Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre and to open at the same time doctrinal conversations with the
Fraternity, aiming to overcome the difficulties and the problems of a
doctrinal nature, and to achieve a reduction of the existing rupture.
Obedient
to the will of the Holy Father, a mixed study commission, composed of
experts of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X and of experts of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, assembled eight times for
meetings that took place in Rome between the month of October 2009 and
the month of April 2011. These conversations, whose objective was that
of presenting and examining the major doctrinal difficulties on
controversial themes, achieved their goal, which was that of clarifying
the respective positions and their motivations.
Given
the concerns and explanations presented by the Priestly Fraternity of
Saint Pius X regarding the integrity of the Catholic faith considering
the hermeneutic of rupture of the Second Vatican Council in respect of
Tradition - hermeneutic mentioned by Pope Benedict XVI in his Address to
the Roman Curia of December 22, 2005 -, the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith takes as a fundamental basis for a full
reconciliation with the Apostolic See the acceptance of the Doctrinal
Preamble which was delivered in the course of the meeting of September
14, 2011. This preamble enunciates some of the doctrinal principles and
criteria of interpretation of Catholic doctrine necessary for ensuring
fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church and to the sentire cum Ecclesia, while leaving open to legitimate discussion the study and theological explanation
of particular expressions and formulations present in the texts of the
Second Vatican Council and of the Magisterium that followed it.
In
the course of the same meeting, some elements were proposed regarding a
canonical solution for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, which
would follow the eventual and hoped-for reconciliation.
Updates to follow....
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