Lefebvrites to reconcile?

Vatican City -- More than 20 heads of congregations and pontifical councils attended a February 13 meeting here presided over by Pope Benedict XVI.

The Pope and other curial officials listened as Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos proposed possible solutions to the problems of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X. The Society, founded by the late Archbishop Lefebvre, rejects modern Catholic liturgical practices along with certain teachings of the Second Vatican Council. In 1988, Lefebvre together with other superiors in the group, was excommunicated by Pope John Paul II for illegally ordaining four bishops.

One of these bishops, Bernard Fellay, now the Society's superior-general, had a meeting with Pope Benedict in August 2005. While not opposed to reconciliation, the Pope is said to have "no illusions" about the Society with whom he dealt unsuccessfully in 1988.

Possible solutions under discussion at the Vatican include wider permission to use the Tridentine Mass; however, the Society would first have to accept Vatican II teachings on ecumenism and religious liberty. Cardinal Castrillon, who supports the Lefebvrites' concern with post-conciliar liturgical abuses, is said to support such a solution. Meanwhile, Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, has declared that, while he favours reconciliation, it should not be offered at any price.

The February meeting was to be followed up by one in late March. (CNS, Feb. 14, 2006)