Wednesday, August 24, 2011

VATICAN TO SOCIETY OF ST PIUS X: LET'S BE FRIENDS

From Religion News Services via The Huffington Post:
RNS) The Vatican has summoned the head of a traditionalist group to Rome to assess the results of a two-year doctrinal dialogue between the schismatic group and the Holy See.

Monsignor Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), will meet on Sept. 14 with top officials who are trying to normalize relations, including American Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In June, Fellay said the church is "full of heresies," and the group ordained its own set of bishops in the United States, Switzerland and Germany without Vatican approval.
It appears that the powers in Rome are eager for reconciliation with SSPX, despite the fact that its superior general labels them as heretics.
Talks between the two sides began in 2009 after Pope Benedict XVI lifted the 1988 excommunications of four SSPX bishops, including Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied that the Holocaust killed 6 million Jews.
....

According to Vatican Insider, a religion website of the Italian newspaper La Stampa, the Vatican intends to offer SSPX an special structure similar to the "ordinariate" created for Anglicans who want to join the Catholic Church. The deal would require SSPX to give "full recognition" to Vatican II reforms.

Like the structure created for the Anglicans, a special SSPX ordinariate would allow the group to keep some of its own traditions.
Inquiring minds want to know if the group would be able to continue to practice its anti-Semitic tradition in its own particular enclave.

In light of Monsignor Fellay's statement in June, I doubt that the time is ripe for SSPX to give "full recognition" to Vatican II reforms. In his view, Vatican II gave birth to the various "heresies" which he finds objectionable. However, since the Vatican seems to be stepping back from certain of the reforms of Vatican II, the two groups may eventually find a way to come together.

My prediction for the look of the new "ordinariate" or whatever it will be called, if it ever comes to be: An abundance of lace.

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.

23 comments:

  1. And, Oh my Goodness, maniples! Be still my heart!

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  2. susan s., I wanted to leave some of the riches for my readers to discover all on their own.

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  3. Why don't they have lace shoes to match their dresses like Duchess Kate did? Oh, wait...maybe four-inch heels would be too much.

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  4. Bex, what about tasteful, low-heeled, lace-covered pumps?

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  5. As long as they're handmade and match the lace EXACTLY. No one in that crowd is going to take a fashion risk.

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  6. No one in that crowd is going to take a fashion risk.

    And I would never ask them to.

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  7. It's a bit hard to warm to all this recent cosying up/special ordinariates etc. To say the least.

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  8. (That's before you get to the Holocaust denial bit.)

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  9. I wonder if the cosying-up to various groups has to do with the drop in numbers of Roman Catholics attending church. You can't run an international church on peanuts, and if the folks are not attending, they are not giving.

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  10. Don't doubt there are those still living in the Vatican who agree with SSPX on the matter of Vatican II heresies.

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  11. Lapin, Bp Bernard Fellay's sermon at the ordination of four priests in June here in the US is quite revealing about what he terms the 'contradiction' within the Vatican itself between 'the progressive and conservative currents.'

    The link includes a picture with more lace.

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  12. Wow, Mimi, the picture in your link to Bp Fellay's Sermon is something else. Forget the lace! He wears an enormous mitre!!

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  13. susan s., as I said before, I leave some things for my readers to discover when they click the link. There's a lesson in there.

    The mitre is, indeed, quite tall. I wonder if the mitre holds the Guinness record.

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  14. susan s., the Guinness for holding the most Guinness.

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  15. This raises the question of what you had in your aligator mitre, Mimi.

    I guess if nothing else the Vatican and Society of St Pius X are keeping lacemakers in business.

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  16. Cathy, nothing but the best 15 year old single malt goes into my alligator mitre.

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  17. "the Guinness for holding the most Guinness."

    Oh, you lot! *LOL*

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  18. Wasn't Grandmere and the Single Malt Mitre by Agatha Christie? Or Ruth Rendell?

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  19. Paul, it was Dorothy Sayers. Oh, and despite the title, Grandmère didn't do it.

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  20. Lord Peter says I am innocent of the crime. So there.

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