"So Near and Yet So Far": CDF-SSPX negotiations continue in writing

So Near and Yet So Far | Michael J. Miller | Catholic World Report

CDF-SSPX negotiations continue in writing

It is almost a year now since the conclusion of the theological talks between the Society of St. Pius X and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  More than five months have passed since the General Superior of that priestly society received from the Vatican dicastery a “Doctrinal Preamble” which, the CDF maintains, must be “the fundamental basis for achieving full reconciliation with the Apostolic See.”  After studying the document carefully and consulting with local SSPX superiors, Bishop Bernard Fellay sent a response to Rome on December 1. No doubt it recommended revisions to the wording of the Preamble, a process that the CDF had expressly anticipated and allowed. The CDF then wrote requesting clarification of the response, which the SSPX promptly supplied. 

Despite breathless announcements since then by certain Italian Vatican watchers—who had read none of the documents they claimed to be reporting on—spokesmen for the SSPX insist that there was no “second response” (which would imply a shift in position) and no definitive rejection of the Doctrinal Preamble. 

The theologians

In a departure from the strict confidentiality that had previously cloaked the CDF-SSPX negotiations, on December 2, 2011 the Italian edition of L’Osservatore Romano printed a study about the magisterial value of Vatican II written by Msgr. Fernando Ocariz of Opus Dei, one of the experts who had represented the Holy See during the CDF-SSPX theological discussions. Of course, the role of the council was and remains “A Crucial Question,” as Father Jean-Michel Gleize, one of the SSPX panelists, called it in the 11,000-word reply to Msgr. Ocariz that he published in the Courrier de Rome. 

These salvos were unofficial statements, explanations by theologians of positions that had long since been general knowledge, and they neither quoted the Doctrinal Preamble nor referred to it directly. Nevertheless, some who were sincerely hoping for reconciliation felt uneasy about the prospect of negotiations continuing in the red glare of publicity, for the same reason that one would rather not watch fireworks set off near a construction site. 

The authorities

In late January the CDF held a routine four-day Plenary Assembly at the Vatican.

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Comments

[Ed Peters]

Interesting.

[Nick]

It seems to me that the Pope would not go through with the unilateral Motu Proprio and Lifting Excommunications and insisting on Doctrinal Talks all to see it flop. The Pope did all these in spite of fierce resistance, both within his circle and outside his circle. I think the Preamble was planned on arriving on the Pope's desk from the very start, and all the stuff between were formalities, particularly with a CDF that doesn't seem too friendly to "tradition".

[Charles E Flynn]

Someone, somewhere, might know how much of the difficulty with the SSPX is caused by the crank views of Bishop Richard Williamson on the Holocaust.

I worked for many years with a Holocaust survivor. I saw the identification papers issued to him by the predecessor of the CIA right after he was liberated from his concentration camp, which he referred to as the "Buchenwald Preperatory Academy". His favorite movie was "Patton", because it always had "the right ending". If you had the privilege of eating a meal with him in a restaurant, he would tell you what it was like to go to bed at night in a camp surrounded by tanks with swastikas on them, their guns pointing inward, and to wake up one morning surrounded by tanks with stars on them, their guns pointing outward.

My colleague was a Jew who would enter a Catholic Church and light a votive candle to the Virgin Mary, because, "You cannot go wrong with a good Jewish mother".

[Davidjames]

I think the Preamble was planned on arriving on the Pope's desk from the very start, and all the stuff between were formalities, particularly with a CDF that doesn't seem too friendly to "tradition".

[Jae]

Personally I would like to see the SSPX in full reconciliation with the Church but the evidence points to the other direction. The big hindrance is "private judgment" which was also the same mistake Luther had made.

Since NO agreement was reached to the doctrinal talks, I think Pope B16 would repeat his own when he was still a Cardinal:

--Cardinal Ratzinger (Letter to Lefebvre, 1982): “In the third paragraph you speak of "statements or expressions of the Council that are contrary to the Magisterium of the Church." Then you list three texts of the Council incompatible, according to you, with the Magisterium, adding even an "etc." Here your position even more radical… But you cannot assert the incompatibility of the conciliar texts - which are magisterial texts - with the Magisterium and Tradition. You can say that personally, you do not see this compatibility, and to ask explanations of the Apostolic See. But if, on the contrary, you assert the impossibility of such an explanation, you are DEEPLY DEPARTING FROM THE FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURE OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH; the of faith of the Church which you are claiming to defend at the end of your letter, the faith you were taught during your childhood and in the Eternal City.”

[Jae]

--Cardinal Ratzinger (todays Pope Benedict XVI) (letter to Lefebvre , July 28, 1987): Divinely instituted, the Church has the promises of the assistance of Christ until the end of time. The breaking of its unity by an act of GRIVEOUS disobedience on your part would cause INCALCULABLE DAMAGE and would DESTROY the future of your work itself, since outside of unity with Peter it would have no future except the RUIN of all that you have desired and un¬dertaken. History has oftentimes witnessed the uselessness of an apostolate accomplished outside of the submission to the Church and to its head. By giving a personal interpretation of the texts of the magisterium, you would paradoxically GIVE AN EXAMPLE of this LIBERALISM which you fight so strongly, and would act contrarily to the goal you pursue. Indeed, it is to Peter that the Lord has entrusted the government of His Church; the Pope is therefore the principal artisan of her unity. Assured of the promises of Christ, he will NEVER BE ABLE TO OPPOSE in the Church the au¬thentic magisterium and HOLY TRADITION. Excellency, do you find my words severe? I would have liked to express myself in another way, but the GRAVITY of the matter at stake does not give me any other choice."