Heal Lefebvrist schism

by Editor · May 9, 2001

Discussions between the Vatican and the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) the traditionalist followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre with a view to healing the 13-year-old split are to be welcomed.

The schism with the SSPX, whose traditionalist members hanker for the pre-Vatican II Church, was prompted by the excommunication of Arch-bishop Lefebvre in 1988 on grounds of disobedience.

Even among progressive Catholics, there is to be found a certain degree of sympathy for traditionalists (if not always for their methods). Vatican II made great demands on them in abandoning the old Tridentine Mass, with its Latin liturgy, altar rails and priests who do not face the congregation.

Bishops are authorised to accommodate those who want the Mass in Latin. Indeed, Pope John Paul’s 1988 motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, urges bishops to do so.

Bishops have no authority, however, to permit the Tridentine Mass except under specific circumstances by indult from the Vatican, and even then not in perpetuity.

Nonetheless, any break with Rome is an injury to the body of Christ, more so when the schismatics are divorced from Rome not so much on a point of theology or doctrine (though this seems to present a stumbling block, too), but mainly for disobedience to the Holy Father.

The suddenness of the talks between the Vatican and the SSPX, and the urgency with which the Holy See’s chief negotiator, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, is conducting them, may well be a sign of the pope, fully aware of his own mortality, hoping to tie up loose ends. It must be remembered that the Holy Father did not want the schism, but Archbishop Lefebvre’s show of defiance (in illicitly ordaining bishops) left him with no alternative.

While the dialogue with the SSPX is laudable, there is a danger in conducting these negotiations in haste. Neither side’s position has changed since the break. Indeed, just a few months ago, Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the SSPX, reiterated his society’s unambiguous condemnation of Vatican II.

There is no way back from Vatican II. All Catholics are bound by the outcome of this council.

Should the Vatican lift the excommunication of Archbishop Lefebvre and his followers without extracting the appropriate concessions from the SSPX, the Church will be seen as conceding that its actions in 1988 were illegitimate, even petty. In stark terms, the pope would risk losing a great slice of his authority.

The healing of the schism, therefore, will require humility (though not a humiliation) of the SSPX, and it must be fully on the Vatican’s terms.