The Boomerang Effect

Those whacky Society of Saint Pius X bishops are back! In 1988, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre ordained four bishops without Vatican approval. Under canon law, the four newly ordained bishops and the ordaining bishop (Lefebvre) were automatically excommunicated.

The Society of Saint Pius X does not recognize nearly anything or anyone related to Vatican II. Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul, John Paul II and Benedict were and are not authentic Popes in the eyes of many of the Society's members. The members fail to recognize the Novus Ordo of the Mass - they feel the Mass must be the Tridentine Mass (Latin).

There has been a long effort to get the Society back into the fold. Pope Benedict's making the Tridentine Mass more available was seen as an effort to reach out to the Society. However, the Society said that was not enough. There seemed to be a stalemate. Vatican officials said that one condition required for the Society to enter into the fold was for them to recognize the validity of Vatican II and the recent Popes. At first, the Society said that would not be possible.

In the summer of 2008, there was a breakthrough. A group of monks with strong ties to the Society requested and was welcomed back into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. This was a glimmer of hope.

From the recent reports about the remittance of the excommunications of the four bishops, the Society is not yet in full communion with the Church. However, the recent turn of events makes it seem like that will happen very soon.

Not all are happy about the "ex-excommunication" of the four bishops. Many that embraced Vatican II feel that Pope Benedict is catering to the very conservative faction of believers. They argue that his move to make the Tridentine Mass more available and his remittance of the excommunications of the four bishops is clear evidence.

As usual, the devil is in the details. It will be interesting to see if details of any agreements between the four bishops and the Vatican are made public. I doubt that they will be. My hope is that the four bishops agreed to fully embrace the Tradition of the Church, including recognition of Vatican II.

For a Catholic News Service report on this situation, go to: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0900355.htm.