“A Step Forward”

More inside baseball, I’m afraid! The latest on the SSPX talks from CNS:

In what the Vatican described as an encouraging “step forward,” the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X has revised its response to a Vatican document laying out certain basic doctrinal principles and criteria for interpreting church teaching.

The latest response submitted by Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the society, arrived at the Vatican April 17. It will be examined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and then “placed under the judgment of the Holy Father,” said a brief communique from the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” which is handling the Vatican’s discussions with the SSPX.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters April 18 that a curial official who read Bishop Fellay’s response said it was “substantially different” from one he submitted in January; the doctrinal congregation and Pope Benedict XVI had determined Bishop Fellay’s first response was “insufficient” for healing the breach between the society and the Catholic Church.

…

The society’s response will be examined quickly and given to pope, probably within “a few weeks,” he said.

“We cannot consider the matter concluded,” Father Lombardi said, but “we can say it is a step forward and more encouraging” than Bishop Fellay’s previous response.

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Pope Benedict’s efforts to bring about a reconciliation with the traditionalist group included lifting the excommunications imposed on Bishop Fellay and other SSPX bishops after they were ordained without papal permission; establishing a Vatican committee for doctrinal talks with society representatives in 2009; and drafting the “doctrinal preamble” to explain the “minimal, essential” elements on which the society would have to agree for full reconciliation, Father Lombardi had said.

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