Rorate Caeli

Institute of the Good Shepherd:
"a decision... taken by the Pope himself"

Read first report. Communiqué of the FSSPX, read here.

From the communiqué of Cardinal Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux, President of the French Episcopal Conference, and member of the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei':

From the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI has conveyed his wish for a return to full communion of those who have followed Abp Lefebvre and has wished to make welcoming gestures regarding them. It is in this sense that the decision to erect this new Institute was taken by the Pope himself. There is in such decision the will to propose an experiment of reconciliation and of communion which should still strengthen itself and deepen in practice. That is why the statutes of this Institute are ad experimentum for a period of 5 years.