Rorate Caeli

Rome-SSPX - Decisive moments? Pope's response to be delivered to Bp. Fellay today [Updated]

[June 14 - SEE HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE COMMUNIQUÉ]
[June 14 - SEE COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE GENERAL HOUSE OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT PIUS X]

Bishop Fellay, the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX) will receive in the upcoming hours the papal response in Rome.* From Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli, writing for La Stampa - the excerpt below includes all new information:

After having studied with attention the text of the doctrinal preamble, with the modifications requested by the Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X, Benedict XVI would have made his decision and had delivered it to Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and to the Secretary of the same Dicastery, Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, during the audience granted to both last Saturday.

The text of the doctrinal declaration is a top secret, but it will be published - this was assured from the beginning - if an agreement between the Holy See and the Society founded by Archbishop Lefebvre is formalized. It is not possible to know, therefore, if modifications or clarifications were added to the text that Bishop Bernard Fellay had sent to Rome in mid-April and that the Cardinals had examined and discussed on May 15, in the Feria Quarta [Wednesday meeting] of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the upcoming hours, the papal response may be delivered to the Lefebvrian superior. It will be up to him to give final assent to the preamble. ...  If Fellay, after having received the Vatican response, signs the doctrinal declaration, the agreement will be officially announced.

In any event, the matter concerning the other three Lefebvrian bishops will remain open ... . Even if the Superior of the [Society of] Saint Pius X signs the doctrinal declaration, the positions of the three bishops will be examined individually by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
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*[Update:] French religious news agency I.Media confirms the information that the Superior General is in Rome and adds the following (it is now 1430 in Rome):

The Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX), Bp. Bernard Fellay, was called to the Vatican to meet, in the afternoon of June 13, 2012, the officers of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), I.Media has learned. Following this meeting, the Prefect of this Dicastery, Cardinal William Levada, will deliver to the FSSPX authority the conclusions of Benedict XVI at the end of the discussions aiming at bringing the Society to full communion with Rome. [Via Le Salon Beige]
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[1630 Rome - Update] From Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress:
Lombardi: Negotiations with the Society of Saint Pius X still in progress
Vatican City, 13.06.2012 (KAP) - The reintegration process between the Vatican and the "Society of St. Pius X" (SSPX) is, in the words of Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, "still underway". Currently, there is no information on a decision, he told "Kathpress" on Wednesday.
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[1700 Rome - Update:] "SSPX +Fellay entered Cong for Doctrine of Faith bldg at 5 p.m. Rome time for meet with Card. Levada" (Catholic News Service Twitter feed)

And also: from La Croix, the semi-official daily of the French Episcopate:

[In the final text of the preamble] there remained however formulations judged non-acceptable by Rome, notably the mention of the "errors of the council": to put it clearly, the Society may have reservation on this or that point of Vatican II (freedom of conscience, interreligious dialogue, ecumenism), but they cannot speak of the "errors of the council". This preamble should be made public once the final agreement of Bp. Fellay is given. On the other hand, the original version proposed by Rome, around which the discussion revolved, will not be known.

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[1730 Rome time] Just a Rorate reminder: new ecclesial structures in the Latin Church are usually established by Apostolic Constitutions. That was also the case of the first and still only Personal Prelature ever established, the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, to which the previously-existing Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, "erected as a clerical Association" was "intrinsically united", by way of the Apostolic Constitution Ut sit, of John Paul II (November 28, 1982).

[1902 Rome - Update]  "Bishop Fellay meeting CDF perfect Cardinal Levada at the Vatican has now been running for two full hours SSPX" (A. Speciale Twitter feed).


[1930 Rome time - Update] "Vatican meeting w/ +Fellay reported over after 2.5 hours. He went other direction to avoid press. No word yet on if anything resolved." (Catholic News Service Twitter feed)

[1950 Rome time - Update] "The response of Benedict XVI to the 'Lefebvrists' not to be known before the weekend." "Bp. Fellay will have some days to put his signature on the text"  (SSPX spokesman Fr. Lorans, to Agence France Presse - LB2S Twitter feed (La Croix religion journalist) Lorans added that "it will be a week-10 days before further moves, today was just a step in the process" (A.Speciale Twitter feed)