Rorate Caeli

SSPX-Rome divinations

From Jean-Marie Guénois for Le Figaro (June 15, main excerpt, with our emphases):

Bp. Fellay, Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X, will consult his General Chapter in July before responding to the Pope. Between Rome and Écône, things get more detailed but more complicated at the same time. Bp. Bernard Fellay, Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X, came back to Menzingen (Switzerland), its admistrative center, on Thursday, with a Roman dossier that is heavier than what had been foreseen. From which, the first information: the signature of an agreement with the Holy See is not for tomorrow. Both in the proper and in the figurative sense. It is now certain that Bp. Fellay will not be able to give a response to these last Roman proposals before the end of the General Chapter of the Society of Saint Pius X, that will take place in [Écône,] Switzerland on July 7-14. 

Contrary to certain rumors, this meeting will not see the calling into question of Bp. Fellay from his position of Superior: he is in the middle of a twelve-year term. But capital decisions will certainly be taken: to continue negotiations? To suspend them? To discontinue them? Or to continue [reaching out to] this outstretched hand of Benedict XVI, who wishes to see the disciples of Abp. Marcel Lefebvre reintegrate into the Catholic Church? In expectation, as seen from Rome, the ball is on the Lefebvrists's field. And they are divided on the subject. 

From an article by Summorum Pontificum Observatus, whose handling of the initial publication of the correspondence of the SSPX bishops partly sparked the current mess (June 15, main excerpt, with our emphases):


When everything seemed ready for a final agreement between the Holy See and the Fraternity of St. Pius X, Bp. Fellay, its Superior General, returned to Menzingen this Thursday with a new document in hand. According to several sources, it is assured that this document does not correspond to the one that had been expected, and that several important modifications had been added to it. From the Roman side, three people met with the Superior of the Society of St. Pius X, Cardinal Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Mgr. Pozzo, secretary of the Commission Ecclesia Dei, and Abp. Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, SJ, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who would have played a part that one day will have to be taken into consideration. In this state, Bishop Fellay could not sign the "doctrinally modified" document, leading to the postponement announced in both communiqués, that of the Holy See followed by one of the Society of Saint Pius X for an external [audience].

Several serious vaticanists had announced the final agreement as certain [before the June 13 meeting] and, for this time perhaps, there was no exaggeration on their part. But it might be that there was a crisis at the very heart of the Curia, even if at present there is no evidence to seriously confirm this. From his side, faithful to the line he has chosen, determined to abdicate nothing doctrinally (and it would seem that the difficulties of a doctrinal order have been added at the last moment), Bp. Fellay will continue his reflection and his consultation, within the frame of the General Chapter and certainly more widely. It is currently clear that the response will take time and that time, either in a positive or in a negative sense, will also play its part. 


Both articles should be taken with a large amount of salt. We in Rorate, in the analysis of all aspects of the situation, somewhat agree, though, that something happened in the Curia. Is the will of the Pope being distorted? Did he himself change his mind from a specific moment in the recent past to the present? This is the key to what may have happened within the Palace of the Holy Office in the days that led to the June 13 meeting. The influence and eventual pressure of the Cardinals and Bishops who attended the crucial Wednesday (Feria IV) meeting of May 16, or the action of some episcopal conferences, should not be discounted either.