"The Fraternity has no intention to respond to this ultimatum," Father Alain Lorans, spokesman of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, declared to the AFP by telephone from Ecône (Switzerland).
"We do not foresee any practical or canonical agreement before having considered the doctrinal questions which came about after Vatican II," [...].
"Bishop Bernard Fellay [Superior General of the Fraternity] is surprised with the existing gap between the procedure of the ultimatum and the content of this ultimatum, which remains very uncertain," Father Lorans added.
...
According to Father Lorans, the Superior General of the Fraternity, Bishop Fellay, wrote a letter to Vatican authorities on Thursday.
"He [Fellay] rejects the procedure he is being subject to," Lorans said by telephone from the SSPX seminary in Econe, Switzerland. "If we want a canonical accord that doesn't collapse in a few weeks, we must deal with the fundamental questions of doctrine."
"In an ultimatum, which is an emergency procedure, these things should be explicit," Lorans said, adding that Fellay's letter to the Vatican on Thursday was confidential.
The letter was sent before the end of the month, as requested by the Vatican, but the spokesman added: "You can say he's not responding (to the ultimatum), despite answering it." The SSPX also had reservations about a requirement to fully accept the magisterium, or doctrinal authority of the Church.
Fellay "accepts to respect the pope and not take the place of the magisterium of the Church, except if there is something in the post-Council magisterium that is opposed to the magisterium of 2,000 years," Lorans said.
RORATE note: So there was a letter, but no response to the supposed "ultimatum" in it. Naturally, only the content of the text will reveal exactly where both parties stand at the moment.
...another RORATE note: One might be rather optimistic about the letter sent by Bishop Bernard Fellay: the last point of the "conditions" was fulfilled, since the letter was sent before the end of June; and it seems likely that the only condition which was more thoroughly discussed in the letter was the third one - i.e. "The commitment to avoid the claim to a Magisterium superior to the Holy Father and to not propose the Fraternity in contraposition to the Church". And Fellay's answer to this question, if appropriately reflected by Lorans' comments, does not seem to be incongruous with the "hermeneutics of continuity" favored by the Pope.
...another RORATE note: One might be rather optimistic about the letter sent by Bishop Bernard Fellay: the last point of the "conditions" was fulfilled, since the letter was sent before the end of June; and it seems likely that the only condition which was more thoroughly discussed in the letter was the third one - i.e. "The commitment to avoid the claim to a Magisterium superior to the Holy Father and to not propose the Fraternity in contraposition to the Church". And Fellay's answer to this question, if appropriately reflected by Lorans' comments, does not seem to be incongruous with the "hermeneutics of continuity" favored by the Pope.
