CATHOLICHERALD.CO.UK

CHECK OUR WEBSITE FOR THE LATEST ON NEWMAN’S CAUSE

SCIENCE AND FAITH INTRODUCING OUR FIRST EVER SCIENCE EDITOR, PAGE 11

BENEDICT INAMERICA

RELIVE THE POPE’S AMAZING APOSTOLIC JOURNEY PAGES 4-7

No. 6350

www.catholicherald.co.uk

April 25, 2008 £1 (Republic of Ireland €1.50)

Lefebvrists snub Pope’s call for unity

Rebels demand rejection of Vatican II Curial source says SSPX is ‘more Calvinist than Catholic’

BYMARKGREAVES

THEHEADOFthe Society of St Pius X has said that full communion with the Catholic Church cannot happen until Rome rejects some of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the SSPX, ruled out the reconciliation sought by Pope Benedict XVI in a letter to his estimated one million followers last weekend. He said that “the time for an agreement [with the Vatican] has not yet come”. His announcement ends hopes that Benedict XVI’s liberation of the traditional Latin Mass would clear the way for reconciliation after more than two decades of near-schism. The Pope’s Motu Proprio, published in July, granted priests everywhere the freedom to celebrate the “extraordinary form of the Mass in the Roman rite”. It was hoped that this would pave the way towards unity with traditionalist groups which had strongly objected to the suppression of the “Tridentine” Mass in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. But Bishop Fellay said in his letter that a change to the Church’s liturgy needed to be accompanied by a substantial reversal of its doctrine. The Motu Proprio was “not accompanied by logically co-related measures in the other areas of the life of the Church”, he said in a French-language letter. “Nothing has changed in Rome’s determination to follow the Council’s orien

Benedict XVI, left, has tried to reconcile the Society of St Pius X to Rome. But Bishop Fellay, right, has rejected the Pope’s initiative

tation, despite 40 years of crisis, despite the deserted convents, abandoned rectories and empty churches,” Bishop Fellay said. “The Catholic universities persist in their ramblings, the

teaching of the Catechism remains unknown at the same time that the Catholic school does not exist anymore as particularly Catholic,” the Swiss-born bishop wrote.

He also complained of “brutal resistance” to the Motu Proprio from whole groups of bishops. It is understood that Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, head of Ecclesia Dei,

believes the statement is only a modest setback and is determined to bring the SSPX back into the Church. But other Vatican officials are much more pessimistic about the prospect of recon

ciliation. One Vatican source said he believed the society was a sect closer to Calvinism than Catholicism. One of the main doctrinal obstacles to re-union is the refusal of some in the society

to accept that the Jews cannot be blamed for the death of Christ –a declaration made by the Second Vatican Council document Nostra Aetate. Bishop Fellay made clear in his letter that the SSPX would not end its dialogue with the Vatican and would continue “on the path defined in the year 2000” when its bishops met Cardinal Castrillon on a pilgrimage to Rome. He also said that the SSPX would continue to appeal to Benedict XVI to overturn the excommunications of its leaders in 1988 after its founder, the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, ordained four bishops against Rome’s wishes. His letter will disappoint many Catholics who believed that the Pope’s Motu Proprio would lead to the SSPX becoming re-united with the Church. The Motu Proprio allowed priests to celebrate the traditional Mass without the permission of a bishop and was partly aimed at bringing traditionalist groups back into the Church. On the day it was made public Bishop Fellay expressed his “deep gratitude” to the Pope and said he had created “a favourable climate” in which to consider disputes over doctrine. However, signs that the SSPX did not feel ready to re-join the Church emerged in February when it accused Benedict XVI of caving in to “foreign pressures” by amending the Good Friday prayer in the extraordinary form of the Mass. The Pope removed a reference to the “blindness” of the Jews and an appeal that they “be delivered from dark

ness” and that God “may take the veil from their hearts”. Bishop Richard Williamson, one of the four excommunicated bishops of the SSPX, said he believed the amendment was “antiSemitic”. Fr Arnaud Sééléégny, the general secretary of the SSPX General House in Menzingen, Switzerland, confirmed that the SSPX was not ready to be reconciled with Rome until the Church repudiated some parts of the Second Vatican Council. He said that the society was “satisfied” with the Pope’s Motu Proprio, but added: “On all the points where we have special difficulties, there is no change. These novelties [of the Second Vatican Council] are continuing to infect the body of the Holy Church.” He admitted that it might seem “optimistic” to expect the Church to reject some of the Council’s documents. However, he said it was impossible to conceive that the Church would not eventually reject teaching that was “against its tradition” –and predicted that it would do so in 10 or 20 years. He said the post-conciliar era was a crisis period in Church history similar to the Great Schism, when the removal of the papacy to Avignon, France, led to the election of more than one pope. “These big crises in the Church always last for 70 years,” he said. “That’s why I think that in 10 or 20 years –at about 2030 –[the current crisis] will be finished.”

Editorial comment: Page 13

FREE phone: 0800 3583 172

FREE fax: 0800 3583 173

e-mail: sales@soschurchsupplies.net

website: www.soschurchsupplies.net

GRAND OPENING OF OUR NEW SHOWROOM

ON FRIDAY 11 TH APRIL 2008

By Don Maclean (TV and radio personality)

COME AND VISIT US

AT OUR NEW SHOWROOM!

If you provide us with your receipt for

the Toll Road we wil refund you the

£3.50 Toll Fee!!

We are conveniently located within 3 minutes of Junction 6 of the M6 Toll road (Burntwood & Brownhills).

Junction 6 M6 Toll road

Sutton House, 3 Newlands Court, Burntwood Business Park, Burntwood, Staffs, WS7 3GF

Paraguayan poor elect former Catholic bishop as new president

BYSTAFFREPORTER

RETIRED Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo has been elected president of Paraguay. Bishop Lugo took an early lead in the pre-election polls, despite disapproval from the Vatican and, initially, from the Paraguayan bishops’ conference. As support for Bishop Lugo remained high in the largely Catholic country, the conference refrained from further comment. Left-leaning Bishop Lugo won slightly more than 40 per cent of the vote, edging out Colorado Party candidate Blanca Ovelar, who sought to become the country’s first female president, and retired General Lino Oviedo, former head of the armed forces, who was convicted, then acquitted,

of a 1996 coup attempt. In Paraguay, unlike other Latin American countries, there is only one round of balloting, and the candidate with the simple majority is the winner. The bishop will take office in August for a five-year term. Bishop Lugo retired from the Diocese of San Pedro in 2005. The Vatican suspended him from exercising his priestly ministry when he decided to run for president, but rejected his request for laicisation after more than 30 years as a bishop and priest. At an outdoor celebration attended by thousands in Asuncion Bishop Lugo told the crowd: “Democracy is something we do together.” He said he hoped Paraguay would become known “for honesty, not for corruption”.

Bishop Lugo, who campaigned on a platform of equality for poor farmers and Indians, will lead a country with a population of about six million. With a per capita income of about £700, landlocked Paraguay is also one of Latin America’s poorest nations. The service sector and agriculture are the largest employers, and more than a million people are estimated to have left the country in search of employment. Ciudad del Este, on the border with Brazil, has a reputation as a haven for contraband smugglers and drug runners, and the country has been beset by corruption scandals. In 2001 it was revealed that President Luis Gonzalez Macchi’s presidential limousine was a car that had been

stolen in Brazil and smuggled into Paraguay illegally. Wedged between Brazil and Argentina, Paraguay shares river borders and hydroelectric dams with both. Bishop Lugo pledged to renegotiate Paraguay’s contract with Brazil for the Itaipu dam. Under the existing contract, which was negotiated when both countries were under military rule, Paraguay sells its excess electricity to Brazil at cost. Bishop Lugo has proposed increasing Paraguay’s share of the revenues by raising the price to market rates. Outgoing President Nicanor Duarte verbally attacked Bishop Lugo, whose campaign he claimed was financed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, while the media predicted the bishop’s victory.

Row erupts over youth day costs

BYANNAARCO

APOLITICIANhas called for the Church to bear the full costs of World Youth Day in Sydney as a row broke out over the bill for this year’s event. Lee Rhiannon of the Green party criticised the New South Wales government for con

tributing £43 million to the events, which will draw some 125,000 visitors to Sydney. This figure does not include the £21 million cost of reimbursing the owners of the racecourse where the papal Mass on July 20 will be held. “The Catholic Church is the organisation that will gain the biggest benefit from this event, not the people of New South Wales,” Miss Rhiannon said. “It’s clearly a promotional event and therefore they [the Church] should be footing the main part of the bill.” Premier Morris Iemma of

New South Wales stood by the state government’s intended expenditure for the events in July, saying that it would raise Sydney’s profile and generate around £75 million in revenue. He also said the Church was carrying the majority of the costs for World Youth Day. Danny Casey, World Youth Day’s chief operating officer, defended the government’s investment, arguing that the event “is one of the best Sydney could stage”, citing economic and long-term tourism benefits as some of the results of the papal visit.

The logo for the event