Pope has revoked the excommunications of the SSPX bishops

Report from the official Italian news agency here.

A very swift translation

Pope Benedict XVI, as announced by the press in recent days, has lifted the excommunication' latae sententiae ' of the four schismatic bishops ordained in 1988 by Msgr. Lefebvre.

According to the revocation of the excommunication, which was signed by the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops on January 21, the Pontiff being ''paternally sensible to the spiritual discomfort expressed by those involved in the sanction of excommunication from the commitment and confident in what they expressed in the aforementioned letter to spare no effort to investigate the necessary discussions with the authorities' of the Holy See of the outstanding questions, so 'that we can soon reach a full and satisfactory solution to the problem at its source, has decided to reconsider the canonical situation of Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta''.

''With this act – according to the decree – he wishes to consolidate the relations of mutual trust and to intensify and give stability to the relationship of the Society of St. Pius X with the Apostolic See. This gift of peace, after the Christmas celebrations, will also be a sign of promoting the unity 'in love' of the universal Church and of removing the scandal of division''