Last attempts at sabotage of the SSPX-Rome deal

Die letzten Sabotageversuche? – Wenige Tage vor Entscheidung Benedikts XVI. zur Piusbruderschaft › Katholisches

The scenario is well known. As in the past few months, also sabotage is attempted in the final sprint towards reconciliation between the Holy See and the SSPX. Attempts at sabotage are being made on both sides. An opinion piece published yesterday by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from Cardinal Kasper is as important as the deliberate release of an internal correspondence between the General Superior of the SSPX, Bishop Bernard Fellay and three other bishops of the Fraternity.

The statements of Cardinal Kasper resemble more like a rearguard action accepting in resignation something which apparently cannot be prevented, but which should send at least some signals to the part of the church which is sceptical or hostile and that he and and probably other senior church leaders disagree with the move.

The leaks from the ranks of the SSPX show there are some intriguers at work that harm both the SSPX and the Catholic Church. It may be assumed that this specific breach of trust comes from that group, who Bishop Fellay in the fall of 2011 sharply criticized when he asked Monsignor Richard Williamson not to let himself be used by them.

The Superior General and his two assistants have been assigned responsibility for reconciliation talks with Rome by the SSPX They have obviously made a decision and also Pope Benedict XVI to whom the answer from Bishop Fellay of 17April was immediately presented.

In the meantime, there are only a few more days until the CDF considers on 17 May the recent proposal by Bishop Fellay on a modified "Doctrinal Preamble" . Then Pope Benedict XVI is widely expected to announce his decision even by the month's end.

Then it will also show who in the SSPX prefers going into schism to reconciliation with Peter, while for the vast majority of the SSPX, the "great task and challenge", as it was called Bishop Fellay is only just beginning. That there are not even a few high church officials who would be not unhappy for Bishop Richard Williamson to be "out there" is well known. Likewise, it is known that Pope Benedict XVI does not think in the categories of ecclesiastical politics