SSPX pilgrimage to Trier causes controversy

Umstrittene Piusbruderschaft pilgert nach Trier - volksfreund.de

The arch-conservative SSPX makes a pilgrimage to Trier with about 2,000 followers. For critics, this does not fit the idea of ​an ecumenical pilgrimage - the SSPX among other things believe that all other religions are simply "wrong."

Trier. That all other religions are on the wrong track, one must proclaim openly as a matter of pure charity. At least according to the SSPX on its website ( www.pius.info) and makes a comparison: "Is it offensive to a student if the teacher corrects a mistake. For example, would he correct 2 + 2 equals 6 with a red pen? Would he not correct this error so that the student would be disadvantaged for life."

Not only members of other religions "must be corrected" say the SSPX.  The fact that homosexuality in Germany has since 1969 been no longer a criminal offense, they refer to as "moral decline". . And also modern family policy is for the SSPX a thorn in the eye: "That children as early as infancy are already taken away from their mothers (into crèches), is a perversion without equal," they explain on the internet

On Sunday, the SSPX who operate a number of government-funded private schools and kindergartens- called its members to a pilgrimage to Trier . About 2,000 supporters covered the city with Latin chants.

The women - from young girls to old age - wear skirts almost without exception. While waiting in front of the cathedral, the huge group prays the Rosary unceasingly. SSPX supporter, Bernard Herrmann arrived from Freiburg. "The Holy Robe is the most sacred relic which we have in the final analysis. The blood of the Saviour is to be found on the Robe," says the 65-year-old. "To see this, promises me physical and spiritual health." In the Church of St Paul, the SSPX priests celebrate the Mass - in Latin and in accordance with the old, outmoded Catholic ritual with their back to the community.The SSPX does not recognise the Second Vatican Council held in 1964 - and rejects ecumenism and also more modern forms of liturgy in the language of the people.

Although the SSPX is excluded from the official Catholic Church and her Bishop Richard Williamson has denied repeatedly the Holocaust, the Diocese of Trier is happy to receive the SSPX: "In the context of the motto of the pilgrimage -, join together what is separated”- we welcome the pilgrims of the SSPX ," said diocese spokesman Stephan Kronenburg in response to questioning from a TV station.

Hanspeter Schladt, spokesman for the reform movement “We Are Church" for the Diocese of Trier does not understand this: "The diocese intends to promote the pilgrimage to the ecumenical movement and also welcomes the SSPX - that does not fit together," says the Catholic from a parish in Neuwied. The reason that the ecumenically orientated Bishop of Trier, Ackerman is not against the SSPX, Schladt supposes can be found in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 repealed the excommunication of Holocaust denier Williamson ."Pope Benedict get nearer to the SSPX - and Bishop Ackerman is under some pressure, he probably cannot do otherwise."