Modernist warns of parallel traditionalist Church. But favours the Benedict solution over the Francis solution.

Theologian Tück warns of parallel church to the right of Rome

Viennese dogmatic theologian sees dialogue with traditionalist Society of St. Pius X as "effectively failed" - Pope Leo XIV under pressure to decide

No sense of irony. Modernism has created a shadow church.

Jan-Heiner Tück considers the dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Society of St. Pius X to have "effectively failed." The Society of St. Pius X's announcement that it intends to consecrate more bishops puts Pope Leo XIV under pressure to decide. "The consecration of new bishops would mean that a parallel church, structured episcopate, would be established to the right of the Catholic Church, with around 600,000 members and 700 priests," the Viennese theologian told the Catholic weekly newspaper "Die Tagespost" on Thursday.

Benedict XVI offered the Society of St. Pius X a dialogue in 2009 on contentious issues of conciliar interpretation. In February, Cardinal Víctor Fernández, Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, again proposed a theological dialogue on the question of what degree of assent to the various texts of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) is required. However, the Society of St. Pius X, which rejects most of the Council's reforms and insists on traditional forms of worship, rejected the dialogue and is still planning the consecration of new bishops for July 1.

Benedict XVI offered the Society of St. Pius X a dialogue on contentious issues regarding the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council in 2009. Tück confirmed that there is a graduated degree of binding force among the Council's texts. The Constitutions, for example, carry more weight than the Decrees and Declarations. However, he added: "I nevertheless firmly reject the proposal of a gradual recognition because there is an intertextual network between the documents." The Dogmatic Constitutions lay the foundations for what is elaborated in the Decrees and Declarations. Specifically, this means: "Anyone who describes ecumenical openness, interreligious dialogue, and the renewed relationship with Judaism as rather non-binding is undermining the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 'Lumen Gentium' (LG)."

The Society of St. Pius X illustrates where one's rejection of the Council's decrees as not conforming to tradition leads, Tück said: "Out of supposed fidelity to tradition, one undermines the authority of the Pope who approved the Council. That is an act of hubris!"

According to Tück, the "hermeneutics of reform" propagated by Pope Benedict XVI offers a middle ground as a "key to interpreting right-wing tendencies toward rejection and progressive liberalization." It signifies neither a break nor a continuation of tradition, but rather "renewal from the origin." The abolition of the Tridentine Rite by Pope Paul VI promoted "the image of an outdated, pre-conciliar liturgy and a renewed liturgy that is now valid." In the sense of a hermeneutics of reform, Tück believes the idea put forward by Benedict XVI in his apostolic exhortation "Summorum Pontificum"—that there is one Roman Rite in two legitimate forms—could be helpful.

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