Significant Developments

I suspect many of you are following the reports of the meeting in Rome today between Bishop Fellay, the superior of the FSSPX, and Cardinal William Levada. In the meeting,  a document was presented reflecting the theological discussions of the preceding months. It contains a “doctrinal preamble” setting forth some kind of “Statement of Faith” adherence to which is a condition for the regularization of the FSSPX. The text of the “preamble” is secret and has not yet been disclosed (if past experience of the Vatican is any guide, it will be shortly). Furthermore, in the event discussions proceed to the next stage,  the Vatican raised the possibility of  a legal structure similar to  a personal prelature for the FSSPX.   Here is the Vatican announcement  (only in French and Italian) and an interview with Msgr. Fellay.

Obviously I do not know whether agreement can be reached on the basis of the (undisclosed) “preamble.”  Yet there is a very preliminary sense in many quarters that progress has been made, in  that the the Vatican has acknowledged that formulations and aspects of the Vatican Council can be the subject of legitimate discussion. This would seen to be stating the obvious based on the entire history of Catholic theology and historical science. Yet it is  a radical rupture with the demand of  various episcopates and their allies in the Catholic press and the  Internet  that the FSSPX (and by extension everyone) must in an  unqualified manner  “accept the Council”  – which the FSSPX has already said they will not do. Of course, the last thing these forces desire is the regularization of the FSSPX.

The best early commentary is an inteview with Fr. Claude Barthe in Summorum Pontificum Observatus. (only in French). He views today’s developments – wherever they may lead – as part of an unavoidable process of return to Tradition by which the Church is responding to the ever-growing crisis of the Faith. The motivating factor is the real possibility of extinction of the Church – not universally of course, but certainly in the West. In such a situation even the most radical means ( at least from the perspective of the post-Conciliar Church)have to be considered. Pope Benedict, although truly a transitional figure, has the great historical merit of acknowledging the existence of the crisis (unlike his immediate predecessors and most of his brother bishops) and of initiating steps to confront it. Fr. Barthe emphasizes that will inevitably lead at some point (to state the matter most clearly and radically) to a confrontation within the Church between those who believe that to be a Catholic one must accept the divinity of Christ and those who believe that a Catholic can either accept or reject the divinity of Christ.