Catholic World News is drawing attention to the report of a respected French vaticanologist that the Holy See is “close to an agreement with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).” When Phil Lawler puts a question mark at the end of a headline, as he does in this instance — “Vatican, SSPX close to agreement?” — he indicates that the report is based on something less than actual fact. It may be a reliable rumor (or leak), but it’s not officially corroborated yet.
My chief interest in the story is emboldened below:
The Vatican and SSPX recently concluded a series of talks on theological issues, designed to identity the points on which the SSPX questions the teachings of Vatican II. According to Le Figaro, the proposed agreement would state that the issues raised by the SSPX are not fundamental doctrines of the Church, and it is possible to question them without challenging the authority of Church teaching.
Liberal Catholics will be unhappy with a regularization of the SSPX, Guenois concedes. But liberals will find it difficult to object to the proposed agreement, since they regularly claim to be loyal Catholics while raising questions about certain aspects of Church teaching.
Keeping in mind the fact that this is all presently unverified, if such an agreement would be offered by the Holy See — depending, of course, on how it’s worded — then this could signal a stark admission, in the face of traditionalist critiques, of the non-binding character of the Vatican-II propositions the SSPX criticize. While there exist official explanations of the gradations of magisterial statements, and while many curial officials have frankly admitted the non-binding character of certain of Vatican II’s contents, connecting the dots in such a way that the Church officially allows a newly-approved SSPX to reject certain conciliar statements would be ground-breaking indeed.
In the end, it’s all up to the Holy Father. Pray for the Pope!
UPDATE
Rorate Caeli has published an English translation of an official communique of the Holy See on this matter:
“…the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith takes as a fundamental basis for a full reconciliation with the Apostolic See the acceptance of the Doctrinal Preamble which was delivered in the course of the meeting of September 14, 2011. This preamble enunciates some of the doctrinal principles and criteria of interpretation of Catholic doctrine necessary for ensuring fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church and to the sentire cum Ecclesia, while leaving open to legitimate discussion the study and theological explanation of particular expressions and formulations present in the texts of the Second Vatican Council and of the Magisterium that followed it.”
Read the whole text, with links, at Rorate.
