Traditionalist SSPX calls Vatican offer ‘clearly unacceptable’

A breakaway traditionalist Catholic group on Monday (June 25) slammed as “clearly unacceptable” a Vatican doctrinal document that was supposed to lay the foundation for the group’s reconciliation with Rome.

The move comes after three years of complex negotiations between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), and was revealed just as Pope Benedict XVI appointed a high-profile American archbishop to a key post to oversee relations with traditionalists.

A letter by the Rev. Christian Thouvenot, secretary general of the SSPX, to SSPX bishops and regional leaders was leaked on the Internet on Tuesday (June 26). Thouvenot later confirmed its authenticity.

The letter says that the SSPX superior general, Bishop Bernard Fellay, told the head of the Vatican doctrinal office, American Cardinal William J. Levada, that “he couldn’t sign” the Vatican’s doctrinal offer during a meeting on June 13.

In his letter, Thouvenot writes that Fellay proposed his own version of the Preamble last April which, “according to several agreeing sources,” seemed to “satisfy the Supreme Pontiff.” But he added that cardinals in Levada’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “amended” the text and it “now reintroduces, substantially, the propositions of September 2011.”

During his June 13 meeting with Levada, Fellay “immediately informed him that he could not sign this new document,” which he deemed “clearly unacceptable.” The SSPX will hold its general assembly in early July to discuss the issue.

Link