MENZINGEN, Switzerland, JULY 9, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's apostolic letter expanding the use of the 1962 missal returns to the Church its liturgical tradition, according to the Society of St. Pius X.
Bishop Bernard Fellay, who succeeded founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre as superior general of the society, said in a statement released to the press Saturday that "Summorum Pontificum" re-establishes the Missal of John XXIII in its rights and "clearly recognizes that it had never been abrogated."
The society "extends its deep gratitude to the Sovereign Pontiff for this great spiritual benefit," adds the superior general.
The statement of Bishop Fellay recognizes "difficulties that still remain," but the society "wishes that the favorable climate established by the new dispositions of the Holy See will make it possible -- after the decree of excommunication which still affects its bishops has been withdrawn -- to consider more serenely the disputed doctrinal issues."
Archbishop Lefebvre, who founded the Society of St. Pius X in 1970 for the formation of priests, contested publicly some of the key elements of the Second Vatican Council.
Pope John Paul II stated in the apostolic letter "Ecclesia Dei" that the "illegitimate" ordination of four bishops in 1988 within the society by Archbishop Lefebvre was a "schismatic act."
That ordination truncated the attempt of an agreement between the Holy See and the group, which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- had worked on in John Paul II's name.
In a letter written in French, sent Saturday to members of the Society of St. Pius X, Bishop Fellay suggests that faithfulness to the liturgy in force in 1962 "was never an act of disobedience."
Fellay adds that it is necessary "to observe, in the next few months, how these measures will be applied 'de facto' by bishops and parish priests."
Archbishop Lefebvre died in March 1991 and was succeeded by Bishop Fellay, one of the illicitly ordained prelates, in the leadership of the Society of St. Pius X. Benedict XVI received Bishop Fellay in private audience last Aug. 29.
ZE07070904 - 2007-07-09