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VATICAN-LEFEBVRE Aug-23-2005 (250 words) xxxi
Pope to meet with head of schismatic Lefebvrites
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The head of the schismatic Society of St. Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay, was scheduled to meet with Pope Benedict XVI in late August.
A Vatican official who asked not to be identified told Catholic News Service Aug. 23 that the meeting between the pope and Bishop Fellay would take place Aug. 29 at Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence outside Rome. The Holy See press office would neither confirm nor deny the report.
Bishop Fellay is one of four bishops ordained against papal orders by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988. He is the current head of the Society of St. Pius X, which was founded by Archbishop Lefebvre after he broke with Rome over liturgical reforms and the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
On the society's U.S. Web site, Bishop Fellay wrote that he felt the April 19 election of Pope Benedict offered "a gleam of hope" in resolving what he called a "profound crisis ... shaking the Catholic Church."
In a February 2004 interview with CNS, Bishop Fellay said the society was not ready to accept any offers at reconciliation that required accepting the liturgical reforms of Vatican II.
Pope John Paul II set up a Vatican commission, "Ecclesia Dei," in 1988 to offer pastoral care of Archbishop Lefebvre's former followers.
The commission's head, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, also has tried to open a channel of communication with the current leaders of the Lefebvrite group.
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Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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