Pope Lifts Excommunication of Four Bishops

(24 Jan 09 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI has remitted the excommunication of four bishops ordained without papal consent 20 years ago.

A press office statement issued Saturday says that Pope Benedict arrived at his decision after “a long process of dialogue between the Holy See and the Fraternity of Saint Pius X”.

Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta were consecrated without papal approval by late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre on June 30, 1988 incurring excommunication latae sententiae.

The excommunication was later confirmed by a decree issued July 1^st 1988 by the Congregation for Bishops.

In a letter dated December 15, addressed to Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Bishop Fellay, also on behalf of three other Bishops, formally requested the removal of the decree.

In the letter, Bishop. Fellay affirmed the four bishops’: " will to remain Catholic and to place all efforts at the service of the [..] Roman Catholic Church” to accept “its teachings” and most importantly, affirm their belief “in the Primacy of Peter and in its prerogatives”.

The Decree remitting the excommunication, issued by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, states this act “desires to consolidate confidence and grant stability to the relationship between the Holy See and the Fraternity of Saint Pius X. …to promote unity in the charity of the universal Church and to try to end the scandal of division”.

The decree concludes : “It is hoped that this step will be followed by the accomplishment of full communion of the entire Fraternity of Saint Pius X with the Church, thus, with visible unity testifying true fidelity and true recognition of the Magisterium and of the authority of the Pope”.