Vatican lifts excommunication on four Lefebre bishops

(January 25, 2009) The Vatican has lifted the excommunication on four traditionalist bishops, in the latest move to heal a 20-year-old schism in the Roman Catholic Church. Encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops issued a decree dated Jan 21 but released on Saturday, lifting the excommunications against the four leaders of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). The four bishops are Bernard Fellay the superior general of the Society of Saint Pius X, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso del Gallareta. The move is a major gesture by Pope Benedict to resolve a crisis in the Church that surfaced in 1988, when the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre illegally consecrated the four bishops on July 1, 1988 without the requisite permission of the late Pope John Paul II. The result was a self-imposed excommunication, or a total cut-off from the Church, which was later made formal by a decree by the Congregation for Bishops. The Society of Saint Pius X, keeps the old Latin Mass and rejected the validity of other religions. The move behind lifting the excommunication was a declaration by the four owing full allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. “We are always firmly determined to remain Catholics and to put all our efforts in the service of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the Roman Catholic Church. We accept her teachings with filial love. We firmly believe in the primacy of Peter and his prerogatives…” the bishops had declared.