Bishop Fellay Thanks Pope for Redirecting Debate

(March 14, 2009) The general-superior of the Society of St. Pius X thanked Pope Benedict XVI for his letter concerning the situation of his congregation as the text refocused the debate to doctrinal concerns. Bishop Bernard Fellay said this in a communiqué released Thursday, the same day the Vatican published a letter written by Pope Benedict XVI that explained the intentions behind lifting the excommunications of four Lefebvrite bishops. The four, including Bishop Fellay, were excommunicated in 1988 when they received Episcopal ordination illicitly at the hands of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who ordained them without papal permission. The lifting of the excommunications were followed by ptotests which led Vatican-Jewish relations to the breaking point. In his letter Bishop Fellay wrote, "We greatly thank the Holy Father for having placed the debate at the level on which it should take place, that of the faith." Quoting Pope Benedict XVI's letter, the prelate assured that the society fully shares the Pope's "utmost concern for preaching to 'our age and "The Church lives, in fact, through a major crisis which cannot be solved other than by an integral return to the purity of the faith. Far from wanting to stop Tradition in 1962," he added, "we wish to consider the Second Vatican Council and the post-Conciliar magisterium in the light of this Tradition." "We place these doctrinal discussions under the protection of Our Lady of Trust," Bishop Fellay concluded, "with the assurance that she will obtain for us the grace of faithfully delivering that which we received."