The Ides of April
(www.RemnantNewspaper.com) In the last few years, the narrative we have heard regarding negotiations between Rome and the Society of St. Pius X is as follows: Rome has bent over backwards to accommodate the renegade Society. The Pope has taken unprecedented measures, at great cost to himself, to appease these “integrists”.
He freed the Traditional Latin Mass upsetting many of his own bishops. He remitted the excommunications of the four Society bishops magnanimously, even though these bishops issued no formal apology for taking part in the illicit 1988 consecrations.
And now the Pope has even submitted to the Society’s demand to discuss the doctrinal issues that still separate them.
Therefore, so it goes, it is indisputable that the Holy Father has shown an incredible amount of sacrifice and good will towards these rebels, who have shown so little in return.
In the final analysis, the Vatican press office has made it appear as if Rome has made tremendous concessions in order to meet the Society’s demands and that Rome has been generous, magnanimous, and willing to go to almost any lengths to secure to return of the traditionalist prodigal sons, while the Society has not been generous in return.
the Pope’s plan for the “authentic reform” poses crucial questions for the Society should they be brought into “full Communion.”
Will the Society refuse to say the Pope’s own revised Good Friday prayer?
Will they refuse prefaces from the New Mass?
Will they recognize the new conciliar Saints in the Traditional calendar? For example, will the Society refuse to recognize the feast day of St. Josemaria Escriva or a potential future feast day of John Paul “The Great”?
Will they risk a second “schism” over these issues?
And if they consent to these practices, on what basis will they resist future requests for concessions?
Can they pursue their mission to restore the Church to Tradition while working with a Pope who has a different view of Tradition?
These are important questions the Society must contemplate before giving their long awaited answer to Cardinal Levada on Sunday. And these are important questions for which we must all pray without ceasing—as though our future wellbeing as Catholics and the very souls of our children depended on the outcome. For, indeed, that may well be the case.
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