Melbourne bishop urges rapprochement and beyond for Catholic and SSPX bishops.
By Anthony Barich
National Reporter
Bishops with a St Pius X Society community in their dioceses should reach out with the hand of friendship if unity is to be achieved, a senior Catholic prelate said.
Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott, who has a Lefebvrist parish in his region and attended a Rosary and dinner with Pius X Society priests at St Agatha’s Church, Cranboune, Victoria on October 29, said socialisation with the traditionalist group is the key to unity.
The prelate, who spent 10 years as an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family in the Roman Curia and as chaplain of Pope John Paul II, told The Record that the intention of the Rosary was that talks recently commenced between the Vatican and the Pius X Society will be successful.
The Rosary and dinner was also attended by Roman Catholic priests from the Archdiocese of Melbourne and the Diocese of Sale.
“Every Bishop who has a Lefebvre community in their diocese or region should reach out with the hand of friendship, which is much easier now that the excommunication of the Bishops has been lifted,” said Bishop Elliott, a consulter to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
“If we practise ecumenism with separated Christians, we are surely bound to bring that same spirit into our relations with our own brothers and sisters in the Church, no matter what problems have arisen in the recent past.
“It’s time to reach out and break the isolation.
“They’ve always been Catholics; the unity effort seeks to regularise their position according to Canon Law in the Church and hopefully to integrate them in the life of the Church with their own structure.”
In January, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of four Bishop members of the Society, who were ordained against papal orders in 1988, and said he hoped the move would open the way for a serious dialogue about doctrinal differences between the Church and the traditionalist group.
Bishop Christopher Prowse of Sale, Victoria, whose diocese hosts the largest Pius X Society community in Australia, said the Rosary and dinner was organised to follow the lead of Pope Benedict.
“We saw that the Pope was encouraging openness towards the Society and we realised we have the biggest community in Australia here, so we need to offer hospitality,” said Bishop Prowse, who was also appointed as a chaplain to the Pope in 2001.
“I hadn’t met most of them before, so it shows you the importance of getting to know each other so we can see what the Holy Spirit might be doing in the Church and in helping us understand how we can get through these roadblocks.
“There was a great openness and respectfulness of each other’s opinions.
“In Scripture, division among Christians is a scandal of the Gospel. Christ in the Last Supper prayed that we all be one, so we must work at it globally.
“We get encouragement from the present Pope’s initiatives and dialogue with other Christian denominations; and on local levels we must resonate that openness as best as we can.”
Bishop Elliott, who had a private meeting with Society of St Pius X superior general Bishop Bernard Fellay in August, said the key to unity with Levebvrists is for the entire Church to “reflect on understanding tradition as a living dynamic process, but always based on the foundations of the past teachings of Popes and councils”.
At the private meeting, held at the Society’s base at Tynong, Victoria, Bishop Elliott said he pointed out to Bishop Fellay that “the hermeneutic of continuity – which Pope Benedict has mentioned and which he certainly presented before he became Pope – is probably the best key to a sound understanding of the Second Vatican Council.
“By contrast, the hermeneutic of rupture presents the Council and any changes that followed it as a radical break with the past and the beginning of more breaks with the past,” said Bishop Elliott, who is also director of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies in Melbourne.
“But Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger argued that this is a false interpretation of the Council; and I think that this interpretation has to go. It’s important that we see the Council in the context of the whole history of the Church, and not as some revolutionary break with the past.”
Bishop Elliott, a former Anglican, said there is a parallel situation with Anglicans who seek reunion with the Holy See, as “they are pulling out of the Anglican communion precisely because it is largely dominated by the hermeneutic of rupture, which they see is not compatible with classical Christianity”.
“Some people have argued that this should also apply to situations like South Brisbane, but there is no comparison at all, as the Lefebvrists have maintained full Catholic faith and practice, as distinct from extremists in other directions,” Bishop Elliott said.
Fr Peter Kennedy, parish administrator of St Mary’s in South Brisbane, left the Church and brought his own congregation with him to form another group in the local hall after Archbishop John Bathersby said they excommunicated themselves by not conforming to liturgical standards in Mass or Baptisms nor respecting his authority.
In Australia, the Pius X Society has communities in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Goulburn, New South Wales.