Pope Benedikt XVI and SSPX Piusbrotherhood

"Dear Holy Father, hereby I apply for readmission into the cradle of the Catholic church."

Pope Benedikt XVI and SSPX Piusbrotherhood

The naive uningenious bridgebuilder

Daniel Deckers
Benedikt XVI knew what he did and whom he was dealing with.The Pius brotherhood had the pope in its hands. Its a nightmare of the pope that a shisma (church-split) could become permanent during his reign. He took it too literally in this case.

Why did pope Benedikt XVI accept 4 members of priestbrotherhood PIUS X in the community of the catholic church, who were inaugurated under strictly prohibited circumstances as bishops? The answer is as easy as the reason for the German pope: Benedikt took his task too literally to be pontifex (bridgebuilder).

Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope in april 2005 aged 78. In terms of human estimating there isn't much time left to him to show the church ways into the future.
His thrive surfaced soon to heal certain wounds that the catholics inflicted upon themselves ever since the 2nd vatican council and that did not seem to heal anymore. Few months after his inauguration he met (reformer) Küng as well as he saw a short while before Lefebvre bishop Fellay in a private audience. So far - so good - or not?





The Pius brotherhood had the pope in its hands. They had him because its a nightmare of the pope that a shisma (church-split) could become permanent during his reign. Now they dictate their conditions ("for improved church-unity"): first the rehabilition of the trident mass on 7th july 2007. Then the lifting of excommunication on 21st jan 2009.Benedikt XVI knew what he did and whom he was dealing with. Nobody in the Vatican knows the Pius brotherhood longer and better than him. In a mission of pope John Paul the 2nd he held talks with mutinous archbishop Lefebvre to derail (dissuade)him from inaugurating bishops. The treaty was signed, but then Lefebvre inaugurated four priests as bishops. Ratzingers mission was a failure. In the aftermath the existence of the Lefebvre-movement wasnt just a dirty spot on the white shirt of the church, but a personal defeat for Mr.Ratzinger.

The desire to compensate the rift (better: to profile the rift or 'TRACTION') became overwhelming. Thus the pope was eluded by one of the four bishops of the Pius brotherhood denying the mass-murder of European jews with reasons which are very common among innermost Neonazis and by what Iran's Akmaydjinedjad became admissible on international stage.

Doubts on his ability to lead and to guide

Its not very useful to take the lifting of excommunication of WIlliamson as a proof for papal antisemitism. The step can be explained not with clandestine sympathy for holocaust deniers, but with conditions amounting to chaos in the Roman curia.

Since two years the heads of the Vatican authorities didnt meet anymore for a talk; the state Secretariat is not even able to inform about all processes IN the Vatican; the access to the pope is guarded by the secretary or one or the other cardinal.

Friends of the friends of the pope - see the twists in Austrian Linz - can always hope for Bishop seats. Meanwhile, Benedikt writes books. The doubts in his ability to guide and to lead (donum regiminis), which is an indispensable precondition for the bishops office, didnt become smaller since 2005 but bigger.

The bridge was built, but it was only the pope who set foot on it. He fulfilled the wish of the Lefebvre bishops without posting conditions. Neither did the four show regret for their desertion from the church in their plea-letter dated dec nor did they agree on the doctrine valid for all catholics of the authority of the pope and the councils.

In many secular aspects, an uningenious pope

Instead the pope went far to reach the mutiners - farer, than John Paul the 2nd wanted to go. That's a possibility to him, but is it his duty? Benedikt offered community to bishops who decline deceissive parts of the 2nd vatican council as heresy and who call the constitution of the church devil-made. The ideas of freedom (religious freedom), equality (colleagueship in church) and brotherhood (talks with the evangelicals) are to them the actions of the eternal adversaries of the church - starting at the jews, then freemasonry, ending at the democrats; a kneefall in front of the modern (world).

Not with superficial acceptance of most vulgar antisemitism, not with his secret positive attitude towards the Catholic Antijudaism that continues to survive in the Lefebvre movement, but a secularly-naive pope damaged the office with his conditionless subjection in front of the Pius brotherhood from the inside to the outside. It wouldnt have been possible in such a way from the outside. This is unimaginable in theological dimensions. The political consequences will fill some pages more.