CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, one of the Roman officials involved in discussions with the Society of St. Pius X, wrote a letter to the society's priests, seeking \u201creconciliation and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\u201cSome new considerations of a more spiritual and theological nature are needed\u2026considerations that focus rather on our duty to preserve and cherish the divinely willed unity and peace of the Church,\u201d wrote the Dominican prelate in an Advent letter to the priests of the traditionalist society.<\/p>\n
\tThe Society of St. Pius X was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970 to form priests, as a response to what he described as errors that had crept into the Church following the Second Vatican Council. Its relations with the Holy See became strained in 1988 when Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II.<\/p>\n
\tThe Pontifical Commission \u201cEcclesia Dei\u201d, of which Archbishop Di Noia is the vice president, was set up shortly after the episcopal consecrations to be responsible for relations with the Society. For the last three years, it has undertaken doctrinal discussions with the Society.<\/p>\n
\tThe letter was a \u201cpersonal appeal\u201d from Archbishop Di Noia, and not an \u201cofficial document\u201d of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told La Croix Jan. 19.<\/p>\n
\tArchbishop Di Noia wrote that thus far, relations between the Vatican and the Society have remained \u201copen and hopeful.\u201d At the same time, he said that \u201crecent assertions\u201d by members of the Society \u201ccause concern\u201d about the prospects for reconciliation.<\/p>\n
\tHe noted that \u201cthe terms of our disagreement concerning Vatican Council II have remained, in effect, unchanged,\u201d and that the recently-concluded three years of doctrinal discussions between the bodies has failed to alter the situation.<\/p>\n
\tThe Holy See maintains that the documents of Vatican II must, and can, be interpreted \u201cin the light of Tradition and the Magisterium.\u201d The Society, on the other hand, insists that certain teachings of Vatican II are \u201cerroneous\u201d and cannot be interpreted \u201cin line with the Tradition and the Magisterium.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn light of this circumstance, Archbishop Di Noia said that \u201csomething new must be injected into our conversations,\u201d so that discussions between Rome and Menzingen can be more than a \u201cwell-meaning but unending and fruitless exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhile unity is a gift of the Spirit, the archbishop said that human acts may cooperate or not with the Spirit's promptings.<\/p>\n
\tHe pointed to St. Thomas' sets of four virtues which contribute to Church unity, and their opposite vices which tear it down. Pride, anger, impatience, and inordinate zeal are the vices which get in the way of unity.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIn the past forty years, has there at times been a lack of humility, mildness, patience, and charity in our mutual relations,\u201d asked Archbishop Di Noia.<\/p>\n
\tHe asked the priests of the Society to cultivate those virtues, because interactions marked by their corresponding vices \u201cwill lead to nothing but bitterness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe archbishop went on to refer at length to St. Augustine, who placed great emphasis on the unity of the Church. He said the Church Father believed Church unity is necessary to remain in communion with God, and that therefore \u201cwe must preserve this unity with great determination, even if it involves suffering and patient endurance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tArchbishop Di Noia then addressed the place of the Society in the Church, acknowledging that it has an \u201cauthentic charism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe reassured the Society's priests that they are not being asked to abandon the zeal of their founder, but to \u201crenew the flame of his ardent zeal to form men in the priesthood of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThat charism, said the archbishop, must be \u201crecaptured\u2026the authentic charism of the Fraternity is to form priests for the service of the people of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe exhorted the Society's members not to \u201cfocus\u201d their preaching and formation on difficult to reconcile passages of the Magisterium, and to remember the example of St. Pius X.<\/p>\n
\tThat Pope, he noted, had a continual concern for sacred music, but wrote documents about it only as fitted his station, first as a bishop, then as Patriarch of Venice, and finally as the Roman Pontiff.<\/p>\n
\tThis example, Archbishop Di Noia suggested, illustrates proper proposals and influence, without disrespecting or acting against \u201clegitimate local authorities.\u201d He offered that theological difficulties should be handled more discreetly and always with respect for the responsible authority, never becoming \u201ca sort of 'parallel magisterium' of theologians.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe must see each doctrine and article of faith as supporting the others, and learn to understand the inner connections between each element of our faith,\u201d he reminded the priests to whom he wrote.<\/p>\n
\tIn his conclusion, Archbishop Di Noia acknowledged that \u201cfull ecclesial reconciliation\u201d may not bring about \u201can immediate end\u201d to \u201csuspicion and bad feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tDespite this, he said \u201cwe are seeking reconciliation and healing by God's grace under the loving guidance of the Holy Spirit\u2026our souls need first to be healed, to be cleansed of the bitterness and resentment that comes from thirty years of suspicion and anguish on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe pleaded that his readers pray that God heal any \u201cdesire for an autonomy that is in fact outside the traditional forms of governance of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tArchbishop Di Noia reminded them that \u201cthe only imaginable future for the Priestly Fraternity lies along the path of full communion with the Holy See, with the acceptance of an unqualified profession of the faith in its fullness, and thus with a properly ordered ecclesial, sacramental and pastoral life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe archbishop concluded his letter by appropriating Saint Paul's words, urging all \u201cto live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Vatican City, Jan 24, 2013 \/ 02:01 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, one of the Roman officials involved in discussions with the Society of St. Pius X, wrote a letter to the society's priests, seeking “reconciliation and heal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n
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