Reconciliation, if there is one, still has a week or so to come.But Europe’s chancelleries have already started looking for reassurance from the Holy See regarding the potential consequences of the Lefebvrian Society of St. Pius X’s return to full communion with the Catholic Church.
Particular concern is being caused by the issue of the future of Catholic dialogue with the Jews. The roots of this are found in the Second Vatican Council document Nostra Aetate, which was rejected by traditionalist Lefebvrians, as many other conciliar innovations were.
The Fraternity’s members have never hidden their scepticism towards Catholic theology’s recognition of the unique role of Jews over the past fifty years. On more than one occasion they have tried to also convert their “elder brothers” and some of their written texts often contained accusations of deicide, which was used for centuries as a “justification” of anti-Semitism and the Christian persecution of Jews.
By the time the excommunication of the four traditionalist prelates - which coincided with the broadcast of a Swedish documentary in which Williamson repeated his usual denial of the holocaust and anti-Semitic theories - was revoked, the German, Irish and French governments, to name just a few, had already held demonstrations, looking for reassurance from the Vatican, as the Belgian Parliament approved an official motion.
This time, the first to get moving were the Germans. The Catholic Vice-President of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Thierse, a member of the SPD party and the Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken (the central Committee of German Catholics whose members include lay people from all across the world) spent four days in Rome to meet various representatives of the Holy See leadership, starting with Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
In a series of interviews with the German media, he explained that he came back feeling “reassured”: “In Germany - he told the Archdiocese of Cologne’s radio station – word has it that the Vatican “gave in” to the Lefebvrians and the cardinal reassured me that this was not the case. He explained that the Society of St. Pius X must recognise the Magisterium’s authority and therefore that of the Second Vatican Council. There are two sensitive points on which the Vatican has apparently shown no hesitation or reserve, that is, relations with the Jews and the recognition of religious freedom.”
Koch apparently stressed that the Vatican cannot fight for human rights on a global level and then “embrace a group for whom religious freedom is still the focal point of a dispute.”
“These are essential issues on which the Vatican will not give in,” he concluded.
Despite receiving reassurance, the Jewish world still seems concerned about a potential reconciliation. Last week, Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi, Yona Metzger reiterated that the Vatican should not sign any agreement until Lefebvrian prelates “have changed their mind” about Nostra Aetate and relations with Jews.
“It seems only natural – he said – that all leaders of the Catholic Church should respect the Vatican’s decisions.” A similar appeal came about a month or so ago from European rabbis and the U.S.’s Anti-Defamation League.
It is no coincidence perhaps, that as the long saga over the traditionalists’ reconciliation with the Catholic Church draws to an end, last Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI wished to reaffirm the value of the conciliar encyclical before a group of Latin American Jews.
Thanks to the Council, he said, the “elder brothers” have become “trustful interlocutors and friends, good friends in fact, who are able to face the crisis together and overcome conflict in a positive way.”