SSPX - trying to keep up

This is a collection of various stories that have been running over the past two days. Hat tips especially to Rorate Caeli, Cathcon and Fr Z.

In an interview given to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Cardinal Castrillon played down the remaining difficulties over Vatican II. (pdf of the newspaper page.) Kreuz.net has reported some alleged remarks of Cardinal Re on a bus, blaming Cardinal Castrillon for everything and calling him names.

Bishop Fellay, in an interview given to Monde et Vie, played down the possible divisions within the SSPX, saying that they would be minimal.

Bishop Williamson written a letter of apology for "imprudent remarks of mine" and his sincere regrets for causing so many problems. He has also sent out a message denying rumours of his ill health.

In England, the Times has had a rant, concluding of the lifting of the excommunications:
It is a gesture that should be retracted immediately unless, and until, Bishop Williamson renounces his obscenities.
I don't expect Bishop Williamson's apology will be enough though. (And to be fair, "imprudent" doesn't quite cut it.) In the House of Commons, we hear, MPs condemn lifting of excommunication on Holocaust denier. This is sanctimonious hypocrisy for a Parliament that has legalised the killing of over 5 million babies in the womb and has passed legislation to make Britain lead the world in experimenting on human embryos.

Moving on to some more worthwhile coverage: Brian Mershon has been talking to Mgr Barreiro and writes in the Remnant, Vatican Insider Projects Speedy SSPX Resolution. Mershon quotes some interesting comments from a 1988 address to the Bishops of Chile given by Cardinal Ratzinger. Here is a sample from the address:
The Second Vatican Council has not been treated as a part of the entire living Tradition of the Church, but as an end of Tradition, a new start from zero. The truth is that this particular Council defined no dogma at all, and deliberately chose to remain on a modest level, as a merely pastoral council; and yet many treat it as though it had made itself into a sort of superdogma which takes away the importance of all the rest.
John Allen offers a fair and reasonable critique of the effect of the Vatican's failure to develop any effective communications strategy. See: The Lefebvrite case: What was the Vatican thinking?

Fr Nicola Bux and Salvatore Vitiello at the Agenzia Fides, the news service of Propaganda Fide, have written Revocation of excommunication: an act of real ecumenism highlighting the. intention of the Holy Father to foster reconciliation in charity.

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