Martin Mosebach on SSPX reconciliation

Thanks to Rorate Caeli for the link to a translation of Martin Mosebach's recent article in Der Spiegel: The Body of the Church. Why the Pope Had to Do What He Did. The translation is provided by Stuart Chessman of The Society of St Hugh of Cluny blog over in Connecticut.

Moseach, author of "The Heresy of Formlessness", makes an interesting point about the role of the SSPX in preserving the Liturgy of the Church. Usually, people point out that the dispute with the SSPX is "not just about liturgy" but about Vatican II, religious freedom, ecumenism, or the Catholic state. Nevertheless, it is true that the most distinctive feature of the SSPX is its preservation of the traditional liturgy. Mosebach asks,
Must he [Pope Benedict] not, however, have felt a sense obligation to the SSPX; that, for all its faults, it had become an instrument for preserving the Holy of Holies of the Church in a time of crisis? Whether the SSPX succeeds in finding a place in the multiplicity of the present day Church remains to be seen. Its historic mission, in any case, has been concluded.
The whole article is worth reading for its intelligent analysis of the present situation.

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