I’m always interested in juxtapositions.
In particular, when people act, make decisions and so on. Sometimes – perhaps much of the time – if we try to understand what someone is doing it helps to look at what else that person is doing.
So look at two things Pope Benedict is doing these days. Or the Vatican, if you will.
First, there’s the “5 conditions” given to the SSPX – or perhaps mostly their head Bishop Fellay. (One of the best places to follow this drama is at Fr. Z’s. ) There’s still a great deal of mystery about these conditions – not in what they are, but in regard to what they are conditions for – but what interests me the most is the tight deadline. June 28. Saturday. First of all, it is a tight deadline, given that the letter from Hoyas is from early June. Secondly, the 20th anniversary of Lefebvre’s ordinations of 4 bishops – the act that prompted the excommunication of Lefebvre and those four bishops – is June 30.
This is significant in its own right – that on this day, Benedict will inaugurate the Year of St. Paul (about which I will have a lot to say later), a commemoration which calls us all to remember and live more deeply the urgency of bringing Christ to the world.
But more specifically, during the Mass on Sunday at St Peter’s, Patriarch Bartholomew I will be participating. And participating in significant ways – he will deliver part of the homily, he will recite the Creed with the Pope (with or without the filioque? That’s the hot topic these days) , and he will, along with the Pope, impart the final blessing.
I don’t think you can look at the SSPX conditions without also looking at the Patriarch’s participation in this liturgy.
Now, this is not a new thing. Here’s the program from 2004, which includes all of these elements, including the recitation of the Creed:
17. For the Creed, the Holy Father and the Patriarch will recite together the Greek text of the Nicene Constantinopolitan Creed, according to the usage of the Byzantine Churches.
Some less-informed commentors have used the SSPX conditions as opportunities to imply that this indicates the Pope’s “sympathy” with the SSPX or his desire to bring the group as it is into the fold. It is obviously not that simple. Being about a zillion miles away from the mind of the Pope, I can still guess that what is important to the Pope is not the organization called the SSPX, but the individuals – mostly laity – who are associated with their chapels and so on who yearn for what the SSPX provides. This is not so evident here in the United States, but in some parts of Europe, the picture is very clear.
In fact, these “conditions” are being interpreted on some commenting from the SSPX side as being much less than munificent. The opposite, in fact: as an effort to weaken the SSPX – for example, if the leadership rejects it, those who would like to be back might leave the SSPX with this final straw. Or, on the other hand, if the leadership accepts it, those who are deep-seated Roma-phobics, will break off, join the SSPV or something.
Either way, the true hardliners have separated themselves.
And with all that in mind…look again at the juxtaposition of these two events, what we are all be invited to look at, to contemplate.
Benedict is saying, it seems to me, quite a bit about unity, the function of the Papacy, the history of the Church, and most importantly – its future.
And saying to the SSPX leadership…this is it. This is how it is going to be. Take it or leave it. Speak with charity. Enough.
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