Groundwork Laid for St. Pius X Society Talks

The sessions aim to examine 'the doctrinal differences still outstanding between the society and the Apostolic See'.

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) - The first meeting between the Society of St. Pius X and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei served to identify the main doctrinal questions to be examined, a Vatican statement reported.

The first of a series of study sessions was held today at the Palace of the Holy Office, which serves as the headquarters of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

A communiqué issued at the conclusion of the meeting affirmed that the sessions aim to examine "the doctrinal differences still outstanding between the society and the Apostolic See."

"In a cordial, respectful and constructive climate, the main doctrinal questions were identified," the note stated.

The Vatican communiqué reported that the questions to be examined will "concern the concept of Tradition, the Missal of Paul VI, the interpretation of Vatican Council II in continuity with Catholic doctrinal Tradition, the themes of the unity of the Church and the Catholic principles of ecumenism, the relationship between Christianity and non-Christian religions, and religious freedom."

The noted said future sessions will be held "over coming months," and added that there could be as many as two sessions a month.

The Vatican representatives included Monsignor Guido Pozzo, secretary for the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, and Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Also present were three consultors of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Dominican Father Charles Morerod, secretary-general of the International Theological Commission; Father Fernando Ocariz, vicar general of Opus Dei; and Jesuit Father Karl Josef Becker.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior of the St. Pius X Society, named as representatives Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, rector of Our Lady Co-Redemptrix Seminary in La Reja, Argentina; Father Benoît de Jorna, director of the International Seminary of Pius X in Ecône, Switzerland; Father Jean-Michel Gleize, professor of ecclesiology at the seminary of Ecône; and Father Patrick de La Rocque, prior of the Priory of St. Louis at Nantes, France.

Bishop Galarreta is one of the four bishops consecrated by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, an act the Holy See deemed to be "unlawful" and "a schismatic act."

Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of the four bishops in January.