Cardinal Cottier’s opinion on Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

Source: FSSPX News

 

Cardinal Georges Cottier, former theologian of the Pontifical Household, was asked by I.MEDIA to give his views on the three documents recently published by the Vatican: the Pope’s Letter to the Catholics of China, the Motu proprio on the Tridentine Mass, and the document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on “Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church”. He considered that these texts “characterize” this pontificate.

According to him, the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum on the liberalization of the use of the pre-conciliar Mass has “an ecumenical objective for those brethren who do not consider themselves as separated, but are in fact schismatic.” On this point, the Swiss theologian contradicts Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos who, on November 13, 2005, declared on the Italian TV channel Canal 5: “In correct, exact, and precise terms, we cannot say that there is a schism. In the act of consecrating without a papal mandate, there is a schismatic attitude. They are within the Church. It is only that there is a lacking a full,  more perfect, more full communion, because that communion does exist.”

Cardinal Cottier recalls that: “what is always put forward by Ecône is the liturgy,” yet, “the fundamental motives are really the Second Vatican Council, religious liberty, and ecumenism.” Thus, for him, “now that there is no longer a problem with the liturgy, the faithful of Archbishop Lefebvre will be forced to take a stand.” Here, the Swiss prelate lets it be understood that the liturgical issue was merely a pretext deliberately hiding a doctrinal conflict of greater depth. Bishop Fellay pointed out this major divergence clearly, in his “Letter to the Faithful” on July 7, 2007, the very day of the release of the Motu Proprio: “There is in Benedict XVI the clear desire to re-affirm the continuity of Vatican II and the Mass which issued from it, with the bimillenial Tradition. This denial of a rupture caused by the last council – already shown in his address to the Curia on December 22, 2005 – shows that what is at stake in the debate between Rome and the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X is essentially doctrinal.”

As for Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, he answered the question put to him by journalist Gianni Cardinale in the monthly 30 Giorni of August as follows: What perspectives can the Motu Proprio open for the disciples of Archbishop Lefebvre? – They have always asked that every priest may celebrate the Mass of Saint Pius V. From now on, this right is officially and formally recognized. On the other hand, the pope reaffirms that the Mass we celebrate everyday, the Novus Ordo Mass, remains the ordinary way of celebrating the unique Roman rite. Hence, we cannot deny the value, and even less the validity of the Novus Ordo. This must be very clear.

(Sources: apic/imedia/30 Giorni)