Society of St. Pius X: Two Different Opinions Concerning the Relations with Rome

On April 27, 2012, when questioned by the French magazine Le Pèlerin, Archbishop Gérard Defois (on the right on the picture), archbishop emeritus of Lille, said he considers an “eventual reintegration of the members of the Society of St. Pius X into the Catholic Church” to be a minor issue. “We understand the Holy See’s desire to find an honorable solution for each party, so that the schism need not go on uselessly,” he declared, adding: “what is important is to know on what terms. It cannot be to the detriment of Vatican Council II’s advances, for there would be a risk of the pontifical infallibility itself being questioned.” We hadn't realized that this "pastoral council" engaged "the pontifical infallibility itself". Archbishop Defois lamented: “I regret the excessive publicity given to these discussions. In the end, it is but a minor issue for the Church of today. Is not the true priority the evangelization of the new generations evolving in a de-Christianized culture?” And he insisted, “I repeat: this question is secondary, even if it is strongly symbolic.”

On the same day, April 27, Archbishop Nicola Bux (on the left on the picture), consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and to the Papal Office of Liturgical Celebrations, answered reporters Alessandro Gnocchi and Mario Palmaro’s questions in Il Foglio.  He expressed a position very different from that of Archbishop Defois: “those who have isolated Vatican Council II from the history of the Church and who have attributed to it a greater value than intended, do not abstain from criticizing, for example, Vatican Council I or the Council of Trent. Some pretend that Vatican II’s Dei Verbum has replaced Vatican I’s dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius; this is nothing but a ‘fanta-theology’. It seems to me that a good theology is a theology that questions the value of the documents, of their teachings, of their significance; in Vatican Council II, the different documents have different values, and consequently, they have different weight, which allows for different degrees of discussion. The Pope, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, in 1988, spoke of the risk of transforming Vatican II into a ‘super-dogma’; today, with ‘the hermeneutic of reform in continuity’, he has provided a criterion with which to face the question, not to close it. We mustn’t be more papist than the Pope. The Councils, all the Councils and not just Vatican II, must be received with obedience, but we can make an intelligent evaluation of what belongs to the doctrine and what ought to be criticized.” – For this Italian theologian, said to be close to Benedict XVI, the hermeneutic of reform in continuity makes it possible to open the debate about the Council, not to close it. And he does not see in this debate a questioning of “the pontifical infallibility itself.” (sources: Pèlerin/Foglio – DICI#254, May 11, 2012)