Michael Davies Comments on the
Reconciliation of
the Society of St. John Vianney
I am sure that all the members of the twenty-eight national associations of the International Una Voce Federation will welcome the news of the reconciliation of Mgr. Rangel and the priests of the Society of St. John Vianney with the Holy See. I shall be writing to Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos to express my admiration and appreciation of his pastoral zeal and patience in achieving an agreement that should be of great benefit to the Church and to the traditionalist movement. The desire of all traditional Catholics is, as His Holiness Pope John Paul II expressed it in his Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei", to have to have respect shown for our rightful aspirations concerning the pre-Vatican II liturgical and disciplinary forms of the Latin tradition.
The Holy Father has manifested his will to facilitate our ecclesial communion by means of the necessary measures to guarantee this respect. I have no doubt that the Society of St. Pius X will be paying close attention to the manner in which the agreement with the Society of St. John Vianney is implemented, and that if they are able to witness its application in wholehearted sincerity it will prove to be a powerful incentive for them to reach a similar agreement. I can imagine no more effective impetus for the continued expansion of the traditionalist movement than recognition by the Holy See for the 400 priests of the priestly society founded by Archbishop Lefebvre with the then full approval of the Holy See.
Posted 24 January 2002/sl