NLM-bloggen offentliggjorde i går et brev skrevet av P. Schmidberger til biskop Bernard Fellay for to måneder siden, altså et internt brev i SSPX, som forfatteren nå likevel har valgt å offentliggjøre. P. Schmidberger mener at Pius-brorskapet bør ta imot Vatikanets (muligens) utstrakte hånd om normalisering, men flere er tydeligvis uenige med ham.
(Selv har jeg ikke noen kontakt med SSPX, men er forholdsvis godt orientert om bakgrunnen for splittelsen (gradvis etter konsilet, og mest alvorlig i 1988), jeg leste bl.a. i 2010 Michael Davies’ trebindsbiagrafi om erkebiskop Lefebvre – og skrev litt om det her.)
P. Schmidberger skriver bl.a.:
Archbishop Lefebvre always sought a canonical solution for the Fraternity after its condemnation and did not shy away from dialogue with the Roman authorities; to this end it was important for him to move them to understanding and conversion. He continued these efforts even after the episcopal consecration, although being realistic he had little hope for success. Employing an argumentum ad hominem, he asked to be allowed to make “the experiment of Tradition”. He also fully recognized the fact that the Society is in an extraordinary situation, not at all through its own fault, but through the fault of its opponents. The situation remained the same until the year 2000. Since then Rome has made efforts to clean up this situation, sometimes cunningly, sometimes with honest intentions, depending on who was dealing with the problem from the Roman side.
The further dramatic decline of the Church since then and the simultaneously steady development of the Society have brought one or another cardinal or bishop to a partial or general understanding—one that he could not admit publicly, however, without further ado. For its part, Rome has dialed back its demands little by little, and in the latest proposals there was no more talk about recognizing Vatican II or the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae. So it seems that the moment has come to normalize the situation of the Society, for various reasons: Every abnormal situation inherently tends toward normalization. This is due to the nature of the matter. …
… Pope Francis is precisely the one who, with his unpredictability and improvisation, is capable of taking this step. The mass media may forgive him for this expedient, whereas they would never ever have forgiven Benedict XVI. In his authoritarian …. style of governance, he would probably be capable of carrying out such a measure even against opposition.