Catholic traditionalists defy Vatican in bishops row

February 22 ------ A traditionalist Catholic community said it has decided to go ahead with ordaining bishops without Pope Leo XIV's approval, despite the Vatican's warning it could divide the Church.

The Switzerland-based Society of Saint Pius X, which has about 600,000 followers worldwide, rejected an offer made by the Vatican last week for dialogue, and said it would perform the ordinations on July 1st as planned. Ordaining bishops without the pope's approval would mean excommunication -- being expelled outright from the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, head of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, met the Society's superior general, Davide Pagliarani, last week in a bid to defuse the situation. At the time, the Vatican warned such ordinations "would entail a decisive break in the ecclesial communion (schism) with grave consequences for the Society as a whole".

But Pagliarani said Thursday the Society "cannot accept... the postponement of the date of 1 July." "The need for the sacraments is a concrete, short-term need for the survival of Tradition", he added in a statement. He also criticized the Vatican's approach, saying "the hand extended to open the dialogue is unfortunately accompanied by another hand already poised to impose sanctions."

The row threatens to reignite a long-standing power struggle between Rome and traditionalists who are angered by threats to age-old rites, such as the use of Latin in church.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com