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Lefebvrists close to reconciliation
New movement in breakaway diocese
A schismatic traditionalist group in Brazil is close to an agreement with the Holy See that could result in a return to the Catholic Church, Vatican sources believe.

The Fraternity of St. John Vianney, a Lefebvrist group located in the Diocese of Campos, Brazil, is engaged in active discussions with Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. The cardinal has received a mandate from Pope John Paul II to explore ways of receiving Lefebvrist groups back into full communion with the Church.

To date, the Vatican has been unable to reach any substantive agreement with the largest of the breakaway traditionalist groups, the Society of St. Pius X; leaders of that group have insisted that they cannot accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council—a condition set by the Vatican for their return to the fold.

The Fraternity of St. John Vianney, however, is an independent group, with 20 priests. The group is led by Bishop Liciano Rangel, who received his episcopal consecration from the four bishops who were ordained by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, in defiance of orders from the Vatican—the act that prompted the excommunication of the Lefebvrist leaders.

In Brazil, the traditionalist group has been active in a heavily Catholic region near Rio de Janeiro. Relations between Bishop Rangel and the Diocese of Campos had been frosty until recently, when Bishop Gomes Guimarães was installed as the new leader of the Campos diocese. The subsequent warming of relations led to talks between the Fraternity of St. John Vianney and the Vatican.

Although the episcopal ordination of Bishop Rangel was illicit, it was valid, and the Holy See accepts his status as a bishop. So a simple canonical agreement, lifting his excommunication, could be enough to regularize his status and restore full communion.

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