_____News____Brazil_______________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
End
of a Schism
A simple canonical act was
enough to bring one group of traditionalists back into full communion with
the Holy See, repairing at least part of the damage caused by the Lefebvrite
schism.
By CWR Staff
The traditionalist Society of St. Jean Vianney, in Campos, Brazil, has been restored to full communion with the Holy See.
On January 18, the Vatican announced the promulgation of an apostolic letter by Pope John Paul II welcoming the Lefebvrist group, and announcing that Bishop Luciano Rangel, the leader of the traditionalist group, would be named as apostolic administrator of the Campos diocese. The announcement confirmed a rumor that had circulated since late in 2001.
By uniting with Rome, the Brazilian traditionalist group broke with other followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. For nearly two full years, representatives of the Holy See (led by Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy) had been actively negotiating with leaders of the schismatic Society of St. Pius X, hoping to heal the schism that began when Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four new bishops in a June 1988 ceremony in Ecône, Switzerland, which took place in defiance of the Holy See. Those negotiations finally broke down late last year, when the Lefebvrist representatives refused to acknowledge the authority of Vatican II teachings.
The Society of St. Jean Vianney, however, had followed its own separate path since the 1988 schism. The Brazilian group sprang into existence in 1988 when Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer of Campos joined Archbishop Lefebvre in those illicit episcopal ordinations. Like Lefebvre, the Brazilian bishop incurred the penalty of excommunication, and founded his own traditionalist movement. Eventually Bishop Rangel, a close associate of de Castro Mayer, succeeded his mentor as the head of the schismatic group; he received his own episcopal ordination from the same bishops who were ordained in that fateful ceremony in Ecône.
Now the Brazilian traditionalists were showing their independence once again, continuing their own talks with Cardinal Castrillón after the Society of St. Pius X had walked away from the negotiating table. Eventually they struck a simple deal: they would acknowledge the authority of the Pope and of Vatican II, and the Holy See would acknowledge the right of the traditionalist priests to continue celebrating the Mass according to the Tridentine rite. The Society of St. Jean Vianney would retain its autonomy as an apostolic administration within the Campos diocese.
The very simplicity of that agreement provoked concern among other traditionalists. The deal struck by the Campos group did not even address the contentious issues that had caused the breakdown in negotiations between the Vatican and the other Lefebvrists. (Would the traditionalists be required to recognize all teachings of Vatican II, including those on religious freedom? Should not all Catholic priests —not just traditionalists—have the right to celebrate the Tridentine Mass?) Bishop Bernard Fellay, the head of the Society of St. Pius X, traveled to Brazil in an effort to dissuade the Campos group from acceding to the conditions set by the Holy See, but his mission was in vain; the deal had already been struck.
The formal reception of the traditionalist group—bringing an end to the only major schism in the history of Latin America—took place at a ceremony held in the Campos cathedral. Cardinal Castrillón acted as the Pope’s personal representative at the ceremony, which was attended by the papal nuncio in Brazil, Archbishop Alfio Rapisarda, and most of the bishops of the region. The ceremony consisted of the formal reading of the canonical documents establishing the new apostolic administration, the singing of the Te Deum, and hymns to honor the Virgin Mary.
A warming trend
Relations between the Holy See and the breakaway Brazilian group had been icy
for years after the excommunication of Bishop de Castro Mayer. The Society of
St. Jean Vianney grew to include 20 priests and an estimated 30,000 faithful,
all based within the geographic territory of the Campos diocese. In 1996, when
Bishop Gomes Guimarães became the head of that diocese, he made a concerted
effort to repair lines of communication with the traditionalist group. And in
2000, when Cardinal Castrillón launched a new drive to repair the Lefebvrite
schism—a project undertaken at the urging of Pope John Paul II, as part of the
Pontiff’s program for reconciliation during the Jubilee Year—the effort began to
bear fruit.
The formal Vatican announcement of January 18 revealed that Bishop Rangel had written to Pope John Paul last August 15, expressing his desire for “perfect communion with the See of Peter.” By that time, an outline of the final agreement between Campos and Rome had already been completed. In his letter the Brazilian bishop recognized the primacy of the Pope, and his authority over the universal Church.
On Christmas Day, the Holy Father responded positively, announcing that he would create an apostolic administration for the Brazilian traditionalists within the Campos diocese. The Pope’s apostolic letter made it clear that the faithful of the Society of St. Jean Vianney could continue to celebrate the Mass according to the Tridentine rite. And the letter removed all canonical penalties against the traditionalists, lifting their excommunication.
Although the episcopal ordination of Bishop Rangel was illicit, it was valid; the Holy See had never denied the fact that he—like the other bishops of the Lefebvrite movement—was a legitimate Catholic bishop, ordained in the apostolic succession, with the power to ordain priests. So a simple canonical measure, lifting his excommunication, was enough to regularize his status and restore full communion. While the Vatican published that document, Bishops Guimarães and Rangel made their own joint announcement of the new union. In their letter—released on January 14, four days before the formal announcement from Rome —the two bishops expressed their “intense happiness” at this “gesture of kindness by the Holy Father.” The Pope, they told the Brazilian faithful, was making manifest his desire for “an ever-increasing union among Catholics: unity in diversity.”
Bishop Rangel—who, at the age of 65, is suffering from cancer—has announced that he and the 26 priests of the Society of St. Jean Vianney hope to make a pilgrimage to Rome, hoping to meet with Pope John Paul and convey their gratitude for his apostolic letter, sometime this year.
“A sign of hope”
In the view of Cardinal Eugênio Araújo Sales—the retired Archbishop of Rio de
Janeiro and still one of the leading Church figures in Brazil—the agreement
between the Vatican and the Society of St. Jean Vianney was “a sign of hope to
the Church in the continent and even the world.”
Cardinal Sales, who was a special guest at the January 18 ceremony, wrote in the daily Jornal do Brasil, that the moment marked “an incredible sign of hope for the cause of reconciliation and unity within the Church in the region and the world.” Cardinal Sales, who had been discreetly involved in the negotiations that brought a rapprochement between the Brazilian traditionalists and the Vatican, added that he was moved by the “intense, prolonged applause that closed the liturgical ceremony” on January 18. He said that the congregation was showing “both the joy and the relief that came with reconciliation.”
“All the pain that the schism brought, for the Church and for so many Catholics, was over that day,” Cardinal Sales remarked.
Not all observers shared the cardinal’s enthusiasm for the reconciliation in Campos, of course. Speaking for the Society of St. Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay expressed regrets that his counterpart in Brazil had splintered the traditionalist movement. He remarked that the final negotiations between Campos and Rome had been “partially hidden,” and marked by “hastiness.”
The issues most important to the traditionalist movement had not been resolved in those negotiations, Bishop Fellay continued. And by acceding to an agreement without resolving those concerns, the Society of St. Jean Vianney had weakened the movement. “All of this is not good,” he said, “for strength lies in unity.”
Nevertheless, even Bishop Fellay conceded that the reconciliation brought some signs of hope. Although the agreement was incomplete, he acknowledged that the Brazilian traditionalists had made “no substantial concession on a doctrinal level.” And he drew some hope from the observation that, “for the first time, a diocesan structure has been granted to Tradition.”
And in Rome, one Vatican official involved in negotiations with the traditionalists confirmed that there were no new signs of progress in talks with the Lefebvrists. “The door remains open,” he said. “But as for the timing, that is in God’s hands.”