Rarely has a 35-minute audience, one that didn't even appear on the pope's official list of engagements, made as much of a splash as Benedict XVI's "private" 29 Aug encounter with Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior of the Society of St. Pius X, the body founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.Benedict and the Lefebvrites, John L. Allen Jr., Word From Rome, National Catholic Reporter, 2 September 2005
"John-Paul II went as far as to offer Lefebvre a personal prelature" (Aspects of Contemporary France, by Sheila Perry, ISBN0-415-13180-4, page 159); "So I told all these things to the Cardinal and then he said, 'So, here's what Rome proposes to you: We want a solution in which we solve the problem of bishops, bishops who would be ordinaries, that is, true bishops, maybe with dioceses, and priests and faithful.' He spoke about an arrangement like that of Opus Dei, that is, a personal prelature" (talk given by Bishop Bernard Fellay at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Kansas City, Missouri on March 5, 2002Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine). However, on an earlier occasion Bishop Fellay said that what was under consideration was not a personal prelature but an apostolic administration (Communicantes: August 2001). Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
"On January 16, there was another meeting with Cardinal Castrillon, during which the Superior General exposed the necessity of having guaranties from Rome before going ahead in the details of eventual discussions or an agreement: That the Tridentine Mass be granted to all priests of the entire world; That the censures against the Bishops be declared null" (Statement of Bishop Fellay to SSPX Members & Friends January 22, 2001Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine); "We thus did require these two signs, first the withdrawal of the decree of excommunication and, secondly, the permission for all the priests of the Latin rite, without distinction, to celebrate the traditional Mass. I believe these two steps would have been able to create a truly new climate in the universal Church" ("Society Saint Pius X Communicantes August 2001 Our Hope after the Battle". Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2012. Interview with Bishop Fellay, August 2001, Angelus magazine)
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"John-Paul II went as far as to offer Lefebvre a personal prelature" (Aspects of Contemporary France, by Sheila Perry, ISBN0-415-13180-4, page 159); "So I told all these things to the Cardinal and then he said, 'So, here's what Rome proposes to you: We want a solution in which we solve the problem of bishops, bishops who would be ordinaries, that is, true bishops, maybe with dioceses, and priests and faithful.' He spoke about an arrangement like that of Opus Dei, that is, a personal prelature" (talk given by Bishop Bernard Fellay at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Kansas City, Missouri on March 5, 2002Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine). However, on an earlier occasion Bishop Fellay said that what was under consideration was not a personal prelature but an apostolic administration (Communicantes: August 2001). Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
"On January 16, there was another meeting with Cardinal Castrillon, during which the Superior General exposed the necessity of having guaranties from Rome before going ahead in the details of eventual discussions or an agreement: That the Tridentine Mass be granted to all priests of the entire world; That the censures against the Bishops be declared null" (Statement of Bishop Fellay to SSPX Members & Friends January 22, 2001Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine); "We thus did require these two signs, first the withdrawal of the decree of excommunication and, secondly, the permission for all the priests of the Latin rite, without distinction, to celebrate the traditional Mass. I believe these two steps would have been able to create a truly new climate in the universal Church" ("Society Saint Pius X Communicantes August 2001 Our Hope after the Battle". Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2012. Interview with Bishop Fellay, August 2001, Angelus magazine)
Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei, 3Archived 29 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine Quote: "Such disobedience - which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy - constitutes a schismatic act. ... The root of this schismatic act can be discerned in an incomplete and contradictory notion of Tradition" (emphases added)
Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei, 3Archived 29 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine Quote: "Such disobedience - which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy - constitutes a schismatic act. ... The root of this schismatic act can be discerned in an incomplete and contradictory notion of Tradition" (emphases added)
"John-Paul II went as far as to offer Lefebvre a personal prelature" (Aspects of Contemporary France, by Sheila Perry, ISBN0-415-13180-4, page 159); "So I told all these things to the Cardinal and then he said, 'So, here's what Rome proposes to you: We want a solution in which we solve the problem of bishops, bishops who would be ordinaries, that is, true bishops, maybe with dioceses, and priests and faithful.' He spoke about an arrangement like that of Opus Dei, that is, a personal prelature" (talk given by Bishop Bernard Fellay at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Kansas City, Missouri on March 5, 2002Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine). However, on an earlier occasion Bishop Fellay said that what was under consideration was not a personal prelature but an apostolic administration (Communicantes: August 2001). Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
"On January 16, there was another meeting with Cardinal Castrillon, during which the Superior General exposed the necessity of having guaranties from Rome before going ahead in the details of eventual discussions or an agreement: That the Tridentine Mass be granted to all priests of the entire world; That the censures against the Bishops be declared null" (Statement of Bishop Fellay to SSPX Members & Friends January 22, 2001Archived 31 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine); "We thus did require these two signs, first the withdrawal of the decree of excommunication and, secondly, the permission for all the priests of the Latin rite, without distinction, to celebrate the traditional Mass. I believe these two steps would have been able to create a truly new climate in the universal Church" ("Society Saint Pius X Communicantes August 2001 Our Hope after the Battle". Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2012. Interview with Bishop Fellay, August 2001, Angelus magazine)
