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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “ The duty to safeguard the unity of the Church, with the solicitude to offer everyone help in responding appropriately to this vocation and divine grace, is the particular responsibility of the Successor of the Apostle Peter, who is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity of both bishops and faithful ”: this is the opening paragraph of the Apostolic Letter, bearing the date of 2 July 2009, of the Holy Father Benedict XVI "Motu Proprio Data" Ecclesiae Unitatem, with regard to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.
The text, articulated in 7 points, recalls, that “ following the act of 30 June 1988 by which Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre illicitly conferred episcopal ordination upon four priests, on 2 July 1988 Pope John Paul II …established the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" whose task it is "to collaborate with the bishops, with the departments of the Roman Curia and with the circles concerned, for the purpose of facilitating full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, religious communities or individuals until now linked in various ways to the Society founded by Mgr. Lefebvre, who may wish to remain united to the Successor Peter in the Catholic Church, while preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions”. Along this line, “ making every effort to ensure that those who truly desire unity have the possibility to remain in it or to rediscover it”, Benedict XVI recalls that he expanded and updated with the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, indications regarding the possible use of the Missale Romanum del 1962.
“ Precisely because the problems that now have to be examined with the Society are essentially doctrinal in nature, - the text of the Holy Father's Letter affirms - I have decided - twenty-one years after the Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei" and in keeping with what I had intended to do - to reconsider the structure of the Commission "Ecclesia Dei", joining it closely to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" will, then, have the following configuration:(a) The president of the Commission is the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.(b) The Commission has its own staff, composed of the secretary and officials.(c) It will be the task of the president, with the assistance of the secretary, to submit the principal cases and questions of a doctrinal nature for study and discernment according to the ordinary requirements of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and to submit the results thereof to the superior dispositions of the Supreme Pontiff.”. The Pontiff concludes emphasising the fact that the Motu proprio is a sign of his “ paternal solicitude towards the Society of Saint Pius X, with the aim of rediscovering the full communion of the Church” and To everyone he addressed " a pressing invitation to pray ceaselessly to the Lord, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, "ut unum sint".”
A statement issued by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Joseph Levada, now appointed President of the Commission Ecclesia Dei, made public on the occasion of the publication of the Motu proprio "Ecclesiae unitatem", emphasises that “the remission of the excommunication of the four Lefebvriani bishops was a measure of canonical discipline to free these persons of the weight of the gravest of ecclesiastical censures in full awareness that the doctrinal questions remain and until they are clarified the Society of Saint Pius X has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers may not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church”.
The text says that Cardinal William Levada, “expressed his gratitude to the Holy Father for the confidence demonstrated with this decision, assuring the Holy Father, also on behalf of the officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, of serious commitment for doctrinal dialogue with the Society of Saint Pius X”. The Holy Father sent a personally signed Letter to thank Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, until now President, “for great dedication to the work of the Commission Ecclesia Dei”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 9/7/2009, righe 46, parole 623)
