SSPX Criticizes Pope Francis' Approach to Dialogue

Berlin (Catholic news / CBA). The "Chief Dogmatist" of the traditionalist Society of Pius X in Germany, Father Matthias Gaudron, has rejected the opening of the Catholic Church to other religions by Pope Francis. The talks between the Vatican and the Society are currently on ice, the theologian said Friday in an interview with Spiegel Online. He expressed criticism of the Pope's statements on homosexuality and his warning against faith as an ideology. The Catholic Church in Germany will collapse according to Gaudron in 15 to 20 years, because it has no new priests and the faithful are declining in numbers. "Many say the Church would regain members if only they would open up. But if that were so, then people would still flock en masse to the Protestant Churches," Gaudron said. He suggested the unengaging have no strength and can not inspire. Gaudron considered as "very problematic" the the Pope's rejection of an exaggerated search for security in the faith. "If the only dogmatic certainty was that God is in man, I think that's a bit little," he said. "The Pope can not change the truth of the Creed." Pope Francis had warned in an interview against seeking in "an exaggerated manner the security in doctrine", also one should not look to the "bitter lost past". "In this way, faith is one ideology among many."

On the topic of homosexuality Gaudron believes the Pope held a contradictory position. On one hand, he claimed that he accepted the teaching of the Catholic Church. On the other hand, Francis awakened the impression that it was okay to be gay. "Either I stick to the theory, I can not approve of homosexuality, or I'll have it. But then I am no longer Catholic." Gaudron appealed to the Pope to guarantee the right of priests to celebrate the Old Mass. That the talks between the Vatican and the Society are currently on ice, the theologian also shifts to the Prefect of the Congregation of Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller. "He does not like us. He acts hostile towards us, since he is in Rome. "The Society of St. Pius X. was founded in 1969 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991). It rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Contentious issues are especially in the liturgy, ecumenism and religious freedom. In 1975 Rome withdrew canonical approval from it. After illicit ordinations by Lefebvre in 1976 he was prohibited the exercise of his episcopal office. By 1988 he consecrated, without papal consent, four priests as bishops of his Society, all five were charged with excommunication. Pope Benedict XVI. in 2009 as a gesture of reconciliation lifted the excommunication of the bishops of the SSPX. Since the end of 2009, there were several rounds of talks with the Vatican representatives to the Society on disputed doctrinal issues. Since spring 2012, the process has been apparently stalled.

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