Boston, Mass., Feb 3, 2009 / 17:31 pm
In a Friday article on his blog, Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley commented on the controversy surrounding Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) Bishop Richard Williamson's "terrible" statements which minimized Jewish suffering in the Holocaust. He argued the bishop's comments prove the need to increase papal influence over the SSPX and its bishops, whose excommunications were recently lifted.
Expressing deep sorrow at the pain Jews have felt because of the bishop's statements, he clarified that the removal of the excommunications does not regularize the breakaway "traditionalist" bishops but opens the way for further dialogue.
Recounting the history of the SSPX, which rejects some elements of the Second Vatican Council and adheres to the Tridentine Latin Mass, the cardinal mentioned that SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988 ordained the four bishops without the approval of the Pope. He thus incurred an automatic excommunication on himself and the four men he ordained.
Efforts to return the SSPX and its adherents, who may number as many as 1.5 million people, prompted the remittance of the excommunications, Cardinal O'Malley said.