Castel Gandolfo - Pope Benedict XVI has agreed to start a dialogue with a group of traditionalist Catholics whom his predecessor excommunicated 17 years ago, the Vatican said in a statement.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Vals said Monday that the pope and the traditionalist leader, Bernard Fellay, had expressed "their common will to proceed in stages and within reasonable delays" to achieve the return of the traditionalists to the Catholic fold.
Navarro Vals said the pope met Fellay at the latter's request in the papal summer residence of Castelgandolfo. He acknowledged Fellay's title of Monsignor, even though it was his consecration as a bishop in 1988 and that of three others that led to the traditionalists' being outcast as heretics.
Fellay succeeded Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who died in 1991, as superior general of the self-styled Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, based in Econe, Switzerland.
The Lefebvrists reject the sweeping changes wrought by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in the 1960s, and demand the restoration of the old Council of Trent Latin ritual for Catholic masses.
Fellay has said that this and the lifting of the excommunication edict imposed by Pope John Paul II are the preconditions for a return to the church.
The Vatican statement said the meeting took place "in a climate of love for the Church and the desire to achieve full communion."
But it said they were fully aware of the "difficulties" facing them.
Navarro Vals gave no further details.
These difficulties include the prospect of objections from the vast majority of Roman Catholics who have fully accepted the Vatican Two reforms, and the fact that some of the traditionalists view the Vatican as hopelessly liberal.
Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, a pillar of conservatism at the Vatican, was also present at the meeting, Navarro Vals said. He is head of a Vatican commission called Ecclesia Dei that has had the task of maintaining discreet contacts with the Lefebvrists.
Since the excommunication, Fellay had one brief meeting with Pope John Paul II in December, 2000, but he said nothing of importance was discussed.
John Paul II's successor, Pope Benedict, has made reconciliation among Christians a priority of his pontificate During a visit to Cologne earlier this month he also visited both a synagogue and a mosque.
The Lefebvrists, who have followers around the world, oppose ecumenism and ridiculed John Paul II's famous interfaith meeting in Assisi in 1986. The Fraternity has described the Second Vatican Council as "a disaster" and claims it has received "abundant graces" by sticking to the pre-council tradition.
But Fellay said the election of the former
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as pope in April brought about a "glimmer of hope." As the Vatican's former doctrinal chief, the pope was friendly to traditionalism and the expanded use of Latin, which is still the official language of the Church.
French Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, a member of Ecclesia Dei, told the Catholic daily La Croix that the Vatican could allow "greater possibilities" to celebrate the mass according to the pre-Vatican Council Tridentine rite.