Paris, France - France's Roman Catholic Church has reassured its anxious bishops that Pope Benedict does not want to renounce the reforms of the Second Vatican Council by reviving the old Latin mass that its critics champion.
Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, head of the French bishops' conference, said Benedict wanted to heal a schism with traditionalists but had not yet worked out a formula to do this.
French bishops have been up in arms over reports Benedict would soon drop all restrictions on celebrating the old Latin mass to allow the return of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a schismatic movement that rejects the Vatican II reforms.
Those pioneering 1960s reforms include mass in local languages, a greater role for lay people, reconciliation with Judaism and cooperation with other faiths - all of which the SSPX opposes as "neo-modernist and neo-Protestant."
"The Church is not changing direction," Ricard told bishops meeting in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes in southwestern France at the weekend. "Pope Benedict does not intend to go back on the course the Second Vatican Council gave to the Church."
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin said the uproar in the French church reflected a lack of trust in Benedict, who has long argued for wider use of Latin and traditional liturgy while defending the Council's doctrinal reforms.
"The problem is one of the confidence one has in the pope and the bishops as pastors," the Lyon archbishop told the daily Le Figaro. "I sense a lot of concern in my own diocese."
The uproar over the old Latin liturgy, known as the Tridentine mass, has centred on France because the Swiss-based SSPX was founded in 1970 by a French prelate, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and has a small but strong following here.
The French bishops see the demand for the Tridentine mass, which can now only be said with special permission that many bishops refuse to give, as a Trojan horse that could establish the SSPX as a hard-line "loyal opposition" within the Church.
Ricard, who went to Rome last month to discuss the issue with the Pope, said no decision on reviving the Tridentine mass had been made and the Vatican was open to discussion about it.
"This project stems from Benedict's desire to do all he can to end the Lefebvrist schism," he said, referring to the break in 1988 when Pope John Paul excommunicated the SSPX founder and four bishops he consecrated without Vatican permission.
"He knows that the more the years pass, the more the gap grows and positions harden," he said.
Benedict, who helped craft a 1999 agreement with Lutherans that lifted the 16th century excommunication of Martin Luther, has made Christian unity a top priority. He has also stressed the need to work more closely with Orthodox churches.
Dropping all restrictions on the old Latin mass would not change much for ordinary Catholics, who would continue to attend mass in local languages, but it could create practical problems.
"They will have to wheel out old dinosaurs like myself to say the mass in Latin," one 75-year-old Paris priest remarked. "Almost none of the younger priests know it."