Reconciliation moves in Lefebvre split with Rome

GRADUAL movement towards a reconciliation between Archbishop Lefebvre and the Vatican seemed in evidence in Rome this week. Fr Louis Coache, a leading supporter of Archbishop Lefebvre, asked "with humility" for an audience with the Pope. He said he was not doing so in the capacity of an official envoy of the Archbishop but as a defender of Catholic tradition.
He spoke of the Pope, not Archbishop. Lefebvre, as the head of the Traditionalists, and said that the Archbishop neither wanted schism nor intended to consecrate priests without the Vatican's permission.
The Pope called on the faithful to pray for Archbishop Lefebvre and his followers, but refused to be drawn into making any statement about the likelihood of schism.
Nor would he reply to the various accusations which have been levelled against him personally and the whole of Vatican II by the archbishop.
Some of the Archbishop's Italian sympathisers asked Cardinal Ugo Poletti, Vicar of Rome, to permit him to say Mass within the city.
Cardinal Garrone, the Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, insisted that the crux of the Vatican's disagreement with Archbishop Lefebvre was neither the Tridentine Mass nor the continuation of the Econe seminary. He asserted the real issue was the Archbishop's rejection of Vatican IL
Archbishop Lefebvre was unable to say Mass in Stein, Holland, and Stafferhausen, Belgium, last week as he planned, owing to his doctor's recommendations to rest.
Refuting in advance suggestions that his illness was "diplomatic," he said he would not abandon his followers and would administer the proposed Confirmations in Stein.
Despite these uncertainties about his health, Archbishop Lefebvre took part in a Tridentine Mass, celebrated by a former Econe seminarist, Fr Patrick Groche-Michaud, in a sports stadium in Besancon, France, on Sunday.
Speaking to the 2,500-strong congregation who only half filled the stadium he said he was willing to kneel at the feet of the Pope but he would not give in to Protestantism. Although still defiant, the Archbishop at last seemed to be hinting at the possibility of reconciliation with Rome.
He guardedly speculated that "things could be arranged and the truth could manifest itself." He did not announce the ordination of a new or the establishment of Traditionalist parishes as some of his more extreme followers had hoped. This has given rise to hopes that the Archbishop's attitude had softened as a direct result of the Pope's muted reaction to the Lille Mass.