Rome report on Lefebvre splinter

by our Rome correspondent ONLY 15 per cent of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's rebel priests would be unwilling to reunite with Rome, according to leaks from a 30-page Vatican report. It was compiled by Canadian Cardinal Edouard Gagnon after a four-month round of observation visits to Lefebvrian centres. The Pope is currently examining the preparation of yet another letter to the dissident French Prelate, Vatican reports said.
Cardinal Gagnon's benign judgement of Archbishop Lefebvre's network of 70 houses and seminaries in 15 countries in Europe and the Americas, and an estimated 400,000 faithful worldwide, concluded that only 15 per cent would be "recuperable with difficulty".
In the vast majority of supporters the cardinal recognised the "zeal" and the "righteous refusal of the abuses" of Vatican Council II reforms. The cardinal's report predicted a doubling of the Lefebvrian priesthood in the next five years, and urged Rome to be "magnanimous" in their regard.
Other unofficial reports from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith suggest that the Vatican predicts a return to the fold by Archbishop Lefebvre "in about three or four years". Sources said that congregation prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was careful never to include references to "heresy" in his reports to the Pope on the Lefebvre case, nor in the final draft of the archbishop's excommunication decree. "This expedient serves to facilitate an eventual comeback", the congregation spokesman said.
He added that Archbishop Lefebvre still had supporters in high places within the Holy See, and that even Cardinal Ratzinger, an intransigent watchdog of deviations on faith, agreed with the French cleric's stand on some issues. The cardinal has said in the past that abuses of Vatican II reforms, the focal point of Lefebvre's protest, had provoked a malaise in local churches in general. And he has often expressed the wish for a "certain restoration" of tradition "for medicinal purposes".
Cardinal Paul Mayer has been appointed to lead an eight man Vatican team entrusted with the task of persuading Lefebvre supporters to remain loyal to Rome.