Traditionalists name terms for a return to Vatican fold

by our Rome correspondent FOLLOWERS of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre are seeking a reconciliation with Rome.
Sources at the Conwegation for Clergy have revealed that ultra traditionalist supporters of the French archbishop, excommunicated in 1988 by the Vatican, are preparing a report for the Pope following a meeting at their headquarters at Econe in Switzerland.
The draft contains the "conditions" which the rebel Confraternity of St Pius X the name under which the Lefebvrists operate will return to the Roman fold. Officials at the Congregation for Clergy spoke of a softer tone adopted by Abbe Franz Schmidberger who succeeded Archbishop Lefebvre as leader of the rebels after his death last year.
Officially both the Lefebvrists and the Vatican are keeping quiet about the new development.
Rome says there is "nothing new" in the affair and Abbe Schmidberger not one of the four bishops consecrated by Lefebvre in defiance of Rome and therefore not one of' those who shared in his excommunication stating that Rome's offer of a
reconciliation was still "unacceptable".
Previous attempts to heal the schism have failed. A dramatic last minute bid by Rome to halt Lefebvre from going ahead with his episcopal consecrations in 1988 and thereby making his own excommunication inevitable failed when the rebels backed out at the final hurdle.
The French archbishop described Pope John Paul II as the modern anti-Christ.
Since Lefcbvre's death, the society's seminaries around the world have continued to operate in their pre-Vatican II fashion, servicing some 20,000 priests who minister to 500,000 Lefebvrist supporters throughout the world.
John Ryan