Pope wishes to lift the excommunications on the followers of Lefebvre (SSPX)

Actually, I think - maybe too optimistically - that a lot of people go along with things as they are simply because they don't know any better or have never seen anything else. Some of them are surprisingly appreciative of a beautiful and correct Mass, regardless of what they put up with uncomplaingly every Sunday. I don't think they'd have trouble readjusting.

That said, there would be an entrenched group - particularly the scads of "ministers," mostly elderly women, who have been installed in American churches - who would be very difficult, but I think that in the long run, they'd respect the authority of the priest or bishop(assuming he bothered to exercise it).

As for the ultra-liberals, they've already left anyway, since they very publicly do not accept most of the teachings of the Church. Maybe it would be a good thing for them to stop sponging off the life, reputation and money of the real Church and go out and see exactly how far their meager and unappealing PC Unitarianism would get them.

SSPX: B16 Gathers His Chiefs
A friend in Rome just sent me today's article text from Andrea Tornielli in Il Giornale. Below is the translated lede:

The Pope wants to remove the excommunication on the followers of Lefebvre.

Things are moving in relations between the Fraternity of St. Pius X and the Vatican: the Pope wishes soon to bring down the excommunication which was levied on the leaders of the group founded by Archbishop Lefebvre, which comprises four bishops, 480 priests and hundreds of thousands of faithful throughout the world. It's really moving: the morning of Monday, 13 February, at 10.30, Benedict XVI has called a meeting in the Apostolic Palace with the cardinal-heads of the Vatican "ministries" [i.e. the heads of the Congregations and relevant Pontifical Councils], for the purpose of discussing some possibilities of removing the excommunications of the bishops who were ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 without
the permission of the Vatican.

Here's the summary of the rest: chief supporter of a deal is said to be Castrillion (no surprise there), while Julian Herranz (cardinal-president of the Council for Legislative Texts and a numerary of Opus Dei) "has long arranged the canonical grounds which foresees the institution of an apostolic administration." Tornielli confirms that the 22 December speech was a watershed for Econe, and that the Pope is "intentioned to render less problematic the old manner of celebrating [liturgy] to the groups of the faithful who request it."

-30-

http://www.whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/

If you view the PDF version of the article on the Il Giornale site (the link is above the headline), there is a picture accompanying the article of a Society priest saying his first Solemn Mass in the Ambrosian Rite. Also, there is an article underneath that talks about the American/English release of a book by Ratzinger/Pera and the presentation that will be made at Columbia University in NYC.

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