Pope Benedict has been deeply disturbed by the hostile reaction to the lifting of the excommunications of the four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X.
It was that “concern and suffering” over the widespread misunderstandings about the reasons for the excommunications that prompted the Pope “to intervene in order to contribute to peace in the Church,” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said yesterday.
Said the Vatican spokesman, “Never before in his pontificate has Benedict XVI expressed himself so personally and intensely on a matter of public debate.”
The Vatican spokesman made those comments in an explanatory note accompanying the Holy Father’s letter to the world’s bishops about the matter. The letter was released yesterday.
The Register will examine in more detail the reasons why Benedict wrote the letter, and the reaction to it, in an article to be published in an upcoming issue in the print edition of the Register. Watch for it!
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