Rome and Lefebvrists Still Not Reconciled

ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 22 — A Vatican cardinal said that the Mass is still a point of contention with followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and that reconciliation does not appear to be coming any time soon, the wire service reported.

Although Rome has been holding talks with the Society of St. Pius X, which Archbishop Lefebvre founded, a similar traditionalist group in Brazil was reconciled with Rome recently, the Mass of Paul VI is still keeping Lefebvrists in a state of schism. “The most rigid of Lefebvre's followers contend that a Mass celebrated with the missal now in use in the Church is a sacrilegious and invalid rite,” said Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments. “And frankly this seems a bit too much … you'd have to ask if it is possible that the Holy Spirit has abandoned the whole Church.”

‘Pope John Paul Urges Right to Die’

VATICAN RADIO, March 23 — Yes, that headline caught our eye too.

In fact, the Vatican radio broadcast, a transcript of which was published by British Broadcasting Corp., related Pope John Paul II's advice that doctors help people accept death when a cure is impossible.

In today's atmosphere, when the “right to die” is taken to mean a right to assisted suicide, BBC headline writers should be more careful.

The Pope said there are limits that man and technology cannot overcome, and in those cases it is necessary to accept with serenity one's human condition.

Taiwanese Official Extends Invitation to Pope

ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 24 — A papal visit to Taiwan could highlight the island nation as a “lighthouse of hope” to Catholics in mainland China, said Annette Lu, vice president of the Republic of China.

Lu invited Pope John Paul II to visit Taiwan on his way to the World Meeting of Families in the Philippines next January. She presented the idea to Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's foreign minister, on a stopover in Rome.