Vatican moves against ordination of breakaway priests

The Vatican declared as "illegitimate" priestly ordinations by a breakaway group five months after lifting the ex-communication of four of its bishops including a Holocaust denier.

"The ordinations are... still to be considered illegitimate," the Vatican said in a communique. Pope Benedict XVI's decision in January to lift the excommunication of Holocaust denier Richard Williamson of Britain infuriated the Jewish community and many Catholics.

The communique said members of the Society of St Pius X "do not exercise legitimate ministries in the (Roman Catholic) Church."

It said the Holy See would maintain its position "as long as issues concerning doctrine are not clarified," adding that the Switzerland-based group had "no canonical status in the Church".

The Pope said in March that while the bishops had been "invited" back into the fold, they "do not (yet) legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church."

Pope Benedict said that the four must recognise "the authority of the Pope and the Vatican Council II" in order to "complete the last steps necessary to achieve full communion with the Church."

John Allen, Vatican expert for the US weekly National Catholic Reporter, said the ordinations, planned for late this month, "could be read as a deliberate act of disobedience".

The ordinations of 23 new Lefevbrist priests are set for June 29 in Switzerland, Germany and the US.

"If you're a group that's trying to make up with the Pope, doing something like this probably isn't the best idea," remarked Mr Allen.

The lifting of the four bishops' ex-communication was meant as the first step in a process of reconciliation, added Mr Allen.

"From a communications point of view, it certainly wasn't well communicated," he said. "It was not supposed to be understood as approval of Mr Williamson's views on the Jews." Pope Benedict's predecessor Pope John Paul II excommunicated Mr Williamson and the three other bishops after traditionalist leader Marcel Lefebvre ordained them as bishops of his separatist church in 1988.

Their fraternity rejected reforms passed by the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, notably including a declaration, Nostra Aetate, which ended a Church doctrine by which Jews were held responsible for killing Jesus Christ.

Mr Williamson, who claims that no Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers, has apologised to anyone offended by his remarks but has refused to retract his assertions, saying only that he would re-examine the historical evidence.

Bishop Lefebvre ordained the four bishops, in defiance of John Paul II, to create a heirarchy for the breakaway group.

"Because they haven't been fully reintegrated, that means that a bishop from this society has no permission... to ordain priests," said Mr Allen said. "They're not legitimate yet."

The statement leaves the door open for dialogue, noted Andreas Tornelli, a Vatican-watcher for the right-wing newspaper Il Giornale.

"The Vatican says it doesn't like the ordinations ... but doesn't say not to perform them," he said.

"I don't have the impression that we will soon see tough action from the Vatican towards the Lefebvrists, who always succeed in doing what they want," Mr Tornelli added.

Mr Allen said: "It seems pretty clear there is a kind of split in the Lefebvrist world between those who are interested in returning to the fold... and those who take a harder line."