Lefebvre to Meet Top Vatican Aide in Rome
Dissident Roman Catholic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, suspended from priestly duties in 1976, will go to Rome on Tuesday to meet the Vatican official responsible for monitoring the orthodoxy of church doctrine, his order said Saturday.
The Fraternity of Pius X said Lefebvre will meet with Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Last month, the 82-year-old French fundamentalist churchman told an ordination ceremony that he might consecrate bishops to succeed him. Under church law, such consecrations without Vatican approval are punishable by excommunication.
Lefebvre and his order reject reforms agreed to by the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65, which modernized the Catholic Church. Among other things, the archconservative churchmen insist on celebrating the old Tridentine Mass in Latin.
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