Ultra-traditionalist says pope should convert Jews

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) – A leader of an ultra-traditionalist
Catholic group that broke with the Vatican said on Saturday
that Pope Benedict should tell Jews and members of other
religions to convert because they are part of “false systems.”

Father Franz Schmidberger, a top official of the Society of
Saint Pius X (SSPX), also called on the Pope to invalidate
excommunications imposed when its founder, the late French
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, ordained bishops without
permission.

The SSPX rejects the reforms of the 1962-1965 Second
Vatican Council. It sticks to the old Latin mass and opposes
recognizing the validity of other religions, particularly
non-Christians.

“Other religions, as such, are false systems,” said
Schmidberger, who is the right-hand man of the traditionalists’
current head, Bishop Bernard Fellay.

“Instead of leading their members to our Lord Jesus Christ,
to Baptism and the confession of faith in his divinity, they
refrain from this and so we consider these other religions as
very dangerous,” he told a news conference presenting a
biography of Lefebvre.

“St Peter, the first pope, preached to the Jews and told
them that ‘if you want to be saved you must do three things:
you must regret your sins and convert, believe in our lord
Jesus Christ and, thirdly, be baptized,”‘ he said.

“We expect that every pope who claims to be the successor
of St Peter and he (Benedict) is the successor of St Peter,
should take the same stand in meetings with leaders of other
religions and tell them the same three things,” Schmidberger
said.

DIALOGUE

Fellay and Schmidberger held talks with Benedict last
August. But while Benedict shares the SSPX’s concern for some
parts of Catholic tradition and has encouraged wider use of
Latin in the Church, he has vowed to continue the dialogue with
other religions begun by his predecessor John Paul.

Benedict has met Jews, Protestants and Muslims. In August
he visited a synagogue in his native Germany.

The late pope sanctioned the excommunication of the
traditionalist leaders in 1988 when they defied his warnings
and went ahead with the bishops’ ordinations without
permission.

The SSPX, which sees itself as the guardian of true
Catholicism, now has four bishops and some 450 priests around
the world.

Schmidberger said the group had two basic prerequisites for
dialogue with the Vatican

The first was an indult that would allow the unconditional
return of the old-style Latin mass, which was sidelined after
the Second Vatican Council opted for services in local
languages.

Saying the Latin mass now requires approval from local
bishops, who are often reluctant to make exceptions for a tiny
minority in their dioceses.

The second prerequisite was that the excommunications
imposed on the group in 1988 be declared invalid.

One of the best-known traditionalist Catholics is actor Mel
Gibson but it is not clear if he supports the SSPX, which is
based at the rebel seminary Lefebvre ran in Switzerland.