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Pope Benedict XVI ended Saturday increased the schism of the twentieth century after the excommunication lifted officially decreed in 1988 against the bishops of the ultraconservative movement founded by the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

The annulment of the decree of excommunication issued in 1988 by John Paul II against the four bishops was taken after an ultra-long process of rapprochement and will cause a stir in the church forward in addition to affect relations with the Jews.


The beneficiaries are the Swiss Bishops Bernard Fellay, Lefebvre's successor, Frenchman Bernard Tissier of Mallerais, Richard Williamson English and Spanish-Argentine Alfonso de Galaretta.

The papal pardon was enacted despite recent statements from English Williamson in denying the Holocaust of millions of Jews during the Second World War to ensure that "no Jew was killed with gas" in the camps.


The unexpected statement from the bishop to Swedish television irritated the Jewish community and several rabbis and representatives of the United States, Italy and France, warned that his rehabilitation will stress the delicate relations between Catholics and Jews.

The decree annulling the excommunication for dogmatic lefebvrianos is dated 21 January 2009 and explained that the pope approved the request for readmission to the Catholic community in December 2008 by Fellay, superior of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, founded Econ 1969 (Switzerland) by Monsignor Lefebvre.


"We are firmly determined to remain Catholics and put all our forces at the service of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Roman Catholic Church," Fellay wrote to the Pope, according to excerpts of the letter released Saturday by the Vatican.

Fellay has promised to respect "the primacy of the Pope" and accept the teachings of the Church "in the spirit subsidiary" is described as heretics leaving some Vatican.


The spokesman for the Holy See, Father Federico Lombardi described the papal pardon for "important step" for the unity of the Church.

"The Pope kindly, with pastoral concern and mercy father, withdrew the excommunication that weighed" on lefebvrianos bishops, announced the official notice of the Holy See.


"The commitment of Benedict XVI had a decisive role," told Lombardi, who recalled that the Pope when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, "was disturbed" by the schism of 20 years ago.

The ordination of four bishops in 1988 by the same Lefebvre (who died on March 25, 1991), and disobeying a time putting in question the authority of the Pope are among the reasons that led him to create another church schism is andalusia or separation of the church, the first since 1870.


The Pope's spokesman said, however, to completely abolishing the schism and achieve "full communion" of the followers of Lefebvre with the rest of the Catholic Church, we must "define the status of the ultra-traditionalist, which could be similar to that given to groups and lefebvrianos Brazil.

Since the beginning of his pontificate in 2005, Benedict XVI has met several gestures of openness towards the Catholic movement founded by the French archbishop, including the introduction in July 2007 of the mass in Latin, that lefebvristas required.


In June 2008, the Vatican declined to require the followers of Lefebvre, grouped in the priestly fraternity, recognition of the provisions of the Second Vatican Council, held between 1962 and 1965 and modernized the Church.

Dogmatic traditionalist movement and has about 460 priests and about 150,000 faithful scattered in some 50 countries, many in Latin America, particularly Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.