Traditionalists won't reconcile

VATICAN CITY -- The leader of a breakaway group of conservative Catholics said that the legacy of the church's modernization in the 1960s prevents traditionalists from reconciling with Rome, despite the Vatican's recent revival of traditional liturgy.

"Without despairing, without impatience, we see that the time for an agreement has not yet arrived," wrote Bishop Bernard Fellay, in an letter addressed to "friends and benefactors" of the Society of St. Pius X.

Founded in 1970 by the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the society has consistently protested the changes wrought by the Second Vatican Council.

Last July, Pope Benedict XVI lifted restrictions on the Latin Mass, expressing hope that the move would lead to reconciliation with traditionalists.

Fellay's letter complains that the liturgical change "was not accompanied by logically correlative measures in other domains of the life of the church."

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