Polish, Ukrainian prelates warn Catholics against Lefebvrite movement

Published: 2008-01-18

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Polish and Ukrainian archbishops have warned Catholics to avoid contacts with the schismatic Lefebvrite movement, which is working in several countries in Central and Eastern Europe. "This schismatic group is trying to spread in Poland," Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski of Gdansk said in a pastoral letter read in archdiocesan churches Jan. 13. The archbishop noted that last year Pope Benedict XVI broadened permission for the use of the Tridentine Mass, the Latin-language liturgy that predates the Second Vatican Council. In a letter accompanying the decision, the pope noted the importance of the Tridentine Mass to the breakaway Lefebvrites but said the reasons for their schism with the Vatican "were at a deeper level." In a pastoral letter for the Jan. 7 Ukrainian Catholic Christmas, Archbishop Ihor Vozniak of Lviv said Father Vasyl Kovpak, who was excommunicated in 2006 by a Ukrainian church tribunal, had defied the Vatican's confirmation of his excommunication and continued to head the Ukrainian Lefebvrite movement, which runs a seminary and convent in Lviv as well as several parishes with some 3,000 adherents. "The work of this priest is damaging to the spirit -- this is why I forbid any support for his followers," Archbishop Vozniak said.

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