Vatican decree lifts excommunication of SSPX bishops

Vatican, Jan. 24, 2009 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) has lifted the excommunications of the bishops who lead the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).

In a decree dated January 21, and released to the public on January 24, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (bio - news), the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, announces that the excommunications imposed on July 1, 1988-- after the four bishops were ordained by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in defiance of Vatican orders-- are no longer in effect....