Msgr. Patrick Descourtieux becomes head of the section within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dealing with such communities.

He effectively takes over the responsibilities of Archbishop Guido Pozzo who was Secretary of the Pontifical Commission ‘Ecclesia Dei' which the Pope abolished through a motu proprio (papal decree) in January.

A distinguished expert in patristics at the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome, Msgr. Descourtieux worked for ten years as an official at the pontifical commission.

The secretary of the Ecclesia Dei commission, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, told a French media outlet that the Vatican continues to work for reconciliation with the society.

Formal talks between the SSPX and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith broke down in 2012.

But conversations resumed in September this year.

Archbishop Pozzo said that in order to be regularised, the SSPX must accept the doctrinal teachings of the Church, including those of Vatican II.

However, he said, "there is room for further reflection on the reservations the fraternity has expressed regarding certain aspects and the wording of the Second Vatican Council documents as well as some reforms that followed, but which do not refer to subjects which are dogmatically or doctrinally indisputable".

Archbishop Pozzo said a few documents of Vatican II involve doctrinal statements, but others are "authoritative and binding to a different and lesser degree".

The conciliar statements on ecumenism and on religious freedom, which have been most heavily criticised by the SSPX, are in the latter category, he said.

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