Pope meets Catholic rebel group (Ultra-conservative)

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http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-08-29_1118138.html

(ANSA) - Vatican City, August 29 - The pope and the head of an ultra-conservative rebel Catholic group agreed on Monday that they should seek an end to the schism that has divided them for 17 years .

Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the renegade Society of St Pius X, met Benedict XVI at the pontiff's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome. There was clearly a desire on both sides to avoid the media spotlight .

The Vatican refused to confirm the meeting before it happened and Fellay avoided speaking to journalists, using a side entrance to the pope's residence . snip

Vatican observers said the meeting could be a crucial step towards reconciliation between the Vatican and the Society of St Pius X, which was set up in 1970 and which has about 450 priests worldwide. The Society's late founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated in 1988. He caused a schism in the Catholic Church after he contested the way some of its modernising reforms in the early 1960s had been interpreted and applied .

According to the Society, the Catholic Church has become too liberal in several areas over the last 40 years and risks losing its identity .