Friday, August 24, 2012

Society Of Leo XIII?

Who the heck are these guys? I never heard of them until Zenit brought them up.

Two days later the Catholic Herald reported that Bishop David Bell, 41, the head of the Society of Pope Leo XIII, which also celebrates Mass according to the pre-Vatican II form, is in talks with Rome about a possible reconciliation.

Check out these numbers.

According to the Catholic Herald the society says it has 73 bishops and 500 priests, with about 8.5 million people in its congregations.

Five hundred priests? That as many as the SSPX. That's a lot. But seventy-three bishops? Holy smokes. What the heck are the parameters for the episcopacy in this group?

They have a web site, but it's kind of a train wreck. If anybody knows anything more, please drop it in the comment box.

4 comments:

servo said...

Oh, Duarte-Costa lineage. He was a Brazilian who founded what I guess you could call an Old Catholic group in the 50s.

Marco da Vinha said...

what the...?!

Marco da Vinha said...

Related:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Duarte_Costa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Catholic_Apostolic_Church

Throwback said...

Thank you both! A couple of observations:

1. This goes to show you that popes had the misfortune of appointing modernist bishops even before VII.

2. The way these movements give birth to other movements that evolve into something completely different is amazing. Who would have thought a guy like this would spawn a line of bishops who now belong to a group that considers itself traditionalist?