Excommunication lifted from four Lefevbrite bishops

The Holy Father has accepted the formal petition of Monsignor Bernard Fellay and made in the name of the other three bishops of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, Monsignor Bernard Tissier of Mallerais, Monsignor Richard Williamson, and Monsignor Alfonso de Galarreta, to lift the excommunication which they incurred twenty years ago, as reported by a communique issued by the Information Service of the Holy See.Because of the episcopal consecrations performed June 30, 1988 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal mandate, the four bishops incurred the excommunication latae sententiae, formally declared by the Congregation for Bishops on July 1, 1988.Benedict XVI, who has followed the process from the beginning, has always tried to find ways to mend the fracture with the Fraternity, even personally receiving Monsignor Bernard Fellay on August 29, 2005.On that occasion, the Pope expressed the desire to proceed gradually and within a reasonable amount of time to raise the excommunication weighing on the clergy.The lifting of the excommunication does not yet imply that the four bishops are in full communion with the Church.