Catholic rebels say cannot rejoin Roman Church

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Catholic traditionalists who broke with Rome two decades ago have said they could not rejoin the Church despite Pope Benedict's revival of the old Latin Mass because he still supported key reforms from the 1960s.

The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which pressured the Vatican for years to promote the Tridentine Latin rite rarely used since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), said over the weekend it still wanted Benedict to roll back other changes.

The SSPX rejects the opening to other faiths decided by the Council, especially the new positive approach to Judaism, and papal apologies for sins of Catholics against Jews in the past.

Benedict last year allowed wider use of the old Latin Mass in what was seen as a gesture to the SSPX to rejoin the Church that excommunicated its leaders when rebel Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre ordained four bishops against Rome's wishes in 1988.

During his current visit to the United States, Benedict visited a New York synagogue and quoted documents of the Council several times in speeches to Catholic audiences.

"The time for an agreement has not yet come," SSPX head Bishop Bernard Fellay wrote in a letter to his followers published on Saturday by the SSPX information service DICI.

The decree on the old Latin Mass was "not accompanied by logically co-related measures in the other areas of the life of the Church," he said in the French-language letter.

"Nothing has changed in Rome's determination to follow the council's orientation, despite 40 years of crisis, despite the deserted convents, abandoned rectories and empty churches."

NO CHANGE IN VATICAN STAND

While Benedict has shown more sympathy to the SSPX than the late Pope John Paul did, he has not changed the Vatican stand that the rebels must accept the Council's decisions before they can return to the Roman fold.

In his letter, Fellay also discussed the state of Catholic education, another issue for Benedict on his U.S. visit.

"Catholic universities persist in their ramblings, teaching of the Catechism remains unknown and Catholic school does not exist anymore as particularly Catholic. They have become an extinct species," the SSPX leader wrote.

Benedict discussed the dilution of Catholic identity at Church-run schools in a meeting with Catholic educators in Washington on Thursday, but he praised the school administrators for their work and encouraged them.

He also met U.S. bishops and visited a New York seminary to encourage vocation to the thinning ranks of the priesthood.

During his U.S. visit, Benedict introduced several small touches of more traditional Catholicism, such as old-style vestments at one service, some Gregorian chant and a creed in Latin during the Mass in English at New York's Yankee Stadium.

But the Masses were in post-Council style, in English with him facing the congregation, and most music was modern as well.

The Swiss-based SSPX claims about 1 million supporters, many of them in France. That is a small fraction of the 1.1-billion strong Church, but Benedict seems keen to bring them back to the fold because their schism is the only one after the Council.

(For more on religion, see the Reuters religion blog FaithWorld at blogs.reuters.com/faithworld)

(Editing by Todd Eastham)