TALKS WITH LEFEBVRE HELD UP OVER DOCTRINAL ISSUES

(ANSA) - Vatican City, January 15 - Negotiations between the Vatican and the ultratraditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) on reuniting the breakaway group with the Catholic Church are held up over doctrinal issues, Pope Benedict XVI said on Friday.

Addressing members of the Congregation of the Faith, which has been tasked with the negotiations, Benedict said he hoped the "doctrinal problems" would be overcome because the Church's priority is the unity of its flock.

The pope made no reference to the nature of the problems.

However, a few hours later Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told ANSA that the reforms approved by the Second Vatican Council and the document Nostra Aetate regulating the Church's relations with Jews "were not a matter of discussion".

Lombardi stressed that Benedict has repeatedly said that the breakaway group would have to accept the teachings of the Council and Nostra Aetate if they want to return to the fold.

Formal negotiations with the dissident group began in October and are expected to last at least a year, according to the head of the order, Msgr Bernard Fellay.

Lombardo has refused to discuss a timetable but said meetings would be held twice a month because the Vatican wanted to press ahead with the negotiations.

The group broke away from the church over theological differences stemming from the changes it adopted with the Second Vatican Council of some 45 years ago.

Last year Benedict lifted the excommunication imposed on the SSPX's four bishops in a bid to "open a door for dialogue" with the leaders of the Society.

The excommunications were imposed when the four bishops were consecrated in 1988 in defiance of Rome by the SSPX's late founder, French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Benedict's move sparked controversy because one of the four - Richard Williamson - was a known Holocaust denier.

The pope later apologised, saying he had been unaware of Williamson's stance when he lifted his excommunication.

Benedict was forced to write an unusual personal letter to Catholic bishops in March to explain his reasons for his decision, which not only created tensions within the Church but also affected its relations with Jews.

Then, in July, the pope released an apostolic letter entitled Ecclesiae Unitatem in which he warned the SSPX that a number of doctrinal issues needed to be cleared up before the order could hope to obtain ''canonical status'' within the Church.

In reference to the rehabilitations, the pope said he had taken the decision to help overcome ''every fracture and division within the church and to heal a wound experienced as increasingly painful''.

Despite its lack of official status, the SSPX is present in 59 countries and counts just under 500 priests and four bishops. It also runs seminaries in Switzerland, France, Australia, Argentina, the United States and Germany.

Meanwhile, followers of the Lefebvre community in Verona announced on Friday they would celebrate a "mass of atonement" on Sunday to coincide with the pope's visit to Rome's synagogue.

The rite will be celebrated by a controversial member of the dissident group, Floriano Abrahamowicz, who has been excommunicated by the Vatican for denying the Holocaust.