Vatican warns traditionalists not to ordain priests

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican warned a rebel ultra-traditionalist order Wednesday not to go ahead with plans to ordain new priests this month, saying the move could incur disciplinary action.

The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), recently in the headlines for having a Holocaust denier as one of its four bishops readmitted to the Roman Catholic Church, plans to ordain 21 new priests in three countries on June 19 and 27.

A statement said that if the ordinations go ahead "they are still to be considered illegitimate" despite an uneasy rapprochement underway between the SSPX and the Vatican.

It cited a letter by Pope Benedict in March in which he explained his decision to lift the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops and start a dialogue aimed at full re-integration of the rebels.

But the statement said disciplinary questions regarding the SSPX "remained open," a clear warning that if the ordinations go ahead they will have repercussions on negotiations to bring the traditionalists fully back into the Church.

The SSPX plans to hold the ordination of the traditionalists priests in Germany, Switzerland and the United States.

Catholic bishops, included Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mller of Regensburg, Germany, had urged the Vatican to warn the SSPX not to go through with the ordinations, a plan seen as the SSPX's latest attempt to challenge Vatican authority.

The Vatican has made several concessions to the SSPX, the biggest being the lifting in January of the 1988 excommunications of its four bishops.