Apart from the formal declarations by the Catholic Church, Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, president of the PCED, commented about the status of the SSPX in a 2005 interview that the 1988 consecrations, without a pontifical mandate, created a “situation of separation […] even if it was not a formal schism.”[17] Castrillón Hoyos commented in 2005, about a 2004 meeting between Benedict XVI and Fellay, that it was said at that meeting that, in Castrillón Hoyos words, “It cannot be said in correct, exact, and precise terms that there is a schism. […] They are within the Church. There is only the fact that a full, more perfect communion is lacking […] a fuller communion, because communion does exist.”[18] Castrillón Hoyos commented in 2007, when asked “Does the Indult support ecumenism, ‘ad intra’ (internal)?” Castrillón Hoyos answered that he “reject the term ’ ecumenism ad intra '.” He explained that the SSPX priests and adherents “are not schismatics” since it was Lefebrve who has undertaken an illicit Episcopal consecration and therefore performed a schismatic act. It is for this reason that the Bishops consecrated by him have been suspended and excommunicated. The priests and faithful of the Society have not been excommunicated. They are not heretics. I do, however, share St Jerome’s fear that heresy leads to schism and vice versa. The danger of a schism is big, such as a systematic disobedience vis-à-vis the Holy Father or by a denial of his authority. It is after all a service of charity, so that the Priestly Society gains full communion with the Holy Father by acknowledging the sanctity of the new Mass."[19]
