Bishop Bernard Fellay

The head of a group of traditionalist Catholics said reconciliation talks with the Vatican would soon come to an end, with little change in the views of either side.

The talks were launched in late 2009 in an effort by Pope Benedict to repair a 21-year break with the Society of St. Pius X.

The pope said that full communion for the group's members would depend on "true recognition of the magisterium and the authority of the pope and of the Second Vatican Council."

But Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the society, said his group went into the talks with a different purpose: to show the contradictions between the Church's traditional teachings and its practices since Vatican II.

That is "the only goal that we are pursuing," he said in an interview published on the society's website.

He said: "Is Vatican II really a stumbling block?

For us, no doubt whatsoever, yes!"