VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican has formally proposed a way to reconcile with a breakaway group of ultra-traditionalist Catholics in a final bid to end a quarter-century of schism, offering it a special legal status in the church currently enjoyed only by the conservative Opus Dei movement.

The Vatican said Thursday it had proposed making the Society of St. Pius X a "personal prelature" -- akin to a diocese without borders -- during a meeting Wednesday with the society's superior.

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