According to Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society of Saint Pius X, in 2000, Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, who became President of the Commission in that year, approached the bishops of the SSPX about regularizing relations, and told them that the Pope was prepared to grant them a personal prelature without territorial limits — the same canonical structure as that enjoyed by Opus Dei."John-Paul II went as far as to offer Lefebvre a personal prelature" (Aspects of Contemporary France, by Sheila Perry, , page 159); "So I told all these things to the Cardinal and then he said, 'So, here's what Rome proposes to you: We want a solution in which we solve the problem of bishops, bishops who would be ordinaries, that is, true bishops, maybe with dioceses, and priests and faithful.' He spoke about an arrangement like that of Opus Dei, that is, a personal prelature" (talk given by Bishop Bernard Fellay at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Kansas City, Missouri on March 5, 2002 ). However, on an earlier occasion Bishop Fellay said that what was under consideration was not a personal prelature but an apostolic administration (Communicantes: August 2001). According to William Dinges, it was the society that launched a petition drive calling for a personal prelature at least five years earlier.Dinges, William D., "We Are What You Were", Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America, (Mary Jo Weaver, R. Scott Appleby, eds.), Indiana University Press, 1995
