Pope Benedict has apparently made it one of his top priorities to heal the schism between Rome and the followers of the deceased Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, also known as the Society of St. Pius X. No one is better suited for this task than Benedict, who as Cardinal Ratzinger was put in charge by Pope John Paul II of a decade of effort to try and achieve this goal. Two key points from an article (via Hugh Hewitt) in Rorate Caeli:

3. A document will be drafted to be presented to the Pope in another meeting, scheduled for March 23, which -- according to the news collected by us -- will signal not only the lifting of the excommunications, but the end of the schism

4. "The Holy Father", says one of his collaborators, "is so interested in finding a solution in a very short time that he is ready to find any legal way which pleases him. Naturally without disregarding the fundamental principles of the Church, of her history, and of the dispositions which concern her today."

It was torturous personally for John Paul to have to excommunicate Lefebvre and his followers, and Benedict is obviously determined to further honor the late pope by ending this painful schism as soon as is feasibly possible.