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Marcel Lefebvre | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Archbishop-Bishop Emeritus of Tulle | |||||||||||||||||||
 Archbishop Lefebvre,c. 1962. | |||||||||||||||||||
| See | Tulle | ||||||||||||||||||
| Appointed | 23 January 1962 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Term ended | 7 August 1962 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Aimable Chassaigne | ||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Henri Clément Victor Donze | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other posts | Founder and Superior General of theSociety of Saint Pius X (1970–1982) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Previous posts |
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| Orders | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ordination | 21 September 1929 by Achille Liénart | ||||||||||||||||||
| Consecration | 18 September 1947 by Achille Liénart | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Marcel-François Marie Joseph Lefebvre (1905-11-29)29 November 1905 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 25 March 1991(1991-03-25) (aged 85) Martigny, Switzerland | ||||||||||||||||||
| Buried | International Seminary of Saint Pius X,Écône, Switzerland | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | French | ||||||||||||||||||
| Denomination | Catholic | ||||||||||||||||||
| Parents | René Lefebvre(Father) Gabrielle Watine(Mother) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | (Pontifical)French Seminary, Rome | ||||||||||||||||||
| Motto | Et nos credidimus caritati (And we believed in charity)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coat of arms |  | ||||||||||||||||||
Ordination history | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Styles of Marcel Lefebvre | |
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| Reference style | His Excellency |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre[a]FSSPX (29 November 1905 – 25 March 1991) was aFrench Catholic prelate who served asArchbishop of Dakar from 1955 to 1962. He was a major influence in moderntraditionalist Catholicism, founding in 1970 theSociety of Saint Pius X (SSPX) to train traditionalistseminarians. In 1988,Pope John Paul II declared that Lefebvre had beenautomatically excommunicated forconsecrating four bishops that year without permission and despite the pope's express prohibition.[2]
Ordained adiocesan priest in 1929, Lefebvre joined theHoly Ghost Fathers for missionary work and was assigned to teach at a seminary inGabon in 1932. In 1947, he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Dakar, and the next year as the apostolic nuncio toFrench West Africa. Upon his return to Europe, Lefebvre was electedsuperior general of the Holy Ghost Fathers and assigned draft and prepare documents for theSecond Vatican Council. He was a major leader of the conservative bloc during its proceedings. He later took the lead in opposing certain changes associated with the council. He refused to implement council-inspired reforms demanded by the Holy Ghost Fathers and resigned from the order in 1968.
In 1970, Lefebvre founded the SSPX as a small community of seminarians in the village ofÉcône, Switzerland, with the permission of the local bishop. In 1975, after a flare of tensions with theHoly See, Lefebvre was ordered to disband the society, but ignored the decision and continued to maintain its activities and existence. In 1988, against the express prohibition ofPope John Paul II, he consecrated four bishops to continue his work with the SSPX. The Holy See immediately declared that all parties in the ceremony had incurredautomatic excommunication,[b] which Lefebvre refused to acknowledge.[3][4] These excommunications were rescinded in 2009 byPope Benedict XVI, though the SSPX itself remains "canonically irregular".
Marcel Lefebvre was born inTourcoing,Nord.[5][6] He was the second son and third child of eight children[7] of textile factory-ownerRené Lefebvre[8] and Gabrielle, born Watine, who died in 1938.[6]
His parents were devout Catholics who brought their children to dailyMass.[7] His father, René, was an outspokenmonarchist, devoting his life to the cause of theFrench Dynasty, seeing in amonarchy the only way of restoring to his country its past grandeur and aChristian revival.[6][9]
His father ran a spy-ring forBritish Intelligence when Tourcoing was occupied by theGermans duringWorld War I. René died atSonnenburg aged 65 in 1944, having been sentenced to death one year before.[10]
In 1923 Lefebvre began studies for the priesthood; at the insistence of his father he followed his brother to theFrench Seminary inRome, as his father suspected the diocesan seminaries of liberal leanings.[11] He later credited his conservative views to therector, aBretonpriest named FatherHenri Le Floch.[12] He interrupted his studies in 1926 and 1927 to perform his military service.[13] On 25 May 1929 he wasordaineddeacon by CardinalBasilio Pompili in theBasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.[14] On 21 September 1929 he was ordained a priest of Diocese of Lille by its bishop,Achille Liénart.[15][16] After ordination, he continued his studies in Rome, completing a doctorate in theology in July 1930.[17]
Lefebvre asked to be allowed to perform missionary work as a member of theHoly Ghost Fathers, but in August 1930 Liénart required him to first work as assistant curate in a parish in Lomme, a suburb of Lille.[18][19] Liénart released him from the diocese in July 1931 and Lefebvre entered thenovitiate of the Holy Ghost Fathers atOrly in September.[7] On 8 September 1932, he took simple vows for a period of three years.[20]
Lefebvre's first assignment as a Holy Ghost Father was as a professor at St. John's Seminary inLibreville, Gabon.[21] In 1934 he was made rector of the seminary.[22] On 28 September 1935 he made his perpetual vows. He served as superior of a number of missions of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Gabon.[c] In October 1945 Lefebvre returned to France to become rector of the Holy Ghost Fathers seminary inMortain.[18]
On 12 June 1947,Pope Pius XII appointed himVicar Apostolic ofDakar inSenegal andtitular bishop ofAnthedon.[23] On 18 September 1947 he wasconsecrated a bishop in his family'sparish church inTourcoing by Liénart, now a cardinal, with BishopsJean-Baptiste Fauret andAlfred-Jean-Félix Ancel as co-consecrators.[24][25] In his new position Lefebvre was responsible for an area with a population of three and a half million people, of whom only 50,000 were Catholics.[26]
On 22 September 1948, Lefebvre, while continuing asVicar Apostolic of Dakar, received the additional responsibilities ofApostolic Delegate toFrench Africa, with his title changed to titular archbishop ofArcadiopolis in Europa.[27] He became responsible for representing the interests of the Holy See to Church authorities in 46 dioceses[28] in "continental and insular Africa subject to the French Government, with the addition of theDiocese of Reunion, the whole of the island ofMadagascar and the other neighbouring islands under French rule, but excluding the dioceses of North Africa, namely those ofCarthage,Constantine,Algiers andOran."[29][d]
In the late 1940s, Lefebvre established a ministry in Paris to care for Catholic students from the French colonies in Africa. He and other missionaries in Africa thought young Africans would otherwise be attracted to radical ideologies, including anti-colonialism and atheism. This idea of "safeguarding the Catholicism of the emerging African elite" was later adopted by Pope Pius in his encyclical on the missions,Fidei donum (1957).[30]
Lefebvre's chief duty was the building up of the ecclesiastical structure inFrench Africa.[31] Pope Pius XII wanted to move quickly towards an ecclesiastical structure with dioceses instead of vicariates and apostolic prefectures. Lefebvre was responsible for selecting these new bishops,[28] increasing the number of priests and religious sisters,[32] as well as the number of churches in the various dioceses.[5] On 14 September 1955, Pope Pius decreed a complete reorganization of the ecclesiastical jurisdictions in French Africa. The Apostolic Vicariate of Dakar was made an archdiocese and Lefebvre became its first archbishop.[31][33]
Lefebvre's career shifted rapidly with the death of Pope Pius XII, moving from the missions to Rome, though not directly, and with indications he was at times favored and at times disfavored by the new pope.Pope John XXIII replaced Lefebvre as Apostolic Delegate to Dakar on 9 July 1959, a position that would quickly evolve as the colonies gained their independence in the 1960s.[34] The next year, Pope John appointed Lefebvre to the 120-memberCentral Preparatory Commission for theSecond Vatican Council.[35]
After Senegal declared its independence in June 1960, its first president,Léopold Sédar Senghor proposed the country adopt its own form of socialism, which he as a Catholic believed compatible with Church doctrine. Lefebvre, still Archbishop of Dakar, criticized Senghor's views in a March 1961 pastoral letter and then in a personal audience with Senghor, drawing on Pope Pius XI's denunciation of socialism in his 1931 encyclicalQuadragesimo anno. Now at odds with the government, Lefebvre watched as the Holy See replaced European missionary bishops with Africans and tried to delay his own removal by asking for the appointment of a coadjutor, which met with no response.[36][e] He told Pope John "the Africans are not yet ripe" and did not want to be responsible. Pope John said he took the responsibility and would see Lefebvre was taken care of properly.[38]
On 23 January 1962, Lefebvre was transferred to theDiocese of Tulle, one of the smallest in France, while retaining thepersonal title of archbishop.[36][39][f]On 4 April 1962, he was named a consultor to theSacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.[40]
On 26 July 1962, the Chapter General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, dominated by those in leadership positions with fewer representatives of local communities, elected Lefebvre to a 12-year term as their Superior General. He won 53 of the 75 votes cast on the first ballot, though some delegates had "strong misgivings". This meeting also moved the order's headquarters from Paris to Rome.[41][42] Upon being elected Superior General, Lefebvre resigned as bishop of Tulle; Pope John accepted his resignation on 7 August and named him titular archbishop ofSynnada in Phrygia.[43]
As a member of the Central Preparatory Commission Lefebvre participated in drafting documents for consideration by the Council Fathers, meeting in seven sessions between June 1961 and June 1962. Within the first two weeks of the first session of the council (October to December 1962)[44] the Council Fathers rejected all the drafts.[45][g]
Lefebvre and some like-minded bishops became concerned about the direction of the council's deliberations and, led by ArchbishopGeraldo de Proença Sigaud ofDiamantina, formed a bloc that became known as theCoetus Internationalis Patrum (CIP) or International Group of Fathers, with the aim of guaranteeing their views were part of every council discussion.[48][49]
The CIP was especially concerned about the principle ofreligious liberty. During the council's third session (September to November 1964), ArchbishopPericle Felici, the secretary of the council and a prominent Curial conservative, announced that Lefebvre, with two other like-minded bishops, was appointed to a special four-member commission charged with rewriting the draft document on the topic,[50] but it was soon discovered that this measure did not have papal approval, and major responsibility for preparing the draft document was given to theSecretariat for Promoting Christian Unity.[51]
The CIP managed to get the preliminary vote (with suggestions for modifications) on the document postponed until the fourth session of the council, where, on 7 December 1965, an overwhelming majority approved the final text of the declarationDignitatis humanae. Lefebvre was one of the 70, about 3%, who voted against the declaration, but he added his signature to the document after that of the pope, though some withheld their signatures.[52][h]
At one point during the Council, some 40 bishops who were members of the Holy Ghost Fathers met with him to express their disagreement with his views and the role he was playing at the Council. He heard their views but did not engage in dialogue. His closing statement, "We all have a conscience: everyone must follow his own", left them dissatisfied. One said: "He seemed to have a blockage. He seemed incapable of reviewing his ways of thinking."[54]
Lefebvre felt the Council's impact directly when the Holy Ghost Fathers held an Extraordinary General Chapter to respond to it. The order's leadership, though their terms had years remaining, tendered their resignations effective with the close of the meeting as was traditional. The membership had insisted on a larger role for elected delegates, and they constituted half of the body. Lefebvre's opponents were well organized, and when he tried to assume the chair, they insisted that the Chapter was a legislative body entitled to elect its own officers. On 11 September 1968 the Chapter supported that position on a vote of 63 to 40, and Lefebvre stopped attending. The Chapter then elected its leaders and proceeded with intense but respectful debate on the critical issue: the balance between the constraints of the order's religious life and the exercise of its missionary charge. Lefebvre returned on 28 September and addressed the issue in uncompromising language. He predicted any changes would lead to "a caricature of community life where anarchy, disorder, and individual initiative have free rein". His tone and arguments won him no support; the convention elected Fr. Joseph Lécuyer, a French theologian, his successor as superior general on 26 October.[55]
Lefebvre belonged to an identifiable strand of right-wing political and religious opinion in French society that originated among the defeated royalists after the 1789French Revolution. Lefebvre's political and theological outlook mirrored that of a significant number of conservative members of French society under theFrench Third Republic (1870–1940). The Third Republic was reft by conflicts between the secular Left and the Catholic Right, with many individuals on both sides espousing distinctly radical positions (see, for example, the article on the famousDreyfus affair). Thus it has been said that "Lefebvre was... a man formed by the bitter hatreds that defined the battle lines in French society and culture from the French Revolution to theVichy regime".[56]
Lefebvre's first biographer, the English traditionalist writerMichael Davies, wrote in the first volume of hisApologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre:[57]
In France political feeling tends to be more polarized, more extreme, and far more deeply felt than in England. It can only be understood in the light of the French Revolution and subsequent history... At the risk of a serious over-simplification, it is reasonable to state that up to the Second World War Catholicism in France tended to be identified with right-wing politics and anti-Catholicism with the left... [Lefebvre's] own alleged right-wing political philosophy is nothing more than straight-forward Catholic social teaching as expounded by the Popes for a century or more...
In similar vein, the pro-SSPX English priest Michael Crowdy wrote, in his preface to his translation of Lefebvre'sOpen Letter to Confused Catholics:[58]
We must remember that Lefebvre is writing against the background of France, where ideas are generally more clear‑cut than they are in Great Britain. ... Take the word "socialism", for example; that means to some of us, first and foremost, a social ideal of brotherhood and justice. We have had ourChristian socialists. On the Continent, however, Socialism is uncompromisingly anti‑religious, or almost a substitute for religion, and Communism is seen as the natural development from it. This is the Socialism the Archbishop is writing about. And when he rejects Liberalism, he is not thinking of the [British]Liberal Party ... but of that religious liberalism that exalts human liberty above the claims of God or of His Church ...
Lefebvre was associated with the following positions:
Political positions espoused by Lefebvre included the following:
After retiring from the post of Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, Lefebvre was approached bytraditionalists from the French Seminary inRome who had been refusedtonsure,[68] the rite by which, until 1973,[69] a seminarian became a cleric. They asked for a conservative seminary to complete their studies. After directing them to theUniversity of Fribourg, Switzerland,[70][71] Lefebvre was urged to teach these seminarians personally.[71] In 1969, he received permission from the local bishop to establish a seminary in Fribourg which opened with nine students, moving toÉcône, Switzerland in 1971.[72][irrelevant citation]
Lefebvre proposed to his seminarians the establishment of a society of priests without vows.[71] In November 1970, BishopFrançois Charrière ofFribourg established, on a provisional (ad experimentum) basis for six years, theInternational Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) as a "pious union".[73] He chose the name ofPope Saint Pius X as the patron saint of the society, because of his admiration for the pontiff's stance on modernism.[74]
In November 1972, the bishops of France, gathered as the Plenary Assembly of French Bishops at Lourdes, whose theological outlook was quite different from Lefebvre's, treated the then-legalÉcône seminary with suspicion and referred to it asSéminaire sauvage or "Outlaw Seminary".[70][75] They indicated that they would incardinate none of the seminarians.[76]Cardinal Secretary of StateJean-Marie Villot accused Lefebvre before Pope Paul VI of making his seminarians sign a condemnation of the Pope, which Lefebvre vigorously denied.[77]
In November 1974, two Belgian priests carried out a rigorous inspection on the instructions of a commission of cardinals,[76] producing, the SSPX claims, a favourable report.[78] In what he later described as a mood of "doubtlessly excessive indignation",[76] on 21 November 1974, Lefebvre wrote a "Declaration" in which he attacked themodernist andliberal trends that he saw in the reforms being undertaken within the church at that time:[79]
We adhere with all our heart and all our soul to Catholic Rome, guardian of the Catholic Faith and the traditions necessary to maintain it, and to Eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and truth. On the other hand we refuse and have always refused to follow the Rome of the neo-Modernist and the new Protestant trend which was clearly evident in the Second Vatican Council and, after the Council in all the reforms which flowed from it.
The Commission of Cardinals declared in reply that the declaration was "unacceptable on all points".[70] At the same time, the French episcopate indicated that they would notincardinate any of Lefebvre's priests in their dioceses.
In January 1975, BishopPierre Mamie, who had succeeded Charrière in Fribourg in 1970, determined that the SSPX's status as a "pious union" should end. On 24 January 1975, he asked the prefect of theSacred Congregation for Religious, CardinalArturo Tabera, to terminate its status as a "pious union".[80]
On 13 February, Lefebvre was invited to Rome for a meeting with the commission of cardinals,[70] which he described as "a close cross examination of the judicial type", regarding the contents of his "Declaration", followed by a second meeting on 3 March.[70] In May, the commission announced it approved Mamie's plan. Lefebvre contended that canon law gave the pope alone the authority to suppress a religious congregation, and only by his direct decree.[70]
Tabera responded in April expressing full agreement and telling Mamie to proceed himself, and Mamie suppressed the SSPX on 6 May 1975, effective immediately.[80][i] This action was upheld by Pope Paul, who wrote to Lefebvre in June 1975. Lefebvre nevertheless continued his work citing legal advice from canon lawyers that the Society had not been "legally suppressed" and that the Society continued to enjoy the privilege of incardinating its own priests.[82] Lefebvre also argued that there were insufficient grounds for suppression as the Apostolic Visitors, by the Commission's own admission, delivered a positive report, and that since his Declaration had not been condemned by theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he appealed, twice, to theappellate court of the church, theApostolic Signatura.[70] Lefebvre later wrote that Cardinal Villot blocked the move,[70] and one of his supporters wrote that Villot threatened the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, CardinalDino Staffa, with dismissal if the appeals were not denied.[83]
In 1976, Mamie warned Lefebvre that saying Mass though Catholic Church authorities had forbidden him from exercising his priestly functions would further exacerbate his relationship with Rome.[84]
During theconsistory of 24 May 1976,Pope Paul VI criticized Lefebvre by name and appealed to him and his followers to change their minds.[37][85]
On 29 June 1976, Lefebvre went ahead with planned priestly ordinations without the approval of the local bishop and despite receiving letters from Rome forbidding them. As a result Lefebvre was suspendeda collatione ordinum,i.e., forbidden toordain any priests. A week later, the Prefect of theCongregation for Bishops informed him that, to have his situation regularized, he needed to ask the pope's pardon. Lefebvre responded with a letter claiming that the modernization of the church was a "compromise with the ideas of modern man" originating in a secret agreement between high dignitaries in the church and seniorFreemasons before the council.[86] Lefebvre was then notified that, since he had not apologized to the pope, he was suspendeda divinis,[87] i.e., he could no longer legally administerany of the sacraments.[88] Lefebvre remarked that he had been forbidden from celebrating the new rite of Mass.[89] Pope Paul apparently took this seriously and stated that Lefebvre "thought he dodged the penalty by administering the sacraments using the previous formulas".[90] In spite of his suspension, Lefebvre continued to celebrate Mass and to administer the other sacraments, including the conferral of Holy Orders to the students of his seminary.
Pope Paul received Lefebvre in audience on 11 September 1976,[91] and one month later wrote to him a letter severely admonishing him and repeating the appeal he had made at the audience. In his letter to Lefebvre, Paul VI ordered him to accept the documents of the Second Vatican Council in their obvious meaning (sensu obvio) and the subsequent reforms, to retract his accusations against the Roman Pontiff and his collaborators and recognise the authority of the local bishops; furthermore, he demanded that Lefebvre hand over all activities of the FSSPX to the Holy See. The Pope reminded Lefebvre of his duty of obedience to theChair of Peter, quoting the dogmatic constitutionsPastor aeternus (1870,First Vatican Council) andLumen gentium (1964,Second Vatican Council).[92]
Following the death of Paul VI, bothPope John Paul I andPope John Paul II made various attempts to reconcile the FSSPX with the Church; the latter received Lefebvre in audience sixty days afterhis 1978 election, where he repeatedly expressed his desire for peace.[93][94]
In a 1987 sermon, Lefebvre, his health failing at age 81, announced his intention toconsecrate abishop to carry on his work after his death.[95] UnderCatholic canon law, the consecration of a bishop without the permission of the pope incursexcommunication: "A bishop who consecrates someone a bishop without a pontifical mandate and the person who receives the consecration from him incur alatae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See".[96]
During 1987 Lefebvre tried to reach an agreement with CardinalJoseph Ratzinger, Prefect of theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.[97] However, on 4 September 1987, in Écône, Lefebvre stated that the Vatican was in apostasy and that he would no longer collaborate with Ratzinger.[98]
On 5 May 1988, Lefebvre signed an agreement with Ratzinger to regularize the situation of the Society of St Pius X. Ratzinger agreed that one bishop would be consecrated for the Society, to be approved by the pope.[99]
Shortly after the agreement, however, Lefebvre announced that he had received a note from Ratzinger that asked him "to beg pardon for [his] errors", which he interpreted to mean that he would be made to accept the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the "spirit of Assisi". Lefebvre referred to the alleged prophecy ofOur Lady of La Salette that "Rome will lose the Faith" and declared himself obliged to consecrate a successor—if necessary, without papal approval.[3] As the agreement did not specify a date for the episcopal consecration, should Lefebvre have died before it was granted, the Society would have been unable to ordain any seminarians and forced into submission to theHoly See.[4][100]
Lefebvre dubbed his plan "Operation Survival":[3]
That is why, taking into account the strong will of the present Roman authorities to reduce Tradition to naught, to gather the world to the spirit of Vatican II and the spirit of Assisi, we have preferred to withdraw ourselves and to say that we could not continue. It was not possible. We would have evidently been under the authority of Cardinal Ratzinger, President of the Roman Commission, which would have directed us; we were putting ourselves into his hands, and consequently putting ourselves into the hands of those who wish to draw us into the spirit of the Council and the spirit ofAssisi. This was simply not possible.
Pope John Paul II appealed to him not to proceed in "a schismatic act", warning of "theological and canonical consequences".[101]
On 30 June 1988, Lefebvre, with Bishop EmeritusAntônio de Castro Mayer ofCampos, Brazil, as co-consecrator, consecrated four SSPX priests as bishops:Bernard Tissier de Mallerais,Richard Williamson,Alfonso de Galarreta andBernard Fellay.
Shortly before the consecrations, Lefebvre gave the following sermon:
... this ceremony, which is apparently done against the will of Rome, is in no way a schism. We are not schismatics! If an excommunication was pronounced against thebishops of China, who separated themselves from Rome and put themselves under the Chinese government, one very easily understands why Pope Pius XII excommunicated them. There is no question of us separating ourselves from Rome, nor of putting ourselves under a foreign government, nor of establishing a sort of parallel church as theBishops of Palmar de Troya have done in Spain. They have even electeda pope, formed a college of cardinals... It is out of the question for us to do such things. Far from us be this miserable thought to separate ourselves from Rome![3]
The next day, 1 July, theCongregation for Bishops issued a decree stating that this was aschismatic act and that all six direct participants had incurred automatic excommunication.[102]
On 2 July,Pope John Paul II condemned the consecration in his apostolic letterEcclesia Dei, in which he stated that the consecration constituted a schismatic act and that the bishops and priests involved were automatically excommunicated:[103]
In itself, this act was one of disobedience to the Roman Pontiff in a very grave matter and of supreme importance for the unity of the church, such as is the ordination of bishops whereby the apostolic succession is sacramentally perpetuated. Hence such disobedience – which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy – constitutes a schismatic act. In performing such an act, notwithstanding the formal canonical warning sent to them by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops on 17 June last, Mons. Lefebvre and the priests Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta, have incurred the grave penalty of excommunication envisaged by ecclesiastical law (cf.Code of Canon Law, can. 1382).
Lefebvre responded by contradicting Pope John Paul II, saying that he and the other clerics involved had not "separated themselves from Rome" and were not schismatic.[3] He invoked canon 1323 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law that they "found themselves in a case of necessity", not having succeeded, as they said, in making "Rome" understand that "this change which has occurred in the Church" since the Second Vatican Council was "not Catholic".[j] In a letter addressed to the four priests he was about to consecrate as bishops, Lefebvre wrote: "I do not think one can say that Rome has not lost the Faith."[105]
On 18 July, twelve priests and some seminarians led byJosef Bisig left the SSPX because of the Écône consecrations.[106][107] Bisig became the first superior general of the newly formedPriestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), a group that reached an agreement with the Holy See.
Lefebvre died from cancer on 25 March 1991 at the age of 85 in Martigny, Switzerland.[108] Eight days later he was buried in thecrypt at thesociety's international seminary in Écône. ArchbishopEdoardo Rovida,Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland, and BishopHenri Schwery ofSion, the local diocese, came and prayed at his body.[109]
On 10 March 2009, at the request of the four surviving bishops,Pope Benedict XVI lifted their excommunications.[110][111][112][113] In a letter to the bishops of the entire Church, Benedict offered this clarification:
The fact that the Society of Saint Pius X does not possess a canonical status in the Church is not, in the end, based on disciplinary but on doctrinal reasons. As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church.[114]
One of the four bishops,Richard Williamson, was subsequently expelled from the FSSPX in 2012 and excommunicated again in 2015 byPope Francis for consecrating a bishop without permission of the Holy See.[115]
The lineage originated by the 1988 consecrations amounts to 10 bishops as of 2025, out of whom 7 are alive:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Society of St. Pius X – South Africa. sspxafrica.com. February 2002.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link),The Angelus.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Society of St. Pius X – South Africa. sspxafrica.com. April 2002.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Society of Saint Pius X, District of Great Britain{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Society of St. Pius X – South Africa. sspxafrica.com. June/July 2002He entered the Holy Ghost Fathers in 1930 and was assigned to the Seminary of St. Mary at Libreville (Gabon) from 1932 to 1945.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), 19 October 1983, hosted by the United States district of the Society of Pius X{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) .Fideliter. The English translation was taken from the May 2002 issue of The Angelus. "Hence, to accept Religious Liberty was in principle to accept the "rights of man" within the Church. Now, the Church has always condemned these declarations on the "rights of man" which have been made against the authority of God."Conference Of His Excellency Archbishop Marcel LefebvreArchived 24 September 2015 at theWayback Machine, Long Island, New York, 5 November 1983, hosted by SSPXasia.com{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Society of St. Pius X – South Africa. sspxafrica.com. September/October 2003.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Society of St. Pius X – South Africa. sspxafrica.com. November/December 2003.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Conference given by Fr. Anglés at Kansas City, 1 November 1995The situation is such, the work placed in our hands by the good Lord is such, that faced with this darkness in Rome, faced with the Roman authorities' pertinacity in error, faced with this refusal to return to Truth or Tradition on the part of those who occupy the seats of authority in Rome, faced with all these things, it seems to us that the good Lord is asking for the Church to continue. This is why it is likely that before I give account my life to the good Lord, I shall have to consecrate some bishops.
On 3 June, Lefebvre wrote that he would still go ahead with the 30 June consecrations. On 9 June 1988, Pope John Paul II replied to him with a personal letter, recalling the agreement the archbishop had signed on 5 May and appealing to him not to proceed with a design that 'would be seen as nothing other than a schismatic act, the theological and canonical consequences of which are known to you'. When no reply came from Lefebvre, this letter was made public on 16 June.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[permanent dead link]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | — TITULAR — Bishop of Anthedon 12 June 1947 – 22 September 1948 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | — TITULAR — Bishop of Arcadiopolis in Europa 22 September 1948 – 14 September 1955 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Apostolic Vicar of Dakar 12 June 1947 – 14 September 1955 | |
| New title | Archbishop of Dakar 14 September 1955 – 23 January 1962 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Archbishop1-Bishop of Tulle 23 January 1962 – 11 August 1962 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Superior General of theCongregation of the Holy Spirit 27 July 1962 – 29 October 1968 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | — TITULAR — Bishop of Synnada in Phrygia 7 August 1962 – 10 December 1970 | Vacant |
| Notes and references | ||
| 1. Retained Personal Title | ||
