Marcel Lefebvre

Marcel Lefebvre (November 29, 1905 - March 25, 1991) was a leader of Catholics opposed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, especially the revision of the then existing Roman Missal and the saying of Mass in the vernacular rather than in Latin.

Lefebvre was born in Tourcoing, France. By the early 1960s, he had risen to high office in the Roman Catholic Church, including Archbishop, Assistant to the Papal Throne and Roman Count, and General Superior of the Holy Ghost Fathers, when in 1962 he was appointed by Pope John XXIII to the Preparatory Commission for the Second Vatican Council. There he was in the majority with the Commission members who opposed the reformist plans of the minority Commission members.

During and after the Second Vatican Council, he became increasingly opposed to the direction the Church was taking; and for this opposition he was progressively removed from his positions of authority within the Church. In 1970 he opened with the approval of the local ordinary a small seminary in Fribourg, Switzerland, concerned that the existing Catholic seminaries were falling into heresy. There he established the "Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X" with at first full canonical legitimacy, which became the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).

After Pope Paul VI?s 1969 promulgation of the revised Roman Missal, Lefebvre supported the objections of Cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Antonio Bacci to what they saw as grave defects in the new liturgy of the Mass. The Holy See passed over their recommendations in silence. The Church hierarchy in general opposed Lefebvre's actions. In 1971, Lefebvre announced to his seminarians his rejection of the ?Novus Ordo? liturgy, and in 1974 stated that "not even the highest in the hierarchy, can force us to abandon or diminish our Catholic faith, so clearly expressed and professed by the Church's Magisterium for nineteen centuries."

SSPX opened seminaries, and Lefebvre was invited by Catholic laymen to open chapels around the globe. Lefebvre and the Vatican engaged in dialogue, with Lefebvre meeting with Pope Paul VI and later with Pope John Paul II. The talks did not result in consensus. Lefebvre?s view of the dispute is outlined in the SSPX document, ??Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre??.

Finally, in 1988, concerned about his failing health, Lefebvre, in spite of a formal canonical warning, consecrated four bishops without the normally required authorization from Rome. In response, the Congregation for Bishops issued a decree declaring him automatically excommunicated. On the following day, Pope John Paul II confirmed this declaration with his apostolic letter . Like the declaration of excommunication, the Pope?s letter stated that Lefebvre?s ?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?, and that, accordingly, since schism is defined as ?withdrawal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him?(Code of Canon Law , canon 751) it "constitute[d] a schismatic act".

SSPX sources quote the following canonists as having disagreed that Lefebvre was in fact excommunicated and as having denied that by his action of consecrating only auxiliary bishops he was setting up a schismatic Church:

• Count Neri Capponi, D.Cn.L., Ll.D, Professor of Canon Law: "This act [of episcopal consecration on June 30, 1988] was not, per se, schismatic."
• Fr. Gerard E. Murray, J.C.D., of the Catholic University of America: "Canonically speaking, [Archbishop Lefebvre] is not guilty of a schismatic act punishable by canon law"
• Fr. Patrick Valdini, J.C.D., Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Catholic Institute in Paris: "It is not the consecration of a bishop which creates the schism. What makes the schism is to give the bishop an apostolic mission"
• Professor Geringer, J.C.D.: "With the Episcopal consecrations, Archbishop Lefebvre was by no means creating a schism"
• Fr. Rudolf Kaschewski, Canon Lawyer at University of Munich: "The widely spread opinion that the consecration of one or several bishops without papal mandate would cause an automatic excommunication and would lead to a schism is false."

However, other canonists take a different view..

The Holy See holds that Lefebvre committed a schismatic act, not that he created a schism. In fact, it considers that the Society he founded has not yet reached the stage of constituting a separate Church, which would then come under the norms of the ??Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism??. But the Holy See judges the expressions used by many members of the Society, in spite of protestations of loyalty, as indicating an outlook of "withdrawal from submission to the Supreme Pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him", which, as already mentioned, is the definition of schism in canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law.

The Holy See continues to hope that SSPX will refrain from complete separation and will accept a normal place within the Church, like other associations similarly devoted to the "Tridentine" Mass, such as the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. Dialogue has not yet been successful. SSPX continues to question facets of Church teaching and activity, as in the area of ecumenism.

The Society claims that Catholics may attend its chapels ?without worrying that they may be in schism by doing so? . However, the judgement of the Holy See is that such attendance is in normal circumstances morally illicit for Catholics, because the priests of the Society, being illicitly ordained, are by canon law suspended from priestly functions, and because of the danger of imbibing schismatic ideas from them.

Lefebvre died in 1991 in Martigny, Switzerland. Numerous miracles have since been attributed to his intercession.

See also

• Traditional Catholic
• St. Mary's College