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Marcel Lefebvre

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   Archbishop Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St Pius X.
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   Archbishop Lefebvre,
   founder of the Society of St Pius X.

   Marcel-François Lefebvre ( November 29, 1905– March 25, 1991), better
   known as Marcel Lefebvre, CSSp, was a Roman Catholic archbishop who
   took the lead in opposing the reforms within the Catholic Church
   associated with the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). In particular, he
   condemned ecumenism, the principle of religious liberty, collegiality
   and the replacement of the Tridentine Mass. In 1970, he founded the
   Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), an organisation which continues
   in existence to this day.

   In 1988, the Holy See (first the Congregation for Bishops, then Pope
   John Paul II, with his motu proprio Ecclesia Dei) declared Lefebvre
   automatically excommunicated for consecrating four bishops in violation
   of canon law and in spite of a warning from the Holy See and a personal
   appeal from the Pope. Some canon lawyers, many from the SSPX, have
   disputed the validity of this excommunication.

Early life and ministry

   Marcel Lefebvre was born in Tourcoing, France, the second son and third
   child of factory-owner René Lefebvre, who died in 1944 in the Nazi
   concentration camp at Sonnenburg (in East Brandenburg, Germany), where
   he had been imprisoned by the Gestapo because of his work for the
   French Resistance and British Intelligence. Marcel's mother and René
   sr.'s wife was Gabrielle Wattin, who died in 1938.

   His parents were devout Catholics who brought their children to daily
   Mass. His father was also an outspoken monarchist who ran a spy-ring
   for British Intelligence when Tourcoing was occupied by the Germans
   during World War I.

   In 1923 Lefebvre began studies for the priesthood; at the insistence of
   his father he went to the French Seminary in Rome. He would later
   credit his conservative views to the rector, a Breton priest named
   Father Henri Le Floch. His studies were interrupted in 1926 and 1927
   when he did his military service. On May 25, 1929 he was ordained
   deacon by Cardinal Basilio Pompilj in the Basilica of St. John Lateran
   in Rome. On September 21, 1929 he was ordained priest by Bishop (soon
   to be Cardinal) Achille Liénart in Lille, the diocese in which he was
   incardinated. After ordination, he continued his studies in Rome,
   completing a doctorate in theology in July 1930.

   In August 1930 Cardinal Liénart assigned Lefebvre to be assistant
   curate in a parish in Lomme, a suburb of Lille. Even before this,
   Lefebvre had already asked to be released for missionary duties as a
   member of the Holy Ghost Fathers. But the cardinal insisted that he
   consider this for a year while he engaged in parish work in the diocese
   of Lille. In July 1931 Liénart released Lefebvre from the diocese. In
   September Lefebvre entered the novitiate of the Holy Ghost Fathers at
   Orly. A year later on September 8, 1932 he took simple vows for a
   period of three years.

   Lefebvre's first assignment as a Holy Ghost Father was as a professor
   at St. John's Seminary in Libreville, Gabon. In 1934 he was made rector
   of the seminary. On September 28, 1935 he made his perpetual vows. He
   served as superior of a number of missions of the Holy Ghost Fathers in
   Gabon. In October 1945 Lefebvre was ordered by the superior general to
   return to France and take up new duties as rector of the Holy Ghost
   Fathers seminary in Mortain.

Bishop in Africa

   Lefebvre's return to France was not to last long. On June 12, 1947 Pope
   Pius XII appointed him Vicar Apostolic of Dakar in Senegal; he received
   the titular episcopal see of Anthedon (El Blakiyeh near Gaza in
   Palestine). On September 18, 1947 he was consecrated a bishop in his
   family parish church in Tourcoing by Cardinal Liénart (who had
   previously ordained him a priest); as co-consecrators acted the bishops
   Jean-Baptiste Fauret, C.S.Sp. and Alfred-Jean-Félix Ancel.

   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. Lefebvre was regarded as successful, increasing the number
   of priests, religious sisters, as well as the number of churches.

   On September 22, 1948 Lefebvre, while continuing as Vicar Apostolic of
   Dakar, received additional responsibilities: Pope Pius XII appointed
   him Apostolic Delegate to French Africa. In this capacity he was the
   papal representative to the Church authorities in 46 dioceses "in
   continental and insular Africa subject to the French Government, with
   the addition of the Diocese of Reunion, the whole of the island of
   Madagascar and the other neighbouring islands under French rule, but
   excluding the dioceses of North Africa, namely those of Carthage,
   Constantine, Algiers and Oran." With this new responsibiity he was
   given the titular archepiscopal see of Arcadiopolis in Europa together
   with the title "Archbishop".

   As Apostolic Delegate, Lefebvre's chief duty was the building up of the
   ecclesiastical structure in French Africa. Pope Pius XII wanted to move
   quickly towards a proper hierarchy (dioceses with bishops, instead of
   vicariates and apostolic prefectures). Lefebvre was responsible for
   selecting these new bishops. On September 14, 1955 Lefebvre was
   promoted to be the first Archbishop of Dakar.

   In 1958 Pope Pius XII died and was succeeded by Pope John XXIII.
   Lefebvre was appointed by the latter to the Central Preparatory
   Commission for the Second Vatican Council. In 1959 he was replaced as
   Apostolic Delegate to French Africa, although he continued as
   Archbishop of Dakar until January 23, 1962, when he was transferred to
   the diocese of Tulle in France, retaining his personal title of
   archbishop.

Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers

   On July 26, 1962 the Chapter General of the Holy Ghost Fathers elected
   Lefebvre Superior General. Lefebvre was widely respected for his
   experience in the mission field. On the other hand, certain progressive
   members of his congregation, particularly in France, considered his
   administrative style authoritarian and desired radical reforms. On
   August 7, 1962 Lefebvre was given the titular archiepiscopal see of
   Synnada in Phrygia.

   Lefebvre was increasingly criticized by influential members of his
   large religious congregation who considered him was out-of-step with
   modern Church leaders and the demand of bishops' conferences,
   particularly in France, for modernization. A general chapter of the
   Holy Ghost Fathers was convened in Rome in September 1968 to debate the
   direction of the congregation after the reforms of the Second Vatican
   Council. The first action of the chapter was to name several moderators
   to lead the chapter's sessions instead of Lefebvre. Lefebvre then
   handed in his resignation as Superior General to Pope Paul VI. He would
   later say that it had become impossible for him to remain Superior of
   an Order which no longer wanted or listened to him.

Second Vatican Council

   As a member of the Central Preparatory Commission for the Second
   Vatican Council, Lefebvre took part in the discussions about the draft
   documents (schema) submitted to the bishops for consideration at the
   Council. During the first session of the Council (October to December
   1962), he became concerned about the direction the Council's
   deliberations were taking.

   Lefebvre took a leading part in a study group of bishops at the Council
   which organized eventually became known as the Coetus Internationalis
   Patrum (International Group of Fathers).

   A major area of concern at the Council was the debate about the
   principle of religious liberty. During the Council's third session
   (September to November 1964) Pope Paul VI appointed Lefebvre to a
   special commission to discuss the draft document on the topic, this met
   with protests from a number of more liberal cardinals, and then
   responsibility for amending the document was moved to the more liberal
   Christian Unity office. Lefebvre and Cardinal Ottaviani had proposed
   instead a constitution that would proclaim the principle of religious
   tolerance, but not of absolute freedom of religion in the public
   sphere, which they deemed relativistic. The Coetus Internationalis
   Patrum did, however, manage to get the preliminary vote (with
   suggestions for modifications) on the document put off until the fourth
   session of the Council, but were unable to prevent the adoption, on 7
   December 1965, of the final text of the declaration Dignitatis humanae
   by the overwhelming majority of the Council. The claim by some that
   this overwhelming majority was due to intense lobbying by the reformist
   wing of Council Fathers among those prelates who initially had
   reservations or even objections however is not accepted by all.
   Lefebvre was one of those who voted against the declaration, but he was
   one of those who added their signature to the document, after that of
   the Pope, though not all present did sign. Lefebvre later declared that
   the sheet of paper that he signed and that was "passed from hand to
   hand among the Fathers of the Council and upon which everyone placed
   his signature, had no meaning of a vote for or against, but signified
   simply our presence at the meeting to vote for four documents."
   However, the paper on which his signature appears, and which was not
   "the relatively unimportant attendance sheet which Lefebvre recalled in
   his interview", bears "the title Declaratio de Libertate Religiosa
   (along with the titles of three other documents) at the top," and
   "(t)he fathers were informed that if they wished to sign one or more
   documents, but not all of them, they could make a marginal annotation
   beside their name, specifying which documents they did or did not wish
   to sign. No such annotation is found beside the names of either
   Lefebvre or de Castro Mayer, which proves that they were prepared to
   share in the official promulgation of that Declaration on Religious
   Liberty which they later publicly rejected."

The Society of Saint Pius X

   After retiring from the post of Superior General of the Holy Ghost
   Fathers, Lefebvre was approached by traditionalists from the French
   Seminary in Rome who had been refused the tonsure because of their
   traditional views asking for a conservative seminary to complete their
   studies. After directing them to the University of Fribourg,
   Switzerland, Lefebvre was urged to teach these seminarians personally.
   In 1969, he received permission from the local bishop to establish a
   seminary in Fribourg which opened with nine students, moving to Ecône
   in 1971.

   Lefebvre proposed to his seminarians the establishment of a society of
   priests without vows. In November 1970, Bishop François Charrière of
   Fribourg established, on a provisional (ad experimentum) basis for six
   years, the International Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) as a
   "pious union".

   The French bishops treated the Ecône seminary with suspicion and
   referred to it as a wildcat seminary. They indicated that they would
   incardinate none of the seminarians.

   In November 1974, two Belgian priests carried out a rigorous inspection
   on the instructions of a commission of cardinals, producing, it was
   said, a favourable report. However, while at Ecône, they expressed a
   number of theological opinions that the seminarians and staff judged to
   be scandalous. In what he later described as a mood of "doubtlessly
   excessive indignation", the Archbishop wrote a "Declaration" in which
   he strongly attacked the liberal trends that he saw as apparent in the
   contemporary Church.

Clash with the Vatican

   In January 1975 the incumbent Bishop of Fribourg stated his wish to
   withdraw the SSPX's pious union status.. Though Lefebvre then had two
   meetings with the commission of Cardinals, the Bishop put his intention
   into effect on 6 May 1975, thereby officially dissolving the Society.
   Lefebvre continued his work regardless.

   In the consistory of 24 May 1976, Pope Paul VI criticized Archbishop
   Lefebvre by name and appealed to him and his followers to change their
   minds.

   On June 29, 1976, Lefebvre went ahead with planned ordinations despite
   receiving letters from Rome forbidding them. As a result Lefebvre was
   suspended a collatione ordinum, i.e., forbidden to ordain any priests.
   A week later, the Prefect of the Congregation 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
   modernisation of the Church was a "compromise with the ideas of modern
   man" originating in a secret agreement between high dignitaries in the
   Church and senior Freemasons prior to the Council. Lefebvre was then
   notified that, since he had not apologised to the Pope, he was
   suspended a divinis, i.e., he could no longer legally administer any of
   the sacraments. Lefebvre said that he had been forbidden from
   celebrating the new rite of Mass, as if, Pope Paul VI remarked, "he
   thought he dodged the penalty by administering the sacraments using the
   previous formulas."

   Lefebvre was received in audience by Paul VI on 11 September 1976, and
   one month later the Pope wrote to him, repeating the appeal he had made
   to him at the audience. In 1978, sixty days after his election, Pope
   John Paul II received Lefebvre in audience, again without concrete
   results for either side.

Ecône Consecrations

   In a 1987 sermon Lefebvre, now aged 81, announced his intention to
   consecrate a bishop to carry on his work after his death. This was
   controversial as under Catholic canon law, the consecration of a bishop
   requires the permission of the Pope.

   Although, on 5 May 1988, Lefebvre signed an agreement with Cardinal
   Joseph Ratzinger, by which, as part of an arrangement by which the
   situation of the Society of St Pius X would be regularized, one bishop
   would be consecrated for it Lefebvre came to the view that he was
   obliged both to reject that arrangement and to ordain a successor, if
   necessary without papal approval. The Pope appealed to him not to
   proceed in "a schismatic act", warning of "theological and canonical
   consequences".

   Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four SSPX priests; Bernard Tissier de
   Mallerais, Richard Williamson, Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay;
   with Bishop Emeritus Antônio de Castro Mayer of Campos, Brazil, as
   co-consecrator.

   On 2 July Pope John Paul II condemned the consecration in the apostolic
   letter Ecclesia Dei, in which he stated that the consecration
   "constitute[d] a schismatic act", and that, by virtue of canon 1382 of
   the Code, all the bishops involved were automatically excommunicated.

   Lefebvre declared that he had not withdrawn his submission to the Pope
   and that the crisis in the Church justified the consecrations, although
   in the apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei the Holy See rejected this
   argument as Lefebvre had been served with express canonical warnings.

Death

   Archbishop Lefebvre died in 1991 at the age of 85 from cancer in
   Martigny, Switzerland and is buried in the vault at the society's
   international seminary in Ecône, Switzerland.

Episcopal Succession

                    Episcopal Lineage
   Consecrated by:              Achille Cardinal Lienart
   Date of consecration:        September 18, 1947
                      Consecrator of
              Bishop              Date of consecration
   Georges-Henri Guibert        February 19, 1950
   Emile-Elie Verhille          December 21, 1951
   Gordon Anthony Pantin        March 19, 1968
   Bernard Tissier de Mallerais June 30, 1988
   Richard Williamson           June 30, 1988
   Alfonso de Galarreta         June 30, 1988
   Bernard Fellay               June 30, 1988
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