Archbishop Lefebvre: Moving Toward Schism?

By Thomas J. Reese, S.J., senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center
America, June 4, 1988
Copyright © 1988 by America Press
All rights reserved

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre is threatening to ordain three bishops this June, a move that will put him in formal schism with the Roman Catholic Church. The ordination of bishops is the act of rebellion most feared by the Vatican because it would provide episcopal successors to the 82-year-old Archbishop. Without bishops, the movement will eventually wither away after his death since there will be no one to ordain new priests and bishops.

If he does ordain a bishop without Vatican approval, he will be automatically excommunicated under the Code of Canon Law: "A bishop who consecrates someone a bishop and the person who receives such a consecration from a bishop without a pontifical mandate incur an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See" (canon 1382).

Archbishop Lefebvre threatened to ordain bishops last summer. The ordinations were called off, he says, in the hope of reconciliation with Rome. Last Fall he accepted the appointment of Cardinal Edouard Gagnon, head of the Vatican Council for the Family, as an apostolic visitor to his Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X. The choice of the conservative French-Canadian Gagnon could be compared to sending Bishop Thomas Gumbleton to visit Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle. Cardinal Gagnon's report has been given to the Pope, but it does not appear that he has found a way of reconciling the wayward Archbishop.

Marcel Lefebvre was raised in a conservative French family by an industrialist father who longed for the return of the monarchy. Both father and son believed all of France's problems (liberalism, modernism, socialism and Communism) originated in the French Revolution. In the Archbishop's mind, the council presided over the marriage of the church and the revolution. "The union of Church and Revolution is adulterous. And from such an adulterous union, nothing but bastards can come forth. And who or what are the bastards? Our rites. The rite of the Mass is a bastard rite!"

Archbishop Lefebvre is known most widely for his support of the Tridentine liturgy and his attacks on the liturgical changes initiated by Vatican II. But his complaints against Vatican II go far beyond liturgical reforms. He also rejects conciliar developments in collegiality, religious liberty and ecumenism. These are seen by him as corresponding to the Revolution's égalité, liberté and fraternité.

At the Vatican Council, he even refused to sign the final versions of "The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church," "The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World" and "The Declaration on Religious Liberty." In his view, "The council has allowed those professing errors and tendencies condemned by the popes...to believe in good faith that their teachings are now approved."

Archbishop Lefebvre was suspended from priestly functions in July of 1976 after ordaining priests against the direct order of Pope Paul VI. He has continued to ordain priests against papal orders. These priests, and others who have joined him, do not recognize the authority of the Pope or of local bishops. They have sown confusion among the faithful by constantly reviling the council and attacking local bishops as heretics. In a 1970 profession of faith, he rejected "the Rome of neo-Modernist and neo-Protestant leanings that clearly manifested itself in the Second Vatican Council and after the council in the reforms issuing from it."

By his actions, Archbishop Lefebvre has probably already put himself in schism which is defined as "the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him" (canon 751). But the Vatican has avoided making the schism official in the hopes of reconciliation. In Archbishop Lefebvre's view, "Not we are in schism, the conciliar church is!" He has vowed that "no authority--not even the highest authority in the hierarchy--can compel us to depart from our Catholic faith as it has been taught for 19 centuries." (See Bede Lackner, "Archbishop Lefebvre and His Rebellion Today," America, July 13, 1985).

Attempts at reconciliation have been unsuccessful so far. Paul VI met with him in September of 1976 but found him unresponsive. A month later, the Pope sent him a 15-page letter calling on him to acknowledge the legitimacy of the new liturgical reforms. "In your case," Paul wrote, "the old rite is in fact an expression of a warped ecclesiology."

The Pope asked him to accept the council and papal authority and to return his seminaries to Vatican control. Paul asked him to desist and retract "the grave accusations or insinuations which you have publicly leveled against us, against the orthodoxy of our faith." He also asked him and his priests not to preach or administer sacraments in a diocese without the approval of the local bishop. Archbishop Lefebvre scorned this advice.

There was some hope in the Vatican that Archbishop Lefebvre would be more willing to be reconciled with John Paul II than he had been with Paul VI. In November of 1978, John Paul received the Archbishop in a private audience. For awhile it appeared an ambiguous formula acceptable to both sides was found whereby the Archbishop would accept Vatican II "as interpreted in accordance with tradition." A month later, however, he ordained another group of priests in violation of papal orders. He has even gone so far as to assert that Pope John Paul is "more or less" in schism. He also portrayed the Pope's participation in the 1986 ecumenical prayer day in Assisi as "public blasphemy."

Despite this mud slinging by the Archbishop, the Pope has continued trying to bring the Archbishop back into the church. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has met repeatedly with the Archbishop. But the Archbishop's conditions for reconciliation are quite high.

In a February interview in Le Figaro as reported by NC News, the Archbishop laid out his three basic requests which he claims have been accepted in principle by the Vatican:

  1. The establishment of a Vatican commission to "concern itself juridically with tradition." He has suggested his friend Cardinal Gagnon as its head.
  2. Permission for three members of his fraternity to be made bishops so that his movement can continue after his death.
  3. Independence for his priests from local bishops.
The meaning of the first demand is unclear. Another Vatican commission that does nothing would be a cheap price to pay for church unity. But giving Cardinal Gagnon power to define what is and what is not faithful to tradition would be frightening even to people in the Vatican.

Accepting the last two demands, on the other hand, would signify total surrender by the Vatican since Archbishop Lefebvre is threatening to ordain bishops with or without papal permission. And his priests are already acting independently of local bishops. Making this official would legitimize the rejection of the Vatican II by a very divisive faction within the church.

With papal approval the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X would become a rallying point for all reactionary dissidents in the church. From their pulpits they could continue reviling the council and local bishops to the general confusion of the faithful.

According to rumors that have be circulating in France for a year, what Archbishop Lefebvre may want is a personal prelature similar to the one granted to Opus Dei by John Paul II in 1982. A personal prelature consists of secular priests "presided over by a prelate as its proper ordinary, who has the right to erect a national or international seminary, to incardinate the students, and to promote them to orders...." (canon 295).

A personal prelature may be "erected by the Apostolic See, after consulting with the conferences of bishops involved...." (canon 294). It is unlikely, however, that the French, German and American bishops' conferences, who would be most affected by the decision, would approve of such a personal prelature if they were consulted.

A personal prelature is governed by statutes established by the Holy See. These statutes define the relations of the personal prelature with local bishops whose consent is necessary before its priests can exercise ministry in his diocese (canon 297). Bishops who have been vilified by Lefebvre priests would be reluctant to consent to their presence in their dioceses. Vatican approval of the fraternity would place tremendous pressure on the bishops to allow the priests in their dioceses. Technically, however, the bishops could still ban them from their dioceses. As a result, a personal prelature may not be enough to satisfy the Archbishop.

The day of reckoning between Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and John Paul II is fast approaching. Up until now, the Vatican has followed the same strategy one would use with hijackers or terrorists. Vatican officials have kept talking in the hopes that the Archbishop would be reconciled or die before he ordained a bishop. Archbishop Lefebvre says, "I've already pushed the date back four times, and I cannot delay the ordinations another time." Unless the Archbishop once again postpones the ordination of new bishops, the Pope must give in to the Archbishop or acknowledge his excommunication.

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