25 March 2016

Twenty five years

... since the death of H E Archbishop Lefebvre. The first occasion, perhaps, on which he has not been remembered at Mass on his Year's Mind since his death.

I know many people are worried about the present situation in the Church. In my opinion, there is no need for the panic which some feel. But above all it is important never even to THINK of taking actions which would put one outside the community of Christ's Church. Adhering to Sedevacantism would be one of these dangers.

It is very sad that the Great Archbishop died, at least ostensibly, under excommunication latae sententiae. But he and his sons bore a solid witness against all the heresies which have attacked the Church since the 1950s; and one of the worst of those heresies is Sedevacantism.

Worst, because it is the Devil's ingenious way of attacking good orthodox Catholics whom he has failed to seduce in any other way!

10 comments:

mark wauck said...

"he and his sons bore a solid witness against all the heresies which have attacked the Church since the 1950s"

So true. IMO, his was a truly heroic witness, when so many others remained silent.

Woody said...

May he rest in peace. He was a true son of the Church. He disobeyed the orders of a pope and the pope's advisers but he did not disobey to be a renegade. Who's position was more in line with what was best for the Church, Lefebvre or JPII? Obedience is required but of the the two, who was being obedient to God? I have finally read the book by Sire and it pained my heart to read about Archbishop Lefebvre. I gained more respect for the Archbishop and painfully lost some for Pope Saint JPII and even our Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. If not for Lefebvre, I believe there would not be an FSSP, the Traditional Latin Mass, and the other orders that say the TLM. It is my hope that Archbishop Lefebvre will, in time, be vindicated by the Church. Please have a blessed and happy Easter, Father.

Woody said...

I heartily concur with Father and with Mr. Wauck, whose Alba House Gospels I am reading now. For the both of you, I ask, keep up the good work, and a blessed Easter.

Patrick Sheridan said...

Lefebvre himself held Sedevacantist views in the 1970's, largely because of his hatred of pope Paul VI, as seen here:

“On the other hand, if it seems certain that the Faith taught by the Church for twenty centuries cannot contain error, we have far less certitude that the pope is truly pope. Heresy, schism, automatic excommunication, the invalidity of an election are causes which eventually make it happen that a pope was never pope or would be pope no longer. In such a case, obviously exceptional, the Church would find herself in a situation like that which she experiences after the death of a sovereign pontiff.” Quoted from John Daly’s article “Archbishop Lefebvre and Sedevacantism,” in Four Marks, 2006.

This all changed, of course, under the charismatic John Paul II, who wooed Lefebvre in all those rounds of "negotiations," which led to the dominance of the 1962 Missal.

Anonymous said...

He was Paul to whole of the church's bishops

Catholic Mission said...

It is very sad that the Great Archbishop died, at least ostensibly, under excommunication latae sententiae. But he and his sons bore a solid witness against all the heresies which have attacked the Church since the 1950s; and one of the worst of those heresies is Sedevacantism.

Lionel: The new theology is based on an irrationality.Vatican Council II was being interpreted with the new theology, with the irrationality. So the Council emerged as a break with the past.

We now know that Vatican Council II can also be interpreted today without the irrationality.The result is not a break with the old ecclesiology.

At the time of the excommunication this was not known.It was not known especially by the magisterium whose responsibility it was, to inform the Archbishop.

The Archbishop was correct in rejecting Vatican Council II interpreted with the irrationality. May God bless him for that.
He was wrongly excommunicated for not accepting a heretical version of Vatican Council II which his sons continue to reject.

mark wauck said...

Re "heresies which have attacked the Church since the 1950s" ...

There is of course a long prehistory to the heresies that Lefebvre warned against, the origins of which could be traced all the way back to the pre-reformation period, when nominalist thinking dominated Europe's universities (despite the revival of theology led by figures such as Cardinal Cajetan). Almost at random one might cite the Jansenists (described by Dom David Knowles as one of the three great heresies), a movement Lefebvre would have been keenly aware of. The Jansenists are notable for their determined efforts to remain within the Church, despite their clear Calvinist leanings. This became a pattern for later "modernist" heresies.

But there would also be the influence of German thought beginning around the time of the French Revolution, especially involving Kant and his successors--Fichte, Hegel ... Hegel and Kant in particular had a notable influence with thinkers such as Maurice Blondel, and through Blondel the influence extended to both the "transcendental" Thomists (Rahner, etc.) as well as the ressourcement theologians of the "Nouvelle Theologie." In a very real sense, their "coming out" at Vatican II, usually as periti for leading Rhenish cardinals merely marked the point at which these movements reached critical mass within the Church.

I'm sure Lefebvre would have been very much aware of all this.

Tee Pee Gee Eff said...

"The first occasion, perhaps, on which he has not been remembered at Mass on his Year's Mind since his death." Good Friday fell on 25 March not all that long ago. 1999? 2000? Surely there was no Mass then either?

Fr John Hunwicke said...

2005, indeed.

William Tighe said...


Well, in the Byzantine tradition, of Good Friday falls on March 25 both it an the annunciation are celebrated together. What this meant in practice at my Ukrainian Catholic parish - I must have been away in 2005 - was that first there was Vespers of Good Friday (with the stichera for Good Friday and Lady Day mingled together), then the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for the Annunication, and finally the procession with the Shroud for Good Friday - all taking a bit over two hours (beginning at 7 pm).