LEFEBVRE a latter-day St. ATHANASIUS?

  1. Bishop Bruskewitz to the Society of St. Pius X: "You can't have it both ways!"

    By Charles M. Wilson

    […]

    Still, the sympathy, admiration and gratitude we may have toward Archbishop Lefebvre must not blind us to our duty toward the Church. It may be all right to consider the archbishop something of a latter day Patrick Henry, but only if we keep in mind that it was not George III who our Lord Jesus Christ was addressing when He said: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" and "He who hears you hears me." Similarly, some have cast Archbishop Lefebvre as a modern St. Athanasius, suffering for his opposition to modernism much as the fourth century Doctor of the Church endured persecution and exile for fighting Arianism. This comparison falls short because the historical conditions are not analogous. Most of St. Athanasius' persecutors were themselves heretics, usurpers or intrusive emperors. One exception was, of course, Pope Liberius, who under duress condemned Athanasius in 357. By contrast Archbishop Lefebvre has defied legitimate holders of ecclesiastical office, including Popes Paul VI and John Paul II. It is beyond question that John Paul II is the legitimate successor of Peter and was not acting under duress when Archbishop Lefebvre manifestly violated the Holy Father's express, personal command by ordaining four bishops without the required mandate of the Holy See in 1988. Whether the act constituted schism in the strict sense of the word does not change this, nor do the differing opinions proffered by learned canonists.

    […]

    http://www.st-joseph-foundation.org/cfd14-4.htm



  2. The Tragedy of Marcel Lefebvre

    by Paul Stenhouse, M.S.C., Ph.D

    [...]

    The Marcel Lefebvre who wrote to Pope Paul VI in September 1976 of his 'unreserved allegiance to the Holy See and to the Vicar of Christ,' and in another breath describes the Pope and the Roman Curia as 'disciples of the Father of lies' and the Vatican as 'more than ever an instrument for destroying the faith' Sun Herald, 7/8/88), seems to have more in common with Martin Luther than with St Athanasius, St Hilary or St John Fisher to whom he has been likened by his supporters (L'Aurore, 15/1/76).

    For it was Martin Luther who in 1518 wrote to Pope Leo X, 'Whether you give me life or death, approve or reprove, as you may judge best, I will harken to your voice as to that of Christ himself. Yet no sooner did the Pope find fault with his teaching than the former Augustinian monk published a book entitled 'Against the detestable Bull of the Antichrist,' and launched into a virulent campaign of hate that ended with the Articles of Schmalkald in which the doctrine that the Pope was the antichrist was elevated to an article of 'faith'.

    Those who choose to follow Marcel Lefebvre into excommunication from the Catholic Church need to realise that they are unconsciously involving themselves in issues much wider than whether Mass is offered in Latin, or whether the Green catechism is used for religious instruction in schools.

    From "Annals Australia" July 1988
    http://jloughnan.tripod.com/lefebann.htm



  3. An Excerpt from My Journey out of the Lefebvre Schism
    All Tradition Leads to Rome

    By Pete Vere, JCL/M (Canon Law)

    [...}

    Pope Liberius

    Probably the most common claim I came across within SSPX circles was the claim that Pope Liberius (reigned A.D. 352-366) was a heretic, sympathetic to Arianism, who falsely excommunicated St. Athanasius. For this reason, the SSPX claims, Pope Liberius became the first pope in the history of the Church not be recognized as a saint. Of course, by analogy the SSPX considers Archbishop Lefebvre a modern St. Athanasius and Pope John Paul II a modern Pope Liberius.

    Their argument is that if it happened once, it can happen again. And yet, as our Lord showed me in a rather amusing fashion, such claims have little basis in Catholic Tradition.

    Convinced the SSPX claims pertaining to this situation were true, I was reading my copy of Henri Denzinger's Sources of Catholic Dogma one day when I noticed that Denzinger listed Pope Liberius as “St. Liberius.” To say I was surprised would be an understatement — ironically enough, the SSPX had sold me the particular edition of Denzinger I was reading, since they held all subsequent editions as suspect. Yet this portion of Denzinger clearly did not accord with what was being preached from our local SSPX pulpit. So I simply dismissed this listing as a probable typesetting error and continued reading.

    A mere ten pages later, I came across a papal epistle authored by Pope St. Anastasius subtitled “The Orthodoxy of Pope Liberius.” In it, Pope St. Anastasius clearly states: “The heretical African faction [of the Arian heresy] was not able by any deception to introduce its baseness because, as we believe, our God provided that that holy and untarnished faith be not contaminated through any vicious blasphemy of slanderous men — that faith which had been discussed and defended at the meeting of the synod of Nicea by the holy men and bishops now placed in the resting place of the saints” (see art. 93 of the thirtieth edition).

    So far, so good; God had clearly preserved the Church from Arianism through the actions and prayer of holy men. But who were these holy men, and how does this relate to Pope Liberius? I wondered. To my surprise, Pope St. Anastasius answered the question in the subsequent paragraph this way: “For this faith those who were then esteemed as holy bishops gladly endured exile, that is . . . Liberius, bishop of the Roman Church.”

    I was stunned by this pope's answer, for clearly there was a contradiction here: Was I to believe Archbishop Lefebvre and his followers as the authentic teaching from Catholic Tradition? Or was I to believe the teaching of Anastasius in his papal epistle Dat mihi plurimum — the claim of one who was a saint, a pope, and a writer much closer to the time the Arian heresy took place? When my local SSPX priest failed to provide an adequate solution for this quandary, I could only accept the claim of Pope St. Anastasius as the authentic voice of Catholic Tradition.

    […]
    http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/4.6/lefebvre.htm



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