A Summary
| 1969, April 3 | Novus Ordo Missae was promulgated ("Catholic," Apr. 1983, p.3.} |
| 1970, Oct. 7 | Ecône was established. ("Catholic," Jan. 1987, p.6.) |
| 1970, Nov. 1 | The decree of foundation was signed by Mgr. Charriere. Ecône Full Stop, Fortes in Fide, by Fr. Noél Barbara. This issue is/was downloadable from Jim McNally's http://fred.net/jmcnally/ The photocopy of the "Décret d'erection de la 'Fraternité Sacerdotale Internationale Saint Pie X" is plainly exhibited in the November 1980 issue of "The Angelus." Bishop François Charrière of the Diocese of Fribourg in Switzerland agreed to allow the Society of St. Pius X to come into his diocese and set up their seminary at Ecône. He did so on an ad experimentum basis of six years. In other words, they were on probation Bishop Charrière is cautious in his approval of the SSPX, decreeing as per the following:
|
| 1975, Jan. 24 | Bishop Mamie wrote to the Sacred Congregation for Religious insisting that "having made a careful study of Mgr. Lefebvre's declaration, he considered it a sad but urgent necessity to withdraw the approval given by his predecessor to the Society of St. Pius X."(34) |
| 1975, April 26 | Bishop Mamie received a reply dated this day in which Cardinal Tabera, acting as Prefect for the Sacred Congregation for Religious, urged Bishop Mamie to withdraw his canonical approval from the SSPX immediately.(35) |
| 1975, May 5 | In a letter addressed to Archbishop Lefebvre on this day Bishop Mamie would inform him "that after long months of prayer and reflection he had reached the sad but necessary decision that he must withdraw all the acts and concessions granted by his predecessor to the Society of St. Pius X."(36) |
| 1975, May 5 | … on the same day that Bishop Mamie suppressed the SSPX, Archbishop Lefebvre received a decision from the Commission of Cardinals which had been convoked by Pope Paul VI to investigate both Lefebvre and the SSPX. Within the text of their decision, the following conclusions were drawn and the subsequent course of action taken: Now such a Declaration appears unacceptable to us on all points. It is impossible to reconcile most of the affirmations contained in the document with authentic fidelity to the Church, to the one who is responsible for Her, and to the Council in which the mind and will of the Church were expressed. It is inadmissible that every individual should be invited to submit papal directives to his own private judgment and decide for himself whether to accept or reject them... |
| 1976, June 10 | The Apostolic Signatura rejected Archbishop Lefebvre's appeal on the grounds that the Holy Father had approved the decision of the Commission of Cardinals in forma specifica.(45) This would be confirmed by Pope Paul VI personally in a letter to Archbishop Lefebvre in which the Holy Father stated: "Finally, the conclusions which [the Commission of Cardinals] proposed to Us, We made all and each of them Ours, and We personally ordered that they be immediately put into force."(46) Hence, no further recourse was possible for Archbishop Lefebvre, for under c*. 1880, "there is no appeal: (1) from the sentence of the Supreme Pontiff himself or from the Signatura Apostolica..."(47) Consequently, the SSPX and their seminary were unquestionably suppressed as a juridical person within the Church. |
| 1976, June | Against Lefebvre's intention, substituting on behalf of the Vatican Secretariat of State, Mgr. Benelli sent Mgr. Amborio Marchioni, the Papal Nuncio at Berne, the following instruction:
You should, at the same time, inform Mgr. Marcel Lefebvre that, de mandato speciali Summa Pontificis, in the present circumstances and according to the presciptions of [c*.] 2373, 1o, of the Code of Canon Law, he must strictly abstain from conferring orders from the moment he receives the present injunction.(51) |
| 1976, June 30 | In spite of all objections, Lefebvre proceeded with the ordinations on 30 June 1976. |
| 1976, July 1 | Paul VI replied on 1st July by striking the priests ordained with a suspensus a divinis. |
| 1976, July 1 | Cardinal Tabera authorized Mgr. Mamie (Bishop Charriere's successor) to withdraw canonical approval from the SSPX, and Lefebvre was suspended on 1 July, 1976. |
| 1976, July 11 | The Apostolic Nuncio in Switzerland attests that Lefebvre received the formal monitum. |
| 1976, July 29 | The Pope suspended Lefebvre a divinis. According to canonist Peter Vere, this meant Lefebvre was "now forbidden by the Holy See from the exercise of holy orders, a prohibition reserved to the Holy Father personally. In other words, his suspension was now perpetual until its absolution, and applicable to more than simply the ordination of seminarians to major orders" (Vere and William Woestman, O.M.I., "A Canonical History of the Lefebvrite Schism"). Lefebvre said, "This conciliar church is schismatic because it has taken as the basis for its updating principles opposed to those of the Catholic Church… The church that affirms errors like these is both schismatic and heretical. This conciliar church is just not Catholic." |
"In 1975 or 1976 Gerald Hogan, then a seminarian at Econe, returned home for a funeral in Melbourne. He then came to Sydney, and I drove him here and there. He said that seminarians away from Econe were let satisfy their Sunday obligation at either traditional or novus ordo Mass....
"...Lefebvre himself used the 'Mass' of Paul VI in St. Peter's Basilica at the altar-tomb of his 'patron' Pope St. Pius X, because, he said, by celebrating the traditional Mass he would give scandal. He used the 'Mass' of Paul VI even at Econe, and was finally persuaded by his staff priests that it was inconsistent with his 'aim' to train priests for the traditional Mass....
"...So this 'Mass' of Paul VI, they tell me, is what Lefebvre celebrated at the tomb of St. Pius V, at Econe until talked out of it, and when in hospital at Bogota (concelebration with Aulagnier)... "[88]
He continually insisted upon the heresy and schism of Vatican II and its church. However, at the same time he was talking of "interpreting the council in the sense of Tradition" and was already demanding "that they allow us to experiment with Tradition." [89]
what the Archbishop liked, andAt one time we were taught to reject the Vatican Council II entirely..." [94]
what one did in France,
These rubrics ranged freely from the Liturgy of St. Pius X to that of Paul VI 1968. It is simply the 'Rite of Ecône,' a law unto itself...
"An eminent prelate of the Roman Church, Marcel Lefebvre had been Superior General of the Missionary Holy Ghost Fathers and Metropolitan Archbishop of Dakar, Africa, with many dioceses under his authority."(9) Under the pontificate of Pius XII, Archbishop Lefebvre was named the Apostolic Delegate for French-speaking Africa,"(10) and in 1959, "Pope John XXIII named him to the Coetus Internationalis Patrum, the central prepatory committee charged with drawing up the schema for the Second Vatican Council."(11) "The son of the alleged stigmatic Gabrielle Lefebvre (née Watine),(12) the Catholic Faith always played a central role in Marcel Lefebvre's life. Therefore it would come as no surprise that Lefebvre pursued an active role at the Second Vatican Council, often being identified by various participants and observers as a cornerstone of the ultra-conservative camp.(13)In October of 1970, having received permission from Bishop Nestor Adam of Sion, Switzerland, Archbishop Lefebvre undertook to found a religious institute with a central house of studies in Ecône, Switzerland.(14) As Fr. Oppenheimer explains, "He [Archbishop Lefebvre] did this at the instigation of a number of young seminarians who had sought him out for an authentic priestly formation during that time of confusion in the Church."(15) It is important to note that Archbishop Lefebvre's followers have always maintained that Lefebvre never sought to recruit them, but rather that they approached him after the Second Vatican Council. Regardless of how factually correct this claim is, it served as an early foundation of Archbishop Lefebvre's mystique among his followers, which at the time of the episcopal consecrations in 1988 would allow him to convince many of them that a sufficient state of emergency existed within the Church to disregard the lack of papal mandate. Thus it was in light of the above historical background that Archbishop Lefebvre's followers claim to have obtained permission from François Charrière, the diocesan bishop of Lausanne, Geneva, and Fribourg to found the SSPX as a priestly society "of common life without vows,"(16) in accordance with canons(17) 673-674, and 488: o3, o4, of the Pio-Benedictine Code in force at the time of the establishment of their seminary and priestly society.(18)
The Bishop's use of the expression "pia unio" here is a little confusing. A "pia unio," as [cc*.] 707-708 make clear, is not normally a moral person. It means a lay association. A religious "society of common life," as the approved statutes of the Society of St. Pius X specify it is, described in [c*.] 673, is really very much like a religious institute but without public vows. It is possible that Bishop Charrière intended here "pia domus" since it is quite normal to erect a "pia domus" as the first step towards a new religious institute.(21)To briefly explain this controversy, the SSPX claim according to their constitutions that they were erected in accordance with the norms of c*. 673, which in Latin uses the word societas to describe "a society of men or women who lead a community life after the manner of religious under the government of superiors and according to approved constitutions, but without the three usual vows of religious life."(22) Such a society would differ from a pia unio, the word used by Bishop Charrière in his decree establishing the SSPX. Therefore, it would appear that the SSPX was established in accordance with the definition of a pious union of the faithful provided by c*. 707 §1,(23) which Fr. Charles Augustine translates as follows: "Associations of the faithful founded to further some piety or charity, are known as pious organizations."(24)