Marcel Lefebvre
Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre CSSp FSSPX (French: [maʁsɛl fʁɑ̃swa maʁi ʒɔzɛf ləfɛvʁ]; 29 November 1905 – 25 March 1991) was a French Catholic archbishop who influenced modern traditionalist Catholicism. In 1970, five years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, he founded the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX),[2] a community to train seminarians in the traditional manner, in the village of Écône, Switzerland. In 1988, Pope John Paul II declared that Archbishop Lefebvre had "incurred the grave penalty of excommunication envisaged by ecclesiastical law" for consecrating four bishops against the pope's express prohibition[3] but, according to Lefebvre, in reliance on an "agreement given by the Holy See ... for the consecration of one bishop."[4][5]
For the Canadian screenwriter, see Marcel Lefebvre (screenwriter).
Marcel Lefebvre
23 January 1962
7 August 1962
Aimable Chassaigne
Henri Clément Victor Donze
Founder and Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X (1970–1982)
21 September 1929
by Achille Liénart
18 September 1947
by Achille Liénart
25 March 1991 (aged 85)
Martigny, Switzerland
International Seminary of Saint Pius X, Écône, Switzerland
French
René Lefebvre (father)
Gabrielle Watine (mother)
- Vicar Apostolic of Dakar (1947–1955)
- Titular Bishop of Anthedon (1947–1948)
- Apostolic Administrator of Saint-Louis du Sénégal (1948–1955)
- Titular Archbishop of Arcadiopolis in Europa (1948–1955)
- Apostolic Delegate of French Africa (1948–1959)
- Archbishop of Dakar (1955–1962)
- Superior General of Congregation of the Holy Ghost (1962–1968)
- Titular Archbishop of Synnada in Phrygia (1962–1970)
(Pontifical) French Seminary, Rome
Et nos credidimus caritati
(And we believed in charity)[1]
His Excellency
Your Excellency
21 September 1929
18 September 1947
19 February 1950
19 February 1950
26 October 1952
2 July 1961
30 June 1988
30 June 1988
30 June 1988
30 June 1988
Ordained a diocesan priest in 1929, he had joined the Holy Ghost Fathers for missionary work and was assigned to teach at a seminary in Gabon in 1932. In 1947, he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Dakar, Senegal, and the next year as the Apostolic Delegate for West Africa. Upon his return to Europe he was elected Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers and assigned to participate in the drafting and preparation of documents for the upcoming Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) announced by Pope John XXIII. He was a major leader of the conservative bloc during its proceedings. He later took the lead in opposing certain changes within the church associated with the council. He refused to implement council-inspired reforms demanded by the Holy Ghost Fathers and resigned from its leadership in 1968. In 1970, he founded the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) as a small community of seminarians in the village of Écône, Switzerland, with the permission of the local bishop.
In 1975, after a flare of tensions with the Holy See, Lefebvre was ordered to disband the society, but ignored the decision and continued to maintain its activities and existence. In 1988, against the express prohibition of Pope John Paul II, he consecrated four bishops to continue his work with the SSPX. The Holy See immediately declared that he and the other bishops who had participated in the ceremony had incurred automatic excommunication under Catholic canon law,[a] which Lefebvre refused to acknowledge.[6][7]
Priest[edit]
In 1923 Lefebvre began studies for the priesthood; at the insistence of his father he followed his brother to the French Seminary in Rome, as his father suspected the diocesan seminaries of liberal leanings.[14] He later credited his conservative views to the rector, a Breton priest named Father Henri Le Floch.[15] He interrupted his studies in 1926 and 1927 to perform his military service.[16] On 25 May 1929 he was ordained deacon by Cardinal Basilio Pompili in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.[17] On 21 September 1929 he was ordained a priest of Diocese of Lille by its bishop, Achille Liénart.[18][19] After ordination, he continued his studies in Rome, completing a doctorate in theology in July 1930.[20]
Lefebvre asked to be allowed to perform missionary work as a member of the Holy Ghost Fathers, but in August 1930 Liénart required him to first work as assistant curate in a parish in Lomme, a suburb of Lille.[21][22] Liénart released him from the diocese in July 1931 and Lefebvre entered the novitiate of the Holy Ghost Fathers at Orly in September.[10] On 8 September 1932, he took simple vows for a period of three years.[23]
Lefebvre's first assignment as a Holy Ghost Father was as a professor at St. John's Seminary in Libreville, Gabon.[24] In 1934 he was made rector of the seminary.[25] On 28 September 1935 he made his perpetual vows. He served as superior of a number of missions of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Gabon.[b] In October 1945 Lefebvre returned to France to become rector of the Holy Ghost Fathers seminary in Mortain.[21]
Bishop in Africa[edit]
On 12 June 1947, Pope Pius XII appointed him Vicar Apostolic of Dakar in Senegal and titular bishop of Anthedon.[26] On 18 September 1947 he was consecrated a bishop in his family's parish church in Tourcoing by Liénart, now a cardinal, with Bishops Jean-Baptiste Fauret and Alfred-Jean-Félix Ancel as co-consecrators.[27][28] 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.[29]
On 22 September 1948, Lefebvre, while continuing as Vicar Apostolic of Dakar, received the additional responsibilities of Apostolic Delegate to French Africa, with his title changed to titular archbishop of Arcadiopolis in Europa.[30] He became responsible for representing the interests of the Holy See to Church authorities in 46 dioceses[31] 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."[32][c]
In the late 1940s, Lefebvre established a ministry in Paris to care for Catholic students from the French colonies in Africa. He and other missionaries in Africa thought young Africans would otherwise be attracted to radical ideologies, including anti-colonialism and atheism. This idea of "safeguarding the Catholicism of the emerging African elite" was later adopted by Pope Pius in his encyclical on the missions, Fidei donum (1957).[33]
Lefebvre's chief duty was the building up of the ecclesiastical structure in French Africa.[34] Pope Pius XII wanted to move quickly towards an ecclesiastical structure with dioceses instead of vicariates and apostolic prefectures. Lefebvre was responsible for selecting these new bishops,[31] increasing the number of priests and religious sisters,[35] as well as the number of churches in the various dioceses.[8] On 14 September 1955, Pope Pius decreed a complete reorganization of the ecclesiastical jurisdictions in French Africa. The Apostolic Vicariate of Dakar was made an archdiocese and Lefebvre became its first archbishop.[34][36]
Transition years, 1959–1962[edit]
Lefebvre's career shifted rapidly with the death of Pope Pius XII, moving from the missions to Rome, though not directly, and with indications he was at times favored and at times disfavored by the new pope. Pope John XXIII replaced Lefebvre as Apostolic Delegate to Dakar on 9 July 1959, a position that would quickly evolve as the colonies gained their independence in the 1960s.[37] The next year, Pope John appointed Lefebvre to the 120-member Central Preparatory Commission for the Second Vatican Council.[38]
After Senegal declared its independence in June 1960, its first president, Léopold Sédar Senghor proposed the country adopt its own form of socialism, which he as a Catholic believed compatible with Church doctrine. Lefebvre, still Archbishop of Dakar, criticized Senghor's views in a March 1961 pastoral letter and then in a personal audience with Senghor, drawing on Pope Pius XI's denunciation of socialism in his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo anno. Now at odds with the government, Lefebvre watched as the Holy See replaced European missionary bishops with Africans and tried to delay his own removal by asking for the appointment of a coadjutor, which met with no response.[39][d] He told Pope John "the Africans are not yet ripe" and did not want to be responsible. Pope John said he took the responsibility and would see Lefebvre was taken care of properly.[41]
On 23 January 1962, Lefebvre was transferred to the Diocese of Tulle, one of the smallest in France, while retaining the personal title of archbishop.[39][42][e]
On 4 April 1962, he was named a consultor to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.[43]
On 26 July 1962, the Chapter General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, dominated by those in leadership positions with fewer representatives of local communities, elected Lefebvre to a 12-year term as their Superior General. He won 53 of the 75 votes cast on the first ballot, though some delegates had "strong misgivings". This meeting also moved the order's headquarters from Paris to Rome.[44][45] Upon being elected Superior General, Lefebvre resigned as bishop of Tulle; Pope John accepted his resignation on 7 August and named him titular archbishop of Synnada in Phrygia.[46]
Death[edit]
Lefebvre died from cancer on 25 March 1991 at the age of 85 in Martigny, Switzerland.[109] Eight days later he was buried in the crypt at the society's international seminary in Écône. Archbishop Edoardo Rovida, Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland, and Bishop Henri Schwery of Sion, the local diocese, came and prayed at his body.[110]
During his career, Lefebvre was decorated by several governments, including: