EPISTLES

I honestly don’t want any further sanctions against the SSPX. All I want is for them to resolve their problems with Rome and be able to minister freely to souls in any dioceses where they are needed.

But if they continue to persist in their pride, there is a possibility that Rome could eventually respond more decisively. Beyond excommunications or formal declarations of schism concerning their bishops—and potentially the priests and laity who formally adhere to that schism—the Church could one day identify and condemn a specific doctrinal error associated with the movement.

Whether it would be called Lefebvreanism, Lefebvrism, or something else is impossible to know, but such a development would be far more damaging to the SSPX than any disciplinary measure.

It would probably be defined as the theological error that fidelity to Catholic Tradition permits individuals or groups to judge, resist, or disregard the binding authority of the Pope and bishops whenever they perceive a conflict between that authority and their understanding of Tradition. In its fullest expression, it elevates private judgment above the Church’s living Magisterium and subjects ecclesiastical authority to personal interpretations of Catholic Tradition.

The term denotes ideas associated with Archbishop Lefebvre’s approach to Tradition, ecclesiastical authority, and resistance to certain post-conciliar developments.

Archbishop Lefebvre was a French missionary bishop and former Superior General of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. In 1970, he founded the Society of Saint Pius X to preserve traditional priestly formation and the traditional Roman liturgy following the Second Vatican Council.

His conflict with the Holy See intensified over questions of liturgical reform, ecumenism, religious liberty, and ecclesiastical authority. In 1988, despite explicit papal prohibition, he consecrated four bishops without pontifical mandate. The Holy See declared that this act constituted a schismatic act and that Archbishop Lefebvre and the newly consecrated bishops had incurred excommunication.

Archbishop Lefebvre died in 1991 while still under that excommunication, which had never been lifted during his lifetime.

Reconciliation should remain the priority of the SSPX. The longer the situation remains unresolved—that is, the longer they cling to their pride—the more difficult it may become to heal the division, and the fewer souls they will be able to save. Yey they believe that they are saving the Chuech.

Reconciliation should remain the highest priority of the SSPX. The longer the situation remains unresolved—that is, the longer they cling to their pride—the more difficult it may become to heal the division, and the fewer souls they will be able to save.