In 1964 some young men wishing to fulfil their priestly vocation went to Archbishop Lefebvre for advice, and he directed them to the French Seminary in Rome, under the care of the Holy Ghost Fathers.
In 1966 they were twenty-one, and the Archbishop asked them to be an example for the others, hoping that the new spirit would not harm the institution. But when the time of receiving the tonsure arrived, it was refused to the "integrists," and some of them tried their fortune in other communities, only to find a similar treatment.
In 1968 there were only two seminarians in cassock in the whole French Seminary. The communist flag was displayed by seminarians on May, to show their support of the revolutionary students in France. The post-conciliar spirit won the "Séminaire Français" as it did with all the other Roman institutions.
1) The Foundation
After his resignation as Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers in September 1968, Archbishop Lefebvre lived a very retired life in Rome. As many disciplinary rules of the French seminary were being discarded (the wearing of the soutane, daily Mass obligatory, etc.) as well as some moral issues (contraception, etc.), some seminarians turned to him for help (he was a well known figure since the French Seminary was run by the Holy Ghost Fathers). He declined at first on the grounds of lacking all the requirements (money, building ...). Finally, under the repeated plea from these seminarians and from their parents, he agreed to do something.
After various attempts in Italy and France, the Archbishop was encouraged by Fr. Philippe O.P. and the Abbot of Hauterive to open a small Seminary in Fribourg, Switzerland.
Bishop Charrière gave his permission and support on June 6, 1969, and one month later the Archbishop rented twelve rooms at the Don Bosco House. The old farm of the canons of St. Bernard in Ecône was bought by a group of Swiss laymen to prevent the profanation of the house and its venerable chapel of Our Lady of the Prairies.
In September 1970 the first year started at Ecône with the approval of Bishop Adam, and the first November Bishop Charriere canonically erected the "Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X" and approved its Constitutions.
The Society of Saint Pius X was born and welcomed into the Church as Cardinal Wright approved it in the letter of praise dated February 18, 1971.
2) The struggle for the Catholic Priesthood and for the Traditional Mass
- From the Beginning of the Society 1970 to the death of its Founder 1991 -
Rome issued the Apostolic Constitution "Missale Romanum" on April 3, 1969, presenting the New Mass. The Episcopal Synod of 1967 had already rejected its twin sister, the "Missa Normativa," but Cardinal Lercaro and Monsignor Bugnini convinced without much trouble Paul VI to sign the approval for the "Novus Ordo Missae" which pleased so much the Protestant observers. The article VII of the "Institutio Generalis" gave a heretical definition of this new liturgy of the Mass and the liberal mafia changed the definition... leaving intact the poisonous defined!
Archbishop Lefebvre gathered together a group of twelve theologians, amongst them Fr. Des Lauriers and Fr. Arriaga, who wrote under his direction the famous "Critical Examination of the N.O.M." The Archbishop obtained a preface by Cardinal Ottaviani, and Mrs. Campo and Princess Pallavicini the signature of Cardinal Bacci. The two cardinals presented the document to Paul VI.
Since no response came from the Vatican, the Archbishop announced to his seminarians,
June 10, 1971, the reasons why he refused to accept this new liturgy.
Some months before, on February 18, Cardinal Wright from the Congregation of the Clergy issued the "decretum laudis" praising highly the Society, its Constitutions, and its work in different dioceses.
The conspiracy of the envious French Bishops was growing fast.
In 1972, the Episcopal Conference in Lourdes called Ecône a "savage Seminary," when they knew very well that it was not under their jurisdiction. Society’s Seminaries were opened at Armada (USA, 1973) and Albano (Rome, 1974).
In 1974 Ecône had more than one hundred students.
Traditional priests after the Council? That should be stopped at any price!Rome sent two Apostolic Visitors. They said that "Ecône is good 99%." Not bad, said the Archbishop, this makes 1% for the Mass!
November 21, 1974. It was necessary to make a public statement in order to clarify the situation of the Society. Archbishop Lefebvre wrote his famous declaration: "We adhere with all our heart to the Eternal Rome..."
On December 21, 1974 the Archbishop published in "Itinéraires," a French magazine, his declaration in which he proclaims his adhesion to the eternal Rome and his refusal of the neo-modernist and neo-protestant Rome of Vatican II. "The only attitude of fidelity to the Church and to the Catholic doctrine is the categorical refusal of accepting the reformation." Clear, wasn’t it?
Rome answered with an invitation to dialogue. Liberal dialogue, which means in one unique direction, usually the wrong one.
February 1975.
He is "invited for a discussion" by Cardinals Tabera, Wright, and Garonne.March 1975.
Meeting with the three Cardinals. In fact it was a hidden trial, a direct condemnation of his Declaration of Nov. 21. No mention whatever of the Apostolic visit of the previous November.Against the provision of the Canon Law, the Society was invalidly suppressed the sixth of May, 1975
by the new Bishop of Fribourg, Mgr Mamie. The Society of St. Pius X is "suppressed". However, according to Canon Law (1917), c. 492, when a religious society has been approved in a diocese, only Rome can subsequently suppress it. As modern seminaries were closing everywhere and more and more disillusioned young men were asking for admission at Ecône, the Archbishop decided to continue.
French Cardinal Villot forced Cardinal Staffa to refuse the canonical recourse to the Supreme Apostolic Signature
- "because of the Tribunal being incompetent." Indeed!
- and the Secretary of State wrote to all the Bishops of the world asking them to refuse incardination to the members of the Society. Paul VI, in the Consistory of May 1976 denounced the Archbishop as "disobedient to the renewed liturgy."
March - June 29, 1976.
Every attempt was made to prevent the ordination of June 28 by numerous visits, letters, telephone calls and telegrams. The Archbishop asked: "Why? Don't we need priests?" The answer came a few days before the June ordination: "Say the New Mass on June 29, and all will be normalised." The real issue was the rite of Mass.June 29, 1976.
Priestly ordinations of 12 candidates. In his sermon, his Grace appealed to the Bull Quo Primum of St. Pius V explicitly stating that any censure against the Old Mass would be invalid. "By virtue of Our Apostolic Authority We give and grant in perpetuity that... this Missal may be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgement or censure, and may be freely and lawfully used. Nor shall Bishops... and other secular priests... be obliged to celebrate Mass otherwise than enjoined by Us." (Quo Primum)Cardinal Benelli asked the Archbishop to celebrate at least once according to the new missal, promising a quick arrangement. He refused, of course, and on the 23rd of July, 1976 a "suspensio a divinis" forbade him to celebrate... the new mass, as the Archbishop said with humor. You remember the abominable way in which the media treated the issue. He was called - already! - "excommunicated", "arch-excommunicated", "break-away", "schismatic" and so on.
Paul VI received him in Castelgandolfo, September 11, 1976, accusing him to oblige the seminarians to take an oath against the Pope. This was the "accurate" information which Cardinal Villot presented.
John-Paul II received the Archbishop in Rome for 45 minutes, the sixteenth of November, 1978. After a long conversation the Pope seemed willing enough to make the liturgy a matter of option, when Cardinal Seper immediately exclaimed: "Holy Father, they are making of the Old Mass a banner!" a remark which made a considerable and negative impression on the Pope.
The expansion of the Society continued in every continent. International Seminaries were opened in Germany, Argentina and Australia, and the good Archbishop traveled incessantly to give the Sacraments of Holy Orders and Confirmation, and to comfort the priests and faithful who wanted to keep their Faith before the furious attacks of the Modernist sect. His priestly jubilee was celebrated in Paris, September 23, 1979, by a crowd of twenty-thousand grateful Catholics. In 1982 the General Chapter elected Rev. Franz Schmidberger as new Superior General.
Saint Mary’s College, a venerable Jesuit institution which was abandoned to the Pottawatomi Indians, was acquired by the Archbishop in 1978 to provide a sound Catholic education for children of American Traditional Catholics.
Meanwhile the conversations with the Vatican continued. Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop Castro Mayer wrote an open letter to the Pope in November 1983 denouncing his support of collegiality, the revolutionary "human rights," the protestant mass and the free diffusion of heresies within the Church. The Pope seemed to sponsor this attitude with his scandalous visits to a Protestant temple and the Synagogue in Rome, his idolatrous acts in Togo and India, crowning the job with the ecumenical meeting of all religions at Assisi.
1979 - 1984.
On a number of occasions, Archbishop Lefebvre went to Rome and faced long interrogations (cross-examinations) on his work, the question of jurisdiction, conditional confirmations, Vatican II, etc. But he was never accused and condemned for having erred in the Faith.During the priestly ordinations at Ecône, June 29, 1987, Archbishop Lefebvre announced his decision of consecrating bishops for the Society.
November - December 87.
An obscure Protocol was signed the fifth of May, 1988, but the day after, the Archbishop discovered that there were no securities that his conditions will be promptly fulfilled, and he decided to consecrate four auxiliary bishops against the explicit liberal will of the Pope.
June 30, 1988.
Consecration of 4 Bishops as "auxiliaries" of the Superior General.
It was a "survival operation" of Tradition, absolutely justified by the unjust persecution. The prudence and wisdom of this measure is obvious after the death of the Archbishop. This action made of him, Bishop
Castro Mayer, and the four young prelates, the first "excommunicated" of the post-conciliar era. The reasons for which the Church rewarded him greatly until the death of Pius XII were now the cause of his condemnation by the new church.
In 1989 he celebrated his sixty years of priesthood before twenty-three thousand faithful and his four new bishops; and in April 1990, the twenty years of the Society. In July the League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism sued the Archbishop in a perfidious process, the last one of a long list started by some renegades. The last thorn of his earthly crown!
In voluntary retirement, he spent the next year in writing his "Spiritual Itinerary," preaching retreats and praying in the peace of his beloved Seminary of
Ecône.
The good Lord took the Archbishop when his holy life was fully accomplished, March 25, 1991, Monday of the Holy Week, in the month of Saint Joseph. Let us pray for the eternal rest of our most beloved Father, and may his intercession help us restore all things in Christ.
The Works of the SSPX 1970 - 2005
In spite of the numerous public condemnations and the continuous black-mailing in the media, in spite of going against the Conciliar tide, from an initial group of 9 seminarians who started with Archbishop Lefebvre in a rented house in September 1969, here are some figures of the growth of the Society of St Pius X after 25 years. (At the same time one should keep in mind the tragic drop of vocations world-wide.)
1) Houses
Seminaries: 6 (Switzerland, Germany, France, USA, Argentina and Australia).
Priories: 159, in 30 countries, on the 5 continents.
Schools: 3 Universities, about 20 Secondary Schools & 50 Primary Schools.
Retreat Houses: 7
Nursing Homes: 3 operating and 1 in preparation.
Chaplaincy of traditional communities and schools: about 20.
2) Members
Bishops: 4
Priests: 463
Seminarians: 160
Brothers: 85
Oblates: 75
3) Other Communities of Catholic Traditions
Alongside the SSPX a number of Communities of Catholic Tradition have emerged in the last 25 years, around the world: over 10 for men (Dominicans, Benedictines, Capuchins, etc.) and more than 17 for women (Teaching Dominicans, enclosed Carmelites, Poor Clares, The Nursing Congregation of Le Rafflay, etc.).