Editing Marcel Lefebvre (section)

===Apostolic Visitors===
[[File:Jean-Marie Villot 1978.jpg|thumb|right|Cardinal Secretary of State Jean-Marie Villot]]
In November 1974, two Belgian priests carried out a rigorous inspection on the instructions of a commission of cardinals,<ref name="Apologia4" /> producing, the SSPX claims, a favourable report.<ref>Archbishop Lefebvre was told that this examination was very positive and that he just had to come to Rome and clarify some questions. [http://www.angelusonline.org/Article2283-thread-order1-threshold0.phtml Conference of Father Franz Schmidberger, Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131121407/http://www.angelusonline.org/Article2283-thread-order1-threshold0.phtml |date=31 January 2009 }} at Rockdale, Sydney, Australia 16 October 1990 by Father Gerard Hogan and Father François Laisney</ref> In what he later described as a mood of "doubtlessly excessive indignation",<ref name="Apologia4" /> on 21 November 1974, Lefebvre wrote a "Declaration" in which he attacked the [[modernism (Roman Catholicism)|modernist]] and [[Liberalism|liberal]] trends that he saw in the reforms being undertaken within the church at that time:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sspx.org/SSPX_FAQs/appendix_I._declaration.htm |title=The Declaration of Archbishop Lefebvre |access-date=13 October 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061013232352/http://www.sspx.org/SSPX_FAQs/appendix_I._declaration.htm |archive-date=13 October 2006 }}. sspx.org. 21 November 1974.</ref>
{{Blockquote|We adhere with all our heart and all our soul to Catholic Rome, guardian of the Catholic Faith and the traditions necessary to maintain it, and to Eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and truth. On the other hand we refuse and have always refused to follow the Rome of the neo-Modernist and the new Protestant trend which was clearly evident in the Second Vatican Council and, after the Council in all the reforms which flowed from it.}}

The Commission of Cardinals declared in reply that the declaration was "unacceptable on all points".<ref name="seminary" /> At the same time, the French episcopate indicated that they would not [[Incardination|incardinate]] any of Lefebvre's priests in their dioceses.

In January 1975, Bishop [[Pierre Mamie]], who had succeeded Charrière in Fribourg in 1970, determined that the SSPX's status as a "pious union" should end. On 24 January 1975, he asked the prefect of the [[Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life|Sacred Congregation for Religious]], Cardinal [[Arturo Tabera]], to terminate its status as a "pious union".<ref name="lessard">{{cite web | access-date = 18 September 2021 | url= https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/37735/1/Lessard-Thibodeau_John_%202018.pdf | title = Arriving at the Juridic Status of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X | first = John G. | last = Lessard-Thibodeau | date = 2018 | website = Faculty of Canon Law, Saint Paul University, Ottawa | pages= 6n, 8–9 }}</ref>

On 13 February, Lefebvre was invited to Rome for a meeting with the commission of cardinals,<ref name="seminary" /> which he described as "a close cross examination of the judicial type", regarding the contents of his "Declaration", followed by a second meeting on 3 March.<ref name="seminary" /> In May, the commission announced it approved Mamie's plan. Lefebvre contended that canon law gave the pope alone the authority to suppress a religious congregation, and only by his direct decree.<ref name="seminary" />

Tabera responded in April expressing full agreement and telling Mamie to proceed himself, and Mamie suppressed the SSPX on 6 May 1975, effective immediately.<ref name="lessard" />{{efn|Pope Paul canonically suppressed the SSPX and its seminary in 1975.<ref>{{cite web | first = Pete | last =Vere |url=http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/4.6/lefebvre.htm |title=My Journey out of the Lefebvre Schism |access-date=2 September 2006 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050829105819/http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/4.6/lefebvre.htm |archive-date=29 August 2005 | work =Envoy Magazine | volume =4| issue =6 }}</ref>}} This action was upheld by Pope Paul, who wrote to Lefebvre in June 1975. Lefebvre nevertheless continued his work citing legal advice from canon lawyers that the Society had not been "legally suppressed" and that the Society continued to enjoy the privilege of incardinating its own priests.<ref name="Apologia11">{{harnvb|Davies|1980|loc=[http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Apologia/Vol_one/Chapter_11.htm Chapter 11]}}</ref> Lefebvre also argued that there were insufficient grounds for suppression as the Apostolic Visitors, by the Commission's own admission, delivered a positive report, and that since his Declaration had not been condemned by the [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]], he appealed, twice, to the [[appellate court]] of the church, the [[Apostolic Signatura]].<ref name="seminary" /> Lefebvre later wrote that Cardinal Villot blocked the move,<ref name="seminary" /> and one of his supporters wrote that Villot threatened the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, Cardinal [[Dino Staffa]], with dismissal if the appeals were not denied.<ref>{{cite book |title= Vatican Encounter|last= Hanu|first= José|pages= 85, 191}}</ref>

In 1976, Mamie warned Lefebvre that saying Mass though Catholic Church authorities had forbidden him from exercising his priestly functions would further exacerbate his relationship with Rome.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/05/archives/a-french-bishop-continues-defiance-holds-mass-in-latin.html |title=A French Bishop Continues Defiance, Holds Mass in Latin |date=5 July 1976|work=[[New York Times]]|access-date=17 September 2021}}</ref>