Editing Marcel Lefebvre (section)

=== Disagreement with the Vatican ===
[[File:Marcel Lefebvre 1981.jpg|thumb|Lefebvre in 1981]]

During the [[Papal consistory|consistory]] of 24 May 1976, [[Pope Paul VI]] criticized Lefebvre by name and appealed to him and his followers to change their minds.<ref name="shuster" /><ref>{{harvnb|Pope Paul VI|24 May 1976}}</ref>

[[File:Marcel Lefebvre in Cordoba, Argentina.jpg|thumbnail|left|Lefebvre in Córdoba, Argentina, in 1980]]
On 29 June 1976, Lefebvre went ahead with planned priestly ordinations without the approval of the local bishop and despite receiving letters from Rome forbidding them. As a result Lefebvre was suspended ''a collatione ordinum'', ''i.e.'', forbidden to [[ordination|ordain]] any priests. A week later, the Prefect of the [[Congregation for Bishops]] informed him that, to have his situation regularized, he needed to ask the pope's pardon. Lefebvre responded with a letter claiming that the modernization of the church was a "compromise with the ideas of modern man" originating in a secret agreement between high dignitaries in the church and senior [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]] before the council.<ref name="Apologia12letter">"Letter of Mgr. Lefebvre to Pope Paul VI" (17 July 1976), quoted in: {{harnvb|Davies|1980|loc=[http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Apologia/Vol_one/Chapter_12.htm (Chapter 12)]}}</ref> Lefebvre was then notified that, since he had not apologized to the pope, he was suspended ''a divinis'',<ref>Roger McCaffrey and [[Thomas Woods]], [http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=37861 "All We Ask is for the Mass"], May 2005, Catholic World News</ref> i.e., he could no longer legally administer ''any'' of the sacraments.<ref>[http://www.catholiculture.com/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=5225 Holier than Thou] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131161042/http://www.catholiculture.com/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=5225 |date=31 January 2009 }}, Brian O'Neel, This Rock, April 2003, Pages 18 – 24, quoting Vere and William Woestman, O.M.I., [http://home.earthlink.net/~grossklas/canonicalhistory.html Is the Society of St. Pius X in Schism?] </ref> Lefebvre remarked that he had been forbidden from celebrating the new rite of Mass.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smac.edu/OldSite/history/sspx_anniversary/ |title=The International Priestly Society of Saint Pius X XXV Anniversary 1970–1995 A family diary |access-date=28 September 2007 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928011239/http://www.smac.edu/OldSite/history/sspx_anniversary/ |archive-date=28 September 2007 }}, Conference given by Fr. Anglés at Kansas City, 1 November 1995</ref> Pope Paul apparently took this seriously and stated that Lefebvre "thought he dodged the penalty by administering the sacraments using the previous formulas".<ref>{{harvnb|Pope Paul VI|11 October 1976|loc= Section II: ''"arbitrans te poenam istam devitare, si sacramenta administras anterioribus formulis utens''"}}</ref> In spite of his suspension, Lefebvre continued to celebrate Mass and to administer the other sacraments, including the conferral of Holy Orders to the students of his seminary.

Pope Paul received Lefebvre in audience on 11 September 1976,<ref name="Apologia14">{{harnvb|Davies|1980|loc=[http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Apologia/Vol_one/Chapter_14.htm Chapter 14]}}</ref> and one month later wrote to him a letter severely admonishing him and repeating the appeal he had made at the audience. In his letter to Lefebvre, Paul VI ordered him to accept the documents of the Second Vatican Council in their obvious meaning (''sensu obvio'') and the subsequent reforms, to retract his accusations against the Roman Pontiff and his collaborators and recognise the authority of the local bishops; furthermore, he demanded that Lefebvre hand over all activities of the FSSPX to the Holy See. The Pope reminded Lefebvre of his duty of obedience to the [[Chair of Peter]], quoting the dogmatic constitutions ''[[Pastor aeternus]]'' (1870, [[First Vatican Council]]) and ''[[Lumen gentium]]'' (1964, [[Second Vatican Council]]).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marcello Lefebvre, Archiepiscopo-Episcopo olim Tutelensi, d. 11 m. Octobris a. 1976, Paulus PP.VI {{!}} Paulus PP. VI |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/la/letters/1976/documents/hf_p-vi_let_19761011_arc-lefebvre.html |access-date=2024-07-19 |website=www.vatican.va}}</ref>

Following the death of Paul VI, both [[Pope John Paul I]] and [[Pope John Paul II]] made various attempts to reconcile the FSSPX with the Church; the latter received Lefebvre in audience sixty days after [[October 1978 papal conclave|his 1978 election]], where he repeatedly expressed his desire for peace.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-08-25 |title=Luciani tentò la riconciliazione con i lefebvriani |url=https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/it/2012/08/25/news/luciani-tento-la-riconciliazione-con-i-lefebvriani-1.36387511/ |access-date= |website=[[La Stampa]] |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967777,00.html | title =The Archbishop Calls It Quits | author-link=Richard N. Ostling | first = Richard N. | last = Ostling | magazine = Time | date= 27 June 1988| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070930042949/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967777,00.html | archive-date =30 September 2007 }}</ref>