SSPX Asia
 
 

THE SOCIETY OF ST. PIUS X
 
 

Sectarian, schismatic, fundamentalist Society, excommunicated, anchored in medieval beliefs".  Such judgements and similar others are heard regularly about the Society of St Pius X, known mainly for its attachment to the traditional rite of the Mass.  Do those who think and speak in such manner really know the origins, goals and works of this Society?  In a word do they know the real nature and status of the Society of St Pius X?

The present leaflet has been written in order to dispel errors and to give precise and historical information.  It intends to give all the basic data on the SSPX, its Founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, its history, goals, status in the Catholic Church and its development after 25 years.
 

I - Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
 

 

II - Brief History of the Society of St. Pius X

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.  He rented a house in Fribourg, Switzerland.  There the seminarians lived and went to attend the classes in the still reliable Dominican University nearby, while other seminarians were continuing their studies in the Lateran University in Rome.

1969-1970.  The New Mass came out and gradually replaced the traditional Mass everywhere.  The Fribourg seminarians, worried at the thought of having to go back after their ordination to their Dioceses in the hands of modernist bishops, begged the Archbishop to establish a religious society that would bind them together and protect their priesthood.  After consulting with high ranking ecclesiastics and encouraged favourably by them, the Archbishop wrote the Constitutions of the Society of Saint Pius X.  These were then approved officially by the local bishop, François Charrière, on November 1, 1970.  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 nature and goals of the Society of St. Pius X

a) Its canonical nature:
 
The SSPX is "a priestly Society of common life without vows, after the pattern of the Societies of Foreign Missions," and it has as its purpose "the Priesthood, whatever pertains to it and nothing but that which concerns it"  (Statutes I,1; II,1).

b) Its goals:
 

3) The struggle for the Catholic Priesthood and for the Traditional Mass

Having decided from day one to form priests that would only say the old Latin Mass, the Archbishop knew that sooner or later there would be a confrontation with those who were pushing the "up-dating" of the Catholic Church, especially through the liturgical reform.
At their annual meeting in Lourdes in 1972, the French Bishops called the seminary of Ecône "un séminaire sauvage", "a wild-cat seminary."  The persecution begins.

November 11 - 13 1974.  At the request of the same French Bishops, 2 Apostolic Visitors arrived at Ecône for 48 hours.  They questioned seminarians and priests, observed the discipline, sat in classes.  Having come to investigate the doctrinal rectitude of the seminary, rather they themselves cast doubt on the physical resurrection of Christ, on the immutability of truth and on priestly celibacy.

November 21, 1974.  Indignant by such a procedure, Archbishop Lefebvre wrote his famous declaration: "We adhere with all our heart to the Eternal Rome..."

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.

May 6, 1975.  Archbishop Lefebvre is asked to close his seminary.  The Society of St. Pius X is "suppressed" by the new Bishop of Fribourg, Mgr Mamie.  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.

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)

July 11, 1976.  The Congregation of Bishops issued a censure: Archbishop Lefebvre was "suspens a divinis" (i.e. forbidden to administer the Sacraments).  However, 1) the act, signed by the secretary, was canonically invalid; 2) the Archbishop made an appeal "in forma surpensiva" which meant that the act was suspended until a juridical decision was issued.  This has never come.

Summer 1976.  With all the publicity around Ecône, the news travelled around the whole world that there was a bishop in Switzerland training priests for the Old Mass.

September 1976.  Meeting with Pope Paul VI.

November 18, 1978.  Archbishop Lefebvre met Pope John Paul II for 45 minutes.

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.

June 29, 1987.  Archbishop Lefebvre announced that he was going to proceed to the consecration of some bishops.

November - December 87.  Visit of Cardinal Gagnon.  On Dec. 8, the Cardinal assisted officially, at the Pontifical High Mass said by Archbishop Lefebvre, a so-called "suspended" Archbishop, during which Mass, 25 Seminarians joined a "so-called" "suppressed" Society of St. Pius X.  The Cardinal's presence was a tacit approbation of the attitude and work of the Archbishop and the official recognition of the canonical existence of the Society.  (See above, May 6, 1975 and July 11, 1976)

June 30, 1988.  Consecration of 4 Bishops as "auxiliaries" of the Superior General.
 

III - Neither schismatic, nor excommunicated, nor disobedient.

1) The key issue: The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The key issue behind this whole history is the right to have the traditional Latin Mass, and the constant refusal of the new rite of Mass.  In his bull Quo Primum (1571), Pope St Pius V clearly established the three grounds upon which stands the tridentine rite of Mass:

 
Pope Paul VI in 1969 did not remove, or abrogate, any of those three grounds, he merely derogated from them i.e. modified one of the clauses of Quo Primum (which forbade the use of any other Missal less than 200 years old) by issuing a new rite of Mass.  In 1976, Archbishop Lefebvre was told that all his problems would be solved if he ordained his priests in the new rather than in the old rite of Mass (see above March - June 1976).  He justly refused, relying on Quo Primum, which said that any censure issued to prevent this Missal from being used, was null and void.

In the period 1977 - 1983, the Vatican authorities gradually softened their requests by demanding first that the Archbishop say the New Mass just occasionally, then just once.

In 1984, they only asked him not to speak against the New Mass, to accept its doctrinal soundness and legitimacy.  This became the first condition of the "Indult" of October 3, 1984.

2) The Consecration of Bishops

It is imperative to know the sequence of events that led to the consecration of Bishops on June 30, 1988.

 
3) The State of Necessity

The Church's Canon Law explicitly states that a censure (such as excommunication) is not incurred if one acts out of necessity or thinks he is in a state of necessity.

Every code of law, civil and ecclesiastical, provides for cases of emergencies, since laws are made for the common good which, at times, admits exceptions.  St Thomas Aquinas teaches that "a circumstance gives the species of good or evil to a moral action, in so far as it regards a special order of reason" (I-II, q.18, a.10) and, "that circumstance is the most important of all which touches the act on the part of the end, viz., the circumstance why " (I-II, q.7. a.4).  For instance, the law will condemn as vandalism the breaking of a window by a thief, but will praise the same act done to free one caught in a house on fire.

The Church knows well these principles and provides for them in its Code of Canon Law (1983).  In the introductory canons dealing with sanctions in the Church, it is clearly spelled out. Canon 1323:

 
Archbishop Lefebvre "acted by reason of necessity" when he consecrated four bishops in 1988: firstly, because of the tragic shortage of priests (of which we hear regularly in the media); secondly, for having heard the cries of innumerable Catholics world-wide, abandoned, if not betrayed, by their shepherds.  "The little ones have asked for bread (i.e. the catechism, the sacraments) and there was none to break it unto them" (Lament. IV, 4).  In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. X, 30-37), the priest and the Levite passed by the injured man, stripped, wounded, lying half dead.  It was a good Samaritan who, moved with compassion, went up to him, bound up his wounds and took care of him, although that was unlawful...  We are told to "go and do in like manner" (v. 37).  Alas, some are scandalised by this good deed.

If one denies blindly the objective state of necessity at present in the Church, at least subjectively the Archbishop thought there was one, and in this case canon 1323 n. 7o quoted above applies and renders the penalty null and void.  As long as the SSPX holds on to its Constitutions approved by the Church and does not act contrary to doctrine or moral issues, its claim to be fully in the Catholic Church is truly justified.

4) Obedience

Obedience in itself is neither good nor bad.  It can be an act of virtue and it can also be a vice, sinful.  For instance there is the obedience of Communists to their Party.  This is a very strict obedience, and it can even be spontaneous.  And there are numerous cases of what happens when a fraction of the Party refuses to obey!  Is it a good obedience?  Of course, not.  Why?  Because the purpose of this obedience, the goal of the Party, is wicked.  Therefore, those who collaborate to achieve the aims of the Party accomplish a sinful act.  Another example: the obedience of doctors to the Governments who have legalised abortion.  "We have to obey or else we will lose our job."  Is that a virtuous obedience?  Surely not.  It is a sinful act because it is to collaborate with a sinful law, with a sinful end, destructive of Society.  Other examples could be given of false, of sinful obedience.

Obedience, then to be a virtue, must stand between two opposite errors:

 
These principles apply also inside the Church.  One cannot blindly obey to priests who organise sacrilegious ‘Masses’ in their parishes, who invite their parishioners to attend non-Catholic services; one cannot obey Bishops who encourage heretical Catechisms in the ‘Catholic’ schools.  And one cannot obey even Rome when orders coming from Rome lead us to abandon or diminish our Faith.  "Though We or an Angel from heaven, preach a Gospel to you besides that which We have preached to you, let him be anathema" (Gal. I, 8).  Faith is then greater than obedience.  Obedience is at the service of Faith, not Faith at the service of obedience.  "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Act V, 29).

5) The Pope

The Society of St Pius X recognises the Pope as the successor of St Peter but reject his liberalism through fidelity to his predecessors.  The Pope is not infallible in everything he says.  There are very strict conditions which he must follow to fall under the charism of infallibility.  One is that he must teach something in matters of faith or morals, another is that he must bind all Catholics to believe what he says as being divinely revealed.  These conditions are to be found in the very words used by the Pope.  In case of doubt, the Catholic must always refer to Tradition, following the rule of St Vincent of Lerins: it must have been believed always, in all places and by all - quod semper, ubique et ab omnibus.
 

IV - The Works of the SSPX 1970 - 1995

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

 
2)  Members 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.).
 

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To Suffer for the Church
An interesting text, very appropriate and written in 390 A.D.:

"Often, too, Divine Providence permits even good men to be driven from the congregation of Christ by the turbulent seditions of carnal men.  When for the sake of the peace of the Church, they patiently endure that insult or injury, and attempt no novelties in the way of heresy or schism.  They will teach men how God is to be served with a true disposition and with great and sincere charity.  The intention of such men is to return when the tumult has subsided.  But if that is not permitted because the storm continues or because a fiercer one might be stirred up by their return, they hold fast to their purpose to look to the good even of those responsible for the tumults and commotions that drove them out.  They form no separate sects of their own, but defend to the death and assist by their testimony the faith which they know is preached in the Catholic Church.  These the Father who seeth in secret crowns secretly.  It appears that this is a rare kind of Christian, but examples are not lacking.  So Divine Providence uses all kinds of men as examples for the oversight of souls and for the building up of his spiritual people."
                                                            St. Augustine, Of True Religion, 6,11
 
 

 
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Created on: February 18, 1998, feast of St Simeon.
Last updated on: April 3, 1998, feast of the Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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