St Bonaventure's Day, 1988

Today is the 32nd anniversary of one of the very few things in my life of which I am ashamed. Oh, I've regretted many things, but very few are such that I am ashamed to have done them. It was on this day in 1988 that I wrote Msgr Lefebvre a letter telling him that he was a hell-bound excommunicate, accusing him of heresy and schism as well as sundry other uncharitable things because he had consecrated the four Bishops at Econe a couple of weeks before.

Needless to say, His Grace did not deign to answer me.

A couple of years later, after observing how the whole situation was playing out and having read analyses by learned canonists pointing out that the putative 'excommunications' of Msgr Lefebvre, Msgr Castro-Meyer, and the four men they had consecrated were invalid under Canon 1323, I wrote to him again.

To show my reasoning, Canon 1323 says,

The following are not subject to a penalty when they have violated a law or precept:

4/ a person who acted coerced by grave fear, even if only relatively grave, or due to necessity or grave inconvenience unless the act is intrinsically evil or tends to the harm of souls;

There was no doubt in my mind that he had acted out of grave fear for the future of Holy Church and the Priesthood and that he felt that his action was absolutely necessary.

And no one, not even a man totally opposed to him, to the SSPX, and to Tradition in general could argue that his act was 'intrinsically evil or tend(ed) to the harm of souls'!

Ergo, by the Church's own Code of Canon Law, just a few years old, the 'latæ sententiæ excommunication' putatively incurred by Archbishop Lefebvre was null and void ab initio!

In my second letter, I abjectly apologised for my letter of 14 July, 1988. I explained how my opinions had changed and why. I told him that I had become convinced that he had acted only out of concern for the good of our Holy Mother Church and of the Holy Catholic Faith. I told him that I had come to compare him to St Athanasius, the great defender of Trinitarian orthodoxy during the Arian Crisis.

I didn't really expect an answer. However, a few weeks later I received a letter from him. He thanked me for my letter, gave me his Episcopal Blessing and included a few holy cards in honour of the 40th anniversary of his consecration to the Episcopate.

Not only was he a holy Bishop, I am convinced by my very short correspondence with him that he was also a fine exemplar of a Catholic gentleman!

So, despite the fact that I am not an 'SSPXer' (I have only attended one SSPX Mass in my life), I am convinced that when the Church returns to sanity, as She will per the promises of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Monseigneur Lefebvre will be raised to the honours of the Altar as a Second Athanasius. To that end, here is the 'official'  prayer for his beatification from the Society.

O Jesus, Eternal High Priest, who deigned to elevate Thy faithful servant Marcel Lefebvre to the episcopal dignity and to grant him the grace of being a fearless defender of the Holy Mass, of the Catholic Priesthood, of Thy Holy Church, and of the Holy See, of being a courageous apostle of Thy Kingdom on earth, of being a devoted servant of Thy Holy Mother, and of being a shining example of charity, of humility and of all virtues; bestow upon us now, by his merits, the grace we beseech of Thee, so that, assured of his powerful intercession to Thee, we may one day see him elevated to the glory of the altar. Amen.

And here is another prayer composed by a Priest friend of mine who is not affiliated in any way with the Society of St Pius X.

We Beseech Thee to grant us, O Lord, who raised up Thy servant Marcel François to resist the serpentine doctrine of the modernists, and to be an example of humility and courageous fortitude, through his intercession, a measure of that same spirit, so that following after his goodly example we may ever remain ardent in charity to Thy well-beloved Son, King of the Universe; And, full of zeal for Thy House ma, before Thy heavenly throne, approve ourselves worthy to be numbered among his friends. Our Lady of Victory, intercede with thy Divine Son, that if He so wills, Marcel François may be raised to dignity of the Altar, and be hymned among His saints. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. (3x) Our Lady of Victory, pray for us! Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy upon us!