Ecclesia Dei and the Abandonment of Principles! Part I: A Little History

SSPX seminary Econe, Switzerland

Earlier this week, I wrote a post titled Is There a Crisis in the Church? That post was the beginning of a series on Modernism which is the plague eating at the heart of Holy Mother Church and has been for much of my life. I was in high school during most of Vatican II and lived through all the dissent over contraception that followed. I personally experienced the damage of the scandalous confusion of Modernism even leaving the Church for a short time between college graduation and my marriage a year later. What began as a tidal wave of scandal and confusion, has become a tsunami today.

Who could have predicted, even in the 1960s that Rome would allow veneration of a pagan idol in the Vatican gardens during the Amazonia Synod? Who could imagine that the symbol of Pachamama (the plant with red flowers) would desecrate the altar in St. Peter's during the closing Mass? Who would have believed that many Catholic churches would celebrate pride Masses or bless sodomite unions or give Communion to couples living in adultery? Who would guess that cheerleaders for sins that cry to heaven for vengeance would be representatives for the Vatican like Fr. James Martin or praised by the pope like Sr. Jeannine Gramick? Things have certainly changed in fewer than 60 years! 

Remember the story of Eleazar in the second book of Maccabees? His refusal to eat meat sacrificed to idols is described in chapter 6.  Chapter 7 goes on to relate the martyrdom of the courageous mother and her seven sons. She preferred to die and see all her boys die before her eyes rather than worship idols. Many around Eleazar and the mother tried to convince them to fake it. "Bring your own meat and just pretend you're eating the other. Who will know?" they told Eleazar. 

He wouldn't do it. Neither would the others capitulate in the face of brutal torture. They all preferred torture and death rather than commit the grievous sin of sacrilege against God.

How many are thinking, "Good grief, die for a principle? Just eat the meat!" Or in another context, "Just throw the pinch of incense in the fire bowl." 

That's the Modernists mantra. "Things have changed. We've progressed. We don't adhere to those rigid standards any more. We have a 'living tradition.' Get with the times! Bring the Church into the modern world. "

Hmmm.....

Let's look at a little history about the SSPX that preceded Ecclesia Dei, the document allowing the priests who left the SSPX to form a new foundation in union with Rome:

1970:  Archbishop Lefebvre opened his traditional seminary. in Econe, Switzerland with the approval of the local bishop for a six-year "experimentum." His purpose was primarily to form priests faithful to the perennial teachings of the Church, but it was the seminarians who begged for his help.

1974: Apostolic visitation of the seminary by Mgr. Albert Descamps, a biblical scholar, and Mgr. GuillaumeOnclin, a canonist. During the visitation the two priests made scandalous statements to the seminarians calling married priests inevitable, denying immutable truth, and even questioning the physical reality of Christ's resurrection. The scandal to the seminarians led Archbishop Lefebvre to release his declaration in November:

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.

1975: That was when the local bishop by direction of Rome withdrew approval for the seminary to exist. Lefebvre appealed. It was rejected. He appealed again asking for the proof of the specific approbations lodged against him and the Society. The appeal was ignored. He went ahead with the ordinations of three priests on June 10, 1975. He assured the remaining seminarians, "I will not abandon you." He described the suppression as "illegal and unjust." In October, Cardinal Jean Marie Villot, Vatican Secretary of State, instructed all episcopal converences to refuse incardination of members of the Society. 

1976: On June 29th the archbishop was canonically suspended a collatione ordinum as he ordained thirteen priests and fourteen subdeacons in Econe.  In his sermon he explained why he continued to resist Rome's demands. It was all about the Mass!

Ah, I know well that the difficulties are numerous in this undertaking which we have been told is foolhardy. They say that we are in a deadlock. Why? Because from Rome have come to us...demands, supplications, orders, and threats to inform us that we must cease our activity, to inform us that we must not perform these ordinations to the priesthood...

But if in all objectivity we seek the true motive animating those who ask us not to perform these ordinations, if we look for the hidden motive, it is because we are ordaining these priests that they may say the Mass of all time.1 It is because they know that these priests will be faithful to the Mass of the Church, to the Mass of Tradition, to the Mass of all time....

In proof of this, consider that six times in the last three weeks-six times-we have been asked to re-establish normal relations with Rome and to give as proof the acceptance of the new rite; and I have been asked to celebrate it myself....They told me as well that if on this date, today, this 29th of June, before your entire assembly, we celebrated a Mass according to the new rite, all would be straightened out henceforth between ourselves and Rome. Thus it is clear, it is evidence, that it is on the problem of the Mass that the whole drama between Econe and Rome depends.  

1977-1988: Negotiations between Rome and the Society continued with Pope John Paul II finally agreeing to the ordination of one bishop. However, the date of the ordination was continually postponed. Archbishop Lefebvre was already experiencing health problems, and he finally decided that Rome was "waiting for me to die." And so he took the final step to ensure that the SSPX would continue. He ordained four bishops without a papal mandate on June 30, 1988 incurring excommunication. During the ordination ceremony which begins with the reading of the pontifical mandate, Archbishop Lefebvre replied affirmatively to the question, "Do you have the Apostolic mandate?" He replied, "We have the mandate of the Roman Church ever-faithful to the holy traditions received frm the Apostles." He went on to describe the case of necessity:

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre ordains four bishops for the SSPX.

...I am simply a bishop of the Catholic Church who is continuing to transmit Catholic doctrine. I think, and this will certainl not be too far off, that you will be able to engrave on my tombstone these words of St. Paul: 'Tradidi quod et accepi --- I have transmitted to you what I have received,' nothing else."  

There are many, particularly in Rome, who insist that those who ask for the TLM live in the past, nostalgic for an old form of the Mass to which they are attached. That is simply untrue. The differences between the traditional Latin Mass (TLM) and the Novus Ordo (NO) are extensive. One of the most grievous errors of the NO is the offertory which substituted Jewish meal prayers for the emphasis on the sacrifice of Calvary. The entire Mass became more of a ceremonial meal than a sacrifice in atonement for sin. Why? To make it more acceptable to Protestants. Think of beginning the offertory with the Catholic meal prayer, "Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts...." Is the priest the minister of a Holy Sacrifice offered to God facing the East with the people following a good shepherd? Or is the priest the host of a dinner facing his dinner guests and offering a meal to them? Eucharistic prayer 2 is particularly problematic in this regard, but it is almost exclusively chosen by many priests.

Despite the serious problems with the new Mass, Archbishop Lefebvre recognized that many Catholics had no alternative but the NO. His recommendation to them was moderate. He advised priests to keep at least the traditional Offertory and Canon and say them in Latin. He urged the laity to, "Make every effort to have the Mass of St. Pius V, but if it is impossible to find one within forty kilometers and if there is a pious priest who says the New Mass in as traditional a way as possible, it is good for you to assist at it to fulfill your Sunday obligation .... Should all the world's churches be emptied? I do not feel brave enough to say such a thing. I don't want to encourage atheism."

July 2, 1988: Rome responds to the ordinations with the motu proprio of Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia Dei Adflicta.

To be continued.....