Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre: Volume Three

Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre #3

by Michael Treharne Davies

This book is certainly one of great historical value. Portrays the dramatic conflict relating to the grievances between Archbishop Lefebvre and the Vatican under Pope Paul VI. Depicts the role of one who had the foresight to recognize that he could not defend orthodoxy and at the same time accept reforms "themselves oriented towards the cult of man." Completely documented.

Genres: Catholic

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Michael Treharne Davies (1936-2004) was a convert from Anglicanism to the Catholic Church in the 1950s, and was a Catholic writer who authored various works following the Second Vatican Council, in addition to unifying Una Voce America, a conservative group. He went on to compose such works as The Liturgical Revolution, The Order of Melchisedech, Partisans of Error, For Altar and Throne,, and The Wisdom of Adrian Fortescue. Upon Davies' death in 2004, Pope Benedict XVI called him a man of deep faith who was ready to embrace suffering

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE THIRD OF THREE VOLUMES IN THIS SERIES

Michael Treharne Davies (1936- 2004) was a British traditionalist Catholic writer, who from 1992 to 2004 was the President of the international Traditionalist organisation Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce. He wrote other books/booklets such as 'Archbishop Lefebvre & Religious Liberty,' 'Pope Paul's New Mass,' 'Liturgical Shipwreck: 28 Years of the New Mass,' etc.

He wrote in his Introduction to this 1988 book, “Volume II… took the story of Archbishop LeFebvre up to the end of 1979… It has been suggested that I should have referred to another event which brought the year 1979 to a very encouraging climax. This was… the action of the Sacred Congregation … to prevent Hans Küng from teaching as a Catholic theologian… It was further suggested that by documenting the case of Archbishop Lefebvre in isolation from these events, the account I had given … gave the impression that while the Vatican was taking action against traditional Catholics, epitomized by the Archbishop, it was ignoring the deviations from orthodoxy among Liberal or progressive Catholics. It was by no means my intention to give such an impression… in this and subsequent volumes I shall broaden the scope of my account and refer to events not directly relating to the Archbishop…

“This volume should be particularly useful in helping the reader to put
the case of Archbishop Lefebvre in its correct historical perspective. It includes abundant documentation that, as Pope Paul VI admitted, the Church is undergoing a process of self-destruction. Against a background of continual decline in every aspect of Catholic life subject to empirical verification, from baptisms to vocations, we see entire hierarchies acquiescing in, if not actively encouraging, the subversion of Catholic teaching on faith and morals among the flocks for whose pastoral case they are responsible. This volume will document frequent instances of excellent pronouncements from the Pope and the Holy See intended to halt the abuses and the decline, but alas, no steps are taken to discipline the overwhelming majority of bishops who do not make even a pretense at implementing the papal directives…

“The most effective answers to the distorted and frequently indictive accounts of the Archbishop which appeared in the Catholic press can be found in his sermons, of which a good number appear in this volume. They are profoundly spiritual and totally Catholic… The ‘simple and solid faith’ is expressed in beautiful in inspiring terms in the Profession of Faith of the priests of Campos, Brazil, which concludes this volume… This is the Faith of our Fathers, this is the faith that we must hold and we must cling to it if we are to be saved.”

He asserts, “The situation in the Conciliar Church is as follows: Cardinal Suenens is free to desecrate his beautiful old cathedral in the manner I have … described and to remain in good standing with the Vatican, but under no circumstances whatsoever would permission be given for the very Mass for which that ancient cathedral was built to be celebrated in it. [But see NOTE below.] And for the crime of continuing to celebrate that Mass, Archbishop Lefebvre is the victim of sanctions and is not in good standing with the Vatican. I put it to you that this is also an outrage. Make no mistake about it… this great prelate has been treated in the way has has been treated for remaining faithful to the Mass of his ordination and for no other reason. All the other excuses given for the campaign against him are simply a pretense.” (Pg. 53)

NOTE: He adds, “This criticism has ceased to apply… since the indult of October 1985 authorizing the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, but although the Tridentine Mass is not authorized by the Vatican, very few bishops in the English-speaking world would permit it in their cathedrals.” (Pg. 53)

He cites a 16 February 1980 letter from Archbishop Lefebvre, where he states, “Please do not ask me to change my line of conduct---either in the direction of the Roman authorities or in the direction of those advocating schism. Such conduct is not for me. My path, rather, draws strength from the Truth and from the Wisdom of the Church and from its Tradition, its dogma and history, especially the conduct of the last two popes to be canonized: St. Pius V and St. Pius X…. My path is not a mystery, therefore, nor unique, nor the result of imagination or pride.” (Pg. 107)

He quotes the Archbishop’s 1980 Ordination Sermon: “It is not a question of changing, of going either to the right or to the left; we wish to remain the Church and we wish to remain what we have always been since the beginning of the Society, because we have no other motive than to keep the Church going; and thus we have always thought that one day, when God wills it, when He decides, then we will go back into the official Church, since they have put us out of an official Church which is not the real Church... [but] an official Church which has been infested with Modernism. And so we believed in the duty of disobedience, if indeed it was disobedience! To obey, but to obey the immemorial Church… We remain faithful to that. They will receive us with the oath in our hands, or we will remain what we are…. This goal which seems impossible… But God can do the impossible, and we are more hopeful than ever… to being recognized officially in holy Church, as the Society of St. Pius X…” (Pg. 110-111)

In his sermon of 1 November 1980, the Archbishop stated, “We are not rebels, we are not schismatics, we are not heretics. We resist. We resist the wave of Modernism which has invaded the Church, this wave of laicism, of progressivism which has invaded the Church in wholly unwarranted and unjust manner and which had tried to erase in the Church all that was sacred in it, all that was supernatural, divine, in order to reduce it to the dimension of man. So we resist and we will resist, not in a spirit of contradiction, not in a spirit of rebellion, but in the spirit of fidelity to the Church… the spirit of fidelity to all who have taught us our holy religion, the spirit of fidelity to all popes who have maintained Tradition.” (Pg. 263)

In his letter of 21 September 1981, the Archbishop wrote, “The ordinations of June 29 last brought the number of priests in the Society of St. Pius X up to 100… Naturally a mere hundred is not very many to come to the help of all the Catholics who realize they have been led astray by their shepherds from the true Catholic Faith, especially if one reflects that such Catholics are to be found all over the world… Alas!” (Pg. 329)

Davies states in a footnote, “The Archbishop has not stated that celebration of the Novus Ordo Missae cannot fulfill the Sunday obligation… he had stated that many celebrations of the New Mass, due to certain practices, which he lists, must be deemed sacrilegious and hence are … incapable of fulfilling the Sunday obligation… He agreed, however, in a discussion with me (and confirmed in writing) that those who feel obliged in conscience to assist at a New Mass on Sunday fulfill their Sunday obligation.” (Pg. 335)

Davies rejects what he calls ‘Ecumania: Opium of the Clergy’: “what a contrast once a cleric becomes ecumenical. He is divorced as effectively from the real world as is a drug addict living in a narcotic haze. He can banish from his mind the fact that the pews of his church become emptier each Sunday. He can fix his face into a permanent ecumenical smile and go from ecumenical meeting to ecumenical meeting, and read ecumenical paper after ecumenical paper… It is necessary first to achieve Christian unity, once that has been done evangelization will begin. I am not saying there is conscious dishonesty among ecumenical clerics---they are probably deceiving themselves more than they deceive the members of their flocks.” (Pg. 385)

Davies’ Apologia series are “classics” of the Traditionalist Catholic movement, and will be “must reading” for anyone studying Traditionalism, Lefebvre, or contemporary Catholicism.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent collection of documents relating to Archbishop Lefebvre's relations with the Vatican and what was going on in the Church during this period. It also proves that the problems during this period were with the Vatican, not the Archbishop. The members of the Conciliar Church, up to and including bishops, were permitted to act any way they pleased, including celebrating invalid Masses (chapter 1) and openly contradicting Catholic dogmas and teachings (as with Hans Kung and the Dutch Catechism). Yet in each and every case, those concerned got away with nothing more than a light slap on the wrist (if even that).

Yet the Vatican absolutely refused to deal the same way with Archbishop Lefebvre, even though he was doing nothing other than acting as Catholics have always behaved for the last two thousand years.