Abp. Marcel Lefebvre

By H.E. Bp. Thomas Aquinas O.S.B.

There is a certain resemblance between Archbishop Lefebvre and Gustavo Corção. Both were fearless in combat and of immense kindness in their dealings with others. Both never failed to receive those who knocked at their door and listened to them with patience and charity.

The first time Archbishop Lefebvre came to our monastery in France, I saw in him a great serenity. In his sermon, he spoke to us about the book by Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, and said that this book was very useful for understanding the true place of devotion to Our Lady within the whole of spiritual life. He preached with great peace, and that is what impressed me most. On that occasion, he conferred minor orders on two of our brothers. The modernists did not forgive us for this visit. Our superior, Dom Gérard, was suspended a divinis (a penalty that forbids a priest to exercise acts of the power of orders, such as celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, and administering the other sacraments), and our community was expelled from the Benedictine Order. As the great French writer Louis Veuillot said: “nothing is more sectarian than a liberal.”

I take this opportunity to say a word about liberal Catholics, whom Pope Pius IX called the worst enemies of the Church, because they are within the Church, often possess the faith, yet act contrary to the principles they profess as Catholics. Archbishop Lefebvre sees in this liberal psychology the explanation that sedevacantists do not accept. A liberal pope may have the faith and act contrary to the principles of the faith. This is why Pope Pius IX accused them of being the worst enemies of the Church. It is a pity that sedevacantists do not listen to Archbishop Lefebvre.

After that first time in Bédoin, France, I was able to see Archbishop Lefebvre several times in my life. But to give a brief description of his personality, I see nothing better than to quote in part what François Brigneau wrote and what Bishop Tissier reproduced in his book on the life of Archbishop Lefebvre:

Age has not slowed his step. The little time he has to accomplish the immense task entrusted to him has not made him rush either. Monseigneur has the serene step of men who know what they want and where they are going. What strikes one in him is kindness—I mean the radiance of kindness. His smile is like the warmth of a hand. He moves us. At once, he gives us the desire to become better, to be less indulgent toward ourselves, toward our faults and defects, to be more worthy of the respect we feel in his presence. Only one man inspired in me a similar feeling: Marshal Pétain. Archbishop Lefebvre and he share the same natural majesty, the same benevolent authority, and the same superior simplicity. They are among those men (…) who spontaneously inspire devotion that can, without effort, go as far as sacrifice, because we know instinctively, with deep and immediate conviction, that they themselves sacrificed, from the very beginning, for their duty.

The whole page deserves to be read. Pétain and Archbishop Lefebvre are what they are because they sacrificed themselves—one for his country, the other for God.

That is why we love and follow this great bishop, whom many ignore or, knowing him, do not follow his teachings. May we at least know how to draw full profit from the treasure that God has given us in his person.