'The Church Is Full of Wolves'

'The Church Is Full of Wolves

Stormy clouds lowered over the hamlet of Econe in French Switzerland last week as Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre reached the point of no return in his "traditionalist" insurrection against the Pope of Rome. Some 4,000 Western European followers had flocked in by bus and train, along with 80 priests from round the world. As they sat on wooden benches and freshly mowed grass, the white-haired archbishop delivered a defiant, Luther-like sermon.

"The church is full of thieves, mercenaries and wolves," he said in a thin, clear voice. "During the past 20 years, the Vatican has become the friend of our enemies. Only recently, [Janos] Kadar, who killed many faithful Christians in Hungary, was received at the Vatican. Excommunications of heretics. Communists, Freemasons and the Orthodox have been lifted."

Real Center. Lefebvre based his revolt on history. "We are acting for the good of the church," he insisted. "Who is the Pope? What is the Vatican? It is only the residence for Peter's successor. The real center is the Holy Church. If they ask us what is our future, then we say, 'Our future is our past.' " With that, he ordained--against Vatican orders --14 priests and 16 subdeacons, an act that could start the century's largest Roman Catholic schism.

Lefebvre, 71, was the missionary archbishop in Senegal, and has also served as a bishop in France and as superior general of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit. In 1971, convinced that the liberalizing Second Vatican Council had been a grievous mistake, Lefebvre set up his rebel Swiss seminary to train priests in the old ways. He has berated ecumenism and Communism, but his main crusade is for the use of the old Latin Mass authorized by the Council of Trent in 1562, rather than the slightly simplified Latin Mass of Pope Paul or the modern-language Masses that have become nearly universal.

The conflict simmered until June 29 of last year, when Lefebvre boldly ordained as priests 13 graduates of his unrecognized seminary. A month later the Vatican announced that the archbishop had been suspended from all priestly functions. Ignoring the order, Lefebvre has repeatedly celebrated his Latin Masses around Europe. His supporters have even seized a church in Paris.

In the weeks before the new ordinations, Pope Paul issued dire warnings no fewer than three times. At a weekly audience last month, he pointedly stated that "Jesus himself admits the possibility of excluding from fraternal communion" anyone who threatens the unity of the church. On June 20 the Pope sent the archbishop a personal, handwritten letter beseeching him to obey Rome. At a ceremony to install new cardinals, just two days before the ordinations, Paul issued his final plea. "Our predecessors, to whose discipline he presumes to appeal," Paul said, "would not have tolerated a disobedience as obstinate as it is pernicious for so long a period, as we have so patiently done."

Some sort of crackdown appears inevitable. There are two choices: "Deprivation of faculties" (in common parlance, defrocking) and outright excommunication. The Vatican might also consider Lefebvre "outside the church," without taking any specific action.

It is difficult to tell how many Catholics would follow Lefebvre into schism. His hard-core base may be only a few thousand people, but there are large numbers of Roman Catholics upset by the innovations since Vatican II. Some Vatican sources think Lefebvre might have a potential flock of 50,000 or 60,000, centered in France, Germany and England. That could produce the biggest rupture since the Old Catholics broke with Rome over the First Vatican Council's decree on the authority and infallibility of the Pope.

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