1969

A “retired” archbishop, His Excellency Marcel Lefebvre, agrees to help a handful of young seminarians who are disconcerted by the direction being taken in post-Vatican II seminaries in their priestly formation. He does this, not only by undertaking their training, but also by founding a Society aiming at fostering a priestly life according to the wise norms and customs of the Church of previous days.

FEBRUARY 18, 1971

Cardinal Wright, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, issues a decree praising the wisdom of the Society’s statutes.

JUNE 10, 1971

Archbishop Lefebvre announces, together with the staff of the International Seminary of St. Pius X at Econe (Switzerland), the refusal to adopt the Novus Ordo Missae (cf. QUESTION 5).

1971 - 1974

Following on Cardinal Wright’s letter are other sure signs of Rome’s full acceptance of the SSPX:

1. Allowing its houses to be erected canonically in one Italian and two Swiss dioceses.

2. Allowing three outside priests to join the Society and to be incardinated directly into it.

During the same years the French Episcopal Conference was maneuvering to have the Society and its seminary suppressed (cf. QUESTION 3).

NOVEMBER 1, 1980

By its 10th anniversary, the SSPX has 40 houses on two continents.

NOVEMBER 1, 1995

By its 25th anniversary, the SSPX numbers four bishops, over 360 priests, 50 brothers, 120 sisters and 53 oblate sisters, all living in 140 houses in 27 countries. Together they seek the goal of the priesthood: the glorification of God, the continuation of Our Lord’s redemptive work, the salvation of souls. They accomplish this by fidelity to Christ’s testament, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (cf. APPENDIX III).

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