Archbishop Lefebvre: 25 years ago!
On March 25, 1991, Archbishop Lefebvre passed away. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his death, we publish several homages to our beloved Founder.
Bishop Bernard Fellay
For Archbishop Lefebvre, Our Lord is everything! He was completely taken up by this idea. It was not just an idea that determined a few or the most important events of his life. He lived by it every day, at every moment: he truly put God, Our Lord, in first place!"
Bishop Tissier de Mallerais
His entire life was a matter of rendering God love for love: from his priestly vocation at the age of 17 until his death as an excommunicated bishop. Cardinal Oddi, who knew him, said of him: 'He loved the Church too much!' in other words, he carried his love for the Church and Our Lord to an extreme, exposing himself to the most serious ecclesiastical censures, suspension and excommunication, in order to save the priesthood and the permanence of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Church. He followed His divine Master: 'Propter nimiam caritatem qua dilexit nos Deus…': 'On account of the excessive charity with which He has loved us, God…'" (Antiphon of Vespers, January 1).
(Interview to be published on sspx.org—March 25, 2016)
Frs. Boubee, Gainche and Puga
The prelate’s exemplary personality clearly culminated at the chapel. Always present well before the beginning of the offices, his recollection greatly impressed the novices that we were. Not that he seemed to feign an extravagant piety. He simply seemed to be happy in God, to lose himself in God.
Doubtless what impressed me the most in this prince of the Church, often presented by the press or by his enemies as 'the iron bishop', was this modesty full of a warm gentleness that put one immediately at one’s ease, and that was his habitual attitude, whether he was receiving a personal visit, teaching in a classroom or from the pulpit, presiding at table, etc. What is more, he seemed in no way affected by the formidable weight of his responsibilities and above all by the terrible crisis of the Church, which was nonetheless a source of intimate suffering for him, for he had a perfectly even temper and he was joyful to the point of teasing, that 'cruelty of the kind', without ever being hurtful.
I remember... Cardinal Oddi visited the seminary of Econe. He had been the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy during the crisis of Econe, and he was the one who, the day before the consecration of the bishops, had desperately tried to dissuade the Archbishop from accomplishing what he considered to be an irreparable act. During his visit, he asked to see Archbishop Lefebvre’s tomb. After praying in silence for a few moments, he ended out loud: 'Thank you, Your Excellency.' Thus in the heart of the true Romans, the action of the Holy Ghost was little by little preparing the transformation of the excommunication into thanksgiving…"
