The Supernatural Realism of Archbishop Lefebvre

The latest issue of Nouvelles de Chrétienté (no.184, July-August 2020) offers a transcription of a conference given by Fr. Alain Lorans at the 15th Courrier de Rome congress, held in Paris on January 18, 2020, on the theme “Is there a risk of schism in the Church today?”



The conclusion of this conference, entitled “From the Amazon to Vatican II via Abu Dhabi,” underlines the supernatural realism of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, from the founding of the Society of Saint Pius X in 1970.



The editorial shows the profound correctness of this realism, 50 years later: “Is it enough to discuss the crisis and dissect its causes? Archbishop Lefebvre was not satisfied with that: he founded Ecône, not a circle of thinkers, but a seminary to train pastors.”



“A year after the establishment of the New Mass (1969) and five years after the close of the Council (1965), the Society of Saint Pius X was not a theoretical response, but a concrete response to the crisis. Archbishop Lefebvre asked that we let him “try Tradition,” so that we could “judge the tree by its fruits” (Mt 12:33): the traditional tree and the Council tree. In 1976, Rome unfairly took away his canonical permission to make the experiment, but it happened anyway. And it has been going on for 50 years.”



“We must, of course, criticize the reforms promoted by Vatican II and argue against the deleterious effects of ecumenism, of the New Mass, ... but it should be noted that these criticisms and these arguments will be absorbed by conciliar pluralism, stifled as in a quilt of feathers.”



“Only the reality of objective facts is convincing: how many seminaries, priories, and schools, faced with the conciliar chimera are now condemned to manage the shortage of the faithful and the scarcity of vocations. Contra factum non fit argumentum; you cannot argue against the facts.”



This issue also contains a remarkable photographic report on the first mass of a young priest, presented as follows: “The day after his ordination, the young priest celebrates his first mass, assisted by an older priest. During the ceremony, he gives Communion for the first time to his parents who transmitted the faith to him; then he blessed them, laying on them his consecrated hands and presenting them to kiss. It is an unspeakable moment which deeply marks all present.”