Editing Marcel Lefebvre (section)

== Écône consecrations ==
{{Main|Écône consecrations}}

In a 1987 sermon, Lefebvre, his health failing at age 81, announced his intention to [[Holy orders in the Catholic Church|consecrate]] a [[Bishops in the Catholic Church|bishop]] to carry on his work after his death.<ref>{{cite web | quote=The situation is such, the work placed in our hands by the good Lord is such, that faced with this darkness in Rome, faced with the Roman authorities' pertinacity in error, faced with this refusal to return to Truth or Tradition on the part of those who occupy the seats of authority in Rome, faced with all these things, it seems to us that the good Lord is asking for the Church to continue. This is why it is likely that before I give account my life to the good Lord, I shall have to consecrate some bishops. | url = http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Bishops-to-save-the-church.htm | title = Bishops to Save the Church | first = Marcel | last=Lefebvre | date= June 1987 |ref=none}}</ref> Under [[Catholic canon law]], the consecration of a bishop without the permission of the pope incurs [[Excommunication in the Catholic Church|excommunication]]: "A bishop who consecrates someone a bishop without a pontifical mandate and the person who receives the consecration from him incur a ''[[latae sententiae]]'' excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See".<ref>1983 Code of Canon Law, Canon 1382</ref>

During 1987 Lefebvre tried to reach an agreement with Cardinal [[Pope Benedict XVI|Joseph Ratzinger]], Prefect of the [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/07/18/suspended-prelate-meets-vatican-aide/13e6d278-ca82-4c2f-bb2d-8603729be234/|title=Suspended Prelate Meets Vatican Aide | date=18 July 1987|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> However, on 4 September 1987, in Ecône, Lefebvre stated that the Vatican was in apostasy and that he would no longer collaborate with Ratzinger.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Conférence de Mgr Lefebvre lors de la retraite des prêtres de la Fraternité Saint-Pie-X du 4 septembre 1987 |url=http://laportelatine.org/vatican/sanctions_indults_discussions/premieres_discussions_jeanPaulII/04_09_1987_conference_lefebvre_pretres_fsspx.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827204009/http://laportelatine.org/vatican/sanctions_indults_discussions/premieres_discussions_jeanPaulII/04_09_1987_conference_lefebvre_pretres_fsspx.php |archive-date=2017-08-27 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=La Porte Latine - Fraternité Sacerdotale Saint-Pie X}}</ref>

On 5 May 1988, Lefebvre signed an agreement with Ratzinger to regularize the situation of the Society of St Pius X. Ratzinger agreed that one bishop would be consecrated for the Society, to be approved by the pope.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Protocole d'accord établi entre le cardinal Ratzinger et Mgr Lefebvre du 5 mai 1988 |url=http://laportelatine.org/vatican/sanctions_indults_discussions/protocole_rupture_sacres/05_05_1988_signature_protocole_accord.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827204209/http://laportelatine.org/vatican/sanctions_indults_discussions/protocole_rupture_sacres/05_05_1988_signature_protocole_accord.php |archive-date=2017-08-27 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=La Porte Latine - Fraternité Sacerdotale Saint-Pie X}}</ref>

=== Breaking of the agreement, consecrations ===
{{Main|Écône consecrations}}
[[File:Dom Mayer em cerimônia de coroação da Virgem Maria.jpg|right|200px|thumb|[[Antônio de Castro Mayer]] in 1980]]Shortly after the agreement, however, Lefebvre announced that he had received a note from Ratzinger that asked him "to beg pardon for [his] errors", which he interpreted to mean that he would be made to accept the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the "[[Day of Prayer#World Day of Prayer for Peace|spirit of Assisi]]". Lefebvre referred to the alleged prophecy of [[Our Lady of La Salette]] that "Rome will lose the Faith" and declared himself obliged to consecrate a successor—if necessary, without papal approval.<ref name=sermon>{{cite web | url = http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Episcopal-Consecration.htm | title =Sermon on the occasion of the Episcopal Consecration | first = Marcel | last = Lefebvre | date= June 1988}}</ref> As the agreement did not specify a date for the episcopal consecration, should Lefebvre have died before it was granted, the Society would have been unable to ordain any seminarians and forced into submission to the [[Holy See]].<ref name=interview /><ref>{{cite book | last = Laisney| first = François | title = Archbishop Lefebvre & the Vatican| chapter = May 6, 1988 Letter of Archbishop Lefebvre to Cardinal Ratzinger | access-date = 28 October 2012| chapter-url = http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Archbishop_Lefebvre_and_the_Vatican/Part_I/1988-05-06.htm }}</ref>

Lefebvre dubbed his plan "Operation Survival":<ref name="sermon" />

{{Blockquote|That is why, taking into account the strong will of the present Roman authorities to reduce Tradition to naught, to gather the world to the spirit of Vatican II and the spirit of Assisi, we have preferred to withdraw ourselves and to say that we could not continue. It was not possible. We would have evidently been under the authority of Cardinal Ratzinger, President of the Roman Commission, which would have directed us; we were putting ourselves into his hands, and consequently putting ourselves into the hands of those who wish to draw us into the spirit of the Council and the spirit of [[Day of Prayer#World Day of Prayer for Peace|Assisi]]. This was simply not possible.}}

Pope John Paul II appealed to him not to proceed in "a schismatic act", warning of "theological and canonical consequences".<ref>{{cite web | quote =On 3 June, Lefebvre wrote that he would still go ahead with the 30 June consecrations. On 9 June 1988, Pope John Paul II replied to him with a personal letter, recalling the agreement the archbishop had signed on 5 May and appealing to him not to proceed with a design that 'would be seen as nothing other than a schismatic act, the theological and canonical consequences of which are known to you'. When no reply came from Lefebvre, this letter was made public on 16 June. |url = http://www.latinmassireland.org/newshappenings/jp2_obit.html | title = Pope John Paul II, an Obituary | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110726075813/http://www.latinmassireland.org/newshappenings/jp2_obit.html |archive-date=26 July 2011 | website = Latin Mass Society of Ireland}}</ref>

On 30 June 1988, Lefebvre, with Bishop Emeritus [[Antônio de Castro Mayer]] of [[Campos dos Goytacazes|Campos]], [[Brazil]], as co-consecrator, consecrated four SSPX priests as bishops: [[Bernard Tissier de Mallerais]], [[Richard Williamson (bishop)|Richard Williamson]], [[Alfonso de Galarreta]] and [[Bernard Fellay]].

Shortly before the consecrations, Lefebvre gave the following sermon:
<blockquote>...&nbsp;this ceremony, which is apparently done against the will of Rome, is in no way a schism. We are not schismatics! If an excommunication was pronounced against the [[Catholic Patriotic Association|bishops of China, who separated themselves from Rome and put themselves under the Chinese government]], one very easily understands why Pope Pius XII excommunicated them. There is no question of us separating ourselves from Rome, nor of putting ourselves under a foreign government, nor of establishing a sort of parallel church as the [[Palmarian Christian Church|Bishops of Palmar de Troya]] have done in Spain. They have even elected [[Clemente Domínguez y Gómez|a pope]], formed a college of cardinals... It is out of the question for us to do such things. Far from us be this miserable thought to separate ourselves from Rome!<ref name=sermon /></blockquote>

The next day, 1 July, the [[Congregation for Bishops]] issued a decree stating that this was a [[schism (religion)|schismatic]] act and that all six direct participants had incurred automatic excommunication.<ref>[http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/l-excomm.htm Decree of Excommunication]. Cin.org (1 July 1988). Retrieved on 1 November 2013.</ref>

=== Aftermath ===
On 2 July, [[Pope John Paul II]] condemned the consecration in his apostolic letter ''[[Ecclesia Dei]]'', in which he stated that the consecration constituted a schismatic act and that the bishops and priests involved were automatically excommunicated:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_commissions/ecclsdei/documents/hf_jp-ii_motu-proprio_02071988_ecclesia-dei_en.html|title = Apostolic Letter "Ecclesia Dei"}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|In itself, this act was one of disobedience to the Roman Pontiff in a very grave matter and of supreme importance for the unity of the church, such as is the ordination of bishops whereby the apostolic succession is sacramentally perpetuated. Hence such disobedience – which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy – constitutes a schismatic act. In performing such an act, notwithstanding the formal canonical warning sent to them by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops on 17 June last, Mons. Lefebvre and the priests Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta, have incurred the grave penalty of excommunication envisaged by ecclesiastical law (cf. ''Code of Canon Law'', can. 1382).}}
Lefebvre responded by contradicting Pope John Paul II, saying that he and the other clerics involved had not "separated themselves from Rome" and were not schismatic.<ref name="sermon" /> He invoked canon 1323 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law that they "found themselves in a case of necessity", not having succeeded, as they said, in making "Rome" understand that "this change which has occurred in the Church" since the Second Vatican Council was "not Catholic".{{efn|"Thus, we find ourselves in a case of necessity. We have done all we could, trying to help Rome to understand that they had to come back to the attitudes of the holy Pius XII and of all his predecessors. Bishop de Castro Mayer and myself have gone to Rome, we have spoken, we have sent letters, several times to Rome. We have tried by these talks, by all these means, to succeed in making Rome understand that, since the Council and since aggiornamento, this change which has occurred in the Church is not Catholic, is not in conformity to the doctrine of all times. This ecumenism and all these errors, this collegiality&nbsp;— all this is contrary to the Faith of the Church, and is in the process of destroying the Church."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Episcopal-Consecration.htm | title =Sermon on the occasion of the Episcopal Consecration | first =Marcel |last = Lefebvre | date=June 1988}}</ref>}} In a letter addressed to the four priests he was about to consecrate as bishops, Lefebvre wrote: "I do not think one can say that Rome has not lost the Faith."<ref>[http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/To_the_Four_Bishops_Elect_June_13_1988.htm Letter to the Four Bishops Elect] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924105339/http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/To_the_Four_Bishops_Elect_June_13_1988.htm |date=24 September 2015 }}. Sspxasia.com. 13 June 1988.</ref>

On 18 July, twelve priests and some seminarians led by [[Josef Bisig]] left the SSPX because of the Ecône consecrations.<ref name="synod">{{Cite conference | title = Audition of the Auditors II | book-title = ''Synodus Episcoporum'' Bulletin | publisher = Holy See Press Office | date = 27 October 2001 | url = https://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_20_x-ordinaria-2001/02_inglese/b18_02.html#Rev._Arnaud_DEVILLERS,_F.S.S.P.,_Superior_General_of_the_Fraternity_of_the_Priests_of_St._Peter_(United_States_of_America) | access-date = 10 June 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | last = Devillers | first = Arnaud | title = A Response to Christopher Ferrara | publisher = Latin Mass Magazine | date =Summer 2002 | url = http://www.latinmassmagazine.com/articles/articles_2002_SU_Devillers.html | access-date = 10 June 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040414032730/http://www.latinmassmagazine.com/articles/articles_2002_SU_Devillers.html | archive-date = 14 April 2004 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> Bisig became the first superior general of the newly formed [[Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter]] (FSSP), a group that reached an agreement with the Holy See.