P. Krzemiński: Unbreakable Archbishop and Tragism of the Pontificate of John Paul II

Much has already been written about the dispute between John Paul II and Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve, but in fact it does not show much. any blindly and falsely call the archbishop schismatic, and others do not effort to penetrate into the problem and justice from the worship and religion of the then Bishop of Rome. It's worth reasoning rationally about what truly happened.

At the very beginning it is worth scratching the basic difference between the 2 characters. erstwhile John Paul II came to Poland in 1997, he gave many beautiful sermons to Polish believers. The Pope stood on defender for moral orthodoxy, appealed for respect for the conceived life and condemned the tendencies of that time which rejected the Catholic knowing of human life. However, erstwhile the Pope spoke in Gniezno to 7 presidents of central Europe, he spoke about "strengthening democratic institutions, economical development, global cooperation" (John Paul II in Poland, Kraków 1997). And here we see a distinct fracture. Archbishop Lefebvre, whenever he had the opportunity, reminded the rulers of this planet of fact contained in the encyclical Quas primas Pius XI, spoke of the social regulation of Jesus Christ, proclaimed the fact that Christ reigned not only over souls, but all state institutions, continents and nations. It is foolish of man to deny him this power, due to the fact that everything truly depends on Christ. However, John Paul II did not mention that all politician is obliged to entrust his country to Christ.

Archbishop Lefebvre in each of his sermons cared for the good of the Church, in 1 of them he dramatically cried:

It seems to me, beloved brothers, that I hear voices of all these popes from Gregory XVI, voices of Pius IX, voices of St. Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XII, who cry out to us: “But for God’s sake, for God’s sake, what are you doing with our teaching, with our sermons, with Catholic faith? Do you want to renounce her? Do you want to let her die in this world? For God's sake, you must abide by the treasure we have given you! Do not abandon the believers. Don't leave the church! For from the Council even what we have condemned is received and taught by the Roman authorities. How is that possible? We condemned liberalism, condemned communism, socialism, modernism, sillonism. All these errors that we have condemned are now taught by the Church's authorities, accepted, defended! Is that possible? If you do nothing to proceed the Church tradition that has been entrusted to you, everything will be lost! The church will die, all souls will die! (Abp Lefebvre, Kazan, Warsaw 1999).

Official image of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre / photograph wikipedia.pl

John Paul II in his pontificate was guided by the “spirit of the Second Vatican Council”, he took names from John XXIII and Paul VI. He constantly supported ecumenical shipments, organized interreligious prayers (Assisi 1986), fought for human rights. He had a completely different imagination of the Church from those of the Council Fathers who kept the eternal faithfulness of the Apostolic Tradition.

Archbishop Lefebvre always followed the motto placed on his grave “Tradi quod et accepi” meaning “I gave what I received.” These words of Saint Paul perfectly represent the Archbishop. The seminary, to which he left 4 bishops acting in a state of higher necessity, which permits the Code of Canon Law 1983 ((Canon 1324 §1 no. 8), was created following those seminars that shaped the Archbishop and hundreds of thousands of another priests. His Excellency is very well-deserved for the Church, Archbishop spent decades on evangelization missions in Africa, and was besides an apostolic delegate to all French-speaking Africa. surely it was 1 of the top figures of the 20th century Church, and judging him for schism is simply a grave sin, for the accuser breaks the 8th commandment. The Holy See did not make specified a charge against the Archbishop, she simply stated that there was no state of higher necessity needed to ordained bishops. Eventually, Jesus Christ will justice the dispute in his tribunal.

Are John Paul II and Archbishop Lefebvre doomed to argue each other? Unfortunately, this question remains unanswered. surely their visions of the Church are at a crucial point. Can the Catholic Church be reconciled with the world, or should it be the salt of this earth? Can democracy dethrone Christ the King? Is ecumenism expected to be about accepting Protestant and heretical theological theories? These questions are answered by the past of this dispute.

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