Old Traditions, New Schisms: Part 1

Last week, the Vatican formally excommunicated the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). It was a long time coming, but it still made for big news. The society claims to support the Catholic Church and the pope yet also rejects many of the Church documents of the past 60 years. The Church has tried different approaches in bringing the group in line, ultimately drawing a line in the sand, hoping tough love will lead its supporters back into proper communion.

SSPX was founded by Marcel Lefebvre in 1970. Lefebvre was a conservative Catholic priest from France. In the 1920s he went to Rome to study, as his family thought the French seminaries too liberal. His political and religious positions were deeply shaped by his family and by French society in the early 20th century. His father was a monarchist who believed the Revolution had been Masonic and anti-Catholic; French monarchists believed a monarchy and powerful Church was the best structure for a Catholic society. Lefebvre later supported political movements like the Vichy government and National Front that suppressed religious liberty and tolerance.

In 1931 Lefebvre joined the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. He served in Gabon as a missionary then in the order’s seminary in France. In 1947, he was appointed vicar apostolic in Dakar and given the responsibility of overseeing Church matters across French Africa. In 1959, Lefebvre was one of 120 appointed to the preparatory commission for the Second Vatican Council.

The Second Vatican Council was called to assess and renew the Church, work toward Christian unity, and establish the Church's contribution to the resolution of social and political problems. In the decades preceding the council, there had been a push from theologians in renewed textual study and using modern academic methods to study the Bible and early Church sources. In 1943, Pope Pius XII wrote Divino afflante Spiritu, encouraging the use of original texts (over the Vulgate) and new textual study. In 1950, he wrote Humani generis, criticizing some academic methods that he believed inserted relativism and strayed from theological tradition. By the time of Pope John XXIII and the beginning of the council, there were three main academic camps: the traditionalists, the conservative “new theologians,” and the liberal “new theologians.” The conservative “new theologians,” who embraced new scholarship but stayed within the lines of Church teachings, would ultimately prevail at the council.

Lefebvre was a traditionalist. He was disappointed when the drafts he worked on during the Second Vatican Council’s preparatory period were rejected at the beginning of the council. He and other traditionalists grew concerned at the direction of the council and formed a bloc known as the International Group of Fathers. One issue they strongly opposed was religious liberty as expressed in Dignitatis humanae. However, Lefebvre ultimately signed off on the council documents, while some of the traditionalist bloc refused.

At the same time as the Second Vatican Council, African countries were declaring their independence over their European colonizers. The Church began appointing African bishops over the dioceses in these new countries. Lefebvre was moved to France and elected superior general of his order. But the Second Vatican Council had a big influence on religious orders as well. Members insisted on a larger role electing delegates. In 1968 the order elected new leadership and debated the order’s traditions and missionary charge. Lefebvre argued that changes would destroy community life and lead to anarchy and disorder. He was outvoted.

He grew increasingly frustrated with the direction the Church was headed, especially as the Second Vatican Council was implemented. He, along with other traditionalists, began to look at how to push against what they saw as modernist encroachment defiling the Church.