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Holy
Cross Seminary
Most
Asked Questions About the Society of Saint Pius X
Question
1: Who was Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre?
Brief History
| Nov.
29, 1905: |
Birth
of Marcel Lefebvre into a good Catholic family (five of the
eight children would become priests or nuns).,
|
| Sept.
21, 1929: |
Marcel
Lefebvre is ordained a priest.
|
| 1932
- 1946: |
Having
become a Holy Ghost Father, he becomes a missionary in Gabon,
Africa.
|
| Sept.
18, 1947: |
He
is consecrated a Bishop and appointed Apostolic Vicar of Dakar,
Senegal.
|
| 1948
- 1959: |
Bishop
Lefebvre is Pius Pope XII's Apostolic Delegate for 18 African
countries.
|
| Sept.
14, 1955: |
He
becomes the first Archbishop of Dakar.
|
| 1962: |
His
Grace returns to France to be the Bishop of Tulle.
|
| 1962-1968: |
Archbishop
Lefebvre is elected and acts as Superior General of the Holy
Ghost Fathers
|
| 1968: |
until
resigning before the changes his Congregation would force
him to implement, and going into "retirement."
|
| 1969: |
The
Archbishop founds the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X.
|
| 1970-1982: |
He
acts as its first Superior General.
|
| 1970-1988: |
Until,
in view of his imminent death, he consecrates successors,
Archbishop Lefebvre does all he can to be faithful to the
grace of his episcopacy, traveling the world to encourage
Catholics to hold fast to the faith and traditions of their
fathers, confirming their young and ordaining for them priests.
|
| Mar.
25, 1991: |
Archbishop
Marcel Lefebvre passes before his Eternal Judge. |
A
Testimony
Concerning
the Archbishop personally, a journalist asked recently what was
my outstanding memory of the man. I gave maybe a surprising answer:
his objectivity. He had, of course, a uniquely attractive personality
because he was a saint—gentle, kind, simple, humble, humorous,
and so on, without a trace of sentimentality, but that was not the
point. Underneath all that lay a great intelligence and faith and
firmness of character, but that was still not the point. Essentially
he was a man empty of self and full of God. To meet him, to talk
to him, was to see―through him―the truth, Our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Catholic Church. He was like a window on the interest
of God. Not he, but Christ, lived within him, and yet that was Marcel
Lefebvre and nobody else. And what a marvelous man he was!1
1.
Bishop Richard Williamson, The Angelus, May-June 1991, p.2.
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