Word, Church and Mission

The whole Church is missionary. Its mission is universal: to testify to Jesus Christ, the Light of the nations, and to communicate the fullness of the mystery of Christ. Unless it takes the Word of God to those who have not yet heard it, the Church cannot claim to be implanted throughout the world:

"Having been sent by God to the nations to be the universal sacrament of salvation, the Church...strives to preach the Gospel to all. The apostles, on whom the Church was founded, following the footsteps of Christ preached the word of truth and brought Churches to birth. It is the duty of their successors to carry on this work so that "the word of God may speed on and triumph" (2 Thess 3.1) and the kingdom of God be proclaimed and renewed throughout the world" (Ad Gentes).

To restore unity amongst Christians

Christian disunity is opposed to the will of Christ. At the world conference on mission at Edinburgh in 1910, the participants declared that their divisions were to the detriment "of the unity of the Church of Christ". This meeting marked the opening of an era of ecumenism. And in its decree on missionary activity, Vatican II repeated that the division amongst Christians is a serious obstacle to the preaching of the Gospel:

"...the division between Christians is injurious to the holy work of preaching the Gospel to every creature, and deprives many people of access to the faith. Because of the Church's mission, all baptised people are called upon to come together in one flock that they might bear unanimous witness before the nations to Christ, their Lord".

Thus Vatican II put an end to a certain proselytism by the Church. For too long, in its anxiety to preserve its integrity, the Church had not sufficiently emphasised the announcing of the Kingdom of God.

A crisis in the spiritan family

The Spiritan Bishops who took part in the Second Vatican Council

(Front line, seated at the center: Having been elected Superior General in 1962, Mgr. Lefebvre did not approve of the spirit of Vatican II.)

In the wake of Vatican II, many things were questioned. The Congregation of the Holy Spirit also experienced considerable internal tensions and divisions. A uniform world, modelled on norms and values which were looked on as universal, built around the old Europe and its culture; this was a world that was dying. But for many, it was just a passing crisis that had to be got through as quickly as possible so as to return to the structures of the past.

No to collegial government!  

A few months before the end of his mandate as Superior General of the Spiritans, Mgr. Lefebvre wrote an article entitled "A little light on the present crisis in the Church". He denounced the "collegiality of the Magisterium" which he saw as a sign of the democratisation of the Church:

"Modern ideas have been introduced into the Church under the famous slogan of "collegiality". The whole government has to be "collegialised": that of the Pope and the bishops with a presbyteral college, that of the parish priest with a pastoral college of lay people, the whole enveloped by commissions, councils, assemblies etc....before the authorities can proceed to giving orders or directives...This war of collegiality, supported by the communist, protestant and liberal press, will remain famous in the annals of the Council"

Having been elected Superior General in 1962, Mgr. Lefebvre did not approve of the spirit of Vatican II. As a member of the preparatory commission of the Council, he was involved in the drawing up of the schemas prepared by the Roman Curia and presented to the Fathers of the Council.

Almost immediately, the 2,500 bishops asked for a revision of the prepared schemas. Mgr. Lefebvre opposed this collegial move along with some other bishops who could identify with the motto on the coat of arms of Cardinal Ottaviani, "Semper Idem" (always the same).

Mgr. Lefebvre made several interventions during the general sessions of the Council. The other forty spiritan bishops who were present asked Mgr. Lefebvre for an exchange of views, because, in view of his position as the Superior General of their Congregation, they were not happy with the attitudes and positions adopted by him. Mgr. Gay, the bishop of Guadeloupe, acted as spokesman for the group. Mgr. Lefebvre listened to them, then with his usual good nature, but without any dialogue, brought the meeting to a close with the following words:

"You have your way of thinking, I have mine. I would never force any of you to vote the same way as myself, even less to think the same way as I do. We all have a conscience: everyone must follow his own".

The bishop who left an account of this meeting, spoke of the disappointment that they all felt: "And that was it, the end!, and always with a smile that disarmed us. He seemed to have a blockage. He seemed incapable of reviewing his ways of thinking".

During the General Chapter of the Congregation in 1968, the capitulants came up against the same difficulties with Mgr. Lefebvre, who would not consider any form of collegial government in the Congregation. He finally resigned and some time afterwards founded the Society of Saint Pius X at Fribourg and opened his traditionalist seminary at Ecône in Switzerland. He was suspended "a divinis" in 1976, and wrote a book condemning the Vatican Council entitled "I accuse the Council". In 1988, he broke definitively from communion with the Bishop of Rome by ordaining four members of his society as bishops without approval. Mgr. Lefebvre died in the Valais, Switzerland on March 25, 1991.

He was succeeded as Superior General by Fr. Joseph Lécuyer, a well-known theologian and one of the experts who had worked for the Vatican Council. He collaborated with Fr. Yves Congar on the "Decree on the episcopal role of bishops in the Church".

The Congregation began its own "aggiornamento". Fr. Lécuyer worked to repair and overcome the internal divisions in the spiritan family, and pointed towards the missionary future of the Congregation. For him, the very essence of evangelisation was the announcing of the Good News which would ripen and bear fruits in different cultures. The preaching of the Gospel should no longer be a cause of division amongst Christians.

The Chapter of 1968 committed Spiritans to live a practical ecumenism. "The starting-point in ecumenism is the practice of Christian charity towards all Christians...Dialogue will be undertaken on the common ground of the study of the Bible...Mutual co-operation in works of development could prove to be an important means of removing prejudices".

Pope Paul VI greeting the members of the General Chapter
after the election of Fr. Lécuyer as successor to Mgr. Lefebvre