OPERAÇÃO MEMÓRIA. Mais uma carta de S.E.R. Mons Williamson. Para reflexão. Se alguém quiser traduzir e compartilhar, ficaríamos gratos.
Death of Archbishop Lefebvre
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
As the great majority of you
surely know already, Archbishop Lefebvre died in the early hours of
Monday morning, March 25, Western European time. He was in his 86th year
and he felt he had fulfilled his mission on earth, so for his part he
was quite ready to depart this life. Yet for us his death was still a
shock.
For many years he had seemed in such good health that few
if any of us took seriously his own repeated references to his coming
death. We readily imagined his living for another ten years to continue
guiding the Society of St. Pius X with his irreplaceable experience and
wisdom, especially through the next few years. Truth to tell, whenever
he were to have died, it would have seemed too soon. But now he is gone
from amongst us here on earth.
He was hospitalized in Martigny in
the Canton of the Valais near Ecône in Switzerland on March 9, as a
result of violent pains in the abdomen. The doctors having discovered an
alarming lump, they decided on an operation which took place on Monday,
March 18. A large cancerous tumour was removed. For several days he
seemed to be slowly recovering until on Sunday morning March 24 he fell
into a high fever. Antibiotics reduced the fever but also overwhelmed
the organism – at 11 pm on Sunday night he lapsed into a coma.
Reanimation could not save him. At 3:30 am in the early hours of Monday
morning on the day which is normally the Feast of the Annunciation he
breathed his last, and gave back to God his heroic and pure soul –
"Here cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
No
doubt they did. Imagine, whenever it took place, the Archbishop's
triumphal entry into heaven! Was it coincidental that a specially bright
Aurora Borealis lit up the Northern sky in Europe and in parts of the
U.S. on the night of his death? It was a suitable omen for a world-wide
event, because the whole world has lost in him one of those great
pontiffs whose intercessory prayer shields us from the wrath of God. In
1968 Padre Pio died, in 1969 arrived the Novus Ordo Missae... What new peril draws near this time?
The
Catholic Church also enters into a new era without him. Since for the
last twenty years he has stood for the Truth as no other bishop has done
and as none other than a Catholic bishop can do, and since the Catholic
Church revolves around the Way, the Truth and the Life as no other
institution on earth does, then willy nilly, these last twenty years of
the Catholic Church have been, as history will show, the era of
Archbishop Lefebvre.
For during this time even his enemies within
the Church have depended upon him. For instance, had he not consecrated
bishops in the summer of 1988, "Ecclesia Dei" and St. Peter's Society
would not even exist, and all those conservative Catholics who condemn
his disobedience or hubris would have no Indult Mass from the comfort of
which to spurn those consecrations. Similarly had he not braced the
whole Traditional wing of the Church in the 1970's, the left-wingers
would have swept the middle-of-the-roaders and themselves to destruction
years ago, they would all by now be One World social workers, and there
would have been, had it depended upon them, no official church left
standing from the platform of which to suspend or excommunicate him.
He
sustained his enemies even as he nourished his friends, for he
sustained the Truth, and even liars need a half of truth to market their
wares. He passed for being the greatest enemy of recent Popes –
certainly he was the only one they excommunicated – yet by resisting
their corrosive Liberalism, he alone will have saved their Papacy which,
left to themselves, they would have destroyed. Thus friend and foe in
the Church leant on him. Now he is gone. Mother Church moves into the
post-Lefebvre era.
As for his own foundation, the Priestly Society
of St. Pius X, of course the enemies of Tradition have long been
waiting for the Archbishop's death to ensure its disintegration, and
humanly speaking, given the value of Archbishop Lefebvre's presence and
advice right up to the end, they will normally be right. However, before
he died Archbishop Lefebvre provided his Society with all that it
needed by way of structure and successors to carry on his work.
Firstly,
as Superior General to run the society, he had himself replaced as far
back as 1982 by Fr. Franz Schmidberger for a 12-year term running until
1994, for the first two thirds of which term the Archbishop was always
available to help and advise him. Now Fr. Schmidberger is on his own. We
must pray for him in earnest, especially as Rome is bound to start up
the carrot and stick routine all over again.
Secondly, in his
functions as bishop the Archbishop consecrated four successors to ordain
and confirm, on that famous June 30 of 1988. How wisely he provided!
Imagine where Tradition would now be without those four. Yet it was a
truly agonizing decision at the time, and a stupendous achievement.
Single-handed, for such decisions are absolutely lonely, the Archbishop
created out of his faith and courage and thin air a viable future for
Catholic Tradition, and for the Catholic Church.
So by this
historic action the Society was equipped with all that it needs to
continue operating as the Church's emergency lighting system, until such
time as the main lights get turned on again. If it too fails, it will
not have been the Archbishop's fault.
Will it fail? If it depends
on human weakness, yes; if it depends on God's grace, no. And what does
the Lord God have in mind? Only He knows. We had fondly thought he would
conserve the Archbishop to guide us for many years yet, but the
Archbishop was right, it was not to be. We may now fondly think that the
Society is meant by God to be His light-bearer until the Church's
crisis is over, but the Lord God is not short of alternatives, and He
may have in mind still more darkness. It would not be undeserved.
However,
it is never to be forgotten that, as St. Augustine said, He abandons
nobody who has not first abandoned Him. With or without the great
Archbishop, with or without his little Society, no sheep that seeks the
Good Shepherd will be forced to lose Him. That is an intrinsic
impossibility. "Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father
to give you a kingdom" (Lk XII, 32). Then while grieving for the loss of
the Society's founder and father, let us thank God that we had such a
leader for so long, and let us rely on God's grace to carry on where he
left off.
The Catholic Church cannot fail, so for the machinery of
its continuance God will provide, even as He provided us with the
Archbishop. When we see how God has steered us through the last twenty
years, it is not difficult to put our trust in Him for the next twenty.
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, simple, kind, 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 interests of God. Not he, but Christ, lived
within him, and yet he was Marcel Lefebvre and nobody else. And what a
marvellous man he was! Shakespeare again –
"His life was gentle and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, 'This was a man'."
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, 'This was a man'."
However,
even these noble lines on the stoic hero fall a long way beneath doing
justice to the supernatural hero, the saint who has left us ...
...
left us in a darker world without him? Yes and no. Sanctity is
infectious, saints breed saints. We are the legacy that the Archbishop
bequeaths to the world. Oh no, we are not saints, but we of the Society
of St. Pius X have had a marvellous saint amongst us, we should have
caught the infection, and if we have, then we need only spread it for
what was marvellous in him to continue. Archbishop Lefebvre lives!
When
I accompanied him once on a journey to Ireland, our plane, waiting to
take off from London Airport, was being shaken by the thunderous roar of
the supersonic Concorde leaving just in front of us. What a marvellous
piece of work is man, I commented, to have invented the Concorde. The
Archbishop quietly replied, how much more marvellous the God who
invented the inventor. Similarly, if it has been so marvellous to know
one of Jesus' great saints and master-creations here on earth, how much
more marvelous to know Jesus himself in heaven!
With much serenity
I shall attend the Archbishop’s funeral on April 2. Count on me to lay
by his casket all that I can imagine of your gratitude, affection, and
prayers.
Sincerely yours in the Divine Master’s service,
