I seek to analyse the evidence relating to a possible agreement between the Society of Saint Pius X and the Conciliar Church. I conclude that many of the Superiors of the Society are prepared to enter into an agreement with the Conciliar Church, where that agreement is a practical agreement (only), without a doctrinal resolution and the terms of which would mean that the Society would be subject to the Conciliar Church.
I conclude that the conduct of many of the Superiors of the Society in relation to a possible agreement with the Conciliar Church represents a staggering change from the Society’s principles and direction. I conclude that the position adopted by many of the Superiors of the Society in relation to such an agreement is contrary to the position of the Society’s founder, Archbishop Lefebvre.
Archbishop Lefebvre said the following words on 6 September 1990[1]:
“Some people are always admiring the grass in the neighbour’s field…they look to our enemies on the other side. “After all, we must be charitable, we must be kind, we must not be divisive, after all, they are celebrating the Tridentine Mass, they are not as bad as everyone says” —but THEY ARE BETRAYING US —betraying us! They are shaking hands with the Church’s destroyers. They are shaking hands with people holding modernist and liberal ideas condemned by the Church. So they are doing the devil’s work. They are now saying: “So long as they grant us the old Mass, we can shake hands with Rome, no problem.” But we are seeing how it works out. They are in an impossible situation. Impossible. One cannot both shake hands with modernists and keep following Tradition. Not possible. Not possible.
Archbishop Lefebvre said the following words in July or August 1989[2]:
Question: Some people say,“Yes, but Archbishop Lefebvre should have accepted an agreement with Rome because once the Society of St. Pius X had been recognized and the suspensions lifted, he would have been able to act in a more effective manner inside the Church, whereas now he has put himself outside.”
Archbishop Lefebvre: Such things are easy to say. To stay inside the Church, or to put oneself inside the Church – what does that mean? Firstly, what Church are we talking about? If you mean the Conciliar Church, then we who have struggled against the Council for twenty years because we want the Catholic Church, we would have to re-enter this Conciliar Church in order, supposedly, to make it Catholic. That is a complete illusion. It is not the subjects that make the superiors, but the superiors who make the subjects.
Archbishop Lefebvre said the following words on 30 June 1988 [3]:
It is not for me to know when Tradition will regain its rights at Rome, but I think it is my duty to provide the means of doing that which I shall call “Operation Survival,” operation survival for Tradition. Today, this day, is Operation Survival. If I had made this deal with Rome, by continuing with the agreements we had signed, and by putting them into practice, I would have performed “Operation Suicide”. There was no choice, we must live! That is why today, by consecrating these bishops, I am convinced that I am continuing to keep Tradition alive, that is to say, the Catholic Church.
I invite you to read my “book”: Is this Operation Suicide?
[1] Archbishop Lefebvre’s address to his priests given in Econe, Switzerland on 6 September 1990, refer http://www.sspx.org/archbishop_lefebvre/two_years_after_the_consecrations.htm
[3] In his sermon at the time of the Episcopal Consecrations of the four bishops in 1988, in reference to the agreement he signed and then withdrew in May 1988 http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Episcopal-Consecration.htm
Is This Operation Suicide? 