WHY ARCHBISHOP MARCEL LEFEBVRE DID NOT HAVE TO OBEY LIKE PADRE PIO
I had a great time on The Frontline with Joe and Joe. They are mensches and great interviewers, they asked such intelligent, carefully crafted questions. I enjoyed myself because they had put so much attention into preparing our discussion.
I just wish that I'd been better prepared for the question they posed on the difference between Padre Pio and Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre as regards obedience.
Pio was always in his own words, "just a humble priest who prays." But Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve was an archbishop, a prince of the church and because of his higher rank had to be obeyed most often, whereas because Pio was a simple friar, he had to obey all men of the cloth higher than himself; the only exception being the much younger priests who were his assistants.
I did my best to paint a portrait, poignant at times, of Pio's heroic obedience.
Looking forward to listening to this, Mary.
ReplyDeletePerhaps most importantly, IMHO, Saint Pio and Archbishop Lefebvre lived in overlapping time periods, at least with respect to the activities of the hierarchy. Saint Pio did not live to see the full implementation of Vatican II, especially in the liturgy. One wonders what he would have done, having already concluded the infiltration of the other had “already reached the loafers of the Pope.” If that was indeed an accurate quote, one wonders what Saint Pio would have done had he lived a bit longer. He did everything he could reasonably do in his time, including the commissioning of Luigi Villa.
Archbishop Lefebvre was obedient too, as long as was possible; his detractors say perhaps for too long. But when it became clear that the ravening wolves would extinguish the last candle of Catholicism, not just Catholic tradition, but Catholicism itself, he acted.
I do not necessarily think that office or rank dictates the response of any baptized believing Catholic.
The defense of the integrity of the Catholic Faith is incumbent on all, even the laity. See Canon 212.
Perhaps because of his holiness, Saint Pio was spared the sight of what Archbishop had to behold in all its grotesque horror.
I believe them both to have shown heroic virtue during their lives.
Mary, I've heard said that one who considers himself humble, calls himself humble is anything but. In the case of Padre Pio I know that this cannot be true, but in general wouldn't it be like a man saying, 'I am smarter than everyone'?
ReplyDeleteDear Bob,
DeleteThank you for your forthright comment. Yes, you are so right, in the majority of the cases when someone calls themselves "humble" they are anything but! But Padre Pio could see his own soul and knew he had humility, and perhaps we can all see this virtue because the Lord would not have showered Padre Pio with such an astounding array of mystical gifts were Pio not humble.
God bless you, Mary