Father de La ROQUE (SSPX) compares Bp Rey with Bp Lefebvre
Such a rare measure had not occurred for almost fifty years. It was on May 6, 1975, when Rome forbade Archbishop Lefebvre to proceed with priestly ordinations at Ecône; again, just a few weeks before the ceremony. But there the similarity ends, such is the world separating these two prelates.
As for Archbishop Lefebvre, he was condemned for his magnificent declaration of November 21, 1974, the acuteness of which becomes clearer every day: "We adhere with all our heart, with all our soul, to Catholic Rome, guardian of the Catholic faith and of the traditions necessary to maintain this faith, to eternal Rome, teacher of wisdom and truth. On the other hand, we refuse, and have always refused, to follow the neo-modernist and neo-Protestant Rome, which clearly manifested itself in the Second Vatican Council and in all the reforms that followed it. All these reforms, in fact, have contributed and still contribute to the demolition of the Church, to the ruin of the priesthood, to the annihilation of the sacrifice [of the Mass] and of the sacraments, to the disappearance of religious life (...). No authority, not even the highest in the hierarchy, can compel us to abandon or diminish our Catholic faith, clearly expressed and professed by the Church's magisterium for nineteen centuries. This is why, without any rebellion, bitterness or resentment, we continue our work of priestly formation under the star of the magisterium of all time, convinced that we cannot render a greater service to the Holy Catholic Church, to the Sovereign Pontiff and to future generations (...)".
So, while Archbishop Lefebvre continued his work for the greater service of the Church and at the cost of his own person, Archbishop Rey obeyed and left ten of his Levites in total limbo. While Archbishop Lefebvre, like a good shepherd, denounced wolves disguised as sheep, Archbishop Rey says nothing when, also in his name, the French episcopate submits to Rome a preparatory synthesis for the next synod, calling among other things for the ordination of women to the diaconate and the priesthood. Far from denouncing an old revolutionary method, the official website of the Diocese of Toulon praises the "baptismal equality of all" and sings the praises of "synodality [which] allows the baptized to discern". When we recall that John Paul II committed the infallibility of the Church to definitively close the way to the sacrament of Holy Orders for women, we see what remains of Catholicism in our bishops...
Yes, there really is a gulf between these two bishops, and Mgr Rey is far from a landmark in this storm that is shaking the Church. His attitude, like that of many others, is a reminder that undue allegiance to the ravening wolves only strengthens their despotism: Revolution always ends up devouring its own children. And the fact that the bishops of France support the marriage of priests and the ordination of women to the priesthood shows the state of decadence into which the men of the Church have sunk over the last fifty years.
Father Patrick de LA ROCQUE (priory of Nice, diocese near Toulon (100 miles East)
Le Pescadou N° 223 - July-August 2022
Former parish priest of Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet in Paris
Participant in doctrinal discussions in Rome on behalf of the SSPX from 2009 to 2011
Source in french : L'abbé de La Rocque (FSSPX) compare Mgr Rey à…
To go further in english about the Revolution in the diocese of Toulon: When the Révolution devours its children
To go further about how sings the diocese of Toulon about "synodality"
Sémantique synodo-écclésiale comparée : Mgr Rey bi…
