Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Why this attempt to manufacture new scandals now?

Anyone who knows anything about the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (declared an excommunicant in 1988 for his illicit ordination of four bishops), knows that despite his public opposition to the final drafts of Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae, he signed his name, along with all the other bishops present, to the ceremonial lists of the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Now this signature is apparently being revisited as though it were a new and scandalizing discovery -- the "signature that unmasks Lefebvre." The question is "Why?" and "Why now?"

"The most underwhelming 'news' of the year" (Rorate Caeli, January 11, 2009) reports:
Italian religious website Petrus repeats the "amazing" news "reported" by Italian weekly Panorama. In an article dedicated to several "finds" in the "Secret heart of the Vatican" (Nel cuore segreto del Vaticano, Panorama, n. 3/2009, p. 130-134), the newsweekly's reporters found the damning evidence that... Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre signed the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

... The problem is: it is well known that Lefebvre placed his name upon the ceremonial lists of documents (for instance, both the list provided by Panorama and the one in our repository include a very diverse array of conciliar documents and, below them, signatures of bishops - the second list includes not only the above-mentioned documents, but also the only one which the Archbishop publicly praised, Presbyterorum Ordinis).

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