Marcel Lefebvre - Superior General of The Holy Ghost Fathers

Superior General of The Holy Ghost Fathers

On 26 July 1962 the Chapter General of the Holy Ghost Fathers elected Lefebvre as the Superior General. Lefebvre was widely respected for his experience in the mission field. On the other hand, certain progressive members of his congregation, particularly in France, considered his administrative style authoritarian and desired radical reforms. On 7 August 1962 Lefebvre was given the titular archiepiscopal see of Synnada in Phrygia.

Lefebvre was increasingly criticized by influential members of his large religious congregation who considered him to be out-of-step with modern Church leaders and the demand of the bishops' conferences, particularly in France, for modernization and reforms. A general chapter of the Holy Ghost Fathers was convened in Rome in September 1968 to debate the direction of the congregation after the changes of the Second Vatican Council. The first action of the chapter was to name several moderators to lead the chapter's sessions instead of Lefebvre. Lefebvre then handed in his resignation as Superior General to Pope Paul VI. He would later say that it had become impossible for him to remain superior of an institute that no longer wanted or listened to him.

Read more about this topic:  Marcel Lefebvre

Famous quotes containing the words superior, general, holy, ghost and/or fathers:

    The man who takes the liberty to live is superior to all the laws, by virtue of his relation to the lawmaker.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    There was not a tree as far as we could see, and that was many miles each way, the general level of the upland being about the same everywhere. Even from the Atlantic side we overlooked the Bay, and saw to Manomet Point in Plymouth, and better from that side because it was the highest.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Hey, cut the crap! The Pope, the Holy Father himself, has this very day blessed Michael Corleone. You think you know better than the Pope?
    Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Dominic (Don Novello)

    the ghosts of the tribe
    Crouch in the nights beside the ghost of a fire, they try to
    remember the sunlight,
    Light has died out of their skies.
    Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)

    What terrible questions we are learning to ask! The former men believed in magic, by which temples, cities, and men were swallowed up, and all trace of them gone. We are coming on the secret of a magic which sweeps out of men’s minds all vestige of theism and beliefs which they and their fathers held and were framed upon.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)