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Church in the WorldWarning against Lefebvrist expansionEurope 3 December 2005POLISH AND Ukrainian bishops have urged clergy and laity to counter the growing popularity in their countries of the breakaway Lefebvrist movement, which opposes reform and modernisation in the Catholic Church. ?The Lefebvrist brotherhood is extending its tentacles among us, and winning over lay people by trying to open its own chapels,? Bishop Wiktor Skworc of Tarnow told Poland?s Catholic information agency, KAI. ?There?s a serious threat of division in the Church, which I?ve already warned local parish priests about in a special communiqu?.? The Church leader said he planned to discuss the problem with Vatican officials during the Polish bishops? current ad limina Rome visit, adding that he would also request clarification of the Vatican?s stance following the Pope?s talks in August with the Lefebvrist leader, Bishop Bernard Fellay. Meanwhile, the newly installed Greek Catholic Archbishop of Lviv in neighbouring Ukraine, Igor Vozniak, joined parish groups in Janov last weekend for a ?prayer march? against the Lefebvrists, who have run a seminary and convent in the area, as well as several parishes. Members of the breakaway movement, who follow the teachings of the excommunicated French archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre (1905-91), have demanded a return to traditional pre-Vatican II rites and oppose ecumenism and religious pluralism.
Several East European bishops voiced fears in the 1990s that the movement could find support in the region by opposing Westernising reforms and appealing to arch-conservative members of the Catholic Church, which has a separate ?Brotherhood of St Peter? for priests and seminarians wishing to celebrate the old-rite Latin Mass. KAI carried a lengthy and sympathetic assessment of the movement on Monday to mark the centenary of the birth of Archbishop Lefebvre. It said the rebel archbishop had been ?one of the most controversial twentieth-century Catholic Church figures?, but should also be remembered for his ?great role? in highlighting ?the importance of tradition? in the Church. |
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