April 4 1981


Your Eminence, Father du Chalard has passed on to me your letter of 19 February 1981, which I have read.

Here are my replies to the four demands expressed in your letter:

1. If certain of my words or deeds have displeased the Holy See, I bitterly regret this.
2. As to the Council, I reaffirm that I subscribe to what the Holy Father said, asking that it should be received “in the light of Tradition and the constant Magisterium of the Church.”
3. As to the reform of the Liturgy, I personally signed the conciliar decree, and have never said that its applications are in themselves invalid or heretical.
4. The sending of a pontifical delegate would make it easier to solve the problems and to normalize our activities.

In the hope that nobody will wish to question our attachment to the Catholic Church and the Successor of Peter, and in the wish that our replies might be judged sufficient for there to be sent a pontifical delegate who will be welcome in our houses, I ask you, Your Eminence, to accept the expression of my feelings of respect and heartfelt devotion in Christo et Maria.

+ Marcel Lefebvre

(If the Holy Father wishes to receive me, I am always at his disposal.)