Letter of Mgr. Lefebvre to Cardinal Seper

14 January 1979



Your Eminence,

Please excuse my writing to you again to explain the reasons for my misgivings and my surprise.

The letter you kindly sent me yesterday, 13 January, says: “It seems to me that these documents made the object of our talks quite clear, within the framework of the procedure in our Congregation, that is, the examination of the results of the Conference by the Ordinary Congregation of Cardinals, before their being sent for the definitive decision of the Holy Father.”

But it appears from the regulation that it is a question not just of examination but of decision and therefore of judgment N. 18), and that is what was stated by the Director of the Vatican Press Office.

That is what I could not deduce from the exposition made before the conference. For that changes the whole character of the talks.

I had two reasons for thinking that the only judge was the Holy Father: first, your exposition insisting on the informative character of the talks and the examination of them, and secondly the express desire of the Holy Father that this business be entrusted personally to you as a trusted friend of the Holy Father.

There was no question of submitting this business to judges other than the Holy Father – certainly not to judges who have already judged and condemned.

I therefore reject in advance the decisions which will be taken by judges who have already taken part in my condemnation such as Cardinals Villot, Garrone, Baggio and Wright.

That is why I am writing to the friend of the Holy Father, asking you to take direct to the Holy Father himself the documents of the inquiry after we have signed them.

I hope to be back in ten days with the documents and in the hope of meeting you, thus helping forward a solution of this business, with the consent of the Holy Father and the grace of God.

With respect and cordial devotion in Christ and Mary.
Marcel Lefebvre