Cardinal Wright to Archbishop Lefebvre: ‘How Can I Oppose Myself to a Bishops’ Conference?’

In relation to the title above, Archbishop Lefebvre had gone to Cardinal Wright to gain his support in opposing a heretical catechism promoted by the Canadian Bishops’ Conference. Cardinal Wright, at the time, or perhaps shortly thereafter (the event related by Archbishop Lefebvre near the end of this article occurred during the pontificate of Paul VI, i.e.,1963-1978), was the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, i.e., from 1969-1979). Wright had served as Archbishop Cushing’s auxiliary in Boston when Saint Benedict Center was put under interdict in 1949. Father Feeney always thought that it was he even more than Cushing who was behind the effort to crush the Center and the doctrine of No salvation outside the Church. Wright also claimed to have meticulously gone over, in the presence of Pope Pius XII, the 1949 Letter of the Holy Office to the Bishop of Boston, or at least its translation into English. That Letter had been signed by Cardinal Marchetti Selvaggiani, then Secretary of the Holy Office and co-signed by Cardinal Ottaviani as Assessor. Selvaggiani had ordained John Wright to the priesthood in 1935.

1Peter5, Maike Hickson: At the recommendation of my husband, I have just read a 1982 conference given in Montreal, Canada by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre – the founder of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) – as it had been translated into English in 1992 by the Fideliter Magazine and as it has just recently been re-published and commented upon by Dr. Peter Chojnowski, a former student of my husband and a friend of our family, on his own blog, RadTradThomist. (Since Dr. Chojnowski has made his own emphases and comments in the text, I have decided to make use of the original text as it has been published by the SSPX itself. I would highly recommend to our readers to read the full 20 pages of this 1982 conference.) Full article is here.