Rebel Cleric to Defy Vatican, Will Ordain Bishops

Rebel Roman Catholic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre said Wednesday he will defy Rome and go ahead with ordaining four bishops, a move that the Vatican immediately declared “carries serious canonical consequences.”

The 82-year-old French prelate, who has been fighting the Vatican’s liberalization of church doctrine since the late 1960s, told a news conference at his Pius X dissident order here in southwest Switzerland: “On June 30 I will go ahead with the ordaining of four bishops. I have no choice.”

At the Vatican, spokesman Joaquin Navarro said the Holy See was “following with particular attention the faithful involved in this choice, which places them outside the community of the church.”

Asked whether Lefebvre’s action would create a schism within the church, Navarro said: “It’s a painful announcement. Naturally the faithful and public opinion are entitled to adequate information about it, which will be made available tomorrow.”

Lefebvre founded his brotherhood in 1970 after refusing to accept Vatican reforms. He was suspended from his priestly duties in 1976, and the Vatican has warned that he may be excommunicated if he defies the Pope.