‘Right With God,’ Assert Followers of Archbishop Lefebvre’s Movement

Southern California followers of excommunicated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, such as Chester and Louise Mann of Tustin, believe that they “are absolutely right with God” in holding to the older traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.

Like the Manns, homemaker Ann Dawn of Pasadena attends Tridentine Latin Masses each Sunday at a Colton church. A convert from Protestantism, she believed that Catholicism was coming ever closer to her old church with changes in liturgy and teachings over the last two decades.

Many of the scattered backers of the prelate said Friday that they are optimistic about the traditionalist movement’s future, despite the Vatican’s excommunication of the 82-year-old archconservative.

Lefebvre went ahead with consecration of four bishops Thursday in Switzerland after warnings by the Vatican that it would be regarded as a schismatic action. The Lefebvre loyalists have opposed the revisions made in the Mass first suggested by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The most noticeable changes were the use of contemporary languages instead of Latin and having the priest face the congregation while celebrating Mass.

Limited recognition by the Vatican of the validity of other churches and major religions has also been bitterly opposed by Lefebvre’s backers.

Excommunication ‘an Injustice’

“Maybe a few will leave,” said Father Charles Ward of St. Louis, the U.S. administrator of Lefebvre’s Society of St. Pius X. “But we expect more to come in because they realize (the excommunication) is an injustice. A Catholic must be obedient to all the saintly popes, not just the present Pope.”

Ward said Friday that the traditionalist movement has about 30 priests and 45 seminarians in this country. More than 10,000 people attend the Tridentine Latin Masses at 95 missions or chapels, including about 1,500 followers in California, he said.

However, a former headmaster at the movement’s only boarding school, located in St. Mary’s, Kan., said he thinks that the break Lefebvre made with Rome will cause problems with some of the laity.

“Many will support it; many won’t,” said Ken Kaiser of Pasadena, who headed the movement’s academy and taught in the movement’s college in Kansas from 1982 to 1985. “I know there are a lot of laymen who preferred going to the older Mass but didn’t consider it a break with Rome,” he said.

Kaiser, who returned to Southern California in 1985, said he left the movement when he detected “a schismatic attitude.”

The Most Rev. Norman F. McFarland, the Bishop of the Diocese of Orange, said he had not encountered any followers of Archbishop Lefebvre in Orange County.

“It’s terribly, terribly sad,” McFarland said. “The Holy Father had made every effort to reconcile him. . . . He was having some deep problems of modern approaches of the church in such things as the liturgy. The archbishop was opposed to offering Mass in the vernacular.

“There’s nothing essential to what language you say the Mass in. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t use Latin,” McFarland said.

“The Holy Father bent over backwards . . . It’s a sad, sad thing to see.”

‘Still Recognize Pope’

Louise Mann said that she and her husband, Chester, a retired aerospace engineer, “still recognize the Pope in anything that is truly Catholic and traditional.” Chester Mann said, however, that he believes that the grounds for excommunicating Lefebvre “are certainly flimsy.”

The Orange County chapel once attended by the Manns later merged with the church in Colton, forming the St. Joseph’s and Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. It is the only permanent Southern California building of the Lefebvre movement south of Bakersfield. A priest from Phoenix, Father Jaime Pazat, flies in to celebrate Mass each Sunday for about 150 people.

Another group, which meets in Vista in northern San Diego County, draws an average of 100 people for Masses held at a Church of Religious Science.

Dr. George Merkle, a family physician in Carlsbad who writes the congregation’s newsletter, said that many followers had hoped for a rapprochement with Rome. “We don’t consider ourselves disloyal to Rome, but those of us who looked into it felt this was still the best way to go,” he said.

Received Papal Permission

Pope John Paul II granted permission in late 1984 for dioceses to celebrate the otherwise banned Tridentine Latin Mass. Previously, U.S. dioceses had scheduled Masses in Latin but only if it was using the revised rite. The San Diego diocese now holds a weekly Tridentine Mass at its Holy Cross Chapel, apparently contributing to the folding of a Lefebvre-sponsored Mass in San Diego.

The Los Angeles archdiocese has had a schedule of Tridentine Masses as well, but Dawn, for one, finds it inconvenient. “One Sunday it’s in Duarte, another in San Pedro, then San Fernando, another week it’s in Los Angeles,” she said. “This makes it almost impossible for a person to have a consistent parish life.”

The movement itself has priest supply problems--not enough to go around. Father Richard Coughlin frequently serves the Vista group and Father Frederick Schell of Van Nuys celebrates Mass for some groups, but neither is affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X.

A priest who had been celebrating Mass for Lefebvre backers in the Ventura and Santa Barbara areas broke his arm in an accident in South America early this year and has not returned yet, according to William Rabehl of Santa Barbara. Rabehl said his breaking point with the established church was the time when Communion was first allowed to be received in the parishioner’s hand rather than placed on his tongue by the priest.

Times staff writer Lynn Smith in Orange County contributed to this article.