Excerpt from a Conference of Archbishop Lefebvre in Angers, France (1980):
[He understood the division sedes inevitably and invariably cause...just as they do here on CI, and did not seem to feel the same need to give the sedes a public platform]:
….
STAY IN A FIRM AND SAFE LINE, TO AVOID AN IRREMEDIABLE EVIL
I tell you all this, quite simply, because you can cause yourself problems, as I ask myself, by praying wholeheartedly morning and evening, night and day, so that Tradition may return to the Church. The Pope himself will be the most satisfied, the happiest. We can only live with Our Lord and through Our Lord and with the reign of Our Lord and everywhere! everywhere! In the Liturgy, in the social, political, family fields... We can do nothing without Our Lord Jesus Christ!
You see what I thought I was telling you because we have to stay on a firm line and not get lost. During these difficulties in which we live: one would be tempted, precisely, by extreme solutions and to say "No, no, the Pope is not only liberal, the Pope is heretical! The Pope can probably be more than heretical, so there is no Pope!
That is not correct. It is not because someone is liberal that he is necessarily heretical and therefore necessarily outside the Church. It is necessary to know how to make the necessary distinctions. This is very important to stay on a safe path, to stay well in the Church.
Where else would we go? There is no Pope, there are no Cardinals, because, if the Pope was not Pope when he appointed the Cardinals, these Cardinals can no longer appoint a Pope because they are not Cardinals.... and then...? Is an angel from Heaven going to bring us a Pope? This is absurd!
And not just absurd, dangerous! Because then we may be led to solutions that are really schismatic. Then we'll find the Pope of Palmar de Troya, who is excommunicated, who excommunicated me, who excommunicated the Pope, who excommunicated everyone! or others...: we will go to the church of Toulouse..., to the church of Rouen... what do I know... among the Mormons... among the Pentecostals, among the Adventists or something else... Souls are lost...! Still, I don't want that responsibility!
Perhaps they find me severe in asking these young priests who do not agree with us, with this line that I have always followed, to leave us. But I can't bring the wolf into the sheepfold. It's putting the wolf in the sheepfold, because they divide. It has to be. If, today, I say: "There is a Pope, this Pope, we are not obliged to follow him in everything, even if there may be pastors who are not always good pastors in the complete sense of the word: we are not obliged to follow them in everything. From that to saying there's no Pope, no! So they introduce divisions among the Traditionalists, they introduce divisions in the Church, and from that I do not want, I cannot... while infinitely regretting.
(The audience applauded at length)
(Sedevacantist): "Is it okay to ask a question?"
(Monsignor Lefebvre) : "No, no, no, no"
(Sedevacantist) "Ah that's not normal"
(Monsignor Lefebvre) : "No, no, no, no, no, no"
(Sedevacantist) "It's not normal"
(Monsignor Lefebvre) : "After the conference, after the conference you come to see me, I never accept..."
(Sedevacantist continues to interrupt Archbishop Lefebvre)
(Monsignor Lefebvre) : "I never accept public discussion, I apologize, I never accept public discussion. After the conference, you can come see me."
(Member of the audience continues to interrupt Bishop Lefebvre)
(Monsignor Lefebvre): No, please. Please step outside, sir.
The audience shouts "outside, outside, outside, outside, outside, outside, outside, outside" (great tumult)
(Monsignor Lefebvre) : You see, you have an example of this division, it is classic.
(The audience applauded at length)
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Comment: Unlike Archbishop Lefebvre, Matthew has no qualms about "bringing the wolf into the sheepfold."