Lefèbvre, Monseigneur Marcel

   (1905-1991)

   Integrist Catholicarchbishop. Archbishop of Dakar, Senegal, then bishop of Tulle, France. In 1970 Lefèbvre defied the Catholic church in protest against its modernisation, and the phasing out of mass in Latin, and formed a schismatic movement, the Society (or Fraternity) of St. Pius X., based at a seminary in Switzerland. In 1975, he ordained 13 priests in defiance of the Vatican, and in 1976 was excluded from the Catholic church. Thereafter, his supporters took over the St. Nicolas du Chardonnet church in Paris. After a number of unsuccessful attempts at conciliation, the Vatican excommunicated Lefèbvre in 1988. The integrist and traditionalist Society of St Pius X still exists, and is now active in some fifty countries, including the USA and Great Britain. It appears to be a wealthy organisation.