Italian religious website Petrus repeats the "amazing" news "reported" by Italian weekly Panorama. In an article dedicated to several "finds" in the "Secret heart of the Vatican" (Nel cuore segreto del Vaticano, Panorama, n. 3/2009, p. 130-134), the newsweekly's reporters found the damning evidence that... Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre signed the documents of the Second Vatican Council.
No, really... Panorama's reporters found the top-secret signature (which it calls "The signature that unmasks Lefebvre") in some mysterious location, when they could have found the more "damning" document showing the Archbishop's signature of, among others, Gaudium et Spes (De Ecclesia in mundo huius temporis) or Dignitatis Humanae (De Libertate Religiosa) in our Rorate repository (see here).
The problem is: it is well known that Lefebvre placed his name upon the ceremonial lists of documents (for instance, both the list provided by Panorama and the one in our repository include a very diverse array of conciliar documents and, below them, signatures of bishops - the second list includes not only the above-mentioned documents, but also the only one which the Archbishop publicly praised, Presbyterorum Ordinis).
Irrespective of this, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Lefebvre's biographer and one of the Bishops consecrated by Lefebvre in 1988, had already written that the Archbishop had indeed placed his signature upon the Conciliar documents and among the Conciliar Fathers (Marcel Lefebvre: The Biography, published originally in French in 2002: cf. last pages of Chapter 13). This does not deny the fact that Lefebvre firmly voted against the final drafts both of Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae.
Therefore, the only "new" information in the Panorama article is the attempt to create a false appearance of "scandal" in Italian-speaking Catholic circles in a very delicate moment. We will do our utmost to make clear that the shame is on Panorama, and on those who repeat false reports thoughtlessly.
