Roberto de Mattei
Corrispondenza Romana
July 12, 2017
Forty
years ago a historical event took place: Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre held a
conference on June 6th 1977 at the Pallavicini Palace in Rome, on
the subject “The Church after the
Council”. I think it is worthwhile
to recall that event, on the basis of notes and documents I have kept.
Monsignor
Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (1970), after
the priestly ordinations of June 29th 1976, was suspended a divinis on July 22nd of the
same year. Informed Catholics however,
had serious doubts as to the canonical legitimacy of these measures and in
particular, incomprehension with regard to the behavior of Paul VI who seemed
to reserve his censorships for only those who said they wanted to remain
faithful to Church Tradition. In this
climate of disorientation, in April of 1977, Princess Elvina Pallavicini (1914
-2004) decided to invite Monsignor Lefebvre to her palace in the Quirinal, to hear
his reasoning.
Princess
Pallavicini was 63 years old at the time and the widow of Prince Guglielmo
Pallavicini who had been killed on his first war mission in 1940. For many years she had been in a wheelchair
as a result of progressive paralysis, but she was a woman of indomitable spirit.
She had a close group of friends and
advisors around her, among whom were Marquis Roberto Malvezzi Campeggi
(1907-1979), Colonel of the Papal Noble Guard at the time of the corps’
dissolution in 1970, and Marquis Luigi Coda Nunziante di San Ferdinando
(1930-2015), former Commander of the Italian Navy. Initially, news of the
conference circulating during the month of May did not stir up any concern from
the Vatican. Paul VI thought it would
have been easy to convince the Princess to desist from her idea and entrusted
the task to one of his closest collaborators, “Don Sergio” Pignedoli
(1910-1980) whom he had made a cardinal in 1973.
The
prelate called the Princess and first of all asked kindly about her illness. “I am happy –Elvina Pallavicini noted
ironically - about your interest [in my physical well-being] after such a long period
of silence”. After about an hour of pleasantries the cardinal’s question at
last arrived: “I heard you will be
receiving Monsignor Lefebvre. Will it be a public or private conference?” “
If it is at my home it can only be
private”, the princess replied. The cardinal then ventured: “Wouldn’t it be opportune to postpone it?
Monsignor Lefebvre has made the Holy
Father suffer quite a lot. He is very grieved about this initiative…”
Princess Elvina’s reply chilled Cardinal Pignedoli “Your Eminence, I think I can receive anyone I like in my own home.”
Faced
with this unexpected resistance, the Vatican turned to Prince Aspreno Colonna
(1916-1987), who still occupied, ad
personam, the office of Assistant to the Papal Throne. When the head of
this historic household asked to be received, the Princess told him she was
busy. Prince Colonna asked to visit the next day at the same time, but the
noblewoman’s reply was the same. While the Prince withdrew quietly, the
Secretary of State thought of getting through in another way. Monsignor Andrea Lanza Cordero di Montezemolo, who had just been consecrated Archbishop and named Nuncio to Papua-New Guinea,
asked for an audience with the Princess. The prelate was the son of Colonel
Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo (1901-1944), head of the Monarchic Resistance
in Rome and shot by the Germans at the Fosse Ardeatine. During the German
occupation, the young Princess Elvina had collaborated with him, meriting a
bronze medal of honor. I also took part
in the meeting, but my presence really irritated the future cardinal, who, in
vain, appealed to the memory of his father to avert the upcoming conference.
The Nuncio was told that it was the same resistance of many soldiers to
National Socialism, and how it was necessary at times, to disobey unjust orders
from superiors in order to respect the dictates of one’s conscience.
At
this point the Secretary of State played his last card, by turning to the King
of Italy, Umberto II, in exile in Cascais. Marquis Falcone Lucifero, Minister of the Royal Household, telephoned the
Princess to let her know that the Sovereign had strongly urged her to postpone
the conference. “I’m astonished at how
His Majesty allows himself to be intimidated by the Secretary of State, after
everything the Vatican did to the monarchy”, she replied decisively,
confirming that the conference would be duly held on the date established. Marquis Lucifero, being the elderly gentleman
he was, sent the Princess a bouquet of roses.
At this
point the Vatican decided to use tougher tactics. A real campaign of
psychological terrorism then began in the major daily newspapers presenting the
Princess as an obstinate aristocrat, surrounded by a handful of “nostalgics” in
a world destined to disappear. In
private, it was made known to Donna Elvina that, if the conference was to take
place, she would be excommunicated.
On
May 30th, with a press release to Ansa,
the Princess specified that “her initiative was not motivated by any
intention of challenging ecclesiastic authority, but rather by love and
fidelity to Holy Mother Church and the Magisterium.” “The contrasts in the
conciliar Church – continued the communiqué – unfortunately exist, apart from the person of Monsignor Lefebvre, and
in Italy to no lesser degree, even if less evident than in the rest of the
Catholic world. We intend with the conference on June 6th to offer Monsignor Lefebvre the possibility of
voicing directly his theses in full freedom, precisely with the aim of
clarifying the problems which disturb and grieve the Catholic world so much, in
the certainty that peace and serenity can be brought back again through a
restored unity to the truth:”
On
May 31st, on the front page of the daily newspaper “Il Tempo”, a declaration from Prince Aspreno
Colonna appeared where we read “The Roman
Patriciate dissociates itself from the initiative”, deploring it as “completely inopportune”. The bombshell was
dropped however, on June 5th by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Ugo
Poletti (1914 1997). With a aggressive statement
in the Italian Bishops’ daily newspaper Avvenire,
Poletti attacked Monsignor Lefebvre and “ his
aberrant followers”, defining them as “a
handful of class nostalgics, prisoners
of traditional habits”. He further expressed, “astonishment, pain and sorrow, but the firmest disapproval for the
offence made against the Faith, the Catholic Church and Her Divine Head, Jesus”
, Monsignor Lefebvre having placed in doubt “fundamental truths of the kind relating to the infallibility of the
Catholic Church founded on Peter and his successors, in matters of doctrine and
morals”.
From
the Princess’ headquarters there came an immediate reply: “It is difficult to understand how the private expression of theses
which have been those of all the bishops of the world until a few years ago,
can disturb the security of an authority to such an extent, as it has on its
side the strength of doctrinal continuity and the evidence of its positions.” The
Princess declared: “I am a more than
convinced Apostolic Roman Catholic, seeing that I have reached the true sense
of Religion through the refining of
physical and moral suffering: I owe nothing to anyone, I have no honours
nor prebends to defend, and I thank God for everything. Within the limits that
the Church allows, I may dissent, I may talk, I may act: I have to talk and I
have to act: it would be cowardice not to. And allow me say, that in our Home,
also in this generation, there is no room for the cowardly.”
Finally
the fateful day of June 6th arrived. The conference was carefully reserved for
four hundred invited guests, controlled by “private security” provided by the “Alleanza Cattolica” youth, but there were
more than a thousand who filled up the staircases and the garden of the
historical Rospigliosi-Pallavicini Palace, famous all over the world for its
works of art. Monsignor Lefebvre arrived
accompanied by his young representative in Rome, Don Emanuele du Chalard. Princess Pallavicini went to meet him in her
wheelchair, pushed by her Lady-in Waiting, Donna Elika Del Drago. Princess Virginia Ruspoli, widow of Marescotti,
one of the two hero-princes at the Battle of El Alamein, gave Monsignor Lefebvre a relic of
St. Pius X which had been given to her personally by Pius XII.
Despite
[the fact] that the Grand Priory of the Order of Malta in Rome had expressed “a binding necessity” to abstain from
intervening at the conference, Prince Sforza Ruspoli, Count Fabrizio Sarazani
and some other courageous aristocrats defied the censures of the institution
and were there in the front row, right beside Monsignor François Ducaud Bourget
(1897-1984), who had led the occupation of the Church Saint-Nicolas du
Chardonnet in Paris on February 27th.
Princess
Pallavicini introduced Monsignor Lefebvre and he took his place under the red baldachin
with the coat of Arms of Pope Clement IX, Rospigliosi. The Archbishop after
some moments of prayer, began with these words: “I respect the Holy See. I respect Rome. If I am here it is because I
love this Catholic Rome.” The Catholic
Rome that he had before him interrupted his speech repeatedly with thunderous
applause. The hall was filled to overflowing and a crowd had gathered on the
great staircases of the palace.
The
“Council of aggiornamento” – explained Monsignor Lefebvre – in reality wants a
new definition of the Church. To be “open” and be in communion with all
religions, all ideologies, all cultures, the Church should change its
excessively hierarchal institutions and break up into many National Episcopal
Conferences. The sacraments will insist on initiation and the collective life,
more than the driving out of Satan and sin. The leit-motiv of change will be
ecumenism. The practice of the missionary spirit will disappear. The principle that “every man is Christian and
doesn’t know it” will be proclaimed, so
it doesn’t matter whatever confession is practiced - it is seeking salvation.
The
liturgical and ecumenical changes – continued Monsignor Lefebvre in the hushed
silence of all those present – cause the disappearance of religious vocations
and make for deserted seminaries. The principle of “religious liberty” sounds
outrageous to the Church and Our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is nothing other than
“the right to public confession of a false
religion with no interference from any human authority”.
Monsignor
Lefebvre then lingered for a bit on the post-council’s caving-in to Communism,
referring to the repeated audiences given to Communist leaders by the Holy See;
the agreement not to condemn Communism during the Council; the contemptuous treatment reserved for more
than 450 bishops who asked for this condemnation. On the contrary, dialogue
with Communism was encouraged by nominating pro-Communist bishops like Monsignor
Helder Camara in Brazil, Monsignor Silva Henriques in Chile, and
Monsignor Mendez Arceo in Mexico.
It
is a fact, added Monsignor Lefebvre in conclusion, that numerous Dominicans and
many Jesuits who profess heresies openly are not condemned and bishops who
practice inter-communion, who introduce false religions in their dioceses and
churches, who even end up blessing concubinage, are not even placed under inquiry.
Only faithful Catholics risk being thrown out of churches, persecuted,
condemned. “I have been suspended a divinis because I continue to form priests as they were once formed.”
Turning
to a listener touched by his words, Monsignor Lefebvre concluded his conference
saying: “Today the most serious
obligation for a Catholic is that of conserving the Faith. It is not licit to
obey those who are working to diminish Her or make Her disappear. With Baptism
we asked the Church for the Faith because the Faith conducts us to eternal
life. We will continue to our very last
breath to ask the Church for this Faith.”
The
meeting ended with the singing of the Salve Regina.
The
Vatican reporter, Benny Lai in La Nazione
of June 7th, commented: “Those
who expected a tribune found themselves in front of a man of meek bearing, who,
before inviting those present to recite the Salve Regina, concluded [his
speech], with these worlds: “I don’t want to form a group of any kind, I don’t
want to disobey the Pope, but he must not ask me to become Protestant.”
The conference was a
strategic victory for those who were inappropriately called traditionalists, as
Monsignor Lefebvre managed to make his theses known on the international level,
without [suffering] canonical consequences.
Paul VI died a year
later, devastated by the death of his friend Aldo Moro.
The name of Cardinal Poletti
is still linked to the murky business of the nulla osta he
granted on March 10th 1990, for the entombment of the Banda della
Magliana Boss “Renatino” De Pedis, in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare.
Princess
Pallavicini came out a winner from this “challenge”. Not only was she not excommunicated, but in
the following years her palace became the point of reference for many
cardinals, bishops and Catholic intellectuals. She and her Roman friends were not “phantoms
from the past”, as the Corriere della
Sera defined them on June 7th 1977, but witnesses to the Catholic
Faith who were preparing the future.
Forty years later, history has proven them right.
Translation:
Contributor Francesca Romana
