Ecône—A Symptom

Inside and outside the Catholic Church, they are talking about-Ecône, the. rebellious seminary in Switzerland. The resistance of its founder and head highlights the crisis of the Catholic Church—and of Western civilization.

It all started in 1970 when—-at-the behest of Archbishop Lefebvre—Bishop Charrière of Geneva, Lausanne, and Fribourg signed a decree sanctioning a new association of priests, the Confraternity of Saint Pius X. The name is significant: it was Pius X (1903-1914) who crushed the first wave of modernism in the Catholic Church, and Archbishop Lefebvre is profoundly worried about similar tendencies now. The theologians who ignore the injunctions not to conform to the A ion (the world and the times) have naturally affected the theological schools and the seminaries. For this. reason the Confraternity, decided to start seminaries of its own. The first one was founded in Econe, but plans were made for others in Switzerland, France, Britain, and the United States. Not only did Archbishop Lefebvre receive generous aid from Catholics of all nations, but the number of enthusiastic young men who flocked to Ecône was impressive. Ecône’s success was all the more surprising in view of the fact that the discipline was severe. and strictly pre-Conciliar, theology was not taught as a set of humanitarian opinions, and ritual and devotion continued in their traditional way—the Tridentine Mass in Latin.

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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Inside and outside the Catholic Church, they are talking about-Ecône, the. rebellious seminary in Switzerland. The resistance of its founder and head highlights the crisis of the Catholic Church—and of Western civilization.

It all started in 1970 when—-at-the behest of Archbishop Lefebvre—Bishop Charrière of Geneva, Lausanne, and Fribourg signed a decree sanctioning a new association of priests, the Confraternity of Saint Pius X. The name is significant: it was Pius X (1903-1914) who crushed the first wave of modernism in the Catholic Church, and Archbishop Lefebvre is profoundly worried about similar tendencies now. The theologians who ignore the injunctions not to conform to the A ion (the world and the times) have naturally affected the theological schools and the seminaries. For this. reason the Confraternity, decided to start seminaries of its own. The first one was founded in Econe, but plans were made for others in Switzerland, France, Britain, and the United States. Not only did Archbishop Lefebvre receive generous aid from Catholics of all nations, but the number of enthusiastic young men who flocked to Ecône was impressive. Ecône’s success was all the more surprising in view of the fact that the discipline was severe. and strictly pre-Conciliar, theology was not taught as a set of humanitarian opinions, and ritual and devotion continued in their traditional way—the Tridentine Mass in Latin.