During a conference held in February in the seminary in Zaitzkofen, Archbishop Lefebvre once again elaborated on his concern with regard to the perpetuation of the Catholic priesthood.
“How do you see the future? How will you provide for your succession? These are the questions that everyone asks me.
“First of all we have to put ourselves into the historical context in which we find ourselves, because it is the sign from Providence.
“I always wished to follow Providence and not anticipate it. Now, currently the signs of Providence are clear: Rome is steadily losing the Faith. Not that everybody is a heretic, but many are losing the faith.
“Rome’s influence is exerted on the whole Church, on the dioceses, on all the institutions, and no one can dispute the fact that currently there are no longer any traditional seminaries in the world, apart from those of the Society. Even though some have a rather traditional appearance, such as Cardinal Siri’s seminary in Genoa, or the one in Regensburg in the Federal Republic of Germany, or the one in Spain, or even the seminary in Paray-le-Monial, they are all under the influence of Vatican II. They wear the cassock sometimes, in the ceremonies there is a certain discipline, a form of piety, but they accept religious liberty, ecumenism, the new liturgy, collegiality, the new Canon Law, in short, everything that comes from Vatican II. The liberal, modernist spirit has infiltrated those seminaries.
“I do not know a single one in which they have faithfully kept what we preserve in our seminaries.
“When I die, who will continue the Catholic priesthood? You don’t form priests in just any old way. The Catholic priesthood supports the mind of the Church and perpetuates the work of Redemption of Our Lord Jesus Christ through the Church, through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, through the sacraments, through the integral Faith, through Tradition. It is simple."