Last week it was stated that the essence of today’s crisis of the Church consists in the Vatican II split between Catholic Authority and Catholic Truth, when the highest authorities in the Church, assembled in Council, officially abandoned Church Tradition for “church” modernisation. This meant that from then on Catholics had to choose: either cling to Authority by “obeying” the modernists and abandoning Tradition, or cling to Truth and defy more or less the apparent Church “authorities.” Or they can choose any one of several possible combinations of part Truth and part Authority anywhere between the two poles.
As for Archbishop Lefebvre, his choice was as much respect as possible for Authority in Rome as would be consistent with not abandoning Tradition (because Catholic Truth can only be in accordance with Tradition). But when in 1988 the Roman authorities backed him up against the wall by their implicit refusal to look after Tradition, then for him doctrine (Truth) finally took precedence over diplomacy (towards Authority, finally truthless). And so he defied the Romans by consecrating four bishops, in “Operation Survival,” instead of “obeying” truthless Authority in what would have been “Operation Suicide.” “Operation Survival” ensured for his Society over two more decades of the primacy of doctrine (Truth), but then by striving to obtain official approval for the Society, his successors turned the Society into the Newsociety, by preferring Authority (recognition by Rome) to Truth (the defence of the Faith). They were giving up on the Archbishop’s heart and soul – the heroic defence of that Truth which is the heart and soul of the Church. Their Newsociety might be more popular and more comfortable, but it would no longer be the stuff of martyrs.
https://stmarcelinitiative.com/79-seminarians-ii/