Rebel priest wary

Press, 29 August 1978, Page 9

Rebel priest wary

NZPA-Reuter Econe (Switzerland) The rebel traditionalist priest, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, has said he is surprised and concerned at the election of Patriach Albino Luciani, of Venice, as the new Pope. Speaking at the end of a Lath Mass celebrated in the open air at his seminary headquarters near the southern Swiss village of Econe. Monsignor Lefebvre said that the new Pope’s choice of John Paul as his name “could be an ill omen” for traditionalist* if he continued the reformist line initiated by the two previous Popes with these names. Monsignor Lefebvre, suspended from al! priestly ; powers by Pope Paul VI for I defying the Vatican reforms i started by Pope John XXIII, said he was surprised at the ' speed with which the new i Pontiff was elected and I asked himself whether it had jbeen arraneed in advance.

The archbishop, said in a! ■ separate interview with I French television, that he . was worried at the name choice "but we hope that it alludes rather to Saint John and Saint Paul.” He “’aid that he wished to meet Pope John Paul. “I shall wait until he summons me, but I wish very! much to go to Rome,” the! archbishop said. j