New Pope sees rebel prelate

Press, 21 November 1978, Page 9

New Pope sees rebel prelate

1 ! NZPA-Reuter Rome * Pope John Paul 11. in a; surprise gesture aimed at Church unity has met the! French rebel archbishop,! I Marcel Lefebvre, whose tra-l .ditionalist movement has! ;challenged Vatican authority! I for the past three years. ‘ I Monsignor Lefebvre, aged i 72. suspended from all; priestly' duties by the late; Pope Paul VI in July, 1976.; was at. his own request re-! iceived by the new Polish! ! pontiff, a Vatican spokesman ■ ihas disclosed. He declined to give fur-1 ther details of the Pope’s! meeting with the con-; troversial prelate, whose de-: fiance of Papal authority] John Paul inherited from hisi predecessors. ! The French archbishop came close to causing a! schism within the Church j with his tough stand against the liberal reforms of the! 1962-65 Vatican Council. The audience, only one] month after Pope John Paul; took office, showed the’ Pope's concern over the rift; between the Vatican and the; ; ardent conservative move-; ment headed by the French; prelate. Crash toll 15 Fifteen persons were ] killed on Saturday when a] two-engined Twin Otter] plane crashed at sea near; the island of Marie-Galante, I south of Pointe a Pitre, Gua-| delupe. Five survivors were I rescued by fishermen. — Pointe a Pitre.