 On 29 June 1976 , Lefebvre went ahead with planned priestly ordinations without the approval of the local Bishop and despite receiving letters from Rome forbidding them . As a result Lefebvre was suspended a <unk> <unk> , i.e. , forbidden to ordain any priests . A week later , the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops informed him that , to have his situation regularized , he needed to ask the Pope 's pardon . Lefebvre responded with a letter claiming that the modernisation of the Church was a " compromise with the ideas of modern man " originating in a secret agreement between high dignitaries in the Church and senior Freemasons prior to the Council . Lefebvre was then notified that , since he had not apologised to the Pope , he was suspended a <unk> , i.e. , he could no longer legally administer any of the sacraments . Lefebvre remarked that he had been forbidden from celebrating the new rite of Mass . Pope Paul VI apparently took this seriously and stated that Lefebvre " thought he dodged the penalty by administering the sacraments using the previous formulas . " In spite of his suspension , Lefebvre continued to pray Mass and to administer the other Sacraments , including the conferral of Holy Orders to the students of his seminary . 
