 Lefebvre declared that he and the other clerics involved had not " separated themselves from Rome " and were therefore not schismatic . He invoked canon 1323 of the 1983 Code of Canon law that they " found themselves in a case of necessity " , not having succeeded , as they said , in making " Rome " understand that " this change which has occurred in the Church " since the Second Vatican Council was " not Catholic " . In a letter addressed to the four priests he was about to consecrate as bishops , Lefebvre wrote : " I do not think one can say that Rome has not lost the Faith . " 
