[3] The group soon established a steering committee, of archbishops Lefebvre and Proença Sigaud, bishops Luigi Maria Carli (Segni), Antônio de Castro Mayer (Campos, Brazil).
The Group had many contacts in the Papal Curia who shared their traditionalist point of view, and in the early years of the Council they were effective in using these back channels to make their opinions known at the highest levels.
[19] These moves were not always successful; between the third and fourth sessions the group was repudiated by Cardinal Cicognani, the Vatican Secretary of State, for their divisive influence on the assembly.
[20] On specific issues, they failed to defeat the constitution on the liturgy, which introduced the vernacular and gave greater authority to episcopal conferences, or the decree on ecumenism, which some say undermined the traditional belief that the Catholic Church was the unique path to salvation.
[13] Perhaps their greatest success involved a last minute papal intervention, where Pope Paul VI insisted on the insertion of an explanatory note into the document on the Church, which significantly weakened the force of its claims for collegiality.