The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

So Who Says the Pope isn't
interested in Traditionalists ?

September 8, 2006

Fr Philippe Laguérie - Superior General of the new
Traditionalist Fraternity of the Good Shepherd

Well the news of the day has got to be the Pope's approval of a new Traditional order. Regular readers of this column will have seen Frs Paul Aulagnier, Philippe Laguérie, Guillaume de Tanouärn and Christophe Héry referenced here before. Well these four priests were all expelled from the Society of St Pius X for amongst other things suggesting the SSPX should do a deal with Rome. Well the four together with Fr Henri Forestier (who works with Laguérie in Bordeaux, France) have been given the green light to set up a new religious institute known as the Fraternity of the Good Shepherd.

Before we all start getting our hopes up, the institute (as clarified by Cardinal Ricard, president of the French Bishops' Conference and also the diocesan bishop where the Fraternity will be headquartered - Bordeaux) is approved ad experimentum for 5 years. According to news' reports, they already have ordinations scheduled with Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos - the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and the head of the Ecclesia Dei commission (Traditionalists' department). In addition several seminarians are already a feature of the group and a seminary has been set up as well. All of this re-birth of Tradition, takes place, interestingly enough, on the birth of Our Lady, Mother of the Church.

I have dealt with the manner in which these priests were dismissed from the Society before but several observations now come to mind:

1/ When Fr Aulagnier posted a detailed proposal for the new institute earlier this year on his website I was extremely skeptical. By this I mean that I thought Father was a victim of his own wishful thinking. He wanted a deal with Rome but the likelihood of such a deal happening was very slim. Then I read a few weeks ago that Fr. Laguérie was trying to fix up a deal with Rome - "Good luck" I thought. Well now it seems I need a little more confidence in the Pope and his desire to bring Traditionalists back into the fold.

2/ Since this accord has been granted to priests expelled and abandoned by the Society of St Pius X, where does the hand of friendship to these priests leave the Society ? I am sure that Pope Benedict XVI does not intend by this action to slap Fellay in the face, but objectively to make a deal for these priests that Fellay fired for advocating making a deal with Rome can be seen in two ways: the Pope is demonstrating his good will and hopes the SSPX will "wise up" or the Pope is by-passing the SSPX and showing the world he can still make a deal for Trads without the monolith of the SSPX ever reconciling. I do not believe the SSPX en masse will ever reconcile, the seeds of schism are too ingrained. As one blogger recently observed (correctly, for once, in my opinion):

"These priests have been such big names in the SSPX and could take with them a sizeable chunk of its followers in France who are unhappy with the Society's management and seminary performance. I think the use of the historic church in Bordeaux will be lost to the Society. France is its heartland and such a Vatican move will be seen as something of a coup."

Note: Actually the church was already lost to the Society in 2004 when Fellay through incompetence kicked Frs. Laguérie and Héry out - the people (more power to them) recognized an injustice and stood by their priests.

3/ According to the I Media French news agency that broke the story the intention behind erecting this institute was to demonstrate that the Tridentine Rite of Mass was another form of the Roman Rite. In other words, Rome wants to heal the divergence between the Pauline Missal and the Pian Missal and wants both to be seen as two equally acceptable forms of the Roman Rite.

4/ Also according to this accord - a precedent is being set. The new Fraternity has been erected of Pontifical right. This means it is directly under the protection of Rome and cannot be interfered with by local bishops. To erect an institute of Pontifical right directly under Rome for five priests is highly unusual to say the least. Normally institutes are erected as Diocesan right (under the authority of the local bishop) and later upgraded as they found new houses in other dioceses to Pontifical right. Evidently this speaks volumes about what Rome perceives as the danger of local bishops not cooperating as Rome sees fit.

5/ In an interesting twist Cardinal Ricard (the local bishop) issued a statement in which he said that the founding of the institute is "only the beginning" that concrete measures have yet to be put in place and that he is responding to the request of Rome. Clearly the ball was moved from his court and Ratzinger's Rome will brook no opposition to an oft-stated goal - the regularization of all trads who want to be united to the Pope.

6/ In addition to all the concessions granted so far, a very interesting feature was included - those groups or chapels regularizing with Rome would become personal parishes directly under the control of Rome. It sounds like Rome expects to bypass the usual diocesan structure altogether. This concession is strictly for France, but it could be used successfully elsewhere. I think the Pope is using this as a test case to see how well it works.

Definitely a huge step forward, how it plays out we shall watch with interest !

+TF