The following is a translation from the Summorum Pontificum blog. If there are mistakes in the translation please let me know. The French Catholic blogosphere is extremely active, and a lot of interesting things are being reported. Apologies for not being able to post on all the developments. CAP.
Monsignor Vingt-Trois asks that the “demanders” of the Motu proprio be condemned
Cardinal Vingt-Trois does not fade (in his opinions -- CAP)! According to him, the Pope, with the Motu Proprio has given ammunition to the “integrists” against the poor bishops of France.
Besides, the magazine Golias, on the extreme left, is not less frightened, and had as the headline of its last issue (February 4) “L’offensive Tradi” (The Tradi offensive).
And now, after the latest visit to Rome of Cardinal Vingt-Trois as President of the French Bishops’ conference, rumor has it that he has put pressure on the Holy Chair in order to obtain a “ condemnation” by Cardinal Levada, President of the commission Ecclesia Dei and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, of the insupportable activity of those who demand masses according to the extraordinary form.
Nothing but that! It is the old flashes of Pius XI against L’Action Francaise, but hurled today against Le Grec (a group formed to support Pope Benedict XVI, Groupe de Réflexion Entre Catholiques -- CAP) , Paix Liturgique, Soutien-a-Thiberville, Le Forum Catholique et alii.
Cardinal Vingt-Trois has never hidden the fact that he did not understand the “obliging attitude” of Rome vis-à-vis the traditional world. Before the publication of the Motu Proprio, he said and repeated, publicly as well as in private, among his colleagues and to the organizations of the Holy See during one of his journeys to Rome, that the traditional masses offered in France and especially in Paris, were largely sufficient in order to meet the need (for such Masses - CAP), and that moreover the congregation in these celebrations are composed of latent opponents of the ecclesiology of Vatican II, politically to be ranged among the “Maurrassiens” (supporters of Charles Maurras – CAP), who constantly employ, for instance at Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet and in Port-Marly in the diocese of Versailles, subversive means (and for good reason…) in order to impose their pretended right to the traditional worship. One even says, using the sometimes “green” language of the cardinal that “ the demanders are nothing but a bunch of troublemakers” (apparently a play on emmerdeur, "pain in the a__" -- CAP.) And then one adds that unfortunately all of this has been finally authorized by the Pope.
(All of this has caused) panic in the presbyteries of the capital. We have to add that the climate in the diocese of Paris is quite particular. The strong personality of Cardinal Lustiger has, for a long time, erased or reduced to silence every thought tending to the “left” as well as to the “right”. Especially among the parish priests of Paris, all of whom were “lustigériens”, are today all “vingtroisiens” to the last man. An authoritarian way of handling the administration, and easy-going financial and human administration, have led to an astonishing “standardization” (at least in appearance), comforted by an intellectual and social self-satisfaction among the superior diocesan caste. The conformism customary in the clerical world has done the rest: in Paris one is afraid of one’s fear at the moment of entering into very sensible areas, as is for instance the quality of the theology taught in the École Cathédrale, the program – astonishing to say the least – of the Lent conferences in the Notre-Dame-cathedral, and above all the demand for the traditional liturgy.
In this domain the Motu Proprio of 2007, accompanied by so many demands from the laymen, by various actions, by the creation of “stable groups”, petitions, open or sealed letters, requests of all kind, has created an extremely heavy climate due to the systematically systematic blockade by the arch-episcopal system. The mistrust and the locking moreover have given an inordinate importance to a pressure that is actually modest, albeit insistent, made by the demanders of the traditional liturgy.
As in all situations of this kind, this of course only exists because of the auto-censure made by those whom one does not dare to call “members of the party”, but who actually dare not behave in any other way. It would be enough for just one Parisian parish priest, just one, to dare to simply say: “As for me, I will obey the Pope”, for the house of cards to fall down. But there is nobody who does it. And the pressure rises and rises! So much more because the state of the clerical world of today which makes it – even in Paris and the Paris region – is extremely vulnerable to public opinion and it is very hard for it to resist the “power of laymen”, empowered, it seems, by Vatican II, but which it abhors since the laymen in question are not roused, formed and made dull by the institution. The Internet, in its sites and its forums, has moreover multiplied the power of the revindication of the traditional liturgy by laymen who do not belong to the herd. The web-site Periscopus and similar ones, are they not denounced by Golias as a real scourge which “putrefies” the Church of France, because it – yes, it is Golias that says it ! – they “multiply provocations and denounce in a specially odious manner” liturgical abuses? The bishops of Paris for their part have their eyes directed on, and their thoughts obsessed by, groups who make them believe – and maybe it is true! – that they are listened to by the nunciatures and by Rome: MotuParis14, Paix liturgique, Motu Proprio France, Réuni-catho, Dale, Grec, Le Pèlerinage de Chrétienté, Dici, Le Forum catholique, Osservatore Vaticano, your servant of Summorum Pontificum, Le Salon Beige, Maximilien Bernard, Radio Courtoisie, etc.
Because they perform group actions (“stable groups”) that put pressure, they must necessarily be people whom one does best not to frequent. Well, even though they are laymen without a stamp, they would like to “dialogue”!
The longer the months pass by, it is a real psychosis, a nightmare with eyes open – the MOTU PROPRIO !!! – being installed: the bishops are said to be “dragged through the mud” ( = the sites and newspapers favorable to the Motu Proprio say that they do not obey the Pope); and the “commando operations” (= recitation of a rosary after the mass celebrated by a parish priest who did not wish to offer an extraordinary mass for fear of the archbishop) are said to be multiplying. The parish priests are said to be “harassed” (= they receive letters from stable groups who desperately demand the application of the right to have extraordinary parish masses celebrated to them). And all of this because the Pope has given them the possibility!
This is the back-ground to why now the Cardinal of Paris directs himself to the Pope and asks for his help… to remain Gallican. But the Cardinal knows what he is doing – even though being as little Roman as possible, the bishops remain the pivots of the divine constitution of the Church. Either Rome exchanges the bishops – which would take some time – or it supports those that it has nominated. Thus the Roman congregations are very embarrassed when the Archbishop of Paris asks them to take their distance from those who say that they are more Catholic than their Bishops. The Catholics are not wrong, thinks the Cardinal Prefect, but these bishops are after all nominated by Rome… So what to do?
On the other hand Mons. Vingt-Trois knows that there are precedents to the embarrassment which is felt in Rome and that a certain number of times in the past Rome in the end opened its eyes wide, for instance, to Cardinal Pitra and the integral Catholics because they had shown themselves a bit too recalcitrant to the Gallican bishops. But today, after some well chosen words to the Cardinal of Paris, one will look twice to the matter before taking any action:
– At first, because Cardinal Vingt-Trois is not exactly the ideal correspondent for the Holy See in a country such as France ;
– and then, because in the middle of the discussions with SSPX, Cardinal Levada, as little as he might know about the French problems, does not need a long explanation in order to understand which disastrous effect on the “outdoor” tradis a pawn given by Rome to the President of the episcopal conference to be used against the“indoor” tradis could have;
– and finally, because on the other side of the Tiber one knows that the weight of the traditionalism of all kinds (of all hairs and feathers) is more important, in proportion, in our “douce France” than anywhere else. The adherents of traditionalism belong to the “new Catholicism" of France: that is how it is! On the whole, Cardinal Vingt-Trois would like to condemn those who were among the makers of the enormous success of the mass celebrated by the Pope at the Invalides in 2008. But the Romans of the Curia are not crazy as those of Asterix.
What then will Rome do? Since many centuries back, the Curia of the Pope has known how to play in a marvelous way on all keyboards and registers of the diplomatic organ. First of all it makes use of the normal procedure in such cases … that of which the present article is a beneficiary: the distillation of a rumor. Thus one makes surreptitiously (and suddenly today also on Internet) the information that Cardinal André Vingt-Trois is pleads to Rome against those who demand masses according to the extraordinary form. By this measure one hope that those demanders maybe will calm down a little bit by themselves. Not too much, however, because it is necessary that they maintain the pressure. “And then – after that we will see…”
And oh, I forgot to say the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris, who is President of the Episcopal Conference, who in his office has received around thirty very serious demands for Sunday celebrations in the parishes of Paris has only granted two in accordance with the Motu Proprio of 2007.
Two? That is too much to say. More exactly it was one, and it was in Ste-Jeanne-de-Chantal, at … noon, and another one in Notre Dame du Travail …. at 6 p.m. and only three Sundays out of four. Marvelous “obedience” to the Pope by the Cardinal of Paris. Who, for his part, would like to be obeyed in his disobedience and without discussion. And to receive the support of the Pope, to crown it all!
Monsignor Vingt-Trois asks that the “demanders” of the Motu proprio be condemned
Cardinal Vingt-Trois does not fade (in his opinions -- CAP)! According to him, the Pope, with the Motu Proprio has given ammunition to the “integrists” against the poor bishops of France.
Besides, the magazine Golias, on the extreme left, is not less frightened, and had as the headline of its last issue (February 4) “L’offensive Tradi” (The Tradi offensive).
And now, after the latest visit to Rome of Cardinal Vingt-Trois as President of the French Bishops’ conference, rumor has it that he has put pressure on the Holy Chair in order to obtain a “ condemnation” by Cardinal Levada, President of the commission Ecclesia Dei and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, of the insupportable activity of those who demand masses according to the extraordinary form.
Nothing but that! It is the old flashes of Pius XI against L’Action Francaise, but hurled today against Le Grec (a group formed to support Pope Benedict XVI, Groupe de Réflexion Entre Catholiques -- CAP) , Paix Liturgique, Soutien-a-Thiberville, Le Forum Catholique et alii.
Cardinal Vingt-Trois has never hidden the fact that he did not understand the “obliging attitude” of Rome vis-à-vis the traditional world. Before the publication of the Motu Proprio, he said and repeated, publicly as well as in private, among his colleagues and to the organizations of the Holy See during one of his journeys to Rome, that the traditional masses offered in France and especially in Paris, were largely sufficient in order to meet the need (for such Masses - CAP), and that moreover the congregation in these celebrations are composed of latent opponents of the ecclesiology of Vatican II, politically to be ranged among the “Maurrassiens” (supporters of Charles Maurras – CAP), who constantly employ, for instance at Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet and in Port-Marly in the diocese of Versailles, subversive means (and for good reason…) in order to impose their pretended right to the traditional worship. One even says, using the sometimes “green” language of the cardinal that “ the demanders are nothing but a bunch of troublemakers” (apparently a play on emmerdeur, "pain in the a__" -- CAP.) And then one adds that unfortunately all of this has been finally authorized by the Pope.
(All of this has caused) panic in the presbyteries of the capital. We have to add that the climate in the diocese of Paris is quite particular. The strong personality of Cardinal Lustiger has, for a long time, erased or reduced to silence every thought tending to the “left” as well as to the “right”. Especially among the parish priests of Paris, all of whom were “lustigériens”, are today all “vingtroisiens” to the last man. An authoritarian way of handling the administration, and easy-going financial and human administration, have led to an astonishing “standardization” (at least in appearance), comforted by an intellectual and social self-satisfaction among the superior diocesan caste. The conformism customary in the clerical world has done the rest: in Paris one is afraid of one’s fear at the moment of entering into very sensible areas, as is for instance the quality of the theology taught in the École Cathédrale, the program – astonishing to say the least – of the Lent conferences in the Notre-Dame-cathedral, and above all the demand for the traditional liturgy.
In this domain the Motu Proprio of 2007, accompanied by so many demands from the laymen, by various actions, by the creation of “stable groups”, petitions, open or sealed letters, requests of all kind, has created an extremely heavy climate due to the systematically systematic blockade by the arch-episcopal system. The mistrust and the locking moreover have given an inordinate importance to a pressure that is actually modest, albeit insistent, made by the demanders of the traditional liturgy.
As in all situations of this kind, this of course only exists because of the auto-censure made by those whom one does not dare to call “members of the party”, but who actually dare not behave in any other way. It would be enough for just one Parisian parish priest, just one, to dare to simply say: “As for me, I will obey the Pope”, for the house of cards to fall down. But there is nobody who does it. And the pressure rises and rises! So much more because the state of the clerical world of today which makes it – even in Paris and the Paris region – is extremely vulnerable to public opinion and it is very hard for it to resist the “power of laymen”, empowered, it seems, by Vatican II, but which it abhors since the laymen in question are not roused, formed and made dull by the institution. The Internet, in its sites and its forums, has moreover multiplied the power of the revindication of the traditional liturgy by laymen who do not belong to the herd. The web-site Periscopus and similar ones, are they not denounced by Golias as a real scourge which “putrefies” the Church of France, because it – yes, it is Golias that says it ! – they “multiply provocations and denounce in a specially odious manner” liturgical abuses? The bishops of Paris for their part have their eyes directed on, and their thoughts obsessed by, groups who make them believe – and maybe it is true! – that they are listened to by the nunciatures and by Rome: MotuParis14, Paix liturgique, Motu Proprio France, Réuni-catho, Dale, Grec, Le Pèlerinage de Chrétienté, Dici, Le Forum catholique, Osservatore Vaticano, your servant of Summorum Pontificum, Le Salon Beige, Maximilien Bernard, Radio Courtoisie, etc.
Because they perform group actions (“stable groups”) that put pressure, they must necessarily be people whom one does best not to frequent. Well, even though they are laymen without a stamp, they would like to “dialogue”!
The longer the months pass by, it is a real psychosis, a nightmare with eyes open – the MOTU PROPRIO !!! – being installed: the bishops are said to be “dragged through the mud” ( = the sites and newspapers favorable to the Motu Proprio say that they do not obey the Pope); and the “commando operations” (= recitation of a rosary after the mass celebrated by a parish priest who did not wish to offer an extraordinary mass for fear of the archbishop) are said to be multiplying. The parish priests are said to be “harassed” (= they receive letters from stable groups who desperately demand the application of the right to have extraordinary parish masses celebrated to them). And all of this because the Pope has given them the possibility!
This is the back-ground to why now the Cardinal of Paris directs himself to the Pope and asks for his help… to remain Gallican. But the Cardinal knows what he is doing – even though being as little Roman as possible, the bishops remain the pivots of the divine constitution of the Church. Either Rome exchanges the bishops – which would take some time – or it supports those that it has nominated. Thus the Roman congregations are very embarrassed when the Archbishop of Paris asks them to take their distance from those who say that they are more Catholic than their Bishops. The Catholics are not wrong, thinks the Cardinal Prefect, but these bishops are after all nominated by Rome… So what to do?
On the other hand Mons. Vingt-Trois knows that there are precedents to the embarrassment which is felt in Rome and that a certain number of times in the past Rome in the end opened its eyes wide, for instance, to Cardinal Pitra and the integral Catholics because they had shown themselves a bit too recalcitrant to the Gallican bishops. But today, after some well chosen words to the Cardinal of Paris, one will look twice to the matter before taking any action:
– At first, because Cardinal Vingt-Trois is not exactly the ideal correspondent for the Holy See in a country such as France ;
– and then, because in the middle of the discussions with SSPX, Cardinal Levada, as little as he might know about the French problems, does not need a long explanation in order to understand which disastrous effect on the “outdoor” tradis a pawn given by Rome to the President of the episcopal conference to be used against the“indoor” tradis could have;
– and finally, because on the other side of the Tiber one knows that the weight of the traditionalism of all kinds (of all hairs and feathers) is more important, in proportion, in our “douce France” than anywhere else. The adherents of traditionalism belong to the “new Catholicism" of France: that is how it is! On the whole, Cardinal Vingt-Trois would like to condemn those who were among the makers of the enormous success of the mass celebrated by the Pope at the Invalides in 2008. But the Romans of the Curia are not crazy as those of Asterix.
What then will Rome do? Since many centuries back, the Curia of the Pope has known how to play in a marvelous way on all keyboards and registers of the diplomatic organ. First of all it makes use of the normal procedure in such cases … that of which the present article is a beneficiary: the distillation of a rumor. Thus one makes surreptitiously (and suddenly today also on Internet) the information that Cardinal André Vingt-Trois is pleads to Rome against those who demand masses according to the extraordinary form. By this measure one hope that those demanders maybe will calm down a little bit by themselves. Not too much, however, because it is necessary that they maintain the pressure. “And then – after that we will see…”
And oh, I forgot to say the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris, who is President of the Episcopal Conference, who in his office has received around thirty very serious demands for Sunday celebrations in the parishes of Paris has only granted two in accordance with the Motu Proprio of 2007.
Two? That is too much to say. More exactly it was one, and it was in Ste-Jeanne-de-Chantal, at … noon, and another one in Notre Dame du Travail …. at 6 p.m. and only three Sundays out of four. Marvelous “obedience” to the Pope by the Cardinal of Paris. Who, for his part, would like to be obeyed in his disobedience and without discussion. And to receive the support of the Pope, to crown it all!
