Bishop Dagens
From the blog of the Society of St. John Chrysostom:
The Tablet - Bishop denounces Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch
The above blog post not only reproduces the Tablet article, but also provides a detailed chronicle of Bishop Claude Dagens' attack on Patriarch Gregory III on Radio Notre-Dame and the Patriarch's response. Bishop Dagens also called for a war to topple the Assad regime, in the opposite sense of the Pope's insistent calls for peaceful and negotiated solutions.
Le Salon Beige's brief report on the matter quotes the Bishop as saying during his interview: Il faut faire très attention à ne pas diaboliser tous les jihadistes! (We must be very careful not to demonize all jihadists!)
To our knowledge, not a single Latin-Rite Bishop has stood up so far in defense of the Melkite Patriarch.
Claude Dagens, Ordinary of the Diocese of Angoulême since 1993, is no "ordinary" French bishop, being the sole Catholic cleric who is an immortel of the Académie française, occupying Seat No. 1. It will be of interest to our readers (though not a complete surprise) that he happens to be one of the few French bishops who have completely blocked the application of Summorum Pontificum in his diocese, with the result that the sole Traditional Latin Mass in his diocese is served by the Fraternity of the Transfiguration, which is affiliated with the SSPX.
