Monseigneur Claude Dagens, Bishop of Angoulême (Charente, France), is no ordinary Ordinary. As we said in
September, when we reported his open stance against the Eastern Catholic bishops in the Middle East, he is currently "the sole Catholic cleric who is an
immortel of the Académie française" -- whose earlier membership abounded in clerics -- "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."
Anyway, in a visit to the Vatican this weekend, Bp. Dagens made a miraculously rare use of the cassock, with his "official" and not often used pectoral "cross" (a pendant, in fact), of remarkable qualities:
Is that a book? How académique! A book, the alpha and omega, the heart, the barely visible cross: this pendant is a thing of beauty. Yet all that glitters is not gold...
