And whose fault is that, Most Reverend Archbishop?
Monseigneur Yves Patenôtre has been a bishop since 1994, and Archbishop of Sens-Auxerre (and Prelate of Mission de France) since 2004. And, in an article on a talk he had with a faithful who complained of giving to the Church's tithing campaign when he had not had a priest available for important moments of his life, Patenôtre wrote:
I told him what I often mention: "In almost twenty years of episcopate, I have buried one hundred and twenty priests, and I have ordained only one in the dioceses of Yonne [Sens] and the Jura [Saint-Claude, whose bishop he was from 1994 to 2004]."
And the article goes on with platitudes on how important it is to give and that the Church's foundations are her priests, and that many who are called are not willing to follow their vocation (all true, of course). But his admission is an absolutely shameful thing for a bishop to say because it is not joined by a public declaration of his grievous personal fault for this state of affairs.
As we have always said, the crisis of the Church is indeed a crisis of bishops first of all.
[Source: Riposte Catholique]
