Rorate Caeli

Bad news from Fréjus-Toulon [UPDATED]

Bishop Dominique Rey meets with his clergy, September 15, 2022

As reported on Gloria-TV, Bishop Rey of Frejus-Toulon, who has been placed under curatorship, told a priests' meeting of further restrictions imposed on him by the Congregation for Bishops following the ban on ordinations scheduled for July.

♦ All orders and communities in the diocese must undergo a visitation by Vatican commissioners;

♦ Bishop Rey can no longer admit new communities to the diocese;

♦ All priests serving in the diocese are required to concelebrate at Chrism Masses and "if necessary" to officiate as presiders at Novus Ordo Eucharistic celebrations;

♦ The approval of the Council of Priests is required for the admission of new priests to the diocese.

These orders, whose legal admissibility would have to be examined by jurists, are in any case consistently in line with Traditionis Traditores and show in an exemplary manner the means by which Rome wants to destroy the traditional liturgy after all, which has proven to be so extremely vital. While the heretics of the Synodal Way and of pseudo-marriage for same-sex couples can continue their work of destruction with the very highest wink, the adherents of the Church of two millennia are marginalized and ever more brutally forced out of the Church. In the new church of the spirit of the age, nothing shall ever again remind us of the past Church of the Holy Spirit.

Of course, the enterprise will fail. The question is how long it will take for this insight to take hold in Rome as well. The second question is how the congregations and communities that want to preserve fidelity to the traditional doctrine and liturgy can best succeed in resisting the pressure exerted on them from all sides by the traitors to the faith. 

Michael Charlier
September 22, 2022

UPDATE (September 24):

I was contacted by Fr. Carlos Hamel, who works in the chancery of the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, and wished to offer some clarifications. I am happy to publish them here for the record. 

"I just wanted to clarify a couple of points of the information you published in Rorate Caeli regarding our diocese. I am of course aware that you published something another person has written. If I am not mistaken, this meeting with priests became known because the diocese itself published the news:

"These measures are not sanctions 'imposed' by the Congregation of Bishops, but decisions made by the bishop, and transmitted to the Congregation (cf. diocesan website: l’évêque a exposé les décisions transmises à la Congrégation des évêques).

"There is no visitation scheduled for communities in the diocese. What the bishop wants is a report on the situation of each community ('état des lieux'). There are no Vatican commissioners visiting communities. Of course, there can be visitations commissioned by the bishop (or the Holy See) in the future, as has been the case in the recent past. I know that the diocesan website speaks about visiteurs, which is of course a source of confusion.

"While it is true that all priests serving in the diocese are expected to concelebrate at the Chrism mass and to say the Ordinary Form when needed, this has been the official policy of the diocese since at least 2020 (and informally since before that). As you can see, the information published by the diocese doesn't mention this point, as it was not an issue during the meeting. It is important to note that there are no (ex) Ecclesia Dei communities in the diocese.

"Of course, nothing prevents the Holy See from taking action regarding any of the aforementioned points, but I just wanted to clarify the situation as it is today."