This time it's certain: the new Mass—"celebrated worthily," course!—is coming, discreetly but surely, into all the houses of the Institute of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit, i.e. the mother house in Pontcallec (diocese of Vannes), the École du Fort in Nantes, La Baffe in the diocese of Epinal, and Saint-Cloud in the diocese of Nanterre.
In fact, they have been asked from now on to make use of priests who are willing to celebrate the Novus Ordo, with two consequences: first, the gradual sidelining of priests belonging to the Fraternity of Saint Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, etc., in favor of diocesan priests only, as is already the case at Saint-Cloud, where the parish has taken over the school chaplaincy; second, the introduction of Novus Ordo in the various houses of the Institute, which at the outset is alleged to be exceptional but is supposed to become more frequent.
Within the Institute, which was already in a bad way with hardly any new vocations, there is now a veritable haemorrhage. To the twenty or so Sisters, novices or professed, who have left the Institute or have been exclaustrated these past 10 years (out of a community of barely 100), four more exclaustrated Sisters have recently been added. In other words, almost one-fifth of the Sisters have left and more are about to do so. For other reasons, one Sister among the latest arrivals has asked to be relieved of her temporary vows
"The vow of obedience has been completely hijacked"
In an institute whose specific identity included the traditional Mass, the upheavals of recent years—including treatment of Mother Marie Ferréol, who was dismissed from the religious state by Rome without further explanation—are affecting the Sisters. The pressure cooker is on the boil, and the steam has nowhere to go.
"The vow of obedience is completely hijacked," confides a close friend of a one of the Sisters. "Under the pretext of obedience, they accept this liturgical devolution and no longer know where they stand."
There has been talk of spiritual abuse and control within the Benedictines of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre. At Pontcallec, it seems to be the same. Twenty or so Sisters are leaving, absent, or exclaustrated, the pupils are affected, Sisters within the institute who are "too traditional" are being restricted, with as little contact as possible with students or alumni. They say that the claim of unanimous agreement is an illusion, due to the gagging of the Sisters.
To justify Mother Marie Ferréol's dismissal, Dom Jean-Charles Nault, Abbot of Saint-Wandrille and Apostolic Visitor, spoke of "dissimulation and lies at the root of a climate of suspicion and fear," but this reproach can just as well be turned around against the current leadership of the congregation and its Roman supporters.
Furthermore, the conditions imposed on Sisters seeking exclaustration are contrary to all justice: the Sisters can number no more than one in any given diocese -- only one in the entire of Ile-de-France [Paris and environs!], and no exclaustrated Sisters in dioceses where there are Institute houses. These conditions fall afoul of both civil law and canon law, and they reveal the hubris of the current leadership. They also reveal a thinly veiled concern that some Sisters might reconstitute schools, or rebuild women's congregations.
The dream of creating a "third way", a female Saint Martin's community
The turmoil is now visible in the numbers of both pupils and Sisters. At Saint-Cloud, there no longer is a waiting list, and in fact open spots are starting to open up. Admittedly, Covid also had an impact, as has a changing sociology: there are more schools to choose from and many families have moved from the inner suburbs to the outer suburbs, while others can no longer afford the cost of schooling due to inflation.
At La Baffe, near Épinal, four Sisters will be leaving at the start of the new school year, as against two new ones, and another is simply withdrawing. There are growing whispers that the two schools with traditional chaplaincies that cannot be replaced without a fight from parents—La Baffe and the École du Fort in Nantes—could be closed or, like Draguignan, taken over by parents.
The institute of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit seems to have been mortally wounded. Rome doesn't care—quite the opposite, one might say. As a result, the institute is set to cut its number of sites in half, retreating to Pontcallec and Saint-Cloud. Its future is uncertain, since there aren't really any more vocations. The congregation seems to be morphing into something different than it was.
Father Henry Donneaud, a Dominican and theologian from Toulouse, former Pontifical Commissioner for the Community of the Beatitudes (2010-15), clearly wishes to "normalize" the Pontcallec Sisters by gradually imposing the new Mass on them, and by removing all truly traditional nuns from the congregation to turn it into a "feminine version of the Communauté Saint-Martin." But that would require vocations... The Communauté Saint-Martin, which is up and running for the time being, is a "third way" [between fully traditional and the Novus Ordo], as its founder, Msgr. Guérin, intended it to be from the outset. Yet those communities that have gone from being traditional to being "third way" (e.g., the Petits Frères de Marie at La Cotellerie) have been less successful.
Moreover, Pontcallec's de facto monopoly on non-contractual education for girls in the "official" traditional world has crumbled. What's more, "competition" from the [SSPX-affiliated] Dominican Sisters, whose obedience is entirely traditional, is showing an insolent health. Someone with an intimate knowledge of this world in Brittany remarks: "There are a great many structuress, everyone is involved, and there are a lot of independent [communities]. On the Dominican Sisters side, the Sisters of Fanjeaux and Brignoles are much more numerous, with a dynamic flow of vocations. Even in Brittany, Pontcallec is now just one school among many, while Kernabat [near Guingamp] and Cours du Rafflay [near Nantes] have become the wellsprings of traditional mothers and daughters—whose numbers are growing in Brittany more than anywhere else."
Pontcallec, another "success story" of the Bergoglian pontificate: salt on the moor
In order for their exclaustration to be granted, the Sisters had to comply with punitive, dictatorial, and arbitrary conditions, as mentioned above, on pain of outright dismissal from the religious state.
That said, no one knows what will eventually happen, once Cardinal Ouellet—who has appointed himself custodian of the Institute for life—is gone. Will the current Mother Superior—and the all-powerful Mère d'Arvieu, through whom that fox Ouellet entered the henhouse, so to speak—will be able to wield the same power.
Roman interventions have been conspicuous for their arbitrariness, culminating in the dismissal of Mother Marie Ferréol from the religious state, by a decree dated April 22, 2021 based on the preliminary report of the Apostolic Visitor Dom Jean Charles Nault.
Pope Francis has followed the Pontcallec affair with unusual attention -- an affair that remains, on the scale of the Catholic world, a grain of sand: barely 100 Sisters, five schools at most in a single country. "The Pope," Cardinal Ouellet told La Croix in June 2021, "has personally followed the case through all its stages."
But God only allows evil because a greater good can come of it. That good could be the rebirth, in a modest but independent form, of a truly Catholic organization for the education of young girls by consecrated women. A new Pontcallec "Outside the Walls," as it were.
In fact, they have been asked from now on to make use of priests who are willing to celebrate the Novus Ordo, with two consequences: first, the gradual sidelining of priests belonging to the Fraternity of Saint Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, etc., in favor of diocesan priests only, as is already the case at Saint-Cloud, where the parish has taken over the school chaplaincy; second, the introduction of Novus Ordo in the various houses of the Institute, which at the outset is alleged to be exceptional but is supposed to become more frequent.
Within the Institute, which was already in a bad way with hardly any new vocations, there is now a veritable haemorrhage. To the twenty or so Sisters, novices or professed, who have left the Institute or have been exclaustrated these past 10 years (out of a community of barely 100), four more exclaustrated Sisters have recently been added. In other words, almost one-fifth of the Sisters have left and more are about to do so. For other reasons, one Sister among the latest arrivals has asked to be relieved of her temporary vows
"The vow of obedience has been completely hijacked"
In an institute whose specific identity included the traditional Mass, the upheavals of recent years—including treatment of Mother Marie Ferréol, who was dismissed from the religious state by Rome without further explanation—are affecting the Sisters. The pressure cooker is on the boil, and the steam has nowhere to go.
"The vow of obedience is completely hijacked," confides a close friend of a one of the Sisters. "Under the pretext of obedience, they accept this liturgical devolution and no longer know where they stand."
There has been talk of spiritual abuse and control within the Benedictines of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre. At Pontcallec, it seems to be the same. Twenty or so Sisters are leaving, absent, or exclaustrated, the pupils are affected, Sisters within the institute who are "too traditional" are being restricted, with as little contact as possible with students or alumni. They say that the claim of unanimous agreement is an illusion, due to the gagging of the Sisters.
To justify Mother Marie Ferréol's dismissal, Dom Jean-Charles Nault, Abbot of Saint-Wandrille and Apostolic Visitor, spoke of "dissimulation and lies at the root of a climate of suspicion and fear," but this reproach can just as well be turned around against the current leadership of the congregation and its Roman supporters.
Furthermore, the conditions imposed on Sisters seeking exclaustration are contrary to all justice: the Sisters can number no more than one in any given diocese -- only one in the entire of Ile-de-France [Paris and environs!], and no exclaustrated Sisters in dioceses where there are Institute houses. These conditions fall afoul of both civil law and canon law, and they reveal the hubris of the current leadership. They also reveal a thinly veiled concern that some Sisters might reconstitute schools, or rebuild women's congregations.
The dream of creating a "third way", a female Saint Martin's community
The turmoil is now visible in the numbers of both pupils and Sisters. At Saint-Cloud, there no longer is a waiting list, and in fact open spots are starting to open up. Admittedly, Covid also had an impact, as has a changing sociology: there are more schools to choose from and many families have moved from the inner suburbs to the outer suburbs, while others can no longer afford the cost of schooling due to inflation.
At La Baffe, near Épinal, four Sisters will be leaving at the start of the new school year, as against two new ones, and another is simply withdrawing. There are growing whispers that the two schools with traditional chaplaincies that cannot be replaced without a fight from parents—La Baffe and the École du Fort in Nantes—could be closed or, like Draguignan, taken over by parents.
The institute of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit seems to have been mortally wounded. Rome doesn't care—quite the opposite, one might say. As a result, the institute is set to cut its number of sites in half, retreating to Pontcallec and Saint-Cloud. Its future is uncertain, since there aren't really any more vocations. The congregation seems to be morphing into something different than it was.
Father Henry Donneaud, a Dominican and theologian from Toulouse, former Pontifical Commissioner for the Community of the Beatitudes (2010-15), clearly wishes to "normalize" the Pontcallec Sisters by gradually imposing the new Mass on them, and by removing all truly traditional nuns from the congregation to turn it into a "feminine version of the Communauté Saint-Martin." But that would require vocations... The Communauté Saint-Martin, which is up and running for the time being, is a "third way" [between fully traditional and the Novus Ordo], as its founder, Msgr. Guérin, intended it to be from the outset. Yet those communities that have gone from being traditional to being "third way" (e.g., the Petits Frères de Marie at La Cotellerie) have been less successful.
Moreover, Pontcallec's de facto monopoly on non-contractual education for girls in the "official" traditional world has crumbled. What's more, "competition" from the [SSPX-affiliated] Dominican Sisters, whose obedience is entirely traditional, is showing an insolent health. Someone with an intimate knowledge of this world in Brittany remarks: "There are a great many structuress, everyone is involved, and there are a lot of independent [communities]. On the Dominican Sisters side, the Sisters of Fanjeaux and Brignoles are much more numerous, with a dynamic flow of vocations. Even in Brittany, Pontcallec is now just one school among many, while Kernabat [near Guingamp] and Cours du Rafflay [near Nantes] have become the wellsprings of traditional mothers and daughters—whose numbers are growing in Brittany more than anywhere else."
Pontcallec, another "success story" of the Bergoglian pontificate: salt on the moor
In order for their exclaustration to be granted, the Sisters had to comply with punitive, dictatorial, and arbitrary conditions, as mentioned above, on pain of outright dismissal from the religious state.
That said, no one knows what will eventually happen, once Cardinal Ouellet—who has appointed himself custodian of the Institute for life—is gone. Will the current Mother Superior—and the all-powerful Mère d'Arvieu, through whom that fox Ouellet entered the henhouse, so to speak—will be able to wield the same power.
Roman interventions have been conspicuous for their arbitrariness, culminating in the dismissal of Mother Marie Ferréol from the religious state, by a decree dated April 22, 2021 based on the preliminary report of the Apostolic Visitor Dom Jean Charles Nault.
Pope Francis has followed the Pontcallec affair with unusual attention -- an affair that remains, on the scale of the Catholic world, a grain of sand: barely 100 Sisters, five schools at most in a single country. "The Pope," Cardinal Ouellet told La Croix in June 2021, "has personally followed the case through all its stages."
But God only allows evil because a greater good can come of it. That good could be the rebirth, in a modest but independent form, of a truly Catholic organization for the education of young girls by consecrated women. A new Pontcallec "Outside the Walls," as it were.
