Bishop Touvet’s Persecution of Traditional Liturgists
Jean-Pierre Maugendre
October 17, 2024
At the 3rd Assises de la Tradition, held in Paris on October 12, participants were somewhat stunned to discover the latest developments in Mgr Touvet’s persecution of traditional liturgists in the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon.
Bishop Touvet’s abuse of power
While some may have believed that Mgr Touvet, appointed in 2023 as Mgr Rey’s coadjutor in the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, would succeed in maintaining the unity of the diocese, the facts seem to contradict these optimistic prospects. Indeed, while it is now well known that Mgr Touvet is still blocking the ordinations of the Missionaries of Divine Mercy (see our September 20, 2024 column, Missionaries of Mercy. Still no ordinations), other damning facts have been brought to the attention of the indignant public by Lex orandi union spokesman Philippe Darantière.
Five days before a future deacon’s ordination, Bishop Touvet had him sign a document in the parish of St. Pius X in Toulon on September 21, in which Thomas Duchesne undertook to celebrate Mass only according to the missal of Paul VI, to give the sacraments only according to the reformed rite, and to use only the current Liturgy of the Hours. It was also forbidden to include elements of the old rite in the conciliar liturgy, e.g., to add signs of the cross or genuflections or to recite the Canon in silence. He was also asked not to refuse to give communion in the hand. We’re not quite following the logic of mutual enrichment of the two rites, so dear to Benedict XVI...
This text was also subsequently proposed to nine future deacons of the diocese by Bishop Touvet. Most of them reacted very negatively, denouncing an abuse of power. Mgr Touvet, who had come with the text for distribution, departed taking his copies with him and saying that the subject needed to be reworked. There have been more dazzling and successful acts of management! The seminar participants were rightly scandalized, and if, as a classic management seminar text states: “Power is received. Authority is built. Legitimacy is seen in the eyes of others,” Mgr Touvet must have observed strange and incredulous glimmers in the eyes of his young Levites. Could someone please explain to Monsignor Touvet that a seminary is not a rifle school, and that a seminarian is not a quartermaster?
What’s more, several new parish priests in the diocese received a letter of appointment at the start of the new school year, asking them not to celebrate Mass “with their backs to the people,” not to use the Offertory of the Tridentine Mass, and not to use exclusively Eucharistic Prayer I (i.e., the Roman Canon) in the Novus Ordo.
Contempt for the past
Mgr Touvet met with the presbyteral council, who voiced their disagreement and reminded him of the history of the diocese and, in particular, the welcome given to priests of traditional sensibilities since Mgr Madec, a Morbihan bishop of Fréjus-Toulon from 1983 to 2000, and creator of the Castille seminary. It was Mgr Madec who initiated the diocese’s benevolence towards Tradition, an attitude of which Mgr Rey has positioned himself as the legitimate heir. Mgr Touvet seems completely unaware of this recent history. We are reminded of the proverbially rigid “naval Carmelite,” Admiral Thierry d’Argenlieu, who landed in Indochina after the war, knowing nothing of the country or its history, and who made numerous blunders, vexations, injustices, and altercations, particularly with General Leclerc, who was eventually recalled to Paris.
As a result, Mgr Touvet appears very embarrassed to take on this history, and very self-conscious in his answers. Of course, while Mgr Touvet hunts down “trads,” nothing is done to call to order priests who innovate liturgically or no longer transmit the faith. Examples include the charismatic Masses with laser beams and nightclub atmosphere in Toulon’s Saint Louis church, the shabby celebrations at the Bon Accueil des Salésien schools (which compel children to take communion in the hand and standing), the lamentable catechesis at the Notre Dame institution in Toulon, or the equally indigent Marist catechesis at Fénelon. This observation is a reminder that Fréjus-Toulon is by no means a “traditionalist” diocese but merely one in which traditionalists also have their place—which is not the same thing.
Archbishop Touvet has therefore decided to wage war not only on the supporters of the traditional rite of Mass, but also on conciliar conservatives. This simultaneous opening of two fronts could well prove to be a fatal strategic error. In the space of a year, Bishop Touvet has managed to alienate the majority of seminarians and priests in his diocese. Unfortunately, you don’t get two chances to make a good first impression! As Bishop Touvet is only a coadjutor, he cannot legislate on liturgical matters and has no right to force priests to celebrate in front of the people, or to impose the use of certain Eucharistic prayers.
Other priorities?
At a time of increasing revelations of sexual abuse committed by clerics and covered up by the hierarchy, widespread religious ignorance, and the decline in religious practice, doesn’t Mgr Touvet have other, more urgent projects to undertake than destroying what is functioning more or less correctly? Without a change of direction, the Castille seminary is likely to disappear: there has been no intake of propaedeutic students this year. Likewise, the future of the Missionaries of Divine Mercy, who are awaiting six ordinations, is in serious jeopardy.
Bishop Touvet has agreed that the ordinations will take place within a traditional Mass, but with the new rite of ordination. This is a rather strange liturgical formula, given that the liturgical reform abolished minor orders and the subdiaconate. However, this solution has already been tried out for ordinations at the Abbey of Lagrasse, in the Aude region, a few months ago. On the other hand, Archbishop Touvet refuses to allow Missionaries of Mercy priests ordained in this way to celebrate the traditional Mass afterwards, even though this celebration is enshrined in their constitutions. Meanwhile, in an unmistakable sign of the vitality of Catholic Tradition in the Var, the first edition of the Nosto Fe pilgrimage to Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume on October 5 and 6 was a resounding success, with 2,000 participants. We can only hope that, for the future of the diocese, Bishop Touvet will have the intelligence and charity to respect the liturgical and doctrinal identity of this beautiful witness to a youth eager for transcendence, beauty, and truth.
Where is the care for souls?
Mgr Touvet used to be a parish priest. He therefore remembers that the fine title of parish priest refers to his primary responsibility: “cura animarum,” the care of souls. This is not the main concern in relations between the faithful attached to the Church’s Tradition and some of their bishops. The impression is more often that of ecclesiastical civil servants or “purple prefects” than fathers.
Witness Archbishop Jordy’s standard reply to participants at the Renaissance Catholique UDT in the summer of 2024, who had expressed surprise to him at having to attend Mass in a municipal hall 100 meters from an empty but forbidden church: “Your letters show a lack of information concerning the celebration regime according to this missal of John XXIII... Indeed since the motu proprio Traditionis custodes of July 16, 2022 (sic, it’s actually 2021) and the pontifical rescript concerning this liturgy, Mass can be celebrated only in certain prescribed places.” What emerges is the logic of an Indian reservation, of which the bishops of France would be the guardians, if not (in certain cases) the gendarmes.
On the day of his enthronement, Mgr Touvet pledged not to be instrumentalized and not to become a party man. It’s about time he remembered his fine resolutions.
