The website of the Bishops' Conference of France reminds us that, since 2021, at the request of the Holy Father, every year, and from now on, on the third Friday of Lent, a kind of day of repentance is organized. This is a day of prayer for people who are the victims of violence, sexual violence, or abuse of power.
This year, the day will take place next Friday, March 28. “Dioceses and parishes are invited to organize, with the faithful, one or more special times of remembrance and prayer for all victims. This time of the Church will also be used to make everyone aware of the need to prevent and act to avoid all pastoral and human situations that can lead to all forms of abuse of the most vulnerable.”
I understand that this primarily concerns the victims of abuse, sometimes criminal and always deplorable, on the part of people consecrated to God. But the reverse can also happen, even if we don't talk much about it: consecrated people can themselves be victims of the faithful. For example, on March 18, a 41-year-old parishioner was given a suspended 12-month prison sentence by the Versailles court for harassing the parish priest of the Vallée de Chevreuse parish group for several months.
But why don't we think of the faithful and priests attached to the traditional liturgy who have been subjected to real psychological violence in the Church, particularly in France, for decades? Or even more. I am thinking of priests who have been displaced, sometimes deprived of their ministry, ostracized from their communities and dioceses.
As for the faithful, the list of abuses to which they are subjected - Masses suppressed, sacraments forbidden, even today - is endless. Not to mention the lack of compassion and even contempt shown to them by their episcopal pastors. Proof of this can be found in the mind-boggling interview given to the La Nouvelle République newspaper in Tours on February 26 by Abp. Vincent Jordy, Archbishop of Tours and Vice-President of the Bishops' Conference, who, along with Abp. Lebrun, Archbishop of Rouen, is responsible for relations with traditionalist communities. The article was analyzed by Jean-Pierre Maugendre, Director General of Renaissance catholique.
The title of the interview, “Latin Masses under surveillance,” sets the tone:
“In his kindness,” writes J.-P. Maugendre, “the Archbishop of Tours tolerates the celebration of the old rite. However, he makes it clear: 'Homilies are not controlled, but I get feedback. I'm paying much attention.' The reader is left gasping for more. Could it be that the truths of the faith are being called into question, that heresies are being propagated and freely disseminated? But no! Defending the faith is not one of Abp. Jordy's concerns. What interests him are 'societal [...] and political positions.' The problem is “a hard core that is anchored in a choice of society that takes us back to 1950, and according to which Christendom must be recreated.' [...] Since an apparently rational reason must be found for this 'traditionalist phenomenon,' Abp. Jordy has one: 'these people have money, connections and know-how.' Whether they are responding to a thirst for the sacred, a need for certainty, a miraculous conversion or a desire to put down new roots, that doesn't seem to have occurred to the episcopal thinker. [...] In his interview, Abp. Jordy fails to point out that he pursues a strict policy of apartheid towards traditionalists, confining them to an 'Indian reservation.' In the Diocese of Tours, for example, it is impossible to get married, to have a baptism celebrated [in the old rite] -- or have the Mass in the traditional rite celebrated (outside the places where such mass is usually celebrated). This leads applicants to seek out another diocese, to appeal to the Society of Saint Pius X, or to have Mass celebrated in a municipal hall a hundred meters from a church... that remains empty.”
Traditionis custodes was the occasion for an upsurge in what can only be described as a persecution of certain Catholics through restrictions, prohibitions, and perpetual ill will. In Toulon, in Quimper, yesterday in Grenoble, and so on.
I think we should set up, under the impetus of Lex Orandi for example, a kind of CIASE (the Independent Commission created for sexual abuse in the Church) which would take stock of these kinds of violence over the last sixty years, since the end of the last Council, -- an Independent Commission on Violence Inflicted on Traditionalists, CIVIT). It could demand moral reparations from bishops who have perpetrated or covered up such abuses.
