The Black Madonna or Notre Dame de Pilier.
So the 2012 pilgrimage has come to an end. Once again thanks are due to Michael Matt and the Remnant for organizing the American chapter and taking them sucessfully through all obstacles. And even greater thanks are due to the organization of Notre Dame de Chrétienté which has carried out the immense logistical work of this pilgrimage for many years now. Thanks to their work, the Chartres pilgimage maintains its status as the preeeminent Traditional Catholic celebation worldwide.
In what does this uniqueness consist? The Chartres pilgrimage is primarily a collective experience: that of withdrawing from the outside world and of marching, worshipping and resting as an organized group. And the form of worship is only what is now called the “Extraordinary Form.” It is a concrete demonstration that one does not stand alone as a Traditional Catholic, that there are other people – and other countries – sharing the same beliefs. Other pilgrimages – more “individualistic” or small group, such as the Camino – are more conducive to personal spiritual development. Such was the old students’ pilgrimage to Chartres, which Peguy began before the First World War and which died out after the Council. For, as a participant in those days – later a very senior executive at a major French enterprise – told me, the pilgrims would take a week, not 2 ½ days, to get to Chartres from Paris, and each evening would be spent in quiet conversation. Such experiences are possible but rare on the pilgrimage of Notre Dame de Chrétienté. The overall impression – other than that of one’s own fatigue – is rather that of the marching, singing and praying pilgrim community.
Over the last 20 years there has been remarkable continuity in the organization, the pilgrimage route, the location of the encampments, the divine services, the banners, the logos and even certain of the individual participants. Yet there have been shifts of emphasis. In the early 90’s the “sponsorship” of the pilgrimage was in the hands of a foundation of a more militantly counterrevolutionary and nationalist persuasion. It was at this time the pilgrimage began to attract the attention of outsiders like Gary Potter, Michael Davies and their successors, attracted to the unashamed celebration of Christendom only possible in the French counterrevolutionary tradition. By 1995 there seems to have been a distinct change of management with an increasing tendency to tone down the political edge and to pursue of greater accommodation with “Frenchchurch” and its hierarchy. Around the edges of the pilgrimage crept intrusions from the “ordinary,” “orthodox” Catholic world – pictures of John Paul II became ubiquitous, the EU was celebrated and who could forget the “singing bishop” one year trying to warm up the weary pilgrims just arrived in Chartres prior to the mass? Thankfully such excesses have disappeared in their turn. And the concept of Christendom – the union of faith, nation and political action – remains alive in the Chartres pilgrimage. Yet, for a pilgrimage having for its theme “The Family – the Cradle of Christendom” (itself a less challenging motto than those of the past!), the actions on “life issues” currently proposed by the new French government and the individuals behind them drew much less specific and forceful criticism in the sermons than they would have 20 years ago.
As for the physical pilgrimage itself and the American chapter I felt that things went smoother than ever before. After the first day the pace was reasonable, the chapter hung together and there was much more opportunity to participate in common prayer, meditation and song than in the past. And when one had to fall back one could always keep up with the energetic French groups who seem to be constantly singing. We laggards never fell too far behind. Similarly, thanks to Michael Matt’s good planning and the fair weather, the situation at the encampments was far less challenging than usual. There is always a flip side to success, however – the interaction with individuals from the various foreign countries, a main attraction of the Chartres pilgrimage, was much more limited than it had been on earlier pilgrimages. Indeed, I heard the new (to me) notion that contact with other chapters was officially “frowned upon.”
Liturgically speaking, the pilgrimage has also been remarkably consistent over the years. There have been changes of course: as Episcopal support has gradually grown, the role of the bishops has gradually increased. And this year we had a first: the mass for Saturday took place in Notre Dame itself, at the start of the pilgrimage! Yet the liturgical and musical aspects of the Pentecost Pilgrimage have remained static, while the liturgical understanding of the broader outside traditional world has come far indeed especially since Summorum Pontificum. The Pilgrimage liturgies seemed like a revelation 20 years ago to those of us who had hardly ever experienced a Solemn mass. They now, however, appear complete and correct but hardly liturgically rich or inspiring. Indeed, in many cases one now wonders about various liturgical idiosyncrasies (like the singing of a motet immediately after the consecration): are they local French traditions or more recent developments?
A final low mass in the Crypt of the Cathedral Tuesday for the American chapter forms a fitting end to the pilgrimage.
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