Traditionis Custodes around the World: Paris, France

On Saturday, October 16th the 16th successive demonstration “for the defense of the Traditional Mass” will be held before the Vatican’s embassy in Paris. Other demonstrations are multiplying in France – both in Paris and elsewhere. But we would of course expect, given their long history, that French traditionalists would be in the forefront of the resistance!

Rosaries also are being recited at the churches where traditional masses have been cancelled by the Archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur Aupetit. Numerous such rosaries are being organized or supported by the society Juventus Traditionis. In addition to protests and prayer, the Paris traditionalists have been trying (with little or no suceess) to initiate a dialogue with Msgr. Aupetit (who amazingly claims he has done nothing to restrict the traditional Mass!) and his auxiliary bishops.

For a summary, in French, of the most recent traditionalist activity and the stand-off with the archdiocese of Paris, see the post La Situation à Paris on the Juventus Traditionis website. See also the site Riposte Catholique for reports on these developments.

UPDATE:

Communiqué of 10/16/2013 from:

communique@oremus.plus

On Saturday 16 October, we were more than 100 demonstrators in front of the Apostolic Nunciature.

The refusal of dialogue is now confirmed: at Saint-Eugène, on Sunday 3 October, Mgr Thibaud Verny, auxiliary bishop, had run off, sneaking away to avoid meeting the faithful of the parish who wanted to talk to him about the restrictions imposed upon the traditional celebrations in Paris, including in their own parish, because of the ban on “exclusivist” priests celebrating in the diocese. And at Saint-Dominique, on Sunday 10 October, the dialogue between Mgr Aupetit and the parishioners of Notre-Dame-du-Travail was limited to the reiteration of the archbishop’s diktat, who used the classic “Nuremberg defence”: he obeys the Pope. Strange “guardian of tradition”…

The parish priest of Saint-François-Xavier, Mgr Lefèvre-Pontalis, was touched by the emotion aroused by the disappearance of the youth mass on Wednesdays. But the diocese has contented itself with a sort of “barrier or confinement gesture” by re-establishing this mass, not at Saint-François-Xavier, but at Notre-Dame-du-Lys, in order to stick to the diocesan rule: to limit the “contagion” of the traditional mass.

But the most serious thing is that traditional catechesis are being banned in Le Havre, Grenoble and Tours. This goes beyond the application of the text of the Pope’s motu proprio: there is now a “spirit of the motu proprio”, as there is a “spirit of the Council”. It is above all the missionary aspect of these catechisms that is targeted: in fact, they bring together not only children from families who attend the traditional Mass, but also children from families who practice according to the NOM and who are frightened by the lack of catechesis in their parishes. Here again, the order is to limit the “contagion”.