Letter 29 published 2 July 2012
The Bishop of Angoulême, Bp Dagens, refuses to apply the Motu Proprio
The diocese of Angoulême (350,000 inhabitants) is one of the French dioceses where the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum is not applied at all. No parish there makes the extraordinary form of the Roman rite available, be it during the week or on Sundays. Yet there are two requests in the diocese: one in the episcopal city, Angoulême; the other in Cognac. The request in Cognac, which was first made in 2007 and was renewed in the summer of 2011, has just been the object of three articles in the local daily newspapter, Sud-Ouest. This month we offer the translation of the first of these articles, published June 11, along with the August 2011 letter in which the request representative, in a filial manner, informed the bishop of his undertaking, as would a son.I - The Latin Mass: the Cognac Traddies' Appeal.
Article by Sophie Carbonnel in Sud-Ouest, 11 June 2012
It was a hard pill to swallow. For Antoine Pierron, MD, who is a traditionalist in Cognac and the local leader of the "Pope's Traddies," the time has come to go public with his request. This is his wish: a return to the Mass celebrated in Latin, according to Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. Indeed this decree, promulgated in July 2007, authorizes a celebration of the rite in Latin to any "stable group of faithful who adhere to the earlier liturgical tradition" in keeping with the pre-Vatican II rite.
In reponse to the Motu Proprio the diocese had set up a monthly Mass in Genac in July 2008. It was celebrated by Fr. René Valtaud, age 87. A year later, the churchman retired. The Latin Mass in the diocese came to an end when the pastor of Genac breathed his last. "Since then, the Catholics of Cognac who wish to benefit from this liturgy have no solution but to travel to a neighboring diocese, in Saintes," Antoine Pierron mournfully notes.
He then adds: "The diocese of Angoulême is one of the very rare French dioceses to be deprived of the Latin Mass. Only four out of 93 French dioceses are in this situation."
A wall of silence
Antoine Pierron, with the support of "about 36 families among the Cognac faithful," has shown his perseverance for the three years since the last Mass was celebrated entirely in Latin at the church of Genac. Now, however, he expresses his impatience. "We are the pope's Traddies, not fanatics. There are many people in the diocese who wish to benefit from a Mass in Latin. The Cognacians have taken the initiative of speaking up in the name of all."
This physician, with proofs in hand, insists that he has run into a cold wall and has been given the runaround between Cognac's parish priest and the diocesan ordinary, Bishop Dagens. A strangely silent bishop who "never took the trouble of answering our mail," says the physician.
Today the "Pope's Traddies" are writing a new letter to the bishop. They start it out by writing: "Bishop Dagens, open your ears, if not your heart." The time for the liturgy has passed. Father Baudoin de Beauvais, pastor of the parish of Cognac, does not wish to risk taking a decision: "They must turn to the bishop."
The priest observes a certain reserve regarding the possibility of reinstating a Latin Mass in the Cognac sector. "First of all, we'd need to know exactly how many people express a desire for it." He also has a thought for rigorous logistical means. "There are only two of us to say all the Masses in the Cognac area. At this time adding a Mass is out of the question," affirms Fr. Baudoin de Beauvais.
The priest's main point is this observation: "Latin was the most widely spoken language in the Roman world. Today, French is spoken. I am pretty sure that if Latin were spoken to those people, they wouldn't understand any of it."
The "Pope's traddies" who, from this perspective, allegedly refuse to live with their times, have in fact opened an internet site where they can openly express themselves . . . in French.
II - The requester's letter to inform the bishop
Cognac, 18 August 2011
Excellency,
In January 2007, a few weeks before the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of our beloved Pope Benedict XVI was promulgated, I wrote to ask you to grant the celebration of the Holy Mass according to the 1962 Missal of Blessed John XXIII in our diocese, preferably in Cognac where my family and I reside.
I never received an answer even though I know, through a priest friend, that my mailing was read and commented on in a meeting of the episcopal council.
As I am busy because of family and professional obligations, I did not renew my request, although I have continued to follow with great interest the attempts at applying the pontifical text in the diocese.
Now that a stable group of families from Cognac and neighboring parishes has joined me, I should like to inform you that we are going to make a request in due form to the next pastor of Saint Léger as soon as he arrives amongst us. Please note that I have been a regular parishioner at Saint Léger for over fifteen years and am a fond friend of Fr. Raymond.
Naturally, you will tell me that the Motu Proprio, like the recent instruction Universae Ecclesiae dating to April 30 and circulated on May 13, very clearly stipulates that it is in the first place up to the parish pastor to lavish the fruits of the Holy Father's generosity. Nevertheless, I thought that informing you of the step we intend to take was the right and basically polite thing to do.
With my filial and devoted sentiments,
Antoine Pierron
III - The Comments of Paix Liturgique
1) Doctor Pierron and the Cognac requesters as a whole belong to those innumerable silent ones of the Church who live out their faith in their parish within the ordinary liturgy, but who wish to benefit from the fruits of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. For 15 years, as Doctor Pierron points out in his letter to the bishop, he has had an excellent relationship with his parish priest. And although he attended the modern liturgy along with his family, he still aspired to something more, something better . . . but silently, within the secrecy of his soul. Until, that is, the Holy Father made the traditional liturgy accessible to all . . . .
2) On July 10 2007 Bishop Dagens of Angoulême claimed that he understood "the reasons that led our pope Benedict XVI to promulgate the Motu Proprio," rightly affirming that the Mass "cannot be coopted" and that it "is above all the sacramentum caritatis, the sacrament of charity." Likewise, he professed his belief "in the importance of in-depth dialogs on the essentials of the Faith." Yet he never deigned to answer the Cognac requesters: whence this contempt?
3) As far as concerns Angoulême, truth demands that we not pass over in silence the experiment Bishop Dagens granted early in 2008. At the time, and actually quite promptly to French episcopal standards, Bishop Dagens did give a favorable hearing to the requesters of Angoulême. But under such conditions that the experiment didn't last long! Indeed, he had granted but one Mass per month in a village 20 km away from the episcopal see, celebrated by an 87-year-old priest. At the celebrant's first health problems, of course, the Mass was suspended and no replacement was appointed.
4) Next October Bishop Dagens will go to Rome for the ad limina visits of the French bishops. We'll be very interested in following the exchanges he will have with officials of the Ecclesia Dei commission. Perhaps they will also ask him about the fate reserved to Fr. Texier, vicar at the parish of Saint-Yrieix, on the outskirts of Angoulême? He had offered the extraordinary form of the Roman rite to his faithful in conformity with the Motu Proprio until he had to leave the diocese under pressure from Bishop Dagens's former Vicar General, Father Braud . . . .
