Paix liturgique

Pope Leo XIV had announced the pacification of the Church, and then came the announcement of the SSPX episcopal consecrations. How to handle this matter? Rome believed it had found the perfect solution: resorting to the “jurisprudence of 1988.”

Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had been put in charge of the matter and maintained a dialogue with Archbishop Lefebvre; his successor, Cardinal Fernández, received Father Davide Pagliarani.

Following the failure of the 1988 negotiations, John Paul II, on June 9, 1988, urged Archbishop Lefebvre to "renounce his project, which, if carried out, can only appear to be a schismatic act." The "negotiation" between Fernández and Pagliarani, which lasted barely an hour, yielded no results. Cardinal Fernández made it known to anyone who would listen that the decree of excommunication was ready and declared that "this gesture [the announced consecrations] constitutes a schismatic act."

Cardinal Ratzinger promised all the priests and seminarians of the SSPX who did not wish to follow Archbishop Lefebvre after his autonomous consecration of four bishops that he would organize a structure to accommodate them; Cardinal Fernández hinted to the few SSPX priests who have expressed their concern that he would arrange for their placement in dioceses or institutes.

Despite the ambiguities of Ratzinger's approach, he took the risk of establishing the traditional liturgy at the heart of the Church, which in practice allowed this liturgy to multiply its reach: to the bishops, priests, seminarians, Mass centers, and schools of the SSPX were then added those of the Ecclesia Dei institutes and even those of the dioceses, not to mention the cardinals and bishops—Cardinal Ratzinger, first of all—who celebrated, ordained, and confirmed in the old rite. Fernández's procedure is clearly more miserly and clumsier.

This is because the contextual elements are completely different. While remaining faithful to the spirit of the Council (for example, the Assisi Journey), the pontificate of John Paul II strove for a “good interpretation” of the Council (for example, the declaration Dominus Jesus, which, in 2000, attempted to frame interreligious dialogue while certainly providing all the necessary guarantees for ecumenism). In contrast, we now find ourselves in an ultra-conciliar phase of the post-conciliar era.

Joseph Ratzinger felt great empathy for the old Ordo and for those attached to it, and he had numerous friends among its communities, priests, and faithful. This world is foreign to Pope Prevost and, even more so, to Cardinal Fernández; the former undoubtedly strives to understand it, but only to “inform” himself about a phenomenon he knows is growing, whose “ardent” nature frightens him, and which remains alien to him.

The various acts of Joseph Ratzinger and later Benedict XVI (documents of 1984, 1988, and 2007) transformed the traditional liturgy from a matter of tolerance to one of having a right. Conversely, since Traditionis Custodes, we have regressed to the least generous tolerance possible: Masses are merely a matter of concession, permissions for diocesan priests are granted sparingly, and the traditional sacraments are theoretically prohibited.

Therefore, it is evident that absolutely nothing is being done to ensure that the SSPX is heard, nor to even remotely attempt to prepare for the enactment of an acceptable canonical solution. Moreover, everything, absolutely everything, pressures those “officially” traditional —priests and faithful alike—whom they continue to try to diminish, control, and marginalize, to look sympathetically toward their brothers of St. Pius X and to establish the greatest possible porosity with them. And in the meantime, what a waste of a tremendous opportunity for peace!

“No freedom for the enemies of freedom!” No conciliar freedom for the critics of the Second Vatican Council! This is the eternal paradox: at a time when everyone talks about ecumenism with the “separated brethren,” whom never, and more than ever, would be described today as “schismatics,” and for whom the charming formula of politesse “imperfect communion” has been invented, today’s Rome fulminates its children who have the audacity to believe and act as their fathers did with ancient sanctions that it had long relegated to the dust of the museums.

Pray then, dear Parisian sentinels, that peace may come to the Church despite everything, which necessarily must pass through liturgical peace, you who pray your rosaries at 10 rue du Cloître-Notre-Dame, from Monday to Friday, from 1:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., at Saint-Georges de La Villette, 114 avenue Simon Bolivar, on Wednesdays and Fridays at 5:00 p.m., in front of Notre -Dame du Travail, Sundays at 6:15 pm.