Vital Distinctions
Last November, I was invited to contribute to the discussions of a “round table” organised by the French traditional Catholic association Reunicatho. About 200 persons turned out to this get-together at the Palais de Congrès, just next to the magnificent Château of Versailles built in the glorious years of the French Kingdom under Louis XIV. As I walked past the magnificent Royal Chapel, I could not help hearing Marc Antoine Carpentier’s Te Deum in my mind.
I did not prepare anything in advance. I merely had the idea that I would give a brief introduction to the Catholic movement in Anglicanism and a positive appreciation of the Apostolic Constitution. As I listened to people’s contributions, priests and laity alike, the more I saw a completely new spirit in the French traditionalist milieu. Of course I write about the part of the traditionalist world that is in communion with Rome and loyal to the Church’s magisterium. There was the Abbot of Randol, an eminent French Benedictine Abbey founded by Fongombault, priests from several dioceses, the Fraternity of Saint Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, several religious communities, from all over. No one from the Society of St. Pius X was present, not that they weren’t invited. I definitely saw a will to pull down the walls of shame, and not a few comparisons were made with the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago. John Paul II brought down Communism, and Benedict XVI is bringing down the causes of disunity and conflict in the Church.
As I listened to the magnificent contributions of Professor Luc Perrin, a specialist in church history from Strasbourg University, Fr. Chanut, a diocesan priest with decades of hands-on pastoral experience and devout laymen anxious for their children to have a proper Catholic education, I began to put my notes together and find inspiration. These are white-hot devout souls, anxious to serve God and the Church they clearly love.
I began by underlining that Benedict XVI is the Pope of Catholic Unity, and Christian Unity, because he is doing everything to give Catholics the traditional Latin Mass they love, reaching out to the Orthodox, and especially laying everything on the line for us Anglicans who want to leave the Reformation mess and bring the positive and Catholic aspects of our Anglicanism into the Church, so that everyone can benefit from it.
Listening to many poignant tales from French Catholics in the dioceses and religious communities, I was struck by the parallel pilgrimage of these traditional Catholics and our years of combat as Anglicans. These are two aspects of a single and same combat for the soul of Christ’s Church. This was an utterly moving experience to come to this awareness!
I outlined the conflicts in 16th century England, against which the combat of Archbishop Lefebvre against the Marxist-inspired rebel clergy of the dioceses was but a mere picnic. We Anglicans have seen this all before, and were doctoring up the Prayer Book to make a Mass of it 150 years before the reform of the reform was ever thought of. Our Anglican priests in the late 19th century, Fr. Mackonachie and Fr. Stanton, among many other heros of those days when Ritualist priests were persecuted, were the precedents of the Mass centres in the 1970’s and 80’s, Archbishop Lefebvre and the seminary of Ecône. I quickly traced the history of the Catholic movement in the Church of England, referring my audience to the many books and web sites from which they can learn a general history of Anglicanism. Those French people have hard heads, and it takes a lot to get the message through!
Then I brought up the subject of the Continuing Anglican Churches, some of which formed the TAC in 1992, and ever since, there has been an off-and-on dialogue with Rome in the person of Cardinal Ratzinger. I described our big meeting in October 2007 in Portsmouth, in that beautiful Victorian church of St Agatha near the Royal Navy dockyard, and our warm relations with Bishop Broadhurst and Forward in Faith.
I see this whole thing with Rome as a kind of triptych: the announcement made on 20th October by Cardinal Levada, the Apostolic Constitution and Complementary Norms released on 9th November, and – finally – the specific response to Archbishop Hepworth and the entire TAC Episcopate that signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is now possible to talk business. No one in the Catholic Church is telling us that the Apostolic Constitution is a tablet in stone to take or leave. There will be meetings and talks, and then the final approach to establishing the first Ordinariate like the pilot who finely adjusts the controls of his aircraft before reaching the runway for landing.
It is essential to realise that this is not about us individuals or saving our own vocations and little lives we have built up over the years. This is about the Church and the re-evangelisation of the apostate “post-Christian” western world. We can help this wonderful new movement in the French traditional Catholic world, Tradiland as they nickname themselves, to look for harmony, peace and forgiveness after so many years of conflict fed by a certain unscrupulous sensationalist media. We can also help other movements all over the world who have doggedly kept the Faith, and have also kept Hope and Charity! The Church has been wounded by conflict for so long. We are here to help you. I believe this is our vocation as Anglican Catholics (or Catholic Anglicans if you prefer) in the mission of the Universal Church.
Now, as that sweet day of closeness to the good Summorum Pontificum Catholics remains in my memory, we are still faced with meanness and stinginess in the columns of blogs more or less near the Society of Saint Pius X position. We read from an Italian source that Bishop Fellay said the talks were useless, and that no agreement would ever be reached in human terms. What is wrong with these people? I can give an example of what is wrong, what Bishop Peter Elliott said – They distort the Pope’s offer because they cling to small fiefdoms and purist enclaves.
I see less and less difference between the position of sectarian “classical Anglicans” and the faithful of the Society of Saint Pius X who trash the Catechism and every positive move and piece of teaching that came out of Vatican II. I sometimes wonder what would happen if some of the former category actually met up with the Maurrasian Action Française skinheads from Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet! I suppose it would be like a “friendly” meeting between the supporters of Manchester United and Arsenal after the match and a good number of pints of beer.
Why are people so intent of throwing away the gifts of God’s generosity and that of the first Pope to give us hope in a long time? What do they want, for the Holy Father to pack it all up and say it was a joke? They would say, as did a character in Robert Bolt’s The Mission describing the destruction of the Jesuit missions in South America and the enslavement of the natives – You must work in the real world. And the real world is thus. Do we not cast our mind to some who say on their blogs that Bishop Elliott doesn’t know what he is talking about? Cardinal Altamirano replies – Oh no. Thus we have made it.
I have a feeling that those few who make it home to Holy Mother Church will be those who have understood. Those who stay out in the cold will be those who wanted just that.
about 1 month ago
Father Chadwick wrote:
“As I listened to people’s contributions, priests and laity alike, the more I saw a completely new spirit in the French traditionalist milieu. Of course I write about the part of the traditionalist world that is in communion with Rome and loyal to the Church’s magisterium.”
These are very happy words to read indeed! On our side of the pond, one can also see a similar situation developing. For example, our FSSP priest was recently asked by the local diocesan officials to develop a presentation program on Traditional Catholicism, in response to the requests they’ve received from informed young Catholics in our diocese. This is doubly encouraging, since this is still perceived to be a progressive diocese.
I feel that the “traditionalist world that is in communion with Rome and loyal to the Church’s magisterium”, as Father Chadwick wrote, should view the present situation with great humility. We seem to have been granted an invitation to contribute to the rebuilding, often from scratch, was was lost and thrown out of the Church in the past few decades, if not longer.
We must also humbly acknowledge that neither are we immune from going astray. We must strive for gentleness and holiness, and not allow any pathologies, such as anti-semitism, sedevacantism, harsh opinions, or strange preoccupations, to keep company with us. We must seek out and form friendships in Church circles beyond our ghettos, and beyond the Church as well. We must remember that we’re not the only ones who’ve been granted this invitation to rebuild.
about 1 month ago
Ah yes, there are a – few – extremists in all directions (RH in one corner and SSPX in another) and it is unfortunate that they are clouded by their fanaticism to see that which is truly good.
But give them time. When they see the good in action they will be drawn towards it, for now perhaps they are fearful and hestitant, but it is up to others to show them the way.
Let us be patient and kind and set forth and live our Christian message and pray that Our Lord will guide them to see it is His work we are witnessing unfold before us.
about 1 month ago
Dear Fr. Anthony,
Do not let the SSPX-ers get you down. While I dearly love them and even went to one of their chapels for a year or so in ’90’s, I ultimately came back to a position of unambiguous full communion with the Holy See by means of the Anglican Usage of the Catholic Church. Thus I can attest somewhat both to the fine missionary spirit that the best of the SSPX clergy have, and also the rather blinkered approach that so many in the SSPX itself (which are only priests and religious) and their followers, have, apparently thinking that XIXth Century Catholicism is the epitome of the true faith. One could perhaps do an interesting comparison of this view, i.e. that all change in Roman belief and practice has been progressively better and better up to the culmination in the XIXth Century, with the Whig interpretation of history, no?
The Rorate Coeli web site will probably be publishing a translation of Bishop Fellay’s talk sometime soon, and then we can all see what exactly he said, and possibly read between the lines as well. My guess is that he left an escape hatch by saying that while humanly a reconciliation is impossible, God will direct things, with a lot of nudging from Our Lady, of course. Even if no agreement between the two sides in the talks is forthcoming any time soon, it might be very interesting to see how the Roman side is presenting things to the SSPX side. I gather that the Roman participants are very well versed in Thomistic theology (one can imply this from Bishop de Galareta’s statement that the Roman participants are “people we can talk to”), and are acknowledged heavyweights in these things, so statements from them that interpret the controversial elements of Vatican II in more directly traditional terms might be very useful for the rest of us anyway.
One of the Roman participants in the talks is Fr. Fernando Ocariz, the number two man I think in Opus Dei right now. When I asked an Opus priest here recently if he thought Fr. Ocariz might be the next Opus Dei prelate, he said, probably yes, unless Fr. Ocariz is tapped to become secretary of the CDF instead, which is also quite possible (in which case the prelacy might actually deveolve upon someone other than a Spaniard, another interesting thought). The point being that as an example, this is a very important and learned man, of a traditional but not hidebound disposition, who can help clarify things very well.
There will be so many ways in which Anglican Catholics can enrich the Church that it would be a mistake to let the hardbound few on the far right present any impediments to this result. I am quite sure that Pope Benedict well understands these issues and will not let the naysaying deter him, while of course the Roman bishops are far from the SSPX view of things, so no worries on that score. I personally have finally stopped paying attention to the SSPX in any great way, as there is too much else that is good and needs to be done in the Church as a whole to let them be a distraction.
about 1 month ago
Thank you for these kind words. I hope and pray that the Bishops of the SSPX will find a way to accept what the Holy Father has wanted to give them for years, a fully regular canonical status and a mission to help the Church back onto her feet.
This means a complete transfiguration of intelligence and the grace of the Holy Spirit. They are in my prayers.
about 1 month ago
Fr. Hart comes across as thinking he is the Angelic Doctor of Anglicanism.
I read his blog often just to see what’s going on.
In fact, his continual sarcasm and insults to TAC Bishops make Anglicanism look very ugly.
In Response to Fr. LR>>>>
One thing that I understand is that I want no more of the likes of Robert Hart. His type always has an answer for every question and a question for every answer. Nothing objectively squares unless it squares with his objection. Knowing the truth for Padre Hart sets him free; the rest of us are in bondage to our puny intellects.
about 1 month ago
This is off topic but I want to express my sincere regret for the truly vile comments of certain ‘archtraditionalists’ over at Rorate Cœli today. I cannot understand what their problem is. I prefer not to repeat here what they are writing about the TAC and about Abp. Hepworth. Be assured that I will continue to defend the TAC’s desire for recunion with Rome. Also be assured that IT IS FALSE to think that all Latin traditionalists have a negative view of the TAC. I’ve read that even Bishop Fellay, Superior-General of the S.S.P.X, has said pleasant things about the TAC and about the apostolic constitution. All of the traditionalists at my local Latin Mass are very happy about the TAC’s gesture and are welcoming. We must not think that a few vocal naysayers represent a majority of Latin traditionalists. From what I’ve seen, the opposite is the case.
P.K.T.P.
about 1 month ago
Thank you, Mr Perkins, for this sensitive comment. Indeed, I wrote my posting today on the good traditional Catholics here in France. Yes, I remember that Bishop Fellay wrote quite encouragingly some time ago about the TAC, and that he has not entirely closed off all possibility of their own agreement with the CDF. I must read his recent sermon at Flavigny with the attention it deserves.
I think it would be good for the naysayers to be marginalised as they deserve and for good people in the traditional Catholic communities – like Reunicatho here in France – to stand up for the campaign for Catholic unity and peace.
Again, thank you for these words.
about 1 month ago
Those persons mentioned by Mr Perkins seem, to my mind at any rate, to be sedevacantists or at least from the crypto-sedevacantist Williamsonite faction of the FSSPX.