Friday, July 1, 2016

Priestly Ordinations in France 2016: A New Low Point

Priestly Ordinations in 2016 in Traditional Rite:
FSSP, Bordeaux

Amand Timmermans

The ordinations in France take place mostly around June, near the Feast of St.. Peter and Paul (June 29)  who are regarded as two pillars of the Holy Church.
The Bishops' Conference of France (CEF) announced a few days ago that about a hundred new priests this year were consecrated for the Catholic Church: 79 diocesan for pastoral ministry - a little more than 2015 (68), but less than in 2014, where 82 diocesan ordinations already hit an absolute low for some centuries.
Particularly sad is the low ordination number of religious priests, whether connected to an order or a new community: one expects about twenty.
For comparison: in 2016 the Episcopal Conference expects about 100 ordinations; in 2015 there were around 120, in 2014 to around 140; 2002 was around 200.
The decline in vocations has seriously strained the age pyramid.
The number of priests in France has almost halved in the last twenty years: from 29,000 (diocesan and religious priests together) in 1995 to about 15,000 in the year 2015.
10,000 of them are older than 65 years, 7,000 are more than 75 years old.
It is estimated that every year about 800 French priests die.
This means that the number of priests will be halved again within less than 15 years. In the long term about 3,000-4,000 priests are expected in France.
The ordinations are distributed very irregularly over the diocese: the Archdiocese of Paris with 11 ordinations is, of course, in the lead; However, it is closely followed by the dioceses of Vannes (7) and Fréjus-Toulon (6), the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bordeaux (5) and four in Lucon en Vendée, Saint-Denis and Versailles. There are also five ordinations of the Communauté Saint-Martin in Évron (Mayenne). This priestly community was once in talks to take over the monastery abandoned by Benedictines, Abbey Weingarten (Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart). The project was of course very quickly discarded because of the expected "lack of acculturation".
The other dioceses in western France follow the sad country trend: two new priests in Quimper, one each in Bayeux, in Rennes, Nantes and in Laval.
In the diocese of Coutances, Séez, Saint-Brieux, Angers and Le Mans there are no ordinations this year.

Ordinations in traditional rite 2016: Institute of the Good Shepherd, Bordeaux

It is striking that there are those diocese best known as traditional friendly diocese, have the most vocations: Fréjus-Toulon, Vannes, Lucon and  the more conservative communities such as the Communauté de Saint-Martin in Évron (Mayenne).
In addition,  the communities of tradition are brought in, including the Fraternity of St. Peter , the Institute of the Good Shepherd (Institute of the Good Shepherd) and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, whose new priests are to be ordained in the traditional form of the Roman Rite.
"The seminarians reflect the sociology of practicing Catholics."
This dynamic development as pleasing also, at the moment is rather limited; and it will not be enough to reverse the negative trend.
This slight optimistic situation seems not to be of interest to Church leadership anyway. In particular, there is no re-evaluation of recent modernist practice up for debate.
Some Catholic journalists are of a mind that only a complete zero would be reached before it can lead to profound reforms.
As the Belgian example shows that is very doubtful:
The number of priestly ordinations had fallen to zero in the four northern Belgian dioceses (except Bruges) years ago without  bringing any reaction from Cardinal Danneels.
At the same time, Danneels issued a decree by which the Flemish seminarians who were studying in neighboring countries (diocese 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands), - in spite of the shortage of priests returning to northern Belgium, was banned. The Dutch were incidentally very grateful for these Flemish priest exiles.
Danneels' successor, Archbishop DeKesel, is acting in the same spirit.
Although there is a shortage of priests in Belgium and particularly in Brussels, with the pending closure of churches in the coming autumn, Dekesel has expelled the Priestly Fraternity of the Holy Apostle established by his predecessor, Archbishop Msgr. Léonard, in Brussels  (with currently seven priests and 21 seminarians) on 30 June 2016 from the Archdiocese, ​​on the grounds that the majority are French.
They don't just want bankruptcy, they  want naked, yes a stark naked collapse.
Text: Amand Timmermans (adapted from an article on www.belgicato.hautetfort.com v 06.25.2016.)
Picture: IBP / FSSP (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

17 comments:

Clinton R. said...

Truly the work of satan those bishops who have infected their seminaries with the poison of heresy. They hate the Church and the priesthood and squeal with joy over the lack of vocations. Let us pray to the master of the harvest to send more harvesters. Domine, miserere nobis. +JMJ+

James said...

Thanks a lot VaticanII! I suppose this is what a "New Springtime" looks like.

Anonymous said...

On June 29, 2016, at St. Pius X Seminary in Ecône (Switzerland), 8 priests and 12 deacons were ordained by Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, bringing the number of SSPX Priests to 608! https://damselofthefaith.wordpress.com/2016/06/30/sspx-ordinations-in-econe-2016/

Anonymous said...

soon in france there will be more EF priests than NO.
ergo, the NO will die out when its last priest does.

philipjohnson said...

Inherent in Vatican 11 thinking is ultimate decay.Self/auto destruction is its motivating factor.God Bless the Traditional orders!!

Anonymous said...

No good news anyway, Europe is a heathens continent, no future, no faith and a lot of muslims in, it's a tragedy.

Anonymous said...

Pray the FSSP is given a Bishop with traditional ordination- consecration holy order's.That would be a wonderful blessing!!

Anonymous said...

I think we're still quite a few years away from that. But if it happens, it will happen in France first. They will have no other choice. There won't be any priests left there other than the FSSP.

Hank said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

and SSPX

Hugo said...

Do some homework and you will find that the SSPX and other clerical groups dedicated to the 1570 Latin Mass have revolving doors big enough to make heads spin.
Just as soon as a lot of these characters get out into the real world and encounter the actual pastoral status of ordinary people, they soon realise that they have been sold a bill of goods and go elsewhere.

Unknown said...

Hugo, perhaps you are correct, but what is your source (for the claimed SSPX defections)? Do you have specifics and statistics?

Anonymous said...

I may not live to see it happen but its highly probable every traditional Catholic order (including Thuc Mendez and Hnilica line clergy along with SSPX) will unite together. I agree at some point the novus ordo structure will collapse.Again I may not live to see it happen but Bishop Lefevbre made the exact same statement too.

Hugo said...

For starters you might take a look at a report in http://www.novusordowatch.org/stumblings.htm
and a June 2015 in The Remnant which quoted SSPX sources to the effect that in 2014-2015 year more than 50 priests of the society either voluntarily left or were expelled because of their views. There is quite a lot more if you care to do a web search.

Catholic Mission said...

The same 'infection' is there in the theology being taught at SSPX seminaries.

The SSPX seminary in Regensburg and the German Catholic (Novus Ordo) seminaries in Germany, accept EENS as Cushingite while the pre-Council of Trent times, affirmed EENS as Feeneyite
http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.it/2016/07/the-sspx-seminary-in-regensburg-and.html

Wil said...

And God declared Jesus Christ a 'Goddite' the Savior of all humanity.

Anonymous said...

That doesn't mean these men left the priesthood.
They could've went to the novus ordo,sedevacantist,or working for another R&R Chapel.
Some may leave but not most of them. That report means they left the SSPX.