Loyal Till Death: Communiqué of the Superiors General of the Ecclesia Dei Communities
The undersigned Institutes wish first of all to reaffirm their love for the Church and their fidelity to the Holy Father. This filial love is tainted today with great suffering. We feel suspected, sidelined, banished. However, we do not recognise ourselves in the description given in the Letter accompanying the motu proprio Traditionis custodes of 16 July 2021.
"If we say that we have not sinned..." (1 Jn 1:8)
We do not consider ourselves the "true Church" at all. On the contrary, we see the Catholic Church as our Mother in whom we find salvation and faith. We are loyally subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Pontiff and to that of the diocesan bishops, as shown by the good relations in the dioceses (and the functions of Presbyteral Councillor, Archivist, Chancellor or Officer that have been entrusted to our members) and the results of canonical or apostolic visits in recent years. We reaffirm our adherence to the Magisterium (including the Magisterium of Vatican II and its successors) according to the Catholic doctrine of due assent (cf. especially Lumen Gentium, n. 25, and Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 891 and 892), as evidenced by the numerous studies and doctoral theses submitted by several of us over the last 33 years.
Have mistakes been made? We are ready, like every Christian, to ask forgiveness if some excess of language or distrust of authority has crept in among some of our members. We are ready to convert if partisanship or pride has polluted our hearts.
"Fulfil your vows to the Most High". (Ps 49:14)
We ask for a human, personal dialogue, full of trust, far from ideologies or the coldness of administrative decrees. We would like to meet a person who is for us the face of the Church's motherhood. We would like to be able to tell you about the sufferings, the dramas, the sadness of so many lay faithful throughout the world, but also of priests, religious men and women who have given their lives on the word of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
They were promised that "all measures would be taken to guarantee the identity of their Institutes in the full communion of the Catholic Church" [1]. The first Institutes gratefully accepted the canonical recognition offered by the Holy See in full attachment to the traditional pedagogies of the faith, especially in the liturgical field (on the basis of the Protocol of Agreement of 5 May 1988 between Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Lefebvre). This solemn commitment was expressed in the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei of 2 July 1988, and then in various ways for each Institute, in their decrees of erection and in their definitively approved constitutions. The religious men and women and the priests involved in our Institutes have taken vows or have committed themselves according to this specific indication.
In this way, trusting in the word of the Supreme Pontiff, they have given their lives to Christ to serve the Church. These priests and religious have served the Church with dedication and self-denial. Can we deprive them today of what they have committed themselves to? Can we deprive them of what the Church has promised them through the mouths of the Popes?
"Be patient with me!" (Mt 18:29)
Pope Francis "invites pastors to listen with affection and serenity, with a sincere desire to enter into the heart of people's drama and to understand their point of view, in order to help them live better and recognise their place in the Church" (Amoris Laetitia, 312). We are eager to entrust the dramas we experience to the heart of a father. We need listening and caring, not condemnation without dialogue. Harsh judgement creates a sense of injustice and produces resentment. Patience softens hearts. We need time.
Today we hear about apostolic disciplinary visits for our Institutes. We ask for fraternal meetings where we can explain who we are and the reasons for our attachment to certain liturgical forms. Above all, we desire a truly human and merciful dialogue: "Be patient with me!".
"Circumdata varietate" (Ps 44:10)
On 13 August, the Holy Father stated that in liturgical matters, "unity is not uniformity but multiform harmony created by the Holy Spirit" [2]. We are eager to make our modest contribution to this harmonious and diverse unity, aware that, as Sacrosanctum Concilium teaches, "the liturgy is the summit towards which the Church's action tends and at the same time the source from which all her virtue flows" (SC, n. 10).
With confidence, we appeal first of all to the bishops of France to open a true dialogue and to appoint a mediator who will be for us the human face of this dialogue. "We must avoid judgments that do not take into account the complexity of the different situations.... We must help each person to find his or her own way of participating in the ecclesial community, so that he or she may feel that he or she is the object of a mercy that is 'unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous'" (Amoris Laetitia, n° 296-297).
Courtalain (France), 31 August 2021
Father Andrzej Komorowski, Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter
Mgr Gilles Wach, Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King High Priest
Father Luis Gabriel Barrero Zabaleta, Superior General of the Institute of the Good Shepherd
Father Louis-Marie de Blignières, Superior General of the Fraternity of St Vincent Ferrer
Father Gerald Goesche, Provost General of the Saint Philip Neri Institute, Berlin
Father Antonius Maria Mamsery, Superior General of the Missionaries of the Holy Cross
Dom Louis-Marie de Geyer d'Orth, Abbot of the Abbey of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux
Father Emmanuel-Marie Le Fébure du Bus, Abbot of the Canons of Lagrasse
Dom Marc Guillot, Abbot of the Abbey of Sainte-Marie de la Garde
Mother Placide Devillers, Abbess of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation at Le Barroux
Mother Faustine Bouchard, Prioress of the Canonesses of Azille
Mother Madeleine-Marie, Superior of the Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus the Sovereign Priest
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[1] Information note of 16 June 1988, in Documentation Catholique, n° 1966, p. 739.
[2] Videomessage of the Holy Father Francisco to the participants in the Congress of Religious Life of Latin America and the Caribbean, convoked by CELAM, 13-15 August 2021.
