Shaky Compromise Ends Ordinations Ban in French Diocese

Under the guise of appeasement, the war against the traditionalists continues unabated.

The crisis that has rocked the diocese of Toulon in the south of France for many months is about to reach an almost definitive end. Priestly ordinations, suspended for many months at Rome’s request, will resume, but at the cost of a liturgical compromise that reflects persistent tensions for the faithful attached to the Traditional Mass.

The diocese of Toulon in the south of France is known as one of the most dynamic in the country and one of the biggest providers of vocations to the priesthood. For many months, it was under close surveillance by the Vatican for failures of discernment in the recruitment of seminarians and shortcomings in the management of the communities by the bishop, Msgr. Rey. Ordinations were suspended until a solution to the crisis could be found, with the appointment of a coadjutor bishop alongside Msgr. Rey to take over his pastoral duties, which were deemed to be partially lacking.

In the last months, earlier problems of episcopal dysfunction had been resolved, and ordinations resumed, but the case of the Missionaries of Divine Mercy was still pending. The young seminarians of this very dynamic community, which has the particularity of celebrating the traditional Mass in Latin, remained uncertain about their future.

For more than two years for one of them, one year for the other four, they had to wait for authorisation from Rome for their ordination to the diaconate and then to the priesthood. At issue were the community’s statutes, which stipulate that priests must celebrate Mass according to the so-called Tridentine Rite, Old Rite, or Vetus Ordo, i.e., the form of Mass codified by Pope Pius V in 1570 after the Council of Trent and which had been celebrated for centuries in the Catholic Church—colloquially referred to as the ‘Latin Mass.’

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