A new Traditional Institute

Of course, Rorate Coeli has broken this story, which is currently only available in French. It looks like the name will be "Good Shepherd" -- 'Bon pasteur'. It will be headed by Fr. Philippe Laguérie, and subject to the Ecclesia Dei Commission.

Here is the Babelfish translation:

Rome has set up a new traditionalist fraternity to accomodate the former priests and seminarians of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X.

On September 8, 2006, the Congregation for the Clergy established a new religious institute, 'the Good Shepherd', centered around former priests and seminarians of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, separated from Rome since 1988, according to information collected by I.MEDIA. The seat of this new Fraternity will be in Bordeaux (France) at the church of Saint Eligius. The priests will exclusively celebrate according to the traditional liturgical rites of Saint Pius V.

On the morning of September 8, 2006, the feastday of the Nativity of the Virgin, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and charged with the EcclesiaDei Commission, signed the decree of erection of the institute of pontifical right of the 'Good Shepherd'. The Institute is an apostolic company of life dependant upon the Ecclesia Dei Commission, the Congregation for the Institute of Consecrated Life and the Society of Apostolic Life. In this decree, Cardinal Hoyos approved the statutes of the new institute,whose Superior General is a priest expelled from the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, Abbé Philippe Laguérie.

Vatican sources indicate that "Benedict XVI himself wished this step" in which "the traditional missal of Saint Pius V is not a separate missal, but an extraordinary form of the single Roman rite". In the Vatican, and among the members of the new institute, it is said that "this agreement corresponds to the requests made formerly by Mgr. Lefebvre", separated from Rome in 1988.

Among the numbers of the new fraternity, there are five priests and several seminarians, who will arrive soon. Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos committed himself celebrating these first ordinations. The persons in charge of the new fraternity also count on the fact that priests of Fraternity of Saint Pius X will choose to join them and that they will be able to found in various dioceses within 'personal parishes'. In Bordeaux, Paris and elsewhere, these priests are followed by a certain number of faithful attached to the missal of Saint Pius V, the liturgical rite liturgical in force before the liturgical reforms of 1969.

With this new institute, Rome chose to negotiate with those excluded from the Fraternity founded by Mgr. Lefebvre, rather than with the Fraternity itself. The reception of former integrist priests will not occur without in the Church of France. The Fraternity of St. Peter, founded in 1988 to accomodate faithful priests and seminarians wanting to remain attached to Rome in respect of liturgical tradition, could also suffer from this new creation. Even more so as some of its members seem ready to join 'the Institute of the Good Shepherd'.

Cardinal Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux, Member of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, might accept Saint Eligius Church as the seat of the Institute of Good Shepherd. It 'recussitates' a church of the diocese of Bordeaux occupied since January 2002 by Abbé Laguérie, then holy member of Fraternity Saint Pius X, with the support of the city council.

The reception by Rome of priests excluded from Fraternity Saint Pius X takes place as several bishops consecrated by Mgr Lefebvre into 1988 continue to harden the tone vis-a-vis with the Holy See. Mgr. Bernard Fellay, who was received by Benedict XVI in August 2005 at Castel Gandolfo, and was confirmed last July as the head of the Fraternity of Saint X, requested as a precondition to any negotiation with Rome "full freedom without conditions of the Tridentine Mass, and the withdrawal of the decree of excommunication of the four bishops" consecrated in 1988 by Mgr. Lefebvre. Since then, it has launched an initiative called "Million Rosary Bouquet" with which it invites the faithful to request "to obtain from Heaven the courage necessary for Benedict XVI to release the mass known as that of Saint Pius V".

In March 2006, Abbé Philippe Laguérie declared that an "agreement with Rome" was "an obvious choice, such that one wonders how it could leave the head of anyone" because "it is the constitution of the Church which requires it". This agreement, as written, initially does not have "the precondition, levelled all the doctrinal difficulties". It also invites its faithful "to read the signs, the demonstrations, the possibilities of the goodwill of the Romans to deal with someof delirious doctrinal errors and scandals of the years 1960-2000". It asks for "a total freedom of the liturgy, and for basic reasons, as well as total freedom to accept the Council for what it is", noting that "the document of the Pope to the curia (December 22) (...) indicates well that the spirit of the Council is bad".

In April 2006 at Lourdes, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard declared in front of all of the bishops of France that "the question of the relationship of Fraternity of Saint Pius X" deserved "a particular treatment". "We know that Pope Benedict XVI carries the concern from there", he explained, adding that, "in the weeks or the months ahead, it should give directives to facilitate the way towards a possible return to a full communion". "We will accomodate them in the faith and will accurately put them in?uvre" [?? - JtH], announced the Cardinal Ricard to the bishops.

Among the priests that make up the new traditional institute that were in turn expelled from Fraternity of Saint Piis X is Abbé Paul Aulagnier, a long time Fraternity Superior General in France (1976-1994), who was expelled in 2003 for defending the agreements known as 'of Campos'. In 2002, the Holy See had allowed the Brazilian Fraternity of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney to celebrate the Mass according to the Tridentine Missal with the proviso of recognizing the Vatican Council II interpreted "in the light of the tradition", and recognizing the validity of the Missal of Paul VI. Paul Aulagnier was authorized to exercise in the diocese of Clermont, without receiving particular mission in 2004. He also founded a house of reception in the diocese of Chartres.

Drawing media attention, Abbé Philippe Laguérie was expelled in August 2004 after having affirmed that Fraternity of Saint Pius X encountered serious problems related to a discouragement of priestly vocations in its various seminaries. He was subjected to an assignment in Mexico, a sanction which he refused before being expelled. Before that, within the Fraternity founded by Mgr Lefebvre, he had laid claim to the Parisian church of Saint Nicolas's Day of-Hanging-post, occupied by the faithful traditionalists since 1977. In 1993, he had tried to occupy another Parisian church, Saint-Germain-the resident of Auxerre. His work was successful in Bordeaux in obtaining Saint Eligius church in January 2002 with the support of the City Council, but not of the Archbishop.

Abbé Christophe Héry was expelled for having supported Abbé Laguérie, as well as Abbé Guillaume de Tanoüarn. The last founded the Association of Saint Marcel and Saint Paul in Paris. A fifth priest, stationed in Bordeaux, Abbé Henri Forestier, is one of the first members of the institute, with a deacon, soon to be ordained priest, Abbé Claude Prieur.

The Ecclesia Dei Commission was founded instituted by John Paul II in July 1988, and was created in order to "facilitate the full communion with the church those priests, the seminarians, the religious communities or the individual monks having had until now of the bonds with the fraternity founded by Mgr Lefebvre and who wish to remain with the successor of Peter in the Catholic Church by preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions".