French diocese to hold ordinations after two-year halt by Vatican

Vatican City, Oct 23, 2024 / 11:10 am

The Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in the south of France will ordain six men to the transitional diaconate on Dec. 1, ending a Vatican suspension on diocesan ordinations to the priesthood or diaconate that has lasted over two years.

Ordinations were halted by the Vatican in June 2022 following a fraternal visit to the diocese by Archbishop (now Cardinal) Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille.

The ordinations of six seminarians from the traditionalist community Missionaries of Divine Mercy will take place in the Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin in Lorgues, according to an Oct. 21 announcement from Bishop François Touvet.

Pope Francis appointed Touvet a coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in November 2023, putting him in charge of religious communities and of the training of priests and seminarians.

As coadjutor, Touvet is serving alongside Bishop Dominique Rey, who has led the French diocese since 2000. Touvet will succeed Rey upon Rey’s 75th birthday.

Touvet said this week the Dec. 1 ordinations “are the fruit of a trusting and peaceful dialogue maintained with the superior of the community [of the Missionaries of Divine Mercy] and the Dicastery for Divine Worship.”

While the Missionaries of Divine Mercy recognize the validity of the post-Vatican II liturgy, one of its three charisms is the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.

The group, which was founded under diocesan law, is also dedicated to the missions of mercy and evangelization, especially among Muslims.

Touvet wrote that while the statutes of the community, founded in 2005, indicate that priests and deacons should use the liturgical books from prior to the reform of the Second Vatican Council, the community’s members “recognize the validity of the current missal and have sought, since their foundation almost 20 years ago, a true insertion in diocesan life under the authority of the bishop.”

The diaconate ordinations scheduled for later this year are a “favorable outcome” of exchanges with the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Touvet said, since permission to offer the Traditional Latin Mass “can only be granted to a recently ordained priest by the Holy See” since the 2021 promulgation of Traditiones Custodes.

The bishop invited prayers for the soon-to-be deacons and “so that the liturgy is not a place of combat but of communion in Jesus Christ the savior.”

Suspension of ordinations

The Vatican requested the suspension of ordinations in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in summer 2022 due to “questions that certain Roman dicasteries were asking about the restructuring of the seminary and the policy of welcoming people to the diocese,” according to an announcement by Bishop Dominique Rey at the time.

The diocese had seen a record number of ordinations to the priesthood under Rey’s leadership, which began in 2000, but questions were raised about his approach to evaluating candidates for the priesthood. He was also under scrutiny for having welcomed to the diocese a large number of religious orders and lay groups across a wide spiritual spectrum that included both charismatic and traditionalist communities.

Known for his support of the Traditional Latin Mass, Rey had also ordained diocesan clerics using the 1962 Roman Pontifical and had used the same book for the ordinations of religious communities, including the Institute of the Good Shepherd. 

After Pope Francis promulgated Traditionis Custodes, the 2021 motu proprio restricting the celebration of Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, the bishop had highlighted the concerns of some priests and communities present in his diocese who offered Mass according to the old rite. 

Aveline’s fraternal visit to Rey’s diocese took place in early 2022 at the request of the Vatican.