Enzo Bianchi est célèbre, libéral, soutien de la première heure de François (qui l'a néanmoins éjecté parfaitement arbitrairement). Il vient de publier un texte très fort de soutien aux fidèles attachés à la liturgie traditionnelle. Merci à lui : il démontre que la charité n'est pas un vain mot. Son texte est évidemment en creux une critique au vitriol d'un François hyper-autoritaire et indifférent à ses fidèles.

Un extrait parmi d'autres :

La situation est grave, et il est temps d'arrêter de cracher sur cette partie de l'Église, ou de se moquer et de la mépriser. Pratiquer l'œcuménisme avec tant de communautés chrétiennes, parfois très appauvries du noyau de la foi dans le Christ, et ne pas savoir dialoguer et marcher même avec les traditionalistes n'est certainement pas un signe d'authentique charité fraternelle, ni de conscience que nous sommes unis par l'unum baptisma, l'unique baptême, qui fait de nous des frères et des disciples de Jésus-Christ.

It is true that in Italy this presence of traditionalists is very limited and circumscribed, and for this reason the Italian church does not pay much attention to it, but we know well that in other countries - especially in France, Germany and the United States - traditionalists constitute a well-attested minority, not small and very effective in terms of communication and visibility. In a Catholic diaspora, among fewer and fewer Catholics, their presence appears significant and capable of expressing itself with persevering militancy.



It should be made clear right away that this is a variegated presence, showing different faces, different styles, different ways of being in the ecclesial communion, with very different ways of struggling to continue to exist: from a thoughtful and mild criticism, to an almost continuous contestation, to a delegitimization of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis and the bishops. Sometimes we are witnessing the mutation of a dutiful and filial criticism into a harsh and convinced accusation of betrayal of the faith, and therefore an accusation of heresy.



The situation is serious, and it is time to stop smirking at this portion of the church, or even mocking and despising it. Practicing ecumenism with so many Christian communities, sometimes severely impoverished of the core of faith in Christ, and not knowing how to dialogue and walk even with traditionalists is certainly not a sign of authentic fraternal charity, nor of awareness that we are united by the unum baptisma, the one baptism, which makes us brothers and disciples of Jesus Christ.



Can we come to a serene and mild discernment of this reality? In my existence as a Catholic monk and Christian, always attentive to such diverse life in the churches, just as I have always attended churches and monasteries of non-Catholic but Orthodox or Reformed Christian communities, so I have also always attended communities or monasteries that wishing to be faithful to the tradition prior to the liturgical reform have obtained the possibility of continuing to live the liturgy by celebrating it with the Vetus Ordo. It was certainly not enough for me to contemplate, participate in and enjoy the beauty of the rites and Gregorian chant, but I looked attentively at the human and spiritual life of those communities, and I always noticed a sincere love for the liturgy, a serious and deep fidelity to the monastic tradition, lived with evangelical intention, rich in initiatives and work to live the condition of all men, a common life capable of great charity. I therefore sent my brother monks to the French abbey of Le Barroux, a thriving community, to learn how to bake bread, and in my sojourns in this and other traditionalist monasteries, I was able to verify that even with them "it is beautiful and sweet to live together." I felt they were simply brothers, and I confess that I found myself better among them than in some monasteries that claim to be faithful to Vatican II but live a non-monastic religious residence life.



The interview that the new abbot of Solesmes gave after his audience with Pope Francis on Sept. 5, 2022, remains significant. Dom Geoffroy Kemlin heads a congregation of monasteries in which some celebrate with the preconciliar Vetus Ordo while others follow the reform of Paul VI, in force throughout the Latin Catholic Church. It was therefore incumbent on him to make the Pope aware of the reactions to Traditionis custodes that had been recorded in France and to ask him how he should deal with the application of Motu proprio in his monasteries. Pope Francis in this regard would have told him that it is really up to him, the abbot of Solesmes, to make discernment, and it is not up to his person, even if he is the pope, because he lives two thousand kilometers away. Literally, "You are a monk, and discernment is proper to monks. I tell you neither yes nor no, but I let you discern and make a decision." Advice, this, that the Pope also gave to some French bishops, and this tells us that what the Pope really wants is unity, which does not prevent a diversity of rite as long as the Catholic faith of the Eucharistic mystery is honored.



In an audience with Pope Francis in 2014, the Pope asked me what I thought of the traditionalists, and I told him, "Your Holiness, if they accept the Second Vatican Council, if they really accept your ministry as the successor of Peter, if they declare valid the liturgical reform and the Eucharist normed by Paul VI, let them live... The church must accept a plural communion, it can no longer be monolithic in forms."



I continue to remain of the same opinion after all these years in which the Eucharist from being a bond of unity has become a cause of division. And for this, responsibility must be taken not only by those who fall back into nostalgia for the past - "indietrists"[backwardists], the Pope calls them - but also by those who with the traditionalists have not been clear, have been duplicitous and ambiguous, pushing them without appearing on positions of contestation and rupture with the church.

Has Ecclesia Dei always acted with truthfulness, loyalty, transparency in weaving a dialogue with these portions of the church? And some cardinals and bishops on whose side was it in the post-Council period: adhering to Vatican II and the resulting reform or criticizing it to the point of diminishing its authority?



We are already experiencing so much tension and opposition in the church today that we cannot afford even the loss of Eucharistic peace. Mass cannot be a place of contestation and fraternal division, and for a path of true communion to open up, it is more necessary than ever that the celebration of the Novus Ordo be practiced avoiding sloppiness, banality, and ugliness. Currently, the situation makes it really tiring for many Catholics to attend the liturgy to draw spiritual fruits from it. There is too much prominence of the presbyter, too much verbiage, poorly edited and undignified chants, homilies that now feed almost only on the humanities, psychology, art history: these enchant everyone but convert no one.



In my opinion, the situation is dramatic and I understand how lovers of tradition always fail to accept the Novus Ordo, but remain anchored to the ancient rite that should never be despised and devalued. Liturgy, if it is not an ordered mystery, if it is not beautiful even in its simplicity, if it is not a celebration of the Gospel, it cannot attract anyone, not even through grace. Catholic unity, then, cannot and must not be uniformity but multiform harmony, plural communion, in which each and all find possibilities for living participation. Traditionis custodes and Desiderio desideravi should be an invitation for all to renew Eucharistic faith through an evening and beautiful celebration of the Eucharist lived as communion and not as an occasion for ecclesial division. [Emphases added]

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