From denial to challenge

This year there were only 68 ordinations of diocesan priests throughout all of France and 52 ordinations of religious for a total of 120 new priests. It is predicted that there will be only 6000 priests in France in 5 years as compared to 15,000 today, because 10,000 of them are over 65 years of age, and 7000 are over 75.

How will 6000 priests be able to serve parishes? The head of the Great Mosque of Paris has some ideas for putting former churches to good use in France (Europe 1, 15/06/15), and Bishop Michel Dubost of Evry, who “prefers that churches become mosques rather than restaurants,” will be able to hand over the keys to him.

Faced with this inexorable drop in ordinations, specialist committees offer sociological explanations and expert consultations suggest psychological interpretations, while the conclusion is more demographically obvious every day: there are not enough new priests to replace the priests who die.

This critical situation led one bishop to ask several years ago for permission to “make the experiment of Tradition.” But in the name of an ideological a priori, his request was denied: the Council is non-negotiable, postconciliar reform is irreversible, the numbers that contradict it must be “Lefebvrist,” and must be treated accordingly with the disdain… Such is the denial of reality.

But the facts are always there, and the experiment of Tradition can still be made. But for that to happen we must make an energetic denial that this decline is our destiny, and there must be a will to make use of the treasures offered by the Tradition of 2000 years… Such is the challenge!

Fr. Alain Lorans