Too Traditional for France?

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The Little Sisters of Mary were founded in 1949. The operate four nursing homes for the elderly in France. But apparently they have gotten themselves in trouble. They became too traditional, wearing traditional habits, and celebrating the Novus Ordo in Latin. This brought on a canonical visitation. The mother superior and mistress of novices were sent away to monasteries and replaced with three modernist commissioners. Now, 34 out of the 39 sisters have asked to be dispensed from their vows.

Father Z comments on the story here:

wdtprs.com

Another group of women destroyed by the Vatican Congregation for Religious

Once upon a time we took care of our own and didn't rely on the nanny state to do everything. Catholics of every level of economic potential and walk of life were concerned with works of mercy, even in organized confraternities and religious orders. Another group of women engaged in works of merc
wdtprs.com wdtprs.com
 
What d0es this mean “dispensed from their vows”?

Is their vocation dependent on how they celebrate mass or who their superior is?
 
I saw this yesterday; such a sad story. A very orthodox group attacked for their adherence to tradition, while the “nuns on the bus” are given free reign to advocate for abortion, contraception, and women priests. I don’t blame these women for closing up shop; if I was in their place I’d rather the group be dissolved than see it become the next tool of the current Vatican regime on their March to modernization. I hope Pope Francis and his allies in Rome think it was worth it.
 
I seriously doubt if this has anything to do with the sisters being too traditional. Also, their bishop was appointed by Pope Benedict.
 
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Weserthy said:
A very orthodox group attacked for their adherence to tradition, while the “nuns on the bus” are given free reign to advocate for abortion, contraception, and women priests.
Click to expand...
I thought that the Catholic Church was indefectible. Was there a defection in this case?
 
AlNg said:
I thought that the Catholic Church was indefectible. Was there a defection in this case?
Click to expand...
Since we haven’t seen the visitation reports, we don’t know what problems may have been found.
 
Indeed, and moreover not mentioned in the article is another main cause of the dispute. Since I’m fluent in French I decided to do a little sleuthing.

Two of the nursing homes run by the sisters were merged and the merger did not go well. The sisters were asked by Mgr Scherrer to de-merge them. The sisters speculate that the diocese is in financial straits, earns income by selling assets, and wants to sell one of the de-merged homes to finance an expensive diocesan centre. But that is their speculation, just as is that their alleged traditionalism is an issue.

FWIW, I’m close to a community of Benedictine nuns who recently decided to do their OF Mass entirely in Latin. It was already in Latin on some days. Their liturgy, in spite of being OF, is very traditional with Latin and Gregorian chant, as is their observances (Papal enclosure, etc.). Yet nobody is trying to shut them down, go figure, even in the very liberal part of Canada in which they reside.

Since the initial merger did not go so well, and both were under the sisters’ care, there is no doubt that there is more to this story than meet’s Fr. Z’s usual agenda-driven eye…

Edit: I will add that France is a place where more traditional observances are enjoying a bit of a renaissance. One particularly inspiring community is the Communauté of St. Martin, which runs a seminary and which promotes Gregorian chant in the Ordinary Form, which they use at their community. They also produced the excellent Les Heures Grégoriennes, an antiphonary to chant the day hours of the current Liturgy of the Hours in Gregorian chant. I in fact use it for my own prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours and it is brilliantly done.

My abbey is also the daughter abbey of St. Wandrille in France, itself a daughter of Solesmes, both very traditional houses that use the OF but do it in Gregorian chant (Mass and the Divine Office). Both have been there for a long time.

There are also Benedictine, Carmelite and Trappist monasteries in the Diocese of Laval.

So “too traditional for France” simply does not pass the smell test to this man in the pew.
 
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And I should also add: Barroux, Fontgombault, and Triors. All Benedictine abbeys in France that celebrate the EF Mass and use the pre-Conciliar version of the Monastic Divine Office. And there is a Latin/Gregorian chant Mass at Notre Dame (OF) daily.

So indeed “too traditional for France” is a nonsense headline.
 
Yeah it deeply bothers me that a priest, with a massive online following, openly declares, without a shred of documented evidence (at least nothing that I’m aware of) that the Vatican is persecuting religious communities for the sole reason of being too attached to Latin… that’s a HUGE accusation.

There’s plenty of Latin in my archdiocese. Does that mean our archbishop will be getting the sack soon? …

Ironically, I remember Fr Z reporting that Pope Francis personally prays the Office in Latin.
 
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This constant sensational narrative of “the institutional Church is out to get us” really doesn’t help the traditionalist cause. I was once a fervent daily reader of Fr Z’s blog… during the pontificate of +Benedict there was lots of good stuff there. Now it strikes me as too much tin foil hat.
 
I have no doubt that the letter blog story in the OP is one sided. But, if we just look at the end result, 34 out of 37 nuns from a traditional order asking ng to be released from their vows, we have to ask ourselves if the intervention was not more than a little heavy handed, despite what the problems might be. My take, neither side if the story passes the smell test.
 
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