Corruption of Canon Law during the Pontificate of Francis. Crisis in Diocese of Toulon.

Reflections on the crisis in the Diocese of Toulon

For the second year running, the Diocese of Toulon will not be able to ordain its seminarians. We learned last June that "Rome" (I put Rome in inverted commas because we still don't know whether this was the vendetta of an obscure official in God knows what dicastery or a papal decision!) had asked the local bishop, Monsignor Rey, to postpone the ordinations. Since then, an Apostolic visit has been made to the diocese. To date, the results of this visit remain unknown - and several people who asked to be heard by the visitors have not even received an acknowledgement of receipt, which can only fuel suspicions that the visit was incriminating.

As I wrote last year, I in no way claim to know the background to this disastrous affair. I have received all sorts of more or less reliable information on the subject, but I am incapable of judging what is true and what is false. In any case, I have no difficulty in believing that several things deserved to be improved in the diocese of Toulon and especially in its seminary, which seems to be the epicentre of this cyclone. Incidentally, you don't need to be over-informed about the contemporary Church to know that many things deserve to be improved just about everywhere.

Be that as it may, I'd be careful not to get involved in a discussion that only concerns Monsignor Rey and the Pope.

On the other hand, as a faithful layman and attentive observer of the life of the Church in France, I am obliged to talk about the public consequences of this situation - and the foreseeable consequences of the next steps that are taking shape in the fog.

The first consequence, which is obvious, massive and monstrous, is that young people who have given everything to Christ are being held hostage by this decision (and, even worse, by this absence of a decision): for two years in particular, deacons have been deprived of priestly ordination, in defiance of canon law, through no known fault of their own. I don't know what civil servant or bureaucracy could have thought up such torture, but I can say quite clearly that it's scandalous. It was last year, and it is even more so today. You have to lack not only a sense of the Church, but even the most elementary humanity, to indulge in this kind of outrageous procedure - and not even have the courage to accept your responsibilities.

It says a lot about the pitiful state of human relations in the Church.

It also says a lot about the persistence of abuse in the Church. In any society, what is done to these unfortunate people would be judged as moral harassment - and, as such, would be dealt with in court. In the Church, since everything is based on the total commitment of the individual, anyone seems to be able to get away with anything.

It was well worth giving us the issue we recently watched with dismay on the Sauvé report, where some oddballs were able to call for changes to sacramental theology itself, on the basis of figures pulled out of a hat and sometimes incoherent with each other, on the grounds that abuse was 'systemic' in the Church. So much for telling us that all this was over, finished, and that from now on everything would be for the best in the best of all possible worlds. The clearest message to emerge from this sad affair in Toulon is that destroying lives remains one of the 'options' of ecclesial 'management'! And that's how you want to attract vocations or re-evangelise France? (Oops, sorry, I forgot that the 'managers' in question were also bankruptcy trustees who had little interest in evangelisation).

But how can we fail to understand that this situation is a radical counter-testimony to everything that has been said and trumpeted about Pope Francis' reformist pontificate: how can anyone imagine worse clericalism than that which deprives the Church of young priests and young people of the joy of receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders, without even bothering to explain the most insignificant reason?

The situation is made all the more Kafkaesque by the fact that no one knows what would unblock it. I've read some of the know-it-all people explain to us, in the arrogant tone that comes from being certain of being in the 'camp of the good' (we've got the neo-cons we can get!), that it's quite simple: all it would take is for Mgr Rey to resign and the ordinations would instantly be rescheduled. But that's silly: a sanction for which we don't know the reason simply cannot be lifted.

In recent decades, canon law has ceased to be the normal protection of the freedom of the faithful. It has become, mutatis mutandis, the weapon that the Soviet penal code was in the hands of the NKVD: the aim is not to find out who is guilty of what and to give them the just punishment for their offence, but to impose a general arbitrariness on the whole of society. This is already extremely painful in temporal society; it is unbearable in the Church. The truth will set you free, Christ said: this is especially true in matters of law. If the anonymous censors of Monsignor Rey or his seminarians, in Rome and perhaps in France (we must never underestimate the power of ecclesiastical jealousy! ), do not say publicly what needs to be improved in order to resume the course of ordinations and the life of the diocese, everyone will be able to grope in all directions with the best will in the world, it will only result in a Brownian movement without rhyme or reason - and it would be truly miraculous if one of these attempts were to obtain by chance the rescheduling of ordinations!

No, it's not serious, it's not decent, it's simply not possible, to condemn without giving any grounds for condemnation.

I would like to conclude by pointing out that this affair is a grimly comical illustration of the contempt in which the clearest and least debated teachings of the Second Vatican Council are held. Have we been told enough that the aim of "the" Council was to restore the balance between the episcopal office and the Petrine office? Oh yes, we see! Any petty curial official can forbid a bishop to ordain his seminarians. So much for rebalancing! On this subject, I'd be very curious to know how Monsignor Rey's colleagues comment on this affair. I've been told that some are pleased, but they would do well to be wary: it sets a very dangerous precedent. From now on, in defiance of the law, it will be possible to bind episcopal powers without monition, for no known reason. To think that our Church has offered the whole world the very notion of law, passing on Roman law and digesting it to build canon law, the notion of investigation, the notion of the right of defence, and so many others, and that within it we have returned to morals that would have made Sardanapalus blush, is to weep!

In the same way, we were extolled the "new Pentecost" that would see us re-evangelise the world, clerics and laity fraternally united. Here too, we see! I would not be so cruel as to insist on the "fraternity" revealed by this affair in Toulon. But can we talk about evangelisation in the Church of France? Can we not see that what is indirectly targeted by this sanction, which does not even dare to speak its name, is precisely the evangelisation of the peripheries to which the Roman Pontiff invites us? The diocese of Toulon was a laboratory for peace between the different "living forces" of the Church, uniting them in a common mission. (To tell the truth, I have the unpleasant impression that this is precisely where the profound reason for this sanction lies). So what does this mean? That the current pontificate prefers liturgical warfare to peace, and catfights to evangelisation? That would be ridiculous, but you have to admit that we are lost in conjecture and that nothing in this affair is comprehensible.

What can happen now? Ideally, the law should take its course and Monsignor Rey should be told what he needs to reform in his diocese and seminary. On this clear basis, he could either get on with these reforms or tender his resignation. We could then move on to other things, in particular the ordinations that should have taken place at the end of June. Needless to say, I have little faith in this: by what miracle would we achieve in three weeks what we haven't achieved in over twelve months? Another hypothesis, alas more likely, is that the situation will continue to deteriorate. This will slowly destroy dozens of seminarians, many priests in the diocese and the bishop himself - but this does not seem to worry the offices concerned too much. It will also lead to the closure of the seminary - I don't see how a seminary without the prospect of ordination could recruit! Incidentally, I'd like to stress that the possibility of Bishop Rey's resignation, which some "good souls" are beginning to raise, would be a sub-hypothesis of this slow rot, since the only antidote to rot is the truth and a frank explanation of the reforms that need to be made.

In short, apart from the favourable hypothesis, in which I have little faith, there is every reason to fear that the diocese of Toulon will not recover from this major crisis for a long time to come. But, in that case, it would be a good idea for everyone involved in this murky affair to be aware that this goes far beyond the case of Toulon - and, as time goes by, it will go far beyond the case of Toulon.

Killing the Toulon experience will have enormous consequences for evangelisation in France - in the same way, and symmetrically, that the Toulon experience had enormous consequences for evangelisation in France (how many missionary initiatives were tested "in small doses" in Toulon before developing "in large doses" throughout the whole of France?) This is even likely to have consequences for Diocesan finances: the most committed members of the faithful are already rather reluctant to support pseudo-Christian Marxist-Leninist associations or LGBT propaganda in "Catholic" schools with their church money. They are less than enthusiastic about the misappropriation of inheritance through the sale of buildings to pay the debts of sexual predators. What do you think they will do when it is publicly announced that the Church of France as a whole has chosen to turn its back on the mission (which is more urgent than ever) and return to the outdated quarrels of the 1970s?

I am sorry, dear readers, to have to write these gloomy lines but, once again, the truth will set us free and, if our Church is not the very place of truth and freedom, it is no more than a shadow of its former self. We cannot be complicit in this.

Having said that, the worst is never certain and, if we have little influence to help resolve this crisis, we can, more than ever, pray that God will allow it to be resolved quickly, that these young people will become the holy priests we need so much as soon as possible, and that dozens of such missionary laboratories will sprout up all over France. From a human point of view, this seems to be going rather badly, to remain euphemistic, but it wouldn't be the first time in history that Providence intervened "with a strong hand and an outstretched arm"!

Sursum corda - and, since I'm writing these lines on Corpus Christi, let's remember that He alone remains, and all we have to do is cling to Him in the storm!

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