Report: Vatican preparing Decree on ‘Ecclesia Dei’ Institutes to be released in March

Tying up loose ends on Latin Mass communities…

Report: Vatican preparing Decree on Ecclesia Dei Institutes to be released in March

The French newspaper La Croix has released a report with more information about the future of the Traditional Latin Mass in the Vatican II Church.

Entitled “How Pope Francis sees Church Traditionalists”, it was written by their Vatican-based correspondent Loup Besmond de Senneville and was published in French yesterday, Jan. 17, 2022. An English translation was released today for the international edition:

• “How Pope Francis sees Church Traditionalists” (La Croix International)

Although not an “official” Novus Ordo newspaper, La Croix is very much affiliated with the Vatican II Church and is owned by Bayard Presse, which in turn is owned by the Augustinians of the Assumption.

At the end of his article, Besmond makes some interesting revelations. After announcing that the Vatican will soon be replacing the 2001 instruction Liturgiam Authenticam, which “set down rigid rules for translating liturgical texts in the vernacular”, he makes known that the so-called Ecclesia Dei institutes, which have not been directly addressed in Francis’ exhortation Traditionis Custodes severely restricting the Traditional Mass, will be dealt with in a separate Vatican document to be published in a few weeks:

It is understood that the Vatican is also preparing a new decree for release in March on the so-called Ecclesia Dei institutes. Those are the religious communities that were allowed to be set up to celebrate the liturgy exclusively in the Tridentine Rite.

(Loup Besmond de Senneville, “How Pope Francis sees Church Traditionalists”, La Croix International, Jan. 18, 2022)

Among the more well-known religious fraternities and communities that fall under the Ecclesia Dei umbrella are the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), the Institute of the Good Shepherd (IBP), the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), and the Benedictine monks of Le Barroux.

While it is always somewhat risky to predict Francis’ moves — the past has shown him to be a sly tactician — one would surely be justified in expecting that the March document will apply the draconian measures of Traditionis Custodes to every nook and cranny of the Ecclesia Dei communities, if not abolish them altogether or cruelly convert them into communities that “live the spirit” of Vatican II and celebrate chiefly the Novus Ordo “Mass” of Paul VI, if perhaps with a little more incense.

Besmond’s report in La Croix concerning an impending Vatican document about the future of the Ecclesia Dei institutes jibes with a Life Site article from early December (before the release of the Responsa ad Dubia), according to which the Vatican is preparing to “attack” the Ecclesia Dei communities in February:

As LifeSiteNews was able to learn from a source in Rome, the visitation of the major Ecclesia Dei (ED) communities is being already prepared. Our source said that people are already being interviewed by members of the visitation team headed by Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo. The visitations of the three major ED communities are to start in February. Carballo, according to the source, is heading all of the visitation commissions for the ED communities.

…

One senior source in the Vatican told LifeSite: “The goal is the destruction of the Ecclesia Dei communities and of the contemplative orders.”

(Maike Hickson, “Vatican source: Pope to attack Ecclesia Dei communities in February”, Life Site, Dec. 3, 2021)

If that happens indeed, it will simply be theological chickens coming home to roost. In fact, as Louie Verrecchio has argued, the Ecclesia Dei groups would only be “getting their just deserts”.

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