Bishop of Evreux Attempts to Suppress Motu Proprio in Normandy

Reading this article about the Catholic bishop of Evreux in Normandy, France reminded me of the French uprising in the Vendee during the French Revolution. Of course, the Catholics of the Vendee were rising against the anti-clerical relativism of the Reign of Terror.

Unfortunately, today's reign of terror in the Church is often led by members of the hierarchy determined to enshrine the spirit of the world on our altars. Here in the U.S. we are certainly no strangers to this clerical abuse. The rolecall of bishop-barbarians includes cardinals of the most powerful dioceses. Cardinal Bernardin was a champion at undermining the faith while pretending to defend it. Cardinal Mahony walks in his footsteps, though less nimbly. He is a hatchet man compared to the scalpel-wielding Bernardin.

I had to laugh when I got to the part of the story about the bishop saying Mass while his congregation and altar servers disappeared to protest his abuse of the Mass. They simply removed themselves to another Church where the bishop was denied entry to the sanctuary. And I'm delighted that the pastor is fighting. Obedience is not an absolute when the bishop violates his authority.

Perhaps we should imitate our brothers and sisters in France. If the bishop or priest is messing with the Eucharist and undermining the faith, walk out and keep walking until you find true worship. And certainly, stop financially supporting these faith wreckers!

The faith is virtually dead in France. You would think this bishop would be calling in a priest who is so successful to get instructions on how to save his other failing parishes. But destroying the faith seems to be what many of these men are about. And perhaps he follows the same strategy of his U.S. brothers (like Gumbleton, Clark, Sullivan, etc.) who suppressed vocations to stir up support for the ordination of women. I found an interesting press release that shows the bishop is a "progressive" when it comes to ecumenism and also indicates the miserable status of his diocese where lay people are taking over many parish functions because of the lack of vocations.

Pray for the lay revolution in Evreux. The pastor is fighting the bishop's action in canon law. Let's pray the bishop gets the Bishop Martino treatment. We'll see if it's reserved to the orthodox defending the faith.