He desired that a Priest of the Society of Pius X would say a Requiem in his parish church. Had he been protestant, he would have had no problem.
[Kreuz.net] In the middle of July François died in the village of Troistorrents in the southwest of Switzerland.
Troistorrents is a 4000-soul community in the extreme west of the southwest Swiss Canton of Wallis.
The deceased had lived his entire life in the village. He was an adherent of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X.
Troistorrents is located 44k west of Ecône, where the french speaking Pius seminary is located.
As a relative of the village priest, Fr. Philippe Aymon, a priest of the Society asked for him to open the church doors for the celebration of a Requiem, which he refused to do.
This was reported by the Swiss paper 'Le Matin'.
Pastor Aymon unacrimoniously told the paper: "The adherents of Ecône may not use any Catholic Church."
This was not his decision: "This is a directive of the Archdiocese!"
The village belongs to the small Diocese of Sitten. The current old-liberal Bishop Norbert Brunner is also the president of the Swiss Bishop's Conference.
The family has no bitterness for him, explains Fr. Aymon: "I had the son of the deceased on the telephone. He was very respectful."
Because of the Bishop's absence due to vacation, Pastor von Sierre and Fr. Robert Zuber, further information.
Fr. Zuber gave a more complete explanation: "In the early nineties when I was pastor in Val d'Anniviers, I recall, that there were two burials for adherents of Ecône."
Actually, these adherents, who participated in the burial, were supposedly behaving "very poorly and had no respect for the things and for the property" of the church -- said the minister: "I believe, that this directive touches on that time."
Since the doors of Troistorrents are closed, the Requiem will be read on the next to the last Monday by Society Priest François Udressy in Ecône.
In the obituary for the deceased it reads:
"Because of the refusal of the Diocese, the Church of Troistorrents to open, where the deceased was Baptized, Confirmed, received his first Communion, was married and had participated in all of the burials of the town, the burial Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday, July 20th at 3 O'Clock in the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Ecône."
Link to original...
If Summorum Pontificum is to be anything but a dead letter, then the Holy Father or one appointed by him needs to point out to the Archdiocese that the Pope's document says, in effect "any priest" can offer the ancient Mass "any time, anywhere", without having to secure "permission" from the local Ordinary. In the case alluded to above, if the SSPX priest went through proper channels to secure the use of the Church for the burial then neither the priest nor the Ordinary had any right to say "no."
ReplyDeleteThese people need to be put in their place by higher authority....and real soon.