Cardinal Sarah Forbidden From Saying Immemorial Mass of All Ages at Chartres Pilgrimage

For the 40th anniversary of the Paris-Chartres Pentecost pilgrimage association, Cardinal Robert Sarah was to celebrate a pontifical high Mass in the traditional Rite, but the Archbishop of Paris and apparently also Pope Francis had something against it.

Edit: Remnant, published on Oct 6th doesn’t mention that Le Barroux’s Abbot will be signing the Mass.

 (Paris) Cardinal Robert Sarah, the former Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship and the Order of the Sacraments, was forbidden to celebrate in the traditional Rite in Paris last Saturday.  Every week since July 2021, believers have been protesting outside the Apostolic Nunciature in Paris for the repeal of Pope Francis' motu proprio Traditionis custodes – and they don't intend to stop.

In gratitude for the fortieth anniversary of the Pèlerinage de Chrétienté, the great Pentecost pilgrimage of the tradition from Paris to Chartres, Cardinal Robert Sarah was to celebrate a pontifical high Mass in the Church of Saint-Roch in Paris last October 8th in the traditional Rite.  The 40th pilgrimage is to be carried out again this year from June 4th to 6th after a two-year Corona break.

Now it was rumored, but known from a reliable source, that Cardinal Sarah was forbidden to celebrate by the new Archbishop of Paris, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich - apparently due to the express intervention of Santa Marta.

Monsignor Ulrich, previously Archbishop of Lille, was appointed the new Archbishop of Paris by Pope Francis on April 26.  His inauguration took place on May 23.  The unfriendly gesture towards Cardinal Sarah was one of his very first official acts.

The ban on celebration imposed on the former Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and courageous defender of priestly celibacy is an unkindness towards a confrere that is neither bettered nor excused by the fact that Pope Francis ordered it.

Cardinal Sarah was briefly replaced by the Abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Le Barroux, whose sermon was published by the Association Pelerinage de la Chrétienté.  Pope Francis still has a call from Argentina to be resentful.  Cardinal Sarah's coup, along with Benedict XVI, with their plea for priestly celibacy, to present a de facto veto against plans in connection with the post-synodal letter on the Amazon Synod obviously goes deep.  The Abbot of Le Barroux eloquently stated that Cardinal Sarah preferred "for diplomatic reasons not to celebrate this Mass".

Abbot Louis-Marie de Geyer d'Orth of Le Barroux on Saturday at the Saint-Roch church in Paris

Christian Marquant, the chairman of Paix Liturgique, speaks of a "war of attrition" being waged against the traditional Rite.  The opponents of the traditional Rite had “one point in particular in their sights: the Sacraments”.  In many churches there are now difficulties with baptisms and weddings.  Many dioceses, such as the Archdiocese of Paris, no longer allow confirmations in the traditional Rite without any justification.  This is particularly shocking for Paris, because Archbishop Ulrich personally administered confirmation in the traditional Rite  in his previous archdiocese of Lille eight days before his inauguration in Paris.  This raised hopes that he would take care of liturgical peace in his new diocese.

But with the move to Paris, everything seems to have been forgotten.  In Paris they say that Msgr. Ulrich just wanted to please the Pope.  For the cardinalatial purple?

 "We must be particularly vigilant," says Marquant, because the bishops are "almost systematically" proposing solutions that are not, but strange combinations and mixtures, in which elements of the Novus Ordo are to be incorporated into the traditional Rite, or even that a Sacrament in Latin, but is expected to be offered in the new Rite.

 "Our answer is quite simply: No!" says Marquant.

It is about defending the traditional Rite as a whole, in which each part is important and which cannot be fragmented at will.  In addition, for the believers who are directly affected, and who are being swept away with a broom, it is also a matter of not “losing a hand's breadth of ground”.  Therefore, the resistance will continue: on Saturday in front of the Apostolic Nunciature, on Sunday by the Tradition 14 group with the rosary in Notre-Dame du Travail, the Gardiens de la Tradition (Guardians of Tradition) on Tuesday and Thursday with the rosary in front of the Chancery and on Wednesday with the Rosary in Saint-Georges de la Villette.

The same applies, according to Marquant, to the faithful in the diocese of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, who are forced to celebrate a "wild" Holy Mass every Sunday on Rue Armagis, but will not give in.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Notre-Dame de Chrétienté

AMDG