Consecration of Corsica to Mary with Traditional Mass

Notre Dame de la Serra  Mary Queen of
Corsica

(Ajaccio) Bishop Olivier de Germay Ajaccio celebrated High Mass on Sunday, the 7th September, at the pilgrimage  Notre Dame de la Serra to Upper Calvi. The Marian shrine located high above the city on a cliff with a magnificent view. There has been a miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin Mary there for more than 500 years, showing her Assumption. This year there is a renewal of a consecration   of the island to the "Queen of Corsica". A Holy Mass was celebrated in the Immemorial Rite.

Every year on the first Sunday in September, a pilgrimage to Notre Dame de la Serra takes place. The walls around the church bear witness to the turbulent events, to which the Mediterranean island was exposed.  Through a donation from the Frankish king Pippin III., the father of Charlemagne, Corsica has belonged since 750 to the Papal States until the island was annexed in 1347 by the Republic of Genoa. The island was often the victims of Muslim pirates from North Africa. In 1553 Corsica  was  even occupied by the unholy Franco-Ottoman alliance. As the Corsicans in the 18th century wanted to shake off the Genoese rule, there were  several uprisings, and Genoa  sold the island to France, which annexed Corsica in 1770.

Mary "Queen of Corsica"

On the hill above Calvi  until the late 18th century there was a hermitage, where the hermit lived intermittently by the miraculous image of grace. In 1735, Corsica still belonged at that time  to Genoa, but aspired to independence, under the protection of Our Lady, when she was made the "Queen of Corsica".  In 1794, during a brief English occupation in the turmoil of the French Revolution, the church was badly damaged, but rebuilt again after the end of the Napoleonic era. On 18 May 1935, the then Bishop of Ajaccio, Rodié undertook the renewal of the consecration to Mary.

Bishop de Germay decided to renew the consecration of Corsica one more time in 2014  to the Virgin Mary in all parishes of the island. The novena began last August 30.   From the 6th-8th September  it took place on the pilgrimage to the Marian mountain of Calvi. 

Fearing a theft, the miraculous image is now in the parish church of Saint Marie Majeure of Calvi. From there, it is annually brought up on the mountain to the traditional pilgrimage.

Traditional Rite in Notre Dame de la Serra

On Saturday, in the church built in 1479,  Notre Dame de la Serra is open all day for the pilgrims. A  procession was lead up the mountain, where Holy Mass was celebrated, which was lit by torchlight.

On Sunday, a Holy Mass was said at 8 o'clock on the mountain  in the traditional Rite, then, a Pontifical Mass was said at 10:30    in the New Rite by Bishop Olivier de Germay. By 4 o'clock there was a Eucharistic blessing with a procession around the sanctuary and the opportunity to gain an indulgence.

On Monday, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, ,  the consecration renewal of Corsica to the Virgin Mary took place during Holy Mass at 10:30.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Riposte Catholique

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

French Bishop Criticizes Government's Policy Attacking the Family

The plans of French Government for the introduction of gomorrist marriage were an attack on one of the pillars of society. It is wrong to promote a relationship that is sterile by nature in the same way as marriage.

Ajaccio (kath.net / LSN / jg) Olivier de Germay, Bishop of Ajaccio in Corsica, has spoken out against the plans of the French Government on the introduction of gay marriage. This was an attack on one of the pillars of society, he writes in an article on the diocesan website.

With the introduction of same-sex marriage, according to de Germay it is not about equality, but privileges. It makes no sense for any state to grant a partnership that is "sterile by nature" the same benefits as marriage. The permanent connection of a man and a woman with the purpose of having and raising children is not the invention of a particular type of society, but deeply inscribed in human nature. The State has an interest in protecting marriage, because this is the natural shelter for children and contributes in this way to build up society, wrote the bishop. The ideological background for the introduction of gay marriage, which is gender theory, the sex that reduces the identity of the person concerned to the biology. Gender theory contributes to the destruction of the family and would ultimately lead to the dissolution of the person himself, writes Bishop de Germay.

© Photo: Diocese of Ajaccio

Local Bishop Supports SSPX Prior

Edit: This Prior seems bent on joining the local Diocese and leaving the SSPX.  Things may become clearer.


It appears as though the Society of St. Pius X Prior wants to turn to the local Diocese.   The opportunity has clearly been concluded.

(kreuz.net) Last Sunday morning Msgr Jean-Marie Bonfils (82) of Ajaccio on the Island of Corsica  has made an unusual gesture.

'Riposte-catholicque.fr' reported this on Monday.

The Diocesan Bishop is Confirming at the St. Pius X Priory


The Bishop was at the church of the Society of St. Pius X in Ajaccio.

There he confirmed 19 candidates in the Immemorial Rite.  At the end he celebrated a Pontifical High Mass.

The Bishop has clearly held the confirmation at the priory of his own initiative.

One De Facto General Superior


Msgr Bonfils was ordained as a priest for the ‘Societé des Missions Africaines’ in December of 1954.

He was an instructor in Lyon and in Benin, West Africa, as a theology professor.

In March 2005 Msgr Bonfils retired as Bishop to Nizza.

In September 2011, he was named as the Apstolic Administrator of the crisis-stricken Diocese of Ajaccio on the isle of Corsica.

He will conduct the business of Administrator till April 14.

Then his successor, Msgr Olivier de Germay (51) will be consecrated as Bishop.

Presently, Msgr Bonfils is also the Papal Commissar for the Contemplative Sisters of St. John and also the de facto General Superior.

The Background


The action of Msgr Bonfils appears to have been done in conjunction with Father Herve Mercury -- the Society Prior of Ajaccio.

He is presently in consultation with Msgr Bonfils to become incadinated in the Diocese.

The most recent confirmation in Ajaccio was not the result of an arrangement with the General Council of the Society.

Kreuz.net....