Institute of the Good Shepherd

Last updated
Institute of the Good Shepherd
AbbreviationI.B.P.
FormationNovember 8, 2006;17 years ago (2006-11-08)
TypeRoman Catholic Clerical Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right
Location
Membership (2023)
  •  61 priests
  •  46 seminarians [1]
Superior General
Very Rev. Luis Gabriel Barrero Zabaleta
Website www.instituteofthegoodshepherd.org

The Institute of the Good Shepherd (French : Institut du Bon Pasteur, Latin : Institutum a Bono Pastore) is a Catholic society of apostolic life made up of traditionalist priests promoting the Tridentine Mass and other traditional sacraments, in full communion with the Holy See. [2] As of 2023, the Institute has 61 priests, 46 seminarians and is active in nine countries over four continents. [3]

Contents

Background

Father Paul Aulagnier, who had been provincial superior of the Society of Saint Pius X in France from 1976 to 1994 was expelled from the society in 2004 for having spoken in favour of the 2002 agreement between the Holy See and the priests of Campos, Brazil who form the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney. [4] These priests, however, accepted the hermeneutics of the continuity of Pope Benedict XVI, while the priests of the Institute of the Good Shepherd were authorised by the Vatican to use the Tridentine form of the Roman Rite exclusively and criticize the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. [5] Father Aulagnier, for example, published through Montfort Cultural Association a book in Portuguese defending Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and his traditionalist claims. [6]

In August 2004 Father Philippe Laguérie was expelled for having complained that the Society of Saint Pius X had serious problems which discouraged priestly vocations in its seminaries. As a disciplinary measure he had been transferred to Mexico, but refused the assignment. [7]

Father Laguérie had for many years been in charge of the church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris, occupied by traditionalist Catholics since 1977. In 1993, he made an attempt to take over another Paris church, the Church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. He carried out the operation successfully at Bordeaux, obtaining the approval of the city council, but not of the archbishop's office, to take over the church of Saint-Eloi in January 2002. [8]

Father Christophe Héry was expelled for supporting Laguérie, as was Father Guillaume de Tanoüarn. The latter was the founder of the religious association of Saint-Marcel and the Saint-Paul Centre in Paris. [9]

On 15 June 2006, a French court in Nanterre (chambre du Tribunal de grande instance de Nanterre) ordered the reinstatement of Fathers Laguérie and Héry. [10]

Foundation

They had already decided to embark on a new path (while, according to at least one of them, remaining members of the Society of St Pius X). [11] On 8 September 2006, the liturgical feast of the Nativity of Mary, they, together with Father Henri Forestier, who also was stationed in Bordeaux, formed the Institute of the Good Shepherd, [12] a society of apostolic life in full communion with the Holy See. Several seminarians joined the new fraternity, some of them close to ordination, and Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, who signed the decree approving their constitutions for a preliminary experimental period of five years, [13] promised to confer the sacrament of orders on them.

Father Laguérie had declared in March 2006 that agreement with the Holy See was required by the very constitution of the Catholic Church, and he asked his parishioners to take note of the signs of good will on the part of Rome and of its intention to put an end to the doctrinal turmoil and the scandals of 1960-2000. He pointed to an address of Pope Benedict [14] as a condemnation of using "the spirit of the Council" as a pretext for excesses.

Agreement with the Holy See

The Holy See granted the members of the new institute use, as the institute's own rite, of the "Tridentine" form of the Roman Rite, employing the 1962 Roman Missal. For their part, each of the founding members personally undertook to respect the authentic Magisterium of the See of Rome with "complete fidelity to the infallible Magisterium of the Church." [15] The members of the institute may engage in a criticism of the Second Vatican Council that is serious and constructive and in accord with Pope Benedict XVI's address of 22 December 2005 to the Roman Curia, [16] while recognizing that it is for the Apostolic See to give the final authentic interpretation. [17]

Present situation

In less than five months, by 6 February 2007, membership had grown to ten priests and two deacons – one close to priestly ordination – incardinated in the institute and listed by name on Father Laguérie's blog. In its two formation houses it also had a not-yet-incardinated deacon, a subdeacon and eight other seminarians. There was one brother (a lay member of the institute). The ordination on 3 March 2007 added another two priests, while maintaining the number of deacons at two. Priests from many places were requesting incardination, but the institute exercised prudence in their regard.

Cardinal Castrillón fulfilled the promise he made when the Institute was founded and on 22 September 2007 ordained five priests of the Institute, one of whom was a former member of the Society of St. Pius X. The archbishop of Bordeaux and president of the French episcopal conference, Jean-Pierre Ricard, was present. [18]

By 8 September 2008, the priests of the Institute had grown to 18, and the seminarians to 30. The priests became 22 in the following month and 24 in the spring of 2009. [19]

In September 2009, the Institute had in France a house of formation for its seminarians studying philosophy, and a residence in Rome for its students of theology. It had eight Mass centres in France, and one in each of five other countries: Chile, Colombia, Italy, Poland and Spain. It also had three schools. [20] The Reparative Slaves of the Holy Family had come into existence with three Sisters taking the veil.

As of 2015 the Institute had 33 priestly members. They opened a house in Rome, Casa San Clemente, headed by Father Matthieu Raffray who is assisted by Father Giorgio Lenzi. [21]

As of 2019 the Institute had more than 30 seminarians studying at their Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul in Courtalain, France.

As of 2019 the Institute operates a mission in Monterey, California as their sole presence in the United States.

As of 2020, the Institute has 48 priests [22] and over 30 seminarians.

In 2021 Bishop Peter A. Libasci erected a personal parish of the Institute in Winchester (NH). [23]

As of 2023, the Institute has 61 priests, 46 seminarians and is active in nine countries (France, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Colombia, USA, Uganda, Australia) over four continents. [3] [24]

Latin America District

On 1 November 2006, Father Rafael Navas Ortiz was nominated superior for the Latin America District. [25]

There were unconfirmed rumours in February 2008 that Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, the Archbishop of Santiago, Chile ordered the Institute to cease celebrating the Tridentine Mass and leave the country. It is not authorized to celebrate the Tridentine Mass publicly in Santiago and his celebrations are therefore of private character, as permitted by the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. [26]

In March, 2011, an independent chapel located in Bogota, Colombia was officially incardinated into the institute by the Archbishop of Bogota, and is now officially recognized by the Archdiocese. The priest of the chapel has been given faculties to say public Masses (TLM) and hear confessions.

In Brazil the Institute has houses in Brasília, São Paulo, Belém and Curitiba. Besides, there are several apostolates in other major cities.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcel Lefebvre</span> French traditionalist Catholic archbishop (1905–1991)

Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre was a French Catholic archbishop who greatly influenced modern traditionalist Catholicism. In 1970, five years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, he founded the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a community to train seminarians in the traditional manner, in the village of Écône, Switzerland. In 1988, Pope John Paul II declared that Archbishop Lefebvre had "incurred the grave penalty of excommunication envisaged by ecclesiastical law" for consecrating four bishops against the pope's express prohibition but, according to Lefebvre, in reliance on an "agreement given by the Holy See ... for the consecration of one bishop."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tridentine Mass</span> Form of liturgy in the Roman Rite

The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in 1570 and published thereafter with amendments up to 1962. Celebrated almost exclusively in Ecclesiastical Latin, it was the most widely used Eucharistic liturgy in the world from its issuance in 1570 until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditionalist Catholicism</span> Catholic religious movement

Traditionalist Catholicism is a movement that emphasizes beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions and presentations of teaching associated with the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). Traditionalist Catholics particularly emphasize the Tridentine Mass, the Roman Rite liturgy largely replaced in general use by the post-Second Vatican Council Mass of Paul VI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society of Saint Pius X</span> Traditionalist association in the Catholic Church

The Society of Saint Pius X is a canonically irregular traditionalist Catholic priestly fraternity founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Lefebvre was a leading traditionalist at the Second Vatican Council with the Coetus Internationalis Patrum and Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers until 1968. The society was initially established as a pious union of the Catholic Church with the permission of François Charrière, the Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg in Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter</span> Catholic society of apostolic life

The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter is a traditionalist Catholic society of apostolic life for priests and seminarians. It is in communion with the Holy See. It was founded in 1988 by 12 former members of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) who left following the Écône consecrations, which resulted in the SSPX bishops being excommunicated by the Holy See.

Ecclesia Dei is the document Pope John Paul II issued on 2 July 1988 in reaction to the Ecône consecrations, in which four priests of the Society of Saint Pius X were ordained as bishops despite an express prohibition by the Holy See. The consecrating bishop and the four priests consecrated were excommunicated. John Paul called for unity and established the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei to foster a dialogue with those associated with the consecrations who hoped to maintain both loyalty to the papacy and their attachment to traditional liturgical forms.

Quattuor abhinc annos is the incipit of a letter that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments sent on 3 October 1984 to presidents of episcopal conferences concerning celebration of Mass in the Tridentine form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Seminary of Saint Pius X</span>

The International Seminary of Saint Pius X in Écône, Valais, Switzerland, is the premier seminary of the Roman Catholic traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). The seminary is one of the six houses for formation for the future priests of the Society of Saint Pius X. The Seminary was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and his tomb can be found there.

The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei was a commission of the Catholic Church established by Pope John Paul II's motu proprioEcclesia Dei of 2 July 1988 for the care of those former followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who broke with him as a result of his consecration of four priests of his Society of St. Pius X as bishops on 30 June 1988, an act that the Holy See deemed illicit and a schismatic act. It was also tasked with trying to return to full communion with the Holy See those traditionalist Catholics who are in a state of separation, of whom the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) is foremost, and of helping to satisfy just aspirations of people unconnected with these groups who want to keep alive the pre-1970 Roman Rite liturgy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney</span> Brazilian Catholic organization dedicated to the Latin Mass

The Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney was established on 18 January 2002 by Pope John Paul II for traditionalist Catholic clergy and laity within the Diocese of Campos in Brazil. It is the only personal apostolic administration in existence, and the only canonically regular Catholic Church jurisdiction devoted exclusively to celebrating the Tridentine Mass in the area. Its current Apostolic Administrator is Bishop Fernando Arêas Rifan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Écône consecrations</span> 1988 controversial consecrations performed by Catholic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

The Écône consecrations were Catholic episcopal consecrations in Écône, Switzerland, on 30 June 1988 performed by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer. The bishops consecrated were four priests of Lefebvre's Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). The consecrations, performed against the explicit orders of Pope John Paul II, represented a milestone in the troubled relationship of Lefebvre and the SSPX with the Church leadership. The Holy See's Congregation for Bishops issued a decree signed by its Prefect Cardinal Bernardin Gantin declaring that Lefebvre and De Castro Mayer had incurred automatic excommunication by consecrating the bishops without papal consent, thus putting himself and his followers in schism.

Monsignor François Ducaud-Bourget was a prominent traditionalist Roman Catholic French prelate, priest and close ally of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat</span> Ukrainian Traditionalist Catholic society

The Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych (SSJK) is a society of traditionalist priests and seminarians originating from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which is led by the excommunicated priest Basil Kovpak. It is based in Riasne, Lviv, Western Ukraine. In Lviv, the society maintains a seminary, at which currently thirty students reside, and takes care of a small convent of Basilian sisters. The SSJK is affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X and Holy Orders are conferred by the latter society's bishops in the Roman Rite. The SSJK clergymen, however, exclusively follow a version of Slavonic Byzantine Rite in the Ruthenian recension.

Summorum Pontificum is an apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI, issued in July 2007. This letter specifies the circumstances in which priests of the Latin Church could celebrate Mass according to what Benedict XVI called the "Missal promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962" and administer most of the sacraments in the form used before the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council.

Philippe Laguérie is a French Traditionalist Catholic priest. He was the first Superior General of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, which upholds the Tridentine Mass.

The Community of Saint Martin is a public association of clerics according to pontifical law, gathering Roman Catholic priests and deacons. It was founded in 1976 by Father Jean-François Guérin, a priest from the Archdiocese of Tours (France), under the protection of Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, Archbishop of Genoa (Italy). The community focuses on more traditional and reverent aspects of the liturgy, with its priests wearing cassocks and offering Novus Ordo Mass often in Latin, with Gregorian chant and ad orientem.

The canonical situation of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a group founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, is unresolved. The Society of Saint Pius X has been the subject of much controversy since 1988, when Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta were illicitly consecrated as bishops at Ecône, at the International Seminary of Saint Pius X, in violation of canon law. Lefebvre and the four other SSPX bishops individually incurred a disciplinary latae sententiae excommunication for this schismatic act. The excommunications of the four living SSPX bishops were remitted in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Aulagnier</span> French Catholic priest (1943–2021)

Paul Aulagnier was a French Traditionalist Catholic priest. Once a member of the Society of Saint Pius X, he then became one of the principal founders of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, an organisation in full communion with the Pope which upholds the Tridentine Mass.

Traditionis custodes is an apostolic letter issued motu proprio by Pope Francis, promulgated on 16 July 2021 regarding the continued use of pre-Vatican II rites. It restricts the celebration of the Tridentine Mass of the Roman Rite, sometimes colloquially called the "Latin Mass" or the "Traditional Latin Mass". The apostolic letter was accompanied by an ecclesiastical letter to the Catholic bishops of the world.

References

  1. "L'IBP s'agrandit : 8ème ordination sacerdotale de l'année 2023 – Institut du Bon Pasteur". October 17, 2023.
  2. "Notre charisme – Institut du Bon Pasteur".
  3. 1 2 "Nos prêtres".
  4. "ITEM". la.revue.item.free.fr (in French).
  5. "Notre charisme". Institut du Bon Pasteur (in French). Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  6. "A Herança Doutrinária de D. Marcel Lefebvre". Livraria Montfort (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-03-10.
  7. The case of Fr. Philippe Laguérie in Bordeaux Archived 2006-10-13 at the Wayback Machine – SSPX USA
  8. "En 1993, il avait tenté d’occuper une autre église parisienne, Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois. Il a réussi l'opération à Bordeaux en obtenant du Conseil municipal de la ville, mais pas de l'archevêché, d'occuper l'église Saint-Eloi, en janvier 2002" (La Une (News) 8 September 2006).
  9. "M l’abbé de Tanouarn installe son brillant « Centre saint Paul » à Paris."Interview by Father Aulagnier, 21 September 2006 [ permanent dead link ]
  10. "La Justice déclare illégales et annule les exclusions des abbés Laguérie et Héry". la.revue.item.free.fr (in French).
  11. "Je reste toujours membre de la FSSPX, jusqu’à ma mort. Je ne peux me résoudre à quitter ce que j’ai aimé. Follement. L’Eglise a besoin d’elle. Elle a besoin de tous ses prêtres." (I still remain a member of the SSPX. Until death. I cannot get myself to abandon what I have loved, madly loved. The Church needs the Society. She needs all her priests.) L’Institut du Bon Pasteur - par l’abbé Paul Aulagnier [ permanent dead link ]
  12. "- La revue Item -". la.revue.item.free.fr (in French).
  13. "Commission Pontificale " Ecclesia Dei "". la.revue.item.free.fr (in French).
  14. Pope Benedict XVI's address to the Roman Curia, 22 December 2005
  15. Statutes II §2
  16. "Christmas greetings to the Members of the Roman Curia and Prelature (December 22, 2005) | BENEDICT XVI". www.vatican.va.
  17. "Communiqué des prêtres de l'Institut du Bon Pasteur" (in French). Archived from the original on 2011-02-08. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
  18. Un cardinal venu de Rome ordonne cinq prêtres traditionalistes de l'Institut du Bon Pasteur Archived 2007-09-24 at the Wayback Machine , Le Monde , 24 September 2007
  19. "l'IBP a deux ans". Archived from the original on 2009-10-06. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
  20. Messe et réseaux (Mass and networks) Archived 2009-10-06 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 15 September 2009
  21. "[Institute of the Good Shepherd – Communiqué of the Superior General] Official opening of the House of St. Clement in Rome". Tradinews.blogspot.com. October 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  22. "Nos prêtres".
  23. "Decree of erection of the Saint Stanislaus Parish" (PDF).
  24. "Rentrée au séminaire : 17 nouveaux séminaristes pour l'Institut du Bon Pasteur". www.seminairesaintvincent.fr. 17 October 2023.
  25. "Latin America District Superior Nomination Letter". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
  26. "No muero...entro en la vida" (in Spanish).
International links

44°50′8″N0°34′15″W / 44.83556°N 0.57083°W / 44.83556; -0.57083