The Ordinariate Mass in France

As a priest I was always interested by the liturgical life of the Catholic Church, the unity which is expressed also in the differences of liturgical rites and forms. I have also followed with great interest, as a young priest, in 2009 the effects of the Lambeth Conference inside the Anglican community, as well as the Catholic Church’s creation of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham afterwards.

In spite all these, my first encounter with the Ordinariate liturgy happened only in November 2019. During a trip I had done in England, I had the opportunity to spend some time in Walsingham at the hermitage, which unfortunately today it doesn’t exist anymore, and which had belonged to the Ordinariate. There, with the help of a few nice people I was able to learn this form of the Mass during my staying there.

But one year had to pass till I was able to celebrate it again, this time in a more regular way. In November 2020, I started my new mission as a chaplain for the Chavagnes International College, a Catholic boys boarding school situated in the county of Vendée, France (Chavagnes en Paillers). This school was created exactly 20 years ago in the building which once was the Minor Seminary of the Diocese of Luçon, closed in the 1970s. The school itself it is an international school, welcoming boys from all over the world, and preparing them for the English A Levels. As a consequence, the language of the school, in terms of education is English.

As a non-native English speaker, I do consider the Ordinariate Mass as part of an English heritage, because of its beautiful English language, the roots which are to be found in it of the Sarum Rite, so it came as an idea of introducing it in this English speaking environment. Not to mention, obviously, the beauty of the Mass itself, which fascinated me from the moment I started celebrating it. As an important addition, two of my colleagues were members of the Ordinariate.

The direction of the school was very open to the idea, Mgr. Keith Newton was informed about it, and he was himself in favor of it, even having the kindness to help us overcome the first liturgical difficulty: sending us a Divine Worship Missal from his own collection. Ever since, this Mass is celebrated in our school once a week, on Saturday, at 12:15 o’clock, in the secondary chapel of the school, dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. In case of a bigger feast, the Mass is celebrated in the chapel of the Immaculate Conception, which is the main chapel of the school.

It was not a surprise, that with a bit of help the Mass itself attracted new members for the Ordinariate. The first one was a former pupil of our school, who having only the Catholic baptism, but coming also from an Anglican background, decided to continue his sacramental formation (First Holy Communion and Confirmation) as a member of the Ordinariate (in 2021). In the next academic year (2021-2022) one of our pupils having an Orthodox baptism decided that his path of faith is in the Catholic Church as a member of the Ordinariate as well. He was welcomed as such towards the end of the academic year. This year, another pupil, non-baptised, is preparing his baptism, also as a future member of the same Ordinariate.

As it seems, this form of Mass has also an evangelizing force, even among those who are non-native English speakers, and they discover in it the gift of faith and the universality of the Catholic Church. As for myself, as celebrating priest, I am very happy to have been able to learn it and to be able to offer the sacrifice of Christ in this form too. I try to speak about it to those who don’t know about it, or they might have a suspicious opinion on it. As in many other issues, Pope Benedict XVI had a good intuition, and the fruits of his intuition concerning the Anglican patrimony are to be seen in the future.

Photos courtesty of Fr. Nicholas Cibian.