Some good news out of France

[ABlaine]

A new Chapel was just consecrated last month in Vignoble for one of the SSPX schools. It was founded earlier this decade and has now has over 300 students.

http://laportelatine.org/district/ecoles/activitesecoles/saintmartin_ex_saintlouis/170312_benediction_chapelle_saint_martin/170312_reportage_benediction_chapelle_saint_martin.php

As you can see there is still some decorating to do, but they just finished building it and can start using it now.

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http://laportelatine.org/activites/activites/manif/vierge_pelerine_2016_2017/reportage_ste_marie_170116_19/reportage_ste_marie_170116_19.php

A new chapel is to be built here (in the field where everyone is praying) to accommodate the growing student body. This is one of several schools in Brittany.

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http://laportelatine.org/district/ecoles/activitesecoles/garicoits/de_domezain_a_etcharry_160801/de_domezain_a_etcharry_160801.php

Lastly in less than 4 days the SSPX is moving one of its faster growing schools to a castle they recently bought in a place called Etcharry. The school that is moving now is a school for boys, the old location will become a new school for girls. So it's a double win.

Just thought you'd like some good news about the things going on!

I know there are some new chapels being built in other places but apparently the French branch of the SSPX is traditionalist not only in regards to religion, but also in regards to web design. The site is practically unnavigable, but I'll post those developments when I find them.

[dymphna17]

That is wonderful news ABlaine!  Please do keep us updated. I love the idea of the old boys school becoming a girl's school.  More soldiers being taught to fight in Our Lord's Army!  Thank you for posting this.

[LausTibiChriste]

I'm curious as to the similarities and differences between anglo-Traditionalism and franco-Traditionalism.

My Mom's French and I got my Faith through her...so a strong, Catholic France is something I pray for a lot.

[Heinrich]

I'm curious as to the similarities and differences between anglo-Traditionalism and franco-Traditionalism.

My Mom's French and I got my Faith through her...so a strong, Catholic France is something I pray for a lot.

Mrs. H had Quebecois blood. Who knows, y'all could be closely related.

To The OP: there is a Remnant.

[Prayerful]

I'm curious as to the similarities and differences between anglo-Traditionalism and franco-Traditionalism.

My Mom's French and I got my Faith through her...so a strong, Catholic France is something I pray for a lot.

Earlier centuries saw Gallicanism and Cisalpinism in France and Britain respectively, which both held limits to Papal power in civil matter, and there was a good deal of secular clerical hostility to Orders like the Jesuits who were seen as too closely tied to Rome, with Orders like the Salesians who were more accepting of secular priestly primacy, more favoured. More recently with the 'Agatha Christie Indult Tradition in Britain was somewhat less tied to the SSPX. It is a fascinating topic.

Superb news.

[Elizabeth]

The girl's school at that old noble house!   

[ABlaine]

I forgot to update this. So they did the big opening thing for the new schools.

http://laportelatine.org/mp4/inauguration_etcharry_170407.mp4

If you don't understand French you can just click through him speaking. He mostly just talks about how much bigger the new school is and how they have a lot more room for students, the Dominicans getting involved, families moving to the area, the fact that it is the same school just with a different name now, he talks about the new patron, the year of vocations, and the traditions of the pays Basque. The rest is mostly just narrating.

Yes that is actually how they dance in the pays Basque. The kids aren't the best dancers but whatever, it must have been kind of stressful to have to perform like that.

But yeah Franco-traditionalism has all kinds of other things tied up in it beyond just 'bring back the TLM, expel the heretic.' It is very regionalist, all of the schools/chapels in the different regions are very serious about their regional identity. This is especially true in places like Vendée, the pays Basque, Bretagne, etc.

[Elizabeth]

Very impressive; thanks ABlaine.

[Bl. Karl Hapsburg]

Here is an interesting post by a Frenchman over at Catholic Reddit. Sounds similar to what ABlaine has been stating.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/679b3u/once_and_for_all_what_are_the_dos_and_donts_for/

[

–]frencebrah 8 points 2 days ago
I always find the vitriol against the SSPX in this sub to be rather annoying. The SSPX has an enormous presence in my country (France) and they are particularly active in my quarter of Paris. i don't go on Sunday but I occasionally go for Vespers or a daily mass, it depends how I'm feeling.
All I can say is that they are doing something right. Firstly, the vast majority I have interacted with are very nice people. They tend to have large families too, which is pretty cool considering the demographic outlook of my country isn't great. Second, they attract actual French people. This might sound awful, but the more modern Churches in my city are surviving on Congolese immigrants that tend to stick around for one generation. Lot's of old Africans at my church, zero African children, but I know for a fact that they have oodles so where are they? The SSPX churches on the other hand are successfully attracting French people. Not just French people but oftentimes French people from the more moneyed classes, which is rather shocking if you think about it. A rich bourgeois in Paris has a LOT of potential temptations open to them, the fact that they would give it up for Catholicism is something to be admired. The FSSP and diocesain churches here are similar. They succeed in attracting people from the most atheistic classes in Franch society.
In my opinion the SSPX is what the Church could be if it tried. It generates a good number of vocations, it has many faithful schools, it supports local and provincial identity, it is unbending insofar as social doctrine, it generates a shocking number of converts/brings cradle Catholics back to the fold, etc.
So yeah they're still in a kind of quantum not-in-not-out thing but they have been getting closer and closer to the Church and went through a shakeout recently where they expelled most of the toxically anti-rapproachment guys.
But when it comes to judging them by their fruits, the SSPX, at least in France, is one of the only real bastions of Catholicism that continues to grow.
No matter what we're going to have to do something, a read a study recently that SSPX families have the highest birthrate in France at ore than 6(!). At least here they are becoming a massive and very public Catholic force.
Anyway just my 0.02.

[Josephine87]

Here is an interesting post by a Frenchman over at Catholic Reddit. Sounds similar to what ABlaine has been stating.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/679b3u/once_and_for_all_what_are_the_dos_and_donts_for/

[

–]frencebrah 8 points 2 days ago
I always find the vitriol against the SSPX in this sub to be rather annoying. The SSPX has an enormous presence in my country (France) and they are particularly active in my quarter of Paris. i don't go on Sunday but I occasionally go for Vespers or a daily mass, it depends how I'm feeling.
All I can say is that they are doing something right. Firstly, the vast majority I have interacted with are very nice people. They tend to have large families too, which is pretty cool considering the demographic outlook of my country isn't great. Second, they attract actual French people. This might sound awful, but the more modern Churches in my city are surviving on Congolese immigrants that tend to stick around for one generation. Lot's of old Africans at my church, zero African children, but I know for a fact that they have oodles so where are they? The SSPX churches on the other hand are successfully attracting French people. Not just French people but oftentimes French people from the more moneyed classes, which is rather shocking if you think about it. A rich bourgeois in Paris has a LOT of potential temptations open to them, the fact that they would give it up for Catholicism is something to be admired. The FSSP and diocesain churches here are similar. They succeed in attracting people from the most atheistic classes in Franch society.
In my opinion the SSPX is what the Church could be if it tried. It generates a good number of vocations, it has many faithful schools, it supports local and provincial identity, it is unbending insofar as social doctrine, it generates a shocking number of converts/brings cradle Catholics back to the fold, etc.
So yeah they're still in a kind of quantum not-in-not-out thing but they have been getting closer and closer to the Church and went through a shakeout recently where they expelled most of the toxically anti-rapproachment guys.
But when it comes to judging them by their fruits, the SSPX, at least in France, is one of the only real bastions of Catholicism that continues to grow.
No matter what we're going to have to do something, a read a study recently that SSPX families have the highest birthrate in France at ore than 6(!). At least here they are becoming a massive and very public Catholic force.
Anyway just my 0.02.

As a convert from atheism I'd like to add that there is something about the Tradition of the Catholic Church that was incredibly appealing to me.  I couldn't imagine converting in a NO parish (I converted in an FSSP parish).  I think the Reddit commenter is completely right that you need a group of people who take their beliefs seriously, those beliefs have to be serious in and of themselves, and the way the people express those beliefs through the liturgy must contain a sense of how important those beliefs are in order to attract people whom the NO is not attracting.

[Miriam_M]

As a convert from atheism I'd like to add that there is something about the Tradition of the Catholic Church that was incredibly appealing to me.  I couldn't imagine converting in a NO parish (I converted in an FSSP parish).  I think the Reddit commenter is completely right that you need a group of people who take their beliefs seriously, those beliefs have to be serious in and of themselves, and the way the people express those beliefs through the liturgy must contain a sense of how important those beliefs are in order to attract people whom the NO is not attracting.

What a wonderful addition you are to us.