Wednesday 9 April 2008

Traditional Communities of France

by Shawn Tribe

If you speak French, someone there has published a book on Les communautés traditionnelles en France -- the religious orders in France that use the classical rite, and that are in union with the Holy See.

The description of the book is roughly as follows:

For the first time, the traditional Catholic communities authorized by the Vatican are the subject of a book. Photo album and beautiful book, this work presents the 17 secular and regular religious communities in communion with Rome. Without taking sides, the author, Thomas Grimaux, invites to come and see what they are really about. Everyone speaks about them but nobody really knows them: the traditional religious communities authorized by the Holy See remain a mystery. However, strong of vocations and faithful young people, they constitute an essential element of the New Evangelization wanted by John Paul II. Better, Benedict XVI has just set up one of them - the Institute of Good Shepherd - and would like to liberalize the use of the “Latin mass”, the mass of Saint Pius V, that of before the Vatican II Council.

The book is a smaller coffee-table sized casewrap hardcover book, and as the title suggests, it goes through the various traditional communities in France (in communion with Rome) -- it also touches into the Institute of Christ the King and their seminary in Italy [and the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter. --Ed.].

The book is in French of course, but I must say, even if you don't speak French, I think many would find this book interesting and worthwhile. The reason for that is the book will first of all introduce you to a number of French monasteries and orders attached to the classical Roman liturgy that you may have less familiarity with. In the book, they include any relevant contact information, or website addresses as well, where they have them.

But in addition to that, what will also make the book interesting (perhaps most interesting to non-French speakers) are the great number of colour photographs of these communities, their day to day activities, and of course various liturgical shots as well.

I was impressed by the fact that the book is up to date enough that they include the Institute of the Good Shepherd.

(reposted with permission from The New Liturgical Movement; many of the communities linked to from here are featured in this book)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Do you know where I might buy a copy of this book?