The 1984 Ordinations at Econe

1984 WAS A VINTAGE YEAR for Ordinations at Ecône, by the number of priests ordained, by the number of visitors, by the number of priests attending the Ordinations, and last but not least, by the good weather.

On June 28, this year the eve of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, it rained on and off throughout the day, and the forecasts were of wet weather for the 29th, the day of the Ordinations. Visitors however, gathering from all over Europe, indeed from all over the world, refused to let their spirits be dampened, and by their prayers obtained clear and sunny weather, yet not too hot; in fact, perfect weather for the open-air Ordinations, held as usual at the foot of the grassy meadow sloping down from the Seminary towards the floor of the valley of the Rhone. Only knees wet through from kneeling in the damp grass would remind people of the soaking from head to foot they had been narrowly spared.

As people steadily arrived from six or seven o'clock in the morning until the ceremony began at nine, the commotion and excitement steadily increased. Thirty-two buses and several hundred cars had to be shown where to park by white-gloved Swiss policemen and frantic seminarians striving to impose order on the constant influx of drivers, each seeming determined to park where he thought best! Then would follow the race from the cars and buses to the open benches, in order to reserve the seats at the front with the best prospect for viewing the ceremony and seeing the Archbishop close up. Even the normally tranquil and pious seminarians could be seen racing to and fro in a flurry of cassocks as they attempted to reserve places or to keep reserved places open for their friends and relatives. Other seminarians could be heard over the loud-speaker system, monotonously testing it again and again, as though it risked collapsing any moment before the ceremony itself—"Testing, testing, un, deux, trois, quatre, testing, testing . . ." This would be occasionally interrupted by irregular blasts of organ music because the organist, normally secure behind the grand pipe-organ of St. Nicholas du Chardonnet, clearly also wished to make sure that his meadow systems were all go.

However there were some people trying to hear themselves think. From one hour before the ceremony, priests began hearing confessions of the multitude at a dozen open-air confessionals, consisting of a chair and a kneeler set up at a little distance from the congregation on each side, up and down the hill. What a joy for the Sacred Heart on His feastday to be continuously over the next five hours absolving, through His priests, lines and lines of penitents humbly and openly resorting to the Sacrament of His Mercy!

At last, toward nine o'clock, the crowd started to settle, in hushed expectancy. The sun was shining, the organ began to play steadily. The entry procession was on its way. Heads turned and saw coming down the hill a subdeacon with two acolytes bearing the processional cross, and a long double line of some 100 seminarians in white surplices, once more looking tranquil and pious. They were followed by a double line almost as long of priests, many from within the Society, young priests remembering undoubtedly Ordination in the meadow of a few years earlier, but also many priest friends from without the Society, some also young, some middle-aged, some with grey hair, veterans in the Catholic priesthood, but all alike impressed with the dignity and solemnity of such a ceremony as the one by which they themselves became priests years ago . . .

Next arrived, graded by height, the tallest at the back, the twenty-five ordinands, in white albs from head to foot, carrying lighted candles and on their arms the vestments of their imminent priesthood. Their eyes downcast, their thoughts turned within, as they no doubt meditated on the mystery of the great sacrament they were about to receive.

At last arrived in order the many servers, acolytes and ministers of a Pontifical High Mass about to commence in all its grandeur and solemnity. All eyes were seeking out the figure of the Archbishop himself. As he made his way slowly down the hill with mitre and crozier, with white shoes and white gloves, between his two Deacon Assistants, he was already giving his blessing, and as he passed, people knelt and the cameras clicked. The flock of Catholics were sensing in their midst the true shepherd. They feasted their eyes on him, warmed their souls, and turned with renewed expectancy towards the altar of God which the Archbishop was mounting and from which they knew they would again hear the Master's Voice, and receive new priests according to the desires of the Divine Heart.

The ceremony began. The Gregorian Chant of the Introit from the Seminary Schola accompanied the opening movements of the Mass, as the celebrant and ministers moved across the level stage in the dimmed light beneath the tent, where the naked eye can see them, but where cameras must be close to pick them up without the sunlight outside the tent making the figures inside invisible.

After the Kyrie and Gloria sung in Greek and Latin by the whole congregation (in accordance with the desires of Pope St. Pius X), the Archbishop delivered his sermon. He spoke of the love of the Sacred Heart, cause of the Redemption, and of its extension through the Catholic Priesthood. The ordinands would soon receive the quite particular mark and character of the priesthood, not shared by all believers, as Protestants and Modernists think. From then on they have the power to teach and instruct the people of God, and secondly, to sanctify them. Here again no Protestant errors may be allowed to diminish the Sacrifice of the Mass, but the future priests' hearts must overflow with the full measure of the merciful love of God, to raise sinners from their sins, and, slowly but surely, the Church from her present seeming ruin.

Father Wodsack then translated the Archbishop's sermon from French into German for the many people from German-speaking countries who come each year to the Ecône ordinations.

Then the Arch-Priest in the ceremony, Father Alain Lorans, Rector of the Ecône Seminary, called forward the twenty-five ordinands one by one, in the traditional manner. Seventeen of these were seminarians at Ecône, seven came from two Benedictine communities in France, and one from the Community of the Transfiguration, also in France. As the names were called out, the people could hear where each of the seminarians came from: five from France, three each from Canada and Italy, two from Colombia and one each from Australia, Belgium, New Zealand and Spain—truly an international and world-wide Society! Alas, such is the demand from all over the world for these new priests that only one will be coming to the United States—Father Daniel Couture from French-speaking Canada, whose first posting is to the Society's house in Post Falls, Idaho.

Then the candidates stepped forward inside the tent and prostrated themselves on the floor towards the altar. This act of self-offering made a particularly impressive sight as the entire sanctuary was filled. Again the whole congregation joined in singing the full Litany of the Saints, to pray all the inhabitants of Heaven to bless the young men about to offer their whole lives for God.

Next came the most solemn moment of all, the first imposition of hands, when the candidates actually become priests. Two by two the candidates knelt before the Archbishop who, standing with his back to the altar, laid both hands on each of their heads. When they stood up again they were priests, but they did not return to their places until, kneeling in a row, they had also received the imposition of hands of each priest present—a long and impressive file of over one hundred priests.

Then came the presenting of the chalice and paten, whereby each candidate touched in the Bishop's hands the instruments of his future celebration of Mass, and the consecration of hands, in which the fingers and palms of the new priest's hands are anointed with Holy Chrism, and bound with linen before being cleansed. Then they formed up to file past the Bishop again in order to receive the vestments of their priesthood, the stole until then hanging diagonally like the Deacon's across chest and back but which will now for the priest be crossed both ends across the chest, and above all the chasuble, principal vestment of the priest.

Now the new priests are ready to celebrate their first Mass, which strictly speaking is the one which, from the Offertory onwards, they concelebrate with the ordaining bishop. Twenty-five stools were set up in the sanctuary with a missal for each new priest to accompany the Archbishop in the celebrant's prayers for the rest of the Mass. To help them find their way in the missal, each new priest had an assistant priest at his side. It is a moving sight to see the older priests by the side of their new brothers in the priesthood, to help initiate them into the celebrating of Mass.

Mass proceeds as usual, except that the priest's prayers are said more slowly and out loud to enable the new priests to pray with the celebrant. At the Communion the new priests received Communion first, and then about a dozen priests with large ciboria went out of the tent to distribute Holy Communion to the people, twenty minutes reminiscent of the feeding of multitudes on the hills of Galilee.

After Communion, the new priests pass again before the Bishop for the second imposition of hands by which he gives them the power to bind and to loose sin. The chasuble till then still pinned up behind their backs is now unpinned to symbolize the full unfurling of their priestly powers. There remains only for the new priests to place their hands between the hands of the Bishop and make a solemn promise to obey him and his successors. Then the Schola sings the antiphon of the sublime words of Our Lord to His Apostles whom He has been initiating just before His Passion into the deepest secrets of His Heart: "Now I will no longer call you servants, but friends." Indeed there were now another twenty-five intimate friends and apostles of the Sacred Heart.

Standing, all together, bring the long ceremony to a close with the singing of the Te Deum to thank God for the immense graces He has just bestowed. And then the procession reforms to make its way back up the hill to the Seminary.

The ceremony has lasted between four and five hours, but the devotion and attention of the crowd of five thousand have been unbroken.

They are rewarded with another flow of grace. After the official photographs around the statue of St. Pius X, patron and protector of the Society, in the central courtyard of the Seminary, the new priests come back down the hill to begin giving their first blessings, starting often with the new priest's own parents and family. It is likewise moving to see the new spiritual Fathers thus paying back in grace a little of all they received in nature from their natural fathers and mothers, who often have tears in their eyes. Their own son—a priest of God!

And so the new priests begin their ministry. They will not cease giving their first blessings for an hour, having to tear themselves away to get lunch. From now on they begin to learn what it means to minister, and to give one's life a ransom for many. Their years at the Seminary are over, to the great relief of many of them, but now the action begins, for it is, in fact, a cross they have picked up. Today however their expressions show only the deep joy of the newly-ordained.

It was another magnificent Ordination at Ecône, more than satisfying everyone's expectations. Mother Church is indeed being patiently re-built!