Institute of the Good Shepherd
(2023)
- • 61 priests
- • 46 seminarians[1]
Superior General
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]
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]
