PARIS (LifeSiteNews) —The 2024 Pentecost Pilgrimage of Notre Dame de Chrétienté (Our Lady of Christendom) has already broken a new record.
Registrations opened on Palm Sunday, March 24, nearly two months before the three-day, 62-mile walk from Paris to Chartres over Pentecost weekend (18-20 May). Usually registrations flow in somewhat sluggishly, despite the “early bird” price incentive to sign up early. And in previous years, last-minute pilgrims were able to register on the morning of departure. But last year, for the first time, registrations were closed a few days before the pilgrimage. And this year, the organizers were forced to close registrations on April 15, more than a month before.
With a total of 18,000 participants, the pilgrimage is attracting an ever-increasing number of marchers and volunteers who take care of the material side of things – from setting up altars and tents to preparing hot soup and breakfast, not to mention security, medical attention, cleaning the mobile bathrooms, and attending to the press – and is the equivalent of moving a middle-sized town from point A to point B, with two bivouacs on the way. As little as possible is left to chance, and the French civil authorities set limits each year so that no risks are taken.
The good news is that the pilgrimage is being allowed to grow, and so it does, which means that the traditional liturgy is not losing its power of attraction. Even Catholic mainstream publications such as Famille chrétienne commented on the news, and interviewed would-be pilgrims caught short by the early closing of registrations, who explained how important the yearly challenge is for their faith. Coming from diverse liturgical backgrounds, they agreed that they feel welcome and well accompanied in their discovery of the traditional rite. One commented: “The future of the Church plays itself out here.”
Jean de Tauriers, president of Notre Dame de Chrétienté, sat down with LifeSite to reflect on the growing success of the pilgrimage and his hopes for the future. “We are in tune with the spiritual needs of young people today,” he noted, stressing his complete “incomprehension” regarding Traditionis Custodes.
He also called on Catholics the world over to join the “non-walking” chapters of the “Guardian Angels,” who commit to pray for the pilgrimage and its intentions “in the communion of the saints.”
Here below is the full interview (translation from the original French by LifeSiteNews).
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LSN: This year’s Chartres pilgrimage closed its registrations a month before Pentecost, even though Easter fell early this year. So what’s going on, Jean de Tauriers?
Jean de Tauriers: Last year, we closed all the categories a few days before the start of the pilgrimage – we have different categories for pilgrims, adults, families, “pastoureaux” (“little shepherds”) and children – so it was already a first last year. This year we closed registrations considerably earlier, a month before the event, so I think there’s truly a momentum, a real fame factor. We are in tune with the spiritual needs of young people today—because it is true that our pilgrimage is a pilgrimage for young people.
LSN: If only because of the physical effort involved!
De T.: Yes, it’s hard. When I walked the whole route, it’s true that I was 20… It’s physically tough, it’s spiritually demanding, it’s intellectually challenging. But it’s also a time of joy because there’s a lot of friendship. It is, I hope, well organized, and there’s a very special atmosphere. That’s what people come for, and half of them – I really like this figure because it says so much – half of the pilgrims are under 20. Thanks to people like me, we manage to raise the average to 23 or 24 – I’m not entirely sure of my arithmetic, but that’s what I’m generally told. But I’m very keen that older people like me should continue to do it, and I’m delighted when there are chapters with ‘seniors’, i.e. people aged 50 or 60. At 40, you’re old at the Chartres pilgrimage! At 60, people make a pilgrimage that suits their physical capacity, and I think that’s great. It’s important that grandparents continue to take part in this pilgrimage, too.
LSN: So this year, you’re expecting a record turnout. I suppose many people come out of friendship, because someone they know told them about the pilgrimage. Or do you think the media coverage which took everyone by surprise last year played a part in the increase?
De T.: I’m not sure, because the pilgrimage is in fact well-known by the pilgrims. It is true, though, that we’re now seeing categories of people that we didn’t have before: people who were baptized and are “starting again,” and even people from other religions who come in small numbers. Last year I heard in the chapters that there were more and more non-practicing Catholics.
According to some studies, we previously had almost 100 percent practising Catholics, which is exceptional for people under 20. The nationwide proportion of practicing Catholics under 20 is around 1%, whereas in the general population it’s around 1.6 or 1.8%, which is already a catastrophic figure. So we’ve gone from a pilgrimage of practising Catholics to a pilgrimage where more and more people are coming from outside the Church. This represents a major challenge for Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, which is having to adapt its training and its leaders. It’s a challenge because we’re very keen to preserve our history and pass on our specific characteristics: our attachment to the traditional Mass and to Christendom. All this requires a great deal of intellectual effort and adaptation, which can be quite daunting for Notre Dame de Chrétienté.
LSN: But at the same time, this is in line with the objectives of the pilgrimage, which include “mission.”
De T.: Yes, exactly. This is actually something that I find very difficult to explain to the clerical world, which is very interested in our pilgrimage, but which tends to see the world outside tradition: it is very intrigued and sometimes a little shocked by the fact that we are missionaries through the traditional Mass, through tradition, through traditional teaching – we’re talking about traditional pedagogies – and also through our attachment to Christendom. This comes as a shock to some people, and certainly as a huge surprise, and many find it amazing.
LSN: And yet this has been the identity of the pilgrimage from the start.
De T.: Yes, right from the start. Rémi Fontaine, one of our founders, has just published a very fine book, Chartres t’appelle, and he describes this very well. I often tell the story of the beginnings of the pilgrimage, and the role played by the Centre Henri and André Charlier is very important to us. Its “Pèlerinage de Chrétienté” (Pilgrimage of Christendom) may now be called Notre Dame de Chrétienté, but in fact it was created in 1982 by the Centre Henri et André Charlier; all this is normally known to the leaders of the pilgrims’ chapters and it’s very important to us.
LSN: Do you know what becomes of these young people who do not practice, or who come from other religions: do they find an anchorage that enables them to move forward?
De T.: Yes, in the life of our chapters. We have 360 chapters, or prayer groups that walk from Paris to Chartres, which in theory are made up of about 30 pilgrims – but with the success of our pilgrimage today, sometimes the number exceeds 50 or 60, which is not good for the spiritual life of the chapter – and these chapters are meant to live outside the pilgrimage itself. For many, this is the case: not for the majority, but for a good number, and this enables us to accompany these Catholics or non-Catholics who are in the process of conversion. Notre Dame de Chrétienté offers a spiritual life beyond the pilgrimage: it organizes recollections and retreats. There’s a Christian friendship day and a lot of training, particularly via the internet. We try to do all we can to ensure that pilgrims remain pilgrims throughout the year.
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LSN: We’re in the age of Traditionis Custodes which severely restricts the celebration of the traditional Mass, and Our Lady of Christendom has become something of an itching powder in the Catholic world. But it seems that the traditional Mass is becoming more and more popular. Is this an accurate impression?
De T.: Yes. I think there really is a huge problem with Traditionis Custodes. As far as we’re concerned, it creates a total lack of understanding and even leads to a rejection by the fussy, bureaucratic authoritarianism that can be seen in its application. I’m quite worried about this, because I’m over 60, and so I’ve been through all the conflicts of the 70s, and I can see that the generation of 20-year-olds is now starting to lose touch with the episcopate again. And they’re generally very well informed. I really enjoy visiting the chapters throughout the pilgrimage, so I see people I don’t know, people from all over France and even from all over the world, as we have a lot of foreign pilgrims. And I can see, at least for the French, since the petty application of Traditionis Custodes is peculiar to France, that first of all they are well informed. They know what’s going on, and they don’t understand these restrictions. So I’m very worried because I see this kind of disconnect with the episcopate – not the whole episcopate—I’m generalizing and all generalizations are inaccurate—but, in any case, a certain number, and that’s really very distressing. What I experienced when I was 20 is happening again today.
LSN: And what is the risk involved?
De T.: The risk is that there will be mistrust, a lack of understanding, and a distancing from the hierarchy. That is not a good thing. In some dioceses in France, traditional baptisms are forbidden, marriages are forbidden, even catechism classes are forbidden. And everyone knows about this. We’re told it’s the Pope’s will, but I’m not at all sure. At Les Courlis, there will be no fewer than 18,000 people at the midday Mass on Whit Sunday. Well, in front of all these people, I’m going to address the Pope at the end of my little speech, precisely to speak about all this because the situation is truly distressing, and it will have consequences.
LSN: Young people are attracted by the “verticality” of this liturgy: that’s the word that keeps cropping up…
De T.: Yes, that’s exactly it! I had a priest friend who, when he showed people round his shrine, used to say: “In this shrine, it’s very difficult not to believe in God.” On our pilgrimage, I always feel like using the same expression: you feel lifted up. First of all, you have this chapter life, a spiritual environment, there’s singing, silence, meditation, meetings with priests, not necessarily to receive the sacrament of confession, but simply meetings. We now have pilgrims who come simply to meet a priest, because they no longer have the opportunity elsewhere. There are not enough priests, not even at Notre-Dame de Chrétienté on this pilgrimage. It’s a real shame; we do what we can.
LSN: Approximately how many join the pilgrimage?
De T.: There will be 350 clerics this year, but many of them are seminarians.
There will be perhaps 150 priests, or even 200 on the last day. That’s not enough for our numbers. Once again, Traditionis Custodes is bothering us because it requires diocesan priests to ask the bishop’s permission if they want to celebrate the traditional Mass, which is the only Mass on our Chartres pilgrimage. Given what I’ve told you about the relationship with certain bishops—not all, of course—sometimes these priests are forbidden to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, and therefore to make the pilgrimage. They see their faithful coming to us, and they can’t join them, and it really saddens them.
LSN: Would you say Traditionis Custodes has caused more harm to diocesan priests than to traditional institutes?
De T.: The institutes have also been affected to some extent, but first and foremost it’s the diocesans, many of whom would like to celebrate the traditional Mass. For those who do obtain the necessary authorization, we offer the possibility of learning how to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, if they don’t know it, in the abbeys and communities, so there are a whole range of solutions. Everything would be fine in a context of liturgical peace that we all desire without these kinds of texts that make no sense, in my opinion.
LSN: Coming back to the pilgrimage itself, it always features a certain number of foreign chapters. Is this the case this year? Have any foreigners been taken by surprise by the closing of registrations, or did they plan ahead?
De T.: A lot of people were taken by surprise! We could have registered a few thousand more people without any trouble. I was talking to an American friend recently who told me that he had a lot of new pilgrims and that he could have doubled the number of people registered. We have a lot of American pilgrims and journalists: I think it’s 200. It’s one of the strong contingents that we have, with the Germans, with German-speaking Switzerland, and then the whole of Great Britain. And we have many, many requests. In fact, we’re restricting, so people have to apply early. It’s always difficult for us organizers to restrict like this, to set quotas, but we have to do it. We are forced to do so by the civil and military authorities in France, by the police. There is a kind of negotiation going on where, in the end, we are given permission to grow.
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LSN: I’ve heard that the time at which the sun sets also played a role, because the pilgrims mustn’t arrive at the bivouac in the dark and therefore the column must not be too long. And Easter fell early this year… You really think of everything!
De T.: Yes, at least we try… We’re already thinking about next year, of course. We don’t want to restrict the number of pilgrims too much, so we’re trying to find solutions. We’ve already found solutions for the bivouacs, where we sleep, and for the rest stops. We’ll have several columns this year. This year, starting from Saint-Sulpice, the church in the center of Paris, the first column will set off before Mass at 6.50 am—you have to be a very early riser at Notre Dame de Chrétienté—and the other, the big column, will leave after Mass.
That’s how we make adjustments. Next year, we might try to start from two churches in Paris. Perhaps Notre Dame de Paris, if Mgr. Ulrich, the Archbishop of Paris, permits; we’ll see. But as you can see, we’re always thinking about the model of the future, and we absolutely want to welcome as many people as possible to Paris-Chartres. Will we be able to keep pace with the growth? I don’t know. In any case, each year we can manage to increase by a few thousand, I think, for some time yet. It’s true that in Chartres, we literally invade the city, and I think there will come a time when we may not enter Chartres, or we may have Mass outside and then go into Chartres. We’ll have to wait and see; all that will happen in the years to come.
LSN: You have called for the development of similar pilgrimages in other countries. Where are things at on this front?
De T.: Yes, it’s very, very important. We would absolutely like to see – but not an alternative to the Chartres Pentecost pilgrimage – Pilgrimages of Christendom, some of which already exist, develop abroad at other dates. There are two in the United States, one, I think, in the State of New York and the other in Oklahoma, and there’s another one that’s been around for a long time in Argentina. There’s at least one in Australia, in Melbourne, called “Chartres Pilgrimage,” which is very touching. There’s one in Spain, of course, and another in Portugal… That’s already quite a number.
LSN: Always with the traditional Mass?
De T.: Yes, yes, yes! I think we need to come up with a simple charter to unify these pilgrimages, each one remaining independent of course, but all of them unified by their attachment to the traditional Mass, their attachment to Christendom. It’s a question of defining a few principles like these. I think it would be a beautiful undertaking. You know that we have pilgrims who can’t come and walk with us, they’re non-walkers, we call them “guardian angels.” They come from all over the world, people who sometimes go on short pilgrimages, the elderly, expatriates; last year we had a dozen prisoners, sick people in hospitals, etc. In the communion of saints, we could create a sort of brotherhood of “guardian angels” for all these pilgrimages, with the guardian angels in effect praying for the pilgrimage that is taking place at a given time. It would be a wonderful spiritual work and would certainly show the strength of this traditional “family.”
LSN: I imagine that these people, these chapters of guardian angels, receive a certain number of instructions, documentation, etc. Do these exist in languages other than French?
De T.: Yes, they exist in several languages. Everything is available on our website, nd-chretiente.com. We also send out our booklet, and translations are made. To be a guardian angel, we kept it very simple: it’s the Rosary, it’s a prayer, and that’s it, you’re a guardian angel, and you pray for the intentions of the pilgrimage. In fact, we receive prayer intentions that we take to Chartres cathedral, and our chapters pray for the intentions of the guardian angels. We wanted to do this in much the same way as the shrine at Montligeon in France, which prays for the souls in purgatory, and it’s in this spirit of a prayer chain – in which I’m a great believer – that we can develop this with international pilgrimages.
LSN: Is there a particular intention this year?
De T.: We’ve chosen a difficult theme, one that has been all too neglected in recent years, “the Four Last Things,” and one that is nonetheless so important, with the words of Saint Teresa of Avila: “I want to see God.” We “want,” in all gravity, to get our twenty-year-old pilgrims to think about their own ultimate destination, which is quite a bold thing to do.
LSN: You call it bold when one would expect it to be at the heart of many a Sunday sermon.
De T.: It should be… A book was published in France by Guillaume Cuchet, Quand notre monde a cessé d’être chrétien (“When our world stopped being Christian”), in which he explains that the decline in faith, or at least in religious practice, in France in 1965, was due to the abandonment of preaching on the Four Last Things. And that, in my opinion, was catastrophic. Today, the subject is making a bit of a comeback, thank God. In any case, we’re taking it head on, and we’re addressing it, even if it is sometimes a little grave, but in any case, it’s vital for us all.
LSN: Do you have a final message for our English-speaking readers?
De T.: I’d like to tell them what I’m going to say in Chartres Cathedral at the end of the pilgrimage. I would ask them to help me develop the international pilgrimages and guardian angels. I think that in the communion of saints we could have a kind of spiritual family that could develop on a global scale. I’m counting in particular on the United States, where there is fervent faith among many; many things already exist, and I’m counting on them. I think that together we can do much, much more. And we’ll try to help them, in our own small way; of course we will!
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