Institute of the Good Shepherd Ordinations

[Courtesy of John Ambs]

The Institute of the Good Shepherd, the first classical rite community founded under the auspices of Pope Benedict XVI last September 8th, will have priestly ordinations on Saturday March 3, 2007, at 10:00 a.m., in the parish church of Courtalain , (Eure-et-Loire) where this year the seminary of the Institute of the Good Shepherd was opened. The bishop who will officiate is Msgr. Luigi De Magistris, archbishop emeritis of Nova and previous head of the Penitentiary of the Vatican . The two future priests, Claude Prieur and David Belon, carried out their main studies at Ecône, in Switzerland before joining the Institute of the Good Shepherd at the time of its foundation. In addition, during this ceremony, two seminarians will be ordained deacons.

It is the first time that ordinations celebrated according to the traditional liturgy can take place in France in a parish church. A sign of a change of mentality, this event marks progress in our country, of the will for reconciliation among Catholics, initiated at the beginning of his pontificate by Pope Benedict XVI and reaffirmed at Lourdes, last November, by Cardinal Jean Pierre Ricard, president of the Episcopal Conference [of France].