Chartres pilgrimage proves young Catholics hunger for tradition

(LifeSiteNews) — When the “Pilgrimage of Christendom,” as it was officially named at the start, made its first gruelling journey on foot from Paris to Chartres in 1983, it attracted more marchers than the organizers thought possible: some 500 pilgrims joined the pioneers, inspired by the example of the pilgrimage of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Poland, which was still under communist rule at the time.

The founding “Centre Henri et André Charlier” made its objectives clear: in reviving the 105 kilometer-long walk founded by the French poet and writer Charles Péguy in the early 20th century, it sought to revive Christendom as a response to Pope John Paul II’s urgent question when he visited France in 1980: “France, eldest daughter of the Church, what have you done with your baptismal vows?”

The “Pilgrimage of Our Lady of Christendom,” as it is now known, has just completed its 43rd annual trek. Little did those first pilgrims imagine that so many years later, 19,000 people, mostly young – as well as 1,500 volunteers – would be walking in their footsteps, holding high their flags and banners, a number of which were designed and crafted in 1983 especially for this pious and expiatory march.

READ: Chartres bishop tells record 20k Latin Mass devotees Pope Leo ‘prays for every pilgrim’

Since the beginning in the 1980s, “Notre-Dame de Chrétienté” has held fast to its attachment to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). There is a difference, though. Back then, the marchers were greeted by closed doors, because the cathedral of Chartres was not open to the traditional liturgy, and Mass was said on the esplanade in front of the beautiful Gothic building that was actually built to house the traditional rite.

When rumors were floated by the unofficial daily of the French episcopate, La Croix, announcing that the TLM would likely be banned from the cathedral this year, the pilgrimage’s organizers did not flinch. They had been there. They were prepared to organize the crowning Mass of the Pentecost pilgrimage on Monday outside once more.

Thankfully, the bishop of Chartres, Philippe Christory, once again welcomed the pilgrims into his cathedral. A fraction of them, at any rate: such was the affluence that thousands assisted at Mass via large screens all around the cathedral and even along the road leading up to the edifice which stands on a promontory, making it visible from many miles away.

Although record numbers of faithful took part, the event was sold out, so to speak, and countless disappointed youngsters had to give up coming, despite their eagerness to endure two overly short nights in the rough, and the usual blisters, tendonitis, and sunburn with which the pilgrimage marks its members, not to mention the weather that is always too humid, too cold, or too hot… that said, it was mild this year.

Despite global warming scares, and although Easter was quite late, the temperature did not rise above 72°F and the nights were cool. There was something refreshing in the atmosphere. But perhaps a wind of freedom and gratitude was blowing through the air. With Pope Leo XIV, things seem to have changed. This showed in Bishop Christory’s homily : he spoke of Christ, “the only Saviour,” as he welcomed the pilgrims.

“May Jesus be the source, the centre, the very reason of our lives... The Jubilee of Hope in Rome and the Millenium Jubilee of the Crypt in Chartres are channels of grace that Jesus communicates to those who follow him and listen to him in truth,” he preached, drawing on the recent letter from Leo XIV to the bishops of France. Jesus “offers Himself as a victim to pay for the redemption of our sins.” Indeed, it seems to me that the tone has changed. The new pontificate is setting the tone, and it is Christ-centred.

“We are aware that Pope Leo is praying that each pilgrim may have a personal encounter with Christ,” announced Christory as he welcomed the pilgrims. This is not quite an apostolic blessing, but neither is it a mocking rejection of the thousands of young people who find their delight in the traditional liturgy of the Latin Church.

It was emotional to see this sea of flags and banners – some dating back to the origins of the Christian pilgrimage and carried by the Notre-Dame des Victoires chapter of the Centre Henri et André Charlier – advancing solemnly through the nave of a cathedral that is still undergoing restoration. Its restored sections reveal all the splendor and light of the Middle Ages. How proud and grave did the flag bearers and banner look! They were mostly young men, with the average age of the pilgrims being barely over 20, but there were also men and women of mature age, and especially a pretty little girl in traditional costume, proudly displaying the colors of her native Brittany.

The arrival of the flags of the regions and nations was more meaningful than ever, given this year's theme: “That He may reign on earth as in heaven.” In his farewell address to the pilgrims at the end of the closing Mass, the chaplain general of the pilgrimage, Father Jean de Massia, recalled the sermon delivered on the same occasion by Dom Gérard du Barroux 40 years ago, in 1985: his famous “Sermon on Christendom.”

“What is Christendom? (...) It is the light of the Gospel shining on our homelands, on our families, on our customs and on our professions ... If we seek to pacify the earth, to beautify the earth, it is not to replace Heaven, it is to serve as a stepping stone to it,” quoted de Massia. It is the entire historical sermon that should be reread. And perhaps especially these words:

Dear friends, we are not afraid of revolution: we fear, rather, the possibility of a counter-revolution without God!

Fr. de Massia showed that this hope and warning are more relevant than ever:

You are living proof that the torch of those who seek God has not been extinguished … Even as the end of Christendom is being proclaimed in our old Europe, even as laws are being passed to offend God, at the same time a crowd of unknown people, catechumens, returnees and converts are discovering Jesus Christ and converting to the Gospel. You are witnesses to this! … How encouraging this is for us who dream of Christendom. For deep down, if we want Christ to reign and the Gospel to irrigate this parched earth, it is not to take revenge on our enemies. It is not to bring about the triumph of a party. It is not to crush others, but because our hearts are gripped by the immense pity of Christ at seeing so many souls missing out on true happiness, lost in a society that has organized itself to lead them away from God.

In order “to offend God,” “to turn people away from God”: these are indeed conscious actions that bear witness to a will, a purpose in the times we live in, which can be summed up in two words: Non serviam, “I shall not serve.” In the face of this, we must not take the means of the world: “The goal of everything we do, of our commitment, is charity, it is the love of Jesus, it is the love of people,” said de Massia.

This year, as a special privilege, the relic of the Veil of the Virgin Mary, which has been venerated in Chartres since the 9th century, accompanied the pilgrims' entrance in its gold reliquary, as part of the procession of banners. There were also relics of the True Cross, generously loaned by the Diocese of Angers, affixed to a heavy wooden processional cross adorned with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This was carried along the 105-kilometre route by members of the SOS-Calvaires association, which builds or restores wayside crosses all over France, that had made it. It was erected in the choir and it was at its foot that the consecration to the Sacred Heart of the pilgrimage and of all the pilgrims was pronounced, on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the apparitions to Saint Margaret Mary in Paray-le-Monial.

This undoubtedly gave added courage to these thousands of young people, happy to sing at the top of their voices as they made their way along the roads to Chartres, but also willing to remain silent: in that silence which is a hallmark of the Tridentine liturgy they love, with all its transcendence and sacredness.

This year has been marked by multifaceted attacks against what is denounced as the “exclusivism” of the traditional Mass at the Chartres pilgrimage: its enemies want to use it as proof of a lack of unity and fraternal charity, and as proof of a hardening that makes people cling to form to the point of despising those who do not adhere to it. The idea is to impose the Paul VI Mass on the pilgrimage of Christianity, by forcing its organizers to accept that it can be said within its framework. The quiet tenacity of the lay leaders of Notre Dame de Chrétienté, however, has already enabled tens of thousands of young people to discover the beauty of the old rite – of which an ignorant lady journalist from the national television network TF1 reported that it is “not recognized by the Vatican”!

The regional state-owned channel France 3 did even worse, broadcasting the following surreal statement under the byline of Toky Nirhy-Lanto, Lagomaina Hoatou, and AFP:

This year, Mass was organized in the usual way. This is what is called the new Mass: celebrated in the “local” language and facing the congregation. In this context, the faithful themselves can distribute communion. This is rejected by the traditionalist movement.

Perhaps they saw three filmed images showing Bishop Athanasius Schneider – who called himself the “missionary of tradition” – delivering his Sunday homily in French and facing the crowd?

One may smile, but the fact is that, more than 40 years after it began, the pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres has finally become a social phenomenon that attracts media attention, which, in its own way – barring a profound misunderstanding on the part of certain journalists – makes it missionary. For the second year in a row, Cnews chose to broadcast the Pentecost Mass from the Rambouillet halt, making the “fortuitous” discovery of the traditional Mass accessible to any household with a television screen.

So it was Bishop Schneider who preached: a short but powerful homily reminding us that no one can live “the fullness of Christ's life without being in His Mystical Body, in the Catholic Church.” Do we realize what it means to be in the Mystical Body? Schneider quoted the Holy Curé of Ars on this subject, referring to the state of souls inhabited by the Holy Spirit: “It is the Holy Spirit who forms thoughts in the hearts of the righteous and brings forth words from their mouths.”

He praised the traditional Mass, the true “Pentecostal rite,” he pointed out, in that it gives the “sober intoxication” of a liturgy “guided by reason illuminated by faith, as well as by external dignity and beauty” – “a rite that has never been surpassed or outdated.”

Schneider strongly emphasized the central theme of the pilgrimage: that of Jesus Christ reigning “over all hearts, over all nations, over all societies and human institutions,” and recalling that no “human fraternity” can achieve peace without recognizing this kingship, in adherence to the Catholic Church, respect for God's commandments, and “tireless charity” toward one's neighbor in supernatural love.

All the pilgrims, of all ages but mostly young, who benefited from an organization that must have been incredibly complex, especially as the numbers swell year after year, found in these three days of effort a reward of infinite value: Christ Himself, surrounded by the maternal love of Our Lady of Chartres.

Let us watch them advance toward the steps of the altar of the cathedral to receive the Holy Host… Their faces show signs of fatigue, their feet – the object of constant care during their march – tread carefully to move forward despite the pain. They are battered but purified, their gaze is bright, as they kneel as generations of Christians have done before them to receive Jesus Himself. They know why they are alive; they want Christ's reign today, and first of all in their own souls, before joining the ranks those predecessors whose faith and talents are expressed in the enduring beauty of this cathedral built to welcome the holy sacrifice.

It is no coincidence that Mass ended with a triumphant chant: Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat: “Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands!” Its words are in the present tense, the mood of reality and even of certainty. Against Him, one can do nothing.