Pope Francis during his weekly audience at the Vatican on February 15, 2023. Vincenzo PINTO / AFP

Faced with appeals from dioceses to defend the faithful’s access to the ancient rite Mass, the Pope issued a rescript depriving local bishops of all powers over this act. Henceforth Rome decides alone.

Pope Francis is tightening the noose around traditionalists. During an audience granted to English Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, this Monday, the Pope officially endorsed a rescript, a sort of legal decree, withdrawing almost all powers to manage the traditionalist dossier from the local bishops, solely for the benefit of the Vatican. The text was published on Tuesday.

Rome thus becomes the final decision-maker on two specific points. The first is permission for possible young priests ordained after July 16, 2021 to celebrate Mass according to the old Missal of 1962 in force before Vatican II, nicknamed “Mass in Latin”. . The second is the possibility of using a parish church or establishing a personal parish for the celebration of the Eucharist according to the old rite. The local bishop will no longer be able to decide on these two points without the Roman go-ahead.

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It was Benedict XVI who, in 2007, made it possible to celebrate Mass according to the ancient Catholic ritual as an “extraordinary” rite and for the sake of “reconciliation”. However, under certain conditions, including the existence of a “stable” community of believers who had to await approval from the local bishop who was then in charge of this discernment.

But the pastoral success that these traditionalist communities have since achieved, especially in the United States and France (prosperity, strong presence of young people and families, numerous priestly and religious vocations) led Francis to legalize this liberality on July 16, 2021 In order to avoid, as it was said in Rome, the constitution of a “parallel” Catholic Church, the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council was viewed very critically.

“authoritarianism”

One of the keys to this restoration lies in the restoration of a “single” way of celebrating Mass, the “ordinary” rite that emerged from Vatican II (1962-1965), with regard to the people and in the spoken Speech by the faithful was the suppression of the legal existence of this “extraordinary” rite and the deprivation of all power in the matter from the local bishop.

In the United States, particularly in the dioceses of Knoxville, Tennessee, Lake Charles, Louisiana, Portland, Oregon, Springfield, Illinois, and Denver, Colorado, several pro-traditionalist bishops played canon law—the Canon Law and its Article 87 – to challenge Pope Francis’ decision.

This article states: “The diocesan bishop has the power to dispense the faithful from the general and special disciplinary laws made by the supreme authority of the Church for his territory or subjects when he considers it advantageous to their spiritual well-being . Excluded, however, are laws whose “dispensation is reserved specifically for the Apostolic See or another authority.”

This is what the publication of the February 20 rescript aims to do. Signed by Cardinal Roche and authorized by Francis, it prevents recourse to Article 87 because it reserves any “dispensation” in liturgical matters solely to the Apostolic See.

Second masterful intervention

A further consolidation: the legal form of the rescript, signed by a cardinal under the authority of the pope, now brings it into the realm of the “papal magisterium”. One can no longer oppose the possible imagination of the signing cardinal. He acquired the maximum authority.

This rescript is the second judicial intervention to enforce the Motu Proprio of July 16, 2021, which has failed in traditionalist circles. On November 18, 2021, a technical document, “Responsa ad dubia”, had already set the i-dots in the same direction, but without being able to delete the slingshot. Hence the use of this legal form. He could also announce an even more binding document against traditionalist communities next spring.

Pope Francis confirms his visit to Marseille on September 23

A development that worries several French bishops, albeit moderate ones, who see their responsibilities diminished by a papal “authoritarianism” that nevertheless shows a “synodal” quest for a common government and is not imposed “from above”.

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A 17-page law produced in the summer of 2021 confirms Moscow’s expansion strategy to create a “Greater Russia”. And echoing a joke Lukashenko said last Friday to Putin, who thanked him for visiting Moscow: “As if I could have disapproved”

A pool of international mediaincluding the German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung, Wdr and Ndr, revealing the existence of a document from summer 2021 of the Russian Presidential Administration entitled “Strategic Goals of the Russian Federation in Belarus”, the in 17 pages sketch how Fly would intend to continue annex Belarus by 2030. According to the reconstruction, the plan should emerge from the “Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation” created five years ago Kremlin Develop strategies aimed at increasing Russian influence in neighboring states.

The Ard reports that the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenkowhen he traveled to Moscow last Friday after Putin thanked him for the visit in front of the cameras, he allegedly gave the measure of the existing balance of power by salaciously replying: “As if I could have refused“. In addition, the despot of Minsk owes his stay in power to help from Moscow after hundreds of thousands took to the streets in 2020 calls for his resignation.

The project one unitary state it had existed since 1999, they report Florian Flade, Leah Frey And Manuel Warder by WDR and NDR, but it was not yet known how far Moscow wants to go. The creeping annexation is outlined in the Kremlin document using political, economic and military means. The strategic document would explicitly state the objective of “ensuring the prevailing influence of the Russian Federation in the fields of society, politics, trade, economy, science, education, culture and information”. Western influence is to be banned, a bulwark against NATO created and the constitutional reform passed in February 2022 implemented under the conditions desired by Moscow. Belarus would lose all independence.

The plan, also illustrated by ZdF with material from France Press, is divided in two pieces, a list of strategic goals for the short term (by 2022), medium term (by 2025) and long term (2030). The goals would then in turn be outlined into four distinct areas: politics, military-defensive, Social And economic-commercial. Pro-Russian elites would be established in business, academia and civil society. Simplifying the procedure for issuing Russian passports, as has already happened in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The military presence extended with a common command system of the armed forces. The nuclear power plants connected to the network of the new unitary state and the merchant fleet Belarusian could dock only in Russian ports. They would be created in Belarus schools And Russian universities and Belarusian children sent on educational courses in patriotic centers of Moscow.

Flade, Frey and Bewarder point out that the plan, which would also describe the risks associated with each set target, is different for operators Western intelligence agencies it would be authentic and not outdated to create the building block of a larger strategy Great Russia. Even if Lukashenko himself may not want to hand over the country’s full independence to Vladimir Putin, Moscow’s plans now seem to have worked already very advanced and local reality. From October 2022 thousands of soldiers are stationed from Moscow Belarus and they play you exercises together. Historical economic dependence on Moscow is almost complete and it is estimated that around two-thirds of exports from Minsk, which has lost many trading partners to sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine, already go exclusively to Russia. Also the influence of Kremlin propaganda it is already ubiquitous in the media and the use of the Belarusian language in a limited public, entirely in line with Moscow’s goals.

A new episode of drought in France. As confirmed by Météo-France on Tuesday February 21, the country has not registered any real rainfall for 31 days: an absence of rain that would match the very recent record of 2020 and which would jeopardize the recovery of water tables, surpassed by that of last year exhausted were historic drought.

Although there has been occasional rain in some locations, the cumulative rainfall per day since January 21 has been less than 1mm per day across metropolitan France.

“February 2023 is expected to end with a rainfall deficit of more than 50%, making it one of the driest February since records began in 1959,” says Météo-France.

This lack of rain “is mainly related to the anticyclonic conditions since the end of January, which have acted as a kind of protective shield” against rain disturbances, explains Simon Mittelberger, climatologist at Météo-France.

Of concern, however, beyond the individual episode is the recurrence of the phenomenon and context illustrated by UN experts’ predictions of global warming related to human activities, although scientists have not yet attributed this specific drought to climate change.

This episode has already eclipsed the previous record for the winter months – 22 days in 1989 – during this crucial time for groundwater recharge.

The “shield” effect

Whatever happens, “February 2023 should end with a rainfall deficit of more than 50%, making it one of the driest February on record since measurements began in 1959,” Météo-France announced on Monday.

This lack of rain “is mainly related to the anticyclonic conditions since the end of January, which have acted as a kind of protective shield” against rain disturbances, explains Simon Mittelberger, climatologist at Météo-France.

What is worrying, however, beyond the individual episode is the recurrence of the phenomenon and the context that illustrates the UN experts’ predictions of global warming in the context of human activities.

“France is suffering from a worrying meteorological drought,” says Météo-France: “Since August 2021, every month has had a rainfall deficit, with the exception of December 2021, June 2022 and September 2022.”

Moreover, this chronic deficit persists after the exceptional heat waves and soil drought of summer 2022, other symptoms of climate change. Almost all departments of metropolitan France had been declared a drought alert, with restrictions on water for irrigation or car washing.

New records every year

But at the time, the severity of the situation was mitigated by a previous wet winter in most regions, which had helped replenish water tables.

At the beginning of 2023, however, its filling will be delayed. Back in January, the Geological and Mining Research Office (BRGM, in French) was “rather pessimistic” about the availability of groundwater next summer, which will provide two-thirds of drinking water and a third of agricultural irrigation.

If it rains so badly in 2023, “we will be in a much worse situation than in late summer 2022,” the agency warned.

In fact, the record lack of rain in spring 2020 was followed by the driest summer since records began at ground level.

With the exception of 2021, the dry soil indicator has reached a new all-time high every summer since 2018.

In a sign of concern, the government on Thursday convened its “first hydrological monitoring and forecasting committee of the year” amid the threat of “conflicts of use”, i.e. tensions between the needs of agriculture, hydroelectric power production in dams and recreational activities (golf, canoeing, etc.) and the health of ecosystems.

The government’s water management plan, announced for late January, has been postponed by several weeks.

Meanwhile, some departments are already suffering: the Pyrénées-Orientales have been in continuous drought alert since June and are hit by repeated fires in the middle of winter. And most of the Var department went into drought alert on Friday.

Across the border, in Catalonia, water reserves currently have only 28.7% of their capacity, compared to an average of 72% over the past decade, according to the latest national hydrological bulletin.

*Article adapted from the French original

In a voice message on Telegram, Prigozhin complained about Shoigu: he and the chief of staff were depriving their Wagner fighters of ammunition, which amounted to treason. “There is simply direct opposition”, there was an attempt to “destroy Wagner”.

This is not the first time Prigozhin has publicly spoken negatively about the Defense Ministry. For example, he criticized the Russian army’s military setbacks and complained that the merits of its mercenaries were not sufficiently recognized.

The Kremlin must capture the debate

This unexpected public criticism already put the Kremlin into action, which was supposed to assure the public heart that there was no conflict between Wagner and the army. Such a conflict was invented abroad and “exists only in the editorial office,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in January.

Portal/Russian Ministry of Defense Sergei Shoigu

At that time, it was about disagreements over the capture of the city of Soledar in eastern Ukraine. Prigozhin repeatedly claimed that only his units were fighting in the city—and not Russian army soldiers either. He later reported the capture of Soledar, but the Russian Ministry of Defense initially objected and two days later reported the capture itself.

Prigozhin then published a message attacking those “who are constantly trying to steal our victories”. Hours later, the ministry responded with an “illuminating statement”, acknowledging that Wagner’s fighters had conquered Soledar with their “courageous deeds”. Prigozhin promptly awarded medals to his fighters in commemoration of the “conquest of Soledar”.

ambivalent relationships

The episode was an example of how the Kremlin can now have an ambivalent relationship with Wagner. In the Ukrainian war, mercenaries are of great value to Russia – the private organization fights with means that are outside martial law. Mercenaries are considered brutal and extremely brutal, against others as well as their own members.

The group was founded in 2014 by Lieutenant Colonel Dmitri Utkin, a Hitler admirer with a previous career at the Russian military intelligence agency GRU. The Kremlin’s direct link is Prigozhin, 62, who has spent the last decade in a Soviet prison for theft and fraud. He used to entertain President Vladimir Putin, who once worked in the St Petersburg city government, at his restaurant – which is why he is nicknamed “Putin’s cook”.

But Wagner is by no means only active in Ukraine: mercenaries have been or are active in a number of countries that are of strategic and economic interest to Russia. In virtually every country where Wagner fought, mercenaries were accused of serious war crimes and human rights violations.

“Making the Dead Disappear”

For years, the Kremlin first denied Wagner’s existence, then claimed that the Russian state had nothing to do with the group – which has been refuted by numerous investigations. Filmmakers Ksenia Bolchakova and Alexandra Jousset write along with Wagner’s former mercenary Marat Gabidullin: “By sending mercenaries, the state saves on pension rights and the salaries it pays to regular army soldiers. And it also makes it possible to make the dead disappear.”

debate

A Year of War in Ukraine: What Stops Putin?

Prigozhin now appears offensively as head of the organization, although he first publicly admitted in September that he had something to do with the Wagner group. He recently announced that he had “created and long run” the Internet Research Agency’s notorious troll factory in St. Petersburg. The agency’s task was to protect Russia from “aggressive propaganda of the West’s anti-Russian theses”.

task revoked

How much influence Prigozhin actually has in Putin’s entourage is unclear. Politicians did not want to let Prigozhin into politics, Sergei Markov, a former government adviser, told Portal. “They are a little afraid of him and think he is uncomfortable.” Recently, the Kremlin seems to have paid more attention to Prigozhin’s statements and public presence.

He was ordered, according to insider information, to stop publicly criticizing the Defense Ministry, and the state media was asked to stop naming the Wagner and Prigozhin squad. Prigozhin also confirmed that he was no longer allowed to independently recruit his mercenaries from prison camps. According to US estimates, around 40,000 men had already been recruited, some of whom were convicted of serious crimes. In early January, the first ones were released after six months of deployment.

Some also feared Prigozhin’s possible political ambitions. They even speculate that he might want to become defense minister. However, it currently seems unlikely that Putin will disown his former minister Shoigu, especially since in mid-January Valeri Gerasimov, chief of staff Valeri Gerasimov, a close confidant of Shoigu, became commander in chief of the mission in Ukraine.

Prigozhin, the rich businessman

Whether Prigozhin plans new roles for himself or not, he has long secured himself financially. He and his group have several sources of income: Prigozhin owns the media and a large catering company that supplies state institutions. He can also gain access to lucrative resources in Ukraine that are under Russian control, such as the Soledar salt mine. Wagner also has military and mining contracts in Africa.

The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that in the four years before Moscow invaded Ukraine, Prigozhin generated more than a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue from his global commodities empire. Even years of Western sanctions against Prigozhin – the first being imposed in 2016 – would not have stopped hundreds of millions of oil, gas, diamonds and gold exploration from flowing into his pocket.

Wagner was or is active in Syria and Mali, Sudan and the Central African Republic. In these countries, mercenaries helped to suppress democratic movements. In exchange for Russia’s help, the Kremlin and Wagner gain access to resources such as gold mines in Sudan. In Mali, Wagner received almost eleven million dollars (ten million euros) a month for “security and training”.

“I spit on sanctions”

According to the Financial Times, Prigozhin’s company, Evro Polis, has received energy concessions from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in exchange for liberating the oil fields from the IS militia. Evro Polis reported sales of $134 million and net income of $90 million in 2020. The data also showed how some companies controlled by Prigozhin relocated their operations before the West could sanction them.

Prigozhin does not take the punitive measures taken abroad seriously. These sanctions are illegal, he wrote on Telegram. “I spit on him and I will spit on all other sanctions as well.”