In the middle of the verdant ocean of vineyards, the seminary of Castile is nestled between the castle and the boutique of the wine estate, where you can find the different vintages of the vineyard – the Glorius, the Sancti or the Ciel & Terre – as well as candles from the seminary of the Immaculate Conception. When, at the beginning of June 2022, Msgr. Dominique Rey announcement in a brief statement that the ordinations of deacons and priests scheduled for the end of the month will not take place by decision of Rome (read episode 1, “Bishop Rey, the bishop in the sights of the Vatican”), the seminary is preparing to celebrate its centenary.
The common history of the bishopric and this old wine estate goes back to the year 1921, when the heir of the Aubert family, silk producers from Lyon who owned it, died tragically childless at the age of 28. years. His parents decided to bequeath it to the diocese of Fréjus and Toulon, whose then bishop had the idea of making it the place of the diocesan seminary. Madame Aubert respond to this proposal with enthusiasm: “Vocations will flow in and from Castile, having once again become the house of the good god, there will come out saints. I now understand the words of my late beloved son, my dear little saint, when he said to me: “You will see, Mom, that our department of Var will become a department of faith and piety.” » The affair is heard and the seminary of Fréjus is transferred in 1922 to La Castille.
At the end of the 1970s, the diocese welcomed two communities later accused of sexual violence and sectarian aberrations
Before the Roman sanction announced at the beginning of the summer of 2022, the seminary of La Castille was doing wonderfully. Its dynamism is largely due to the wide-ranging welcome of new communities, that is to say those born after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) which renovated the Catholic Church. This welcoming policy, accentuated under the episcopate of Mgr Dominique Rey – himself from a new community, Emmanuel –, began well before his arrival, in the year 2000. “This notion of welcoming new communities arrived very quickly, from Mgr Gilles Barthe, emphasizes Vincent Herbinet, doctor of history. This was perpetuated by Bishop Joseph Madec and then Bishop Dominique Rey. We are in a sort of episcopal pastoral continuum. »
Parking space reserved for Bishop Rey at the Domaine de La Castille, May 9, 2023 — Photo Maïté Baldi/Hans Lucas for Les Jours.
At the end of the 1970s, when the vocations of priests collapsed, Mgr Barthe opened the doors of his diocese to two communities which, a few decades later, would prove to be the scene of serious sectarian aberrations. The first is the Saint-Jean community.
#diocese #drifts #open #Var
