(LifeSiteNews) — Father Guy Pagès is a priest of the diocese of Paris well known for his work on Islam, its incoherence, and its total incompatibility with the Catholic faith. He recently wrote an open letter to Pope Leo XIV asking him to impose sanctions on those who allowed a profanation of the Holy Eucharist when France’s first lady was publicly given Communion during a special Mass celebrated by the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, in Notre Dame Cathedral. The occasion was the cathedral’s official reopening after the terrible fire, beginning on the Monday of Holy Week in 2019, that could have destroyed it.
Pagè’s letter is full of anguish regarding the eternal fate of those who made this sacrilege possible and, mentioning the assessment of Benedict XVI, warns that a parallel can be made between the abuse of children within the Church and contempt for the Body of Christ.
READ: Bishop Eleganti: Vatican trying to play both sides of the women deacons question
It was exactly one year ago, on December 8, 2024, that Brigitte Macron, civilly married to French president Emmanuel Macron, joined her husband at Notre Dame and went up from her front row seat in Notre Dame to receive Holy Communion. She received the Host from the hands of Bishop Philippe Marsset, auxiliary bishop of Paris, in the presence of the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich. Not a word was said, nor an eyebrow raised, in the face of this public scandal. Brigitte Macron, who divorced her first husband, André-Louis Auzière, in 2006, is not known to have regularized her marital situation by a religious wedding after Auzière’s death in December 2019. Also, she is a public supporter of abortion, euthanasia, and LGBT demands.
As a public figure living in an irregular marital union – as far as the man in the street can judge – and who makes clear her backing for causes that are incompatible with the Catholic faith, Brigitte Macron should not have approached the altar to receive Holy Communion, and her situation and public stances on these issues should in any case have led the minister of the sacrament to impose a clear, albeit discreet, refusal.
The Mass was broadcast by “Le Jour du Seigneur,” French public television’s Catholic program. At the 1 hour 56 minutes mark, Brigitte Macron can clearly be seen receiving Communion while the commentator says: “She has the perfect right to do so.” He adds that Emmanuel Macron did not approach to receive the Host out of “total respect” for “secularism,” the separation between Church and state that the French call “laïcité.”
One year later, the event remains an open wound for Catholics aware of the sacrilegious aspect of Brigitte Macron’s reception of the Body of Christ and the gravity of such an event. In a phone call with LifeSiteNews, Fr. Guy Pagès said he has not received any reply from Rome answering his concerns (neither has any statement been forthcoming from anyone to shed light on Brigitte’s marital status or personal standpoints justifying a hypothetical rapprochement with the Catholic Church).
Pagès made clear that he was “revulsed” by the way in which the Holy Eucharist was treated by those in authority in the Church and had hoped that there would be a public disavowal. He waited until June 22 before writing a first open letter to the Dicastery for Divine Worship with copies for the Dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith and for the Bishops, as well as for the French Bishops’ Conference. He did so, he told LifeSiteNews, because no one else had spoken out and he felt personally obliged to react.
He added that the sanction of members of the clergy who administer the sacraments in contradiction with the rules of the Church is their “suspension.”
His first words to the Catholic hierarchy in his June letter were to remind them of Article 183 of Redemptionis Sacramentum (March 25, 2004) which reads: “In an altogether particular manner, let everyone do all that is in their power to ensure that the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist will be protected from any and every irreverence or distortion and that all abuses be thoroughly corrected. This is a most serious duty incumbent upon each and every one, and all are bound to carry it out without any favoritism.” He added that the application Canon 915 of the Code of Canon law would have permitted avoiding the scandal by properly indicating the conditions for receiving the Eucharist, especially when the presence of the presidential couple had been announced beforehand.
He wrote:
It is clear that this profanation of the Eucharist by the highest authorities of the Church in France leads all people to ignore Jesus in the Eucharist, to despise Him, to trample on the Blood of the Covenant, to insult the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29), to throw what is most sacred to the dogs (Mt 7:6), while the lamentable spectacle of a Church so eager not to displease the powerful of this world that it delivers up the Master to them covers it with infamy, destroys the respect and obedience due to it, and disheartens the very desire to evangelize.
READ: German Catholic bishops’ new document on ‘sexual diversity’ in schools signals deep spiritual crisis
“How can this not attract the Wrath of God (He. 10, 30-31)?” he concluded.
Four months later, Pagès wrote a letter to Pope Leo XIV noting that his first letter to the dicasteries had been ignored.
Here below is the full translation of Fr. Pagès’ letter to Pope Leo:
Your Holiness,
On June 22, I sent a letter to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments denouncing the sacrileges committed against the Body of Christ on Sunday, December 8, 2024, during the reopening celebration of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, an event covered by the media worldwide and attended by many public figures, including heads of state, who publicly live in violation of the commandments of God and His Church, and to whom Eucharistic Communion was nevertheless given, notably to the person who appears as the wife of the President of the Republic. However, since their presence had been announced, it would have been easy to indicate the conditions required before giving them Communion (CIC 915; Redemptionis Sacramentum 84). On October 10, having still not received a response from the Dicastery, I sent a further letter with a request for acknowledgment of receipt, which has also remained unanswered to date. I feel I must bring these facts to your attention.
The dramatic situation in which the Church finds itself as a result of its refusal to apply its canon law in somber cases of pedophilia should have convinced us to apply it with rigor in the future. Benedict XVI, moreover, linked the way we treat the Body of Christ to the way we treat children (Vatican News, April 11, 2019) … I am convinced that there will be no springtime for the Church until we return to receiving Communion on the tongue and on our knees, as Benedict XVI taught by his example during his visit to Paris in 2008.
I therefore hope that you will intervene to ensure that the multiple desecrations of the Eucharist committed on that day are punished. If they are not, their trivialization will increase and more priests and faithful will go to Hell (Cf. St. John Chrysostom in Entretiens et méditations ecclésiastiques, Rusand, Paris, 1826), for it is true that whoever receives Communion unworthily eats his condemnation (1 Cor. 11:27), and even more so the priest who gives it to him (1 Rom. 1:32). On March 12, 1913, Jesus complained to St. Pio of Pietrelcina: “My house has become for many a place of entertainment. This is so even for my priests. Under false semblance they betray me with sacrilegious communions.”
Please accept, Most Holy Father, the expression of my respectful greetings in Our Lord.
May Saint Tarcisius assist Your Holiness in your divine mission!
Father Guy Pagès