At 8 o’clock in the morning, the Abbé de Nantes and the representatives of his “Roman Legion” entered the basilica of Saint Peter’s, which was then deserted. In the sacristy our Father met an ecclesiastic who appeared to have been forewarned of our visit. “I asked permission to celebrate Holy Mass at the altar of Saint Pius X, where the saint’s shrine is. The priest asked to see my celebret, read it and gave me authorisation. We were flooded with deep joy and gratitude. I had – we all had – implored Heaven for this sign that would publicly confirm that we belonged to the Holy Roman Church! A devout Mass, on the morning of such a formidable enterprise... Everyone went to Holy Communion and we finished with the Salve Regina.⁵⁹”

     Several plain-clothes police officers took part in the Mass, as well as a middle-aged priest in the first row. “Charged with the task of reporting to Cardinal Villot, he will tell him, ‘The Mass was very recollected.’⁶⁰”

     Our Father wanted to make an offering towards the lantern of Saint Peter’s Confession. He entered the office of the treasurer, who was seized with panic at seeing him. He could not, he said, accept such an offering without first having received orders from his superiors. The Abbé de Nantes waited for a short while, but it was in vain! He was not allowed to make his offering.

     “We all came together, shortly before 10 o’clock, in the chapel of Saint Pius X. Then very quickly”, our Roman friend writes, “Father took his place at the head of the group, his rosary and the libellus in his hand, and we passed by Michelangelo’s Pieta, before which we knelt down to chant the Sub tuum before making our way to the doors leading out onto the esplanade. The police agents then attempted a desperate manoeuvre. They tried to bar our way and to shut the doors of the basilica. Using the authority he inspires, Father passed through, and with him the brothers and between six and eight lay people.” But the rest of the group were held prisoners in the basilica. “This was quite unexpected. But once they had got over their surprise, our friends were able to find a way out through an unofficial exit in the crypt, and they rejoined us as we slowly made our way down towards the Portone di Bronzo.⁶¹”

     “Saint Peter’s Square was practically empty. There would be very few coaches that morning. The travel agencies must have received instructions from the police.

     “A priest in a round hat approached and publicly congratulated Father who thanked him for his courage.

     “Sticking closely together, we then made our way, while saying the Rosary, towards the far side of the esplanade where the Bronze Door opens under the colonnade.” But to our surprise “an imposing display of force was awaiting us. There were a number of police cars and, under the colonnade standing in front of the Door, several rows of carabinieri. Immediately in front of us stood about twenty plain-clothes policemen. We came right up to them and were stopped. The police contingent made its resistance very apparent, as we stood shoulder to shoulder with them.⁶²”

     “Our hearts sank!” remarked our Father in his report. “We were forbidden to advance. We pushed forward and we were brusquely pushed back. I asked who these people are. They admitted, with bad grace, to being Italian police. What were their orders? To disperse us and to force us to leave the Square. Why? Because we were disturbing the public order. I protested: we were quiet and unarmed. No one could join our group which was now surrounded by police who were dispersing people and making them keep their distance. We had come to see the Pope whom we had informed of our visit and we demanded to be allowed to pass...

     “ ‘It’s no good. The Pope doesn’t want to see you.’ – ‘Did he tell you that himself?’ – ‘Those are our orders.’ – ‘Given by whom?’ – ‘By our superiors.’ – ‘The Italian State?’ – ‘Yes, no, er...’ There was no way of knowing. Finally came the admission: ‘Yes, it’s the Pope who has ordered us to tell you this and to block your approach. The Vatican does not wish to have any contact with you!” Whereupon all our proposals drew a blank, and as soon as we started to push forwards towards the Bronze Door, we were immediately thrown back. Perhaps we could simply send a delegation? ‘No!’ – ‘Could we leave the Libellus at the Gate.’ – ‘No!’ – ‘Perhaps a priest could come and order us to withdraw?’ – ‘Again, no?’ – ‘Then perhaps a note signed by an ecclesiastical functionary?’ – ‘No, no, no!’

Fig 7: Saint Peter's Square, 10 April 1973, at 10 o'clock. The Abbé de Nantes and representatives of the League of the Catholic Counter-Reformation come up against a barrage of plain clothes police who prevent them from approaching the Vatican Bronze Door. The Abbé de Nantes is holding two books which he wishes to present to Paul VI or one of the Pope's representatives: the Liber accusationis in Paulum sextum and the volume containing the list of 4,000 Catholics who support his canonical appeal and have enrolled in his “Roman Legion”.

“We have come to lay at the feet of the Sovereign Pontiff our complaint against himself for heresy, schism and scandal, a complaint whose legality cannot be challenged for it envisages nothing less than a proper canonical process. It is now ten years since the seeds of the subversion began to take root in the Church, and over these past five years the destruction of Christ’s religion has been proceeding on a scale which rules out any compromise: Est, est! Non, non! There are two different religions warring against each other in the Church, and this is the Pope’s own doing. For within the Pope’s own soul there are two mutually incompatible visions of the world. One of them must chase the other out.” Georges de Nantes, April 1973.

     “We were staggered by this refusal and the way it was put into practice. And to think that they did not even know the contents of this Libellus! As yet the only people who had any knowledge of it were our friends who were with us. But the Pope and his entourage must have had a pretty good idea of the substance of our accusation; they knew on what points they had gone against the faith, the morals and the discipline of the Church! Was not their refusal to listen and to judge an admission of guilt? It was an abdication of responsibility, an abuse of judicial power. That at least is what we felt at the time.⁶³”

     Someone interposed: “Monsieur l'abbé, the Italian police have the job of maintaining order here in Saint Peter's Square. The police are politely warning you not to insist. What can I tell them?” – “Tell them I cannot accept that we should be hounded on the pretext of disturbing the public order. I have my rosary in my hand and this book for the Pope, as well as this other book containing the signatures of 4,060 Catholics who support our appeal. I am not a disrupter of the public order. These books are not bombs. I want a Vatican official, a member of the pontifical administration to come and advise us of the Pope's refusal personally. I am not prepared to accept the orders of the Vatican through the go-between of the Italian police. The police are not entitled to exercise the office of door-attendant between the Pope who is my Father and myself who am his son. No! the Italian police has no business in this matter.”

     The situation became critical. The police were were arguing among themselves; some of them went off to seek new orders. Then they hardened their position: “We cannot continue arguing with you. The police are giving you a warning. You are asked to leave the place.” It looked like things would become violent.

     Then the Abbé de Nantes began to recite the Rosary with the members of the CRC who all knelt down. In their midst, the plain clothes policemen remained standing. There they were, suddenly identified and feeling very embarrassed. The carabinieri affected an air of detachment. They held their heads up high. “We meditated on the sorrowful mysteries and then the glorious mysteries. A police officer ended in reciting the Ave's with us while the others bore their discomfort in patience. We would later learn that, among the various people who said the Rosary with us, there was a man sent by the Holy Office, a priest sent by Cardinal Villot, a priest from Saint-Louis-des-Français, and a man from the French embassy at the Vatican... all of them ‘stool pigeons’ who had come to spy on us!⁶⁴”

     “Meanwhile, two of our members went around the barricade and attempted to enter incognito.⁶⁵” Alas, Jean Loup-Perret, owing to his height, was noticed, stopped and searched. The police found a copy of the Liber on him. Our friend was manhandled and led away to the police station... However, Charles Convent managed to enter the Bronze Door, and passing through the various offices, he came upon Mgr Jacques Martin, the Prefect of the Pontifical House. He offered him a copy of the Liber. Terrified, Mgr Martin pulled his hands back and refused to take it. “I cannot. I have no orders to do so.” Charles Convent then explained to him in a few sentences the reasons why he supported our Father's appeal and he left the document on the prelate's desk.

     It was 11.30. The sixty representatives of the four thousand members of the “Roman Legion” had been waiting a few metres away from the Bronze Door for more than an hour. So, when the Abbé de Nantes learned that the Liber accusationis had just been handed in at the Vatican by Mr Convent, he informed the journalists of this and advised the police that his group would withdraw once they had been given an assurance that they would be allowed to move freely around in Rome. This they promised.

Fig 8: Under the colonnade at Saint Peter's, 10 April 1973, 10 am. The carabinieri and plain clothes police block the entrance to the Bronze Door against the Abbé de Nantes and his friends (on the left in the photograph).

     Such was the procedure used by Paul VI to avoid receiving the Abbé de Nantes' canonical complaint against his Person and to prevent any member of the Curia from accepting it in an official capacity.

     “And so”, he relates, “in pursuit of the second part of our programme, we crossed the Square. But the chief of police immediately guessed where we were going, so a whole pack of police and carabinieri gave us chase and overtook us. When we reached the Palace of the Holy Office, they packed together so closely that we could not enter. It was an impossible situation! We were denied contact with any office in the Curia! We were forbidden to enter here as well... I thought of the time when I had been summoned to appear here as the accused. Now we had come as the accusers and they had called upon the Italian police to prevent us from entering. Ah, how terrified they were of this Liber accusationis! And what a fear they all had of their implacable Master! We would not have inspired such fear at the Vatican if Rome itself, eternal Rome, spoke the same language of truth as this Libellus. The Truth rang out too clearly here and even the stones themselves proclaimed it.

     “A few priests observed the scene, discreetly, from behind the windows of the Holy Office; some of our group shouted up at them to come down... They disappeared and shut the window. But none of them would come. So, they were playing dead here also?

     “So then we turn back towards the Square. Our path is blocked. Further negotiations are called for. The police cannot understand this excessive use of force to stop a priest who has only a rosary in his hand and the good people who are constantly at prayer, and still less this fear of a book⁶⁶. Everyone had manifestly had enough, and the journalists were not the last to display their indignation. So we were allowed to go to the obelisk and talk for a few minutes if we wanted. Thus, about half past twelve we concluded our demonstration with a prayer and a short moment of recollection, on our knees, facing the Palace window which remained closed, as a sign of our filial attachment to a Pope who refuses to consider us as his children, as a sign for the sovereign Judge who refuses to receive and examine this Book of Accusation in contempt of the duties of his office.

     “On our return to the hotel, we found the Libellus which had been handed to Mgr Martin and which he had refused. An emissary of the Vatican had returned it two hours later in a sealed envelope, anonymously. This would allow them to say that no copy of the rather too uncomfortable Libellus had been handed in.

     “This absolute snub, this closed palace, this absence of any ecclesiastical presence, this rough and unexpected contact with the police, and plain-clothes ones at that! and these police hats! It all made our friends feel quite unwell. In the afternoon we regained our composure by visiting several sanctuaries, including the Gésu, Saint Clement's and the Mamertine. In the evening,

THE PUBLIC AUDIENCE OF 11 APRIL