FOR THE RECORD: Superior of FSSP discusses Synopsis of French Bishops' TLM Survey

Fr. Paul-Joseph, interviewed below, is on the left side

Considering how the Synopsis of the French Bishops' Survey on the TLM is being weaponized against traditional Catholics, it seems fitting to present here, for the record, a translation of the interview that Fr. Benoît Paul-Joseph, the superior of the FSSP's French district, gave to Le Salon Beige on June 7, 2021. Recall that Fr. Paul-Joseph has met now twice with Pope Francis and may be considered to be in possession of the salient facts both at home and in Rome. - PK

Father Terrence Gordon, FSSP, RIP

As many readers have probably heard, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter lost a great priest last week, Father Terrence Gordon, FSSP. He died of a heart attack.

Saint Joseph church near Richmond, Virginia, where Father once served.

One of a handful of sibling sets of priests in the Fraternity, his brother administered last rites. Several traditional Latin Masses have already been offered for Father Gordon, with several more to come. Please take a moment to pray for him -- a good and faithful servant.

The North American Province of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter is grieved over the loss of one of our confreres, Fr. Terrence Gordon, FSSP, who passed away on Friday April 28th. Fr. Gordon was ordained on June 3, 2006 and was assigned as assistant Pastor at Immaculate Conception in Colorado Springs.

FSSP Holy Week in Harrisburg, Pa.

 

Is a Vatican Plan Under Way to Prohibit Traditional Ordinations?

Rorate offers its readers a translation of the latest newsletter from Paix Liturgique.

Could Traditional Ordinations Be Banned?

Since the publication of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes on July 16, we know that, after a first assault on the liturgy as a whole, the Ecclesia Dei communities are to be targeted, and especially their seminaries.

In our Letter 816, dated August 20, 2021, we said, in effect, that, since Rome’s avowed intention is to stop the development of the traditional Mass and ultimately to suffocate its existence, the bringing to heel of the houses of formation of future priests should be a primary objective for the destroyers of liturgical peace.

An attack by the Congregation of Religious?

Requiem High Mass funeral for Officer Talley

There is a large, secular memorial service today in Colorado for Boulder Officer Eric Talley, however yesterday was his traditional Latin High Requiem Mass funeral.

Officer Talley attended the traditional Latin Mass at the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter's parish in Littleton, Colorado -- Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Priests from that parish were given permission to use the cathedral basilica in Denver for the Requiem High Mass in the presence of a greater prelate, with Archbishop Samuel Aquila attending in choir and delivering remarks.

The Mass, stunning in its beauty and reverence, contained all of the funeral ceremonies from the 1962 books, complete with lovely Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony throughout. The cathedral basilica is not extremely large, but hosted family, friends and fellow police officers, livestreamed by the Archdiocese of Denver. We strongly recommend watching and listening to it if you can, including such well-chosen words to the congregation by Father James Jackson, FSSP.  And a reminder there is a way to donate to the Talley family here.

Traditional Catholics get French Highest Court for Administrative Matters to Act for the Liberty of the Church when Bishops didn't

Note: The following is an article published in the French daily Le Monde, not known for Catholic sympathy.  The remarkable fact referred to in this article is that a group of Traditional Catholic priests and laity brought a suit to what is the French equivalent to the Supreme Court on administrative and governmental matters to celebrate Mass within the situation of the Covid-19 crisis.  The French Bishops Conference protested against the situation but did not follow up with an appeal to the Court.  This shows where the power lies in the battle that will be engaged in the future between a secular state that is inimical to the Christian faith and its practice and those Catholics who believe and will fight for their rights against a secular and anti-religious State.  

The original decisions of the Conseil d'État are available here (the main one is number 440366)

 Conseil d’Etat lifts the "disproportionate" ban on religious celebrations in France

By Cécile Chambraud for Le Monde 

May 19, 2020

The government has eight days to relax the ban on public religious ceremonies in places of worship, in effect since March 15. The Conseil d’Etat ruled Monday, May 18, that the general and absolute ban on all gatherings in churches, temples, synagogues and mosques, if it could be admitted in the first phase of the fight against the epidemic Covid-19, is “disproportionate” during this period of post-confinement.

Op-Ed: Suspending public Mass is not new

By Fr. Carl Gismondi, FSSP

Last week the Archbishop of Philadelphia suspended public Masses throughout the archdiocese. He was not the first bishop to do this in the United States, and by the end of the week it appeared that every diocese in the United States had suspended public Mass. 

I’ve had a number of phone calls, emails, conversations with the faithful.  Some have expressed frustration and disappointment with the U.S. bishops. One person seriously thought it was the end of the world.  In addition, on the internet—where things are less filtered— comments have been more critical.

Suspending public Mass is not new. In 1918, during the Spanish Influenza Epidemic, in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, public Masses were suspended for a number of weeks in October 1918. 

Philadelphia was particularly hard-hit by the Spanish Influenza of 1918. There was a public war-bonds parade at the beginning of October in which 200,000 people attended. Three days later, Spanish Influenza exploded in Philadelphia, and, within two weeks, 4,500 people had died.  

Archbishop Dougherty suspended public Masses on Oct 4^th (in accordance with the order of the Board of Health) and called upon the religious sisters to help care for the sick. He also encouraged the use of church facilities for the temporary care of the sick.  The churches in the city of Philadelphia were not ordered to be locked and many remained opened for the faithful.  Masses and public devotions including confessions were suspended, though.  City churches reinstated confessions on Saturday Oct 26^th with public Mass starting the following day, but in many rural churches the public celebration of Mass remained suspended until Nov 3^rd.[1]

Philadelphia was not the only city to close churches.  A 2007 study looked at how 17 cities responded to the September - December 1918 Spanish Influenza Epidemic.  The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of social distancing on the spread of the flu.[2]  The authors document 13 cities that curtailed church gatherings: Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Newark, New Orleans, Omaha, Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington DC.[3] 

Book review - Nothing Superfluous: An Explanation of the Symbolism of the Rite of St. Gregory the Great

By Mrs. Adfero

TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK CLICK HERE

If there was ever a book for our times, it is Nothing Superfluous: An Explanation of the Symbolism of the Rite of St. Gregory the Great by The Rev. James W. Jackson, FSSP. 

We have found ourselves in a pivotal moment in history as we watch the COVID-19 pandemic unfold.  We are deprived of assisting at the Mass in a Church.  We are isolated from one another.  We find ourselves depending upon the fickle internet on our technological devices to connect with one another and to help us fulfill the Sunday obligation we hold so dear. 

With so much anxiety, uncertainty, and an onslaught of information regarding the coronavirus crisis, Nothing Superfluous will bring you calm and a deeper, richer appreciation for the Mass, “A Pearl of Great Price.” Written plainly and clearly, as for an adult education class, it does not intimidate with lofty academic language, making the information in this book accessible for all. 

The symbolism in this book of the Rite of St. Gregory the Great is stunning.  Fr. Jackson does not leave anything out – from the reason we use the Latin language in the Mass, which many may know, to the symbolism of the cavity of the bell, which many may not know.

You Suggest: FSSP Spanish immersion program for priests and seminarians

CLICK HERE TO ENROLL

From a reader:

The St. Junipero Serra Spanish Institute is pleased to announce that registration is open for its fifth year of Spanish immersion for priests and seminarians in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. This year the program will run from June 15^th – August 14^th.

Participants in the St. Junipero Serra Institute stay at Casa Cristo Rey of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter where in addition to 4 hours of class daily, they live in a pastoral environment that immerses them in Spanish and nourishes them spiritually. Each day begins with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the singing of the divine office. Seminarians have a wide range of opportunities to put the Spanish they learn in practice through interaction with local families and participation in pastoral activities of the FSSP’s parish in Guadalajara.

Some of the highlights of the programs:

Reviving Religious Life in Britain – and Across the West (Guest Article by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP)

Whitby Abbey

Article by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, first published in  Dowry Magazine No43: For the benefit of our readers outside Great-Britain, the assessment and remedies offered in this article apply outside of Britain; indeed throughout our formerly Christian Western countries.

Introduction

Better is one day in Thy courts above thousands. How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.’ This Introit (at the beginning of the Mass on the 14^th Sunday after Pentecost) expresses the desire of our souls to spend our lives closer to God, actually to dwell in God’s house, as an anticipation of the blessed dwelling promised to us in God’s celestial courts if we die in His grace.

This is why some Catholics will come to church every day. They do well. Even outside of Holy Mass, they will enter a Catholic church daily and pray to God truly present there. Other Catholics want more. They want more than simply observing God’s commandments. They choose to embrace God’s counsels as well. They want to spend their entire lives in close proximity to where God dwells. They withdraw from the secular world and organise their lives together as religious communities. Their lives focus on prayer, religious study, penance and works of charity.

They want to give God every possible space in their hearts, in their days and nights. To that end, they renounce earthly possessions through the vow of poverty. They give up the goods of marriage and family bonds through the vow of chastity. Lastly, through the vow of obedience, they offer up to God their own will as a beautiful sacrifice to follow the will of God in all things through the legitimate will of their superiors.

Such is the religious state. It is a blessing for those called to it. But it is also a blessing for those who witness it. Why is it so?

The religious state is a blessing for all, because it sets a higher standard of perfection. It encourages all in the world to aspire to a closer union with God while on earth, so as to enjoy it forever in heaven. Since our human nature is fallen we constantly lean towards the easier options, to the peril of our souls. This soon leads us to venial sins and ultimately to mortal sins. On the contrary, the presence of religious men and women near us demonstrates to us that one can be blessedly fulfilled in poverty, chastity and obedience. Religious life manifests spiritual freedom on our doorstep. And we all crave spiritual freedom. Contemplative religious also pray for their fellow-Catholics in the world and welcome visitors in their retreat centres, providing much-needed havens of silence and prayer. Apostolic religious contribute actively to evangelisation as mobile and flexible missionaries who can be deployed at short notice to serve the needs of a given parish or diocese.

Media attention on FSSP's U.S. growth

The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter recently posted a summary of its impressive growth around the United States.

This weekend a D.C.-based media outlet, the Washington Examiner, published a news article amplifying these statistics.

The successes of the FSSP and its ability to work well with bishops and dioceses begs the question: Why aren't more archbishops inviting the FSSP and other traditional societies of priests into their archdioceses?  Washington, D.C. (where 29 of DC's 38 city parishes do not have a parochial vicar)?  New York?  Boston?  Perhaps after reading this they may!

Traditional Catholic parishes grow even as US Catholicism declines
by Jeffrey Cimmino


Traditional Catholic parishes run by one society of priests are growing in the United States, defying the trend of decline in the broader American church over previous decades.

Over the past year, parishes run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a society of priests dedicated to celebrating the traditional Latin form of the Catholic liturgy, have reported large increases in Sunday Mass attendance. The traditional liturgy that draws attendees is the form of the Mass celebrated before the reforms instituted at the Second Vatican Council, a meeting of the church’s bishops in the 1960s.

In Los Angeles, the fraternity did not have their own church until 2018, but Mass attendance over the past year doubled from 250 per Sunday to 500. The parish’s pastor, Fr. James Fryar, commented for the fraternity’s website that, after his parish added a fourth Mass on Sunday, “another 200 people came.”

The Naples, Florida, parish has been around for less than two years, but close to 400 people attend every Sunday, an increase of 20% from 2018. The pastor, Fr. James Romanoski, told the Washington Examiner the parish has been “averaging a new household — sometimes a family, sometimes an individual — every week” for over a year.

Event: Dr. Kwasniewski Speaking at All Saints in Minneapolis, November 13

At the kind invitation of All Saints, the Minneapolis parish of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, I will be giving a lecture on Wednesday, November 13, at St. Boniface Church (629 NE 2nd St): “Beyond ‘Smells and Bells’: Why We Need the Objective Content of the Usus Antiquior.” The lecture will be preceded by Low Mass at 6:30 pm at All Saints (435 4th St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413).

Event: Archbishop Chaput to visit FSSP parish in Conshohocken, Pa.

Finding one’s predominant fault

By Fr Konrad Loewenstein, FSSP

Dowry, FSSP Periodical

N. 41, Spring 2019

1. Its Nature

Each of us has a particular temperament which encompasses our whole manner of feeling, judging, sympathizing, willing, and acting. This temperament is to be perfected in each one of us by the practice of the Christian virtues. What can impede this work of perfection, and even bring each of us to our eternal ruin, is what is known as "the Predominant Fault".

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange OP describes it as "our domestic enemy dwelling in our interior... at times it is like a crack in a wall that seems to be solid but is not so: like a crevice, imperceptible at times but deep, in the beautiful facade of a building, which a vigorous jolt may shake to the foundations." Like a crack, we may notice our predominant fault, but think that it is just on the surface, and does not go deep; or we may have seen it in the past but just painted it over and now we do not see it any more. Prudence dictates that, if we see a crack in a wall, we examine it and see whether it does in fact go deeper: perhaps there is a structural problem which threatens the whole edifice.

Some examples of the predominant fault are moral weakness, sloth, gluttony, sensuality, irascibility, and pride. Our predominant fault can inform and colour our entire temperament, and compromise our predominant virtue which is, to quote Fr Garrigou-Lagrange again, "a happy inclination of our nature" which should develop and increase by Grace. This predominant virtue should itself determine our temperament.

The Jesuit Pimpernel: A book review by Fr Konrad Loewenstein, FSSP

Dowry

FSSP Quarterly

 Summer 2019, Issue N˚42

Fr John Gerard: The Jesuit Pimpernel Fr Gerard S.J. (1564 –1637) could have been the inspiration for Baroness Orczy’s celebrated novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) where in 1793 a chivalrous baronet masquerades as a fop to better delude French revolutionaries and save aristocrats from the guillotine. It was English Catholics though, whom Fr Gerard rescued from Elizabethan gaols, and many Anglicans whom he saved from the spiritual dungeon of schism and heresy, reconciling them with the Church of Christ at his life’s peril. Fr Konrad Loewenstein, FSSP reviews a too little-known classic autobiography of this heroic and humorous Englishman.

The book is a memorandum of the exploits of the Jesuit priest, Fr. John Gerard, on the English Mission in 1588, translated from the Latin by Fr. Caraman and first published by him with the title ‘John Gerard, portrait of an Elizabethan’ (perhaps a more felicitous title).

He arrives at night by boat, accompanied by three other priests, all destined for martyrdom. Posing as a falconer in search of a lost falcon, he is soon directed by Divine Providence into the arms of the most outspoken opponent of Anglicanism and the Elizabethan Reform in the county. The latter, an influential member of the local gentry, welcomes him into his home and helps him initiate an apostolate amongst friends and their servants in the other great houses in the area.

High Mass in DC basilica shrine Saturday

There will be a High Mass offered in the crypt church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception this Saturday, 1 June, at 5:30 p.m.

The Mass will conclude the annual three-day pilgrimage, organized and led by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, "to do penance for our sins and for the sins of our nation."  Named after its founder, Father James Buckley, FSSP, the "Buckley March" has concluded at the basilica shrine in D.C. for over a decade, with photos of some past years here and here.

Saturday's Mass will be a votive of the Immaculate Conception during paschaltide, as permitted in the shrine so-named. The celebrant (and chaplain for the pilgrimage) will be Father David Franco, who began offering the annual High Mass at the basilica shrine immediately after his ordination in 2015 (relieving Father Buckley).  Gregorian chant propers will be sung by the men's schola of Saint Mary Mother of God church, and a polyphonic choir from the region will sing Hassler's "Missa Secunda" as the ordinary of the Mass and motets such as Asola's "Ave Maris Stella" and L'Heritier's "Ave Maria." 

FSSP ordinations happening now

If you are online now, click here to watch the ordination of four members of the Fraternity of Saint Peter to the priesthood.

Please pray for soon-to-be Fathers John Killackey, Ralph Oballo, Daniel Powers and Jesus Valenzuela, receiving holy orders at 11 a.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Central time from His Excellency Fabian Bruskewitz at Saint Thomas Aquinas church in Lincoln, Nebraska (the beautiful new Newman Center for the University of Nebraska).  Deacon Luc Poirier, FSSP, will be ordained a priest next Friday in Ottawa.

Guest Article: A Paradigm of Unfolding: An Analogy between Christ’s Holy Shroud and Divine Revelation

Rorate is pleased to present this article by the author of Ego Eimi – It is I, Falling in Eucharistic Love, and the editor of the magazine Dowry.

A Paradigm of Unfolding: An Analogy between Christ’s Holy Shroud and Divine Revelation

by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP

All along Church history, new doctrinal statements are issued as part of the Magisterium, in fulfilment of the Church’s teaching mission. In what sense are they new? Never can such pronouncements contradict earlier ones. They can only make more explicit what has always been part of Divine Revelation, consisting of Scripture and Tradition. The Hierarchy of the Church and Her theologians gradually unfold Revealed Truth, after the parable of Our Lord: ‘Every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old’ (Matthew 13:52). The data is not to be invented or imported, even less construed, but merely expounded under the guidance of the Holy Ghost: ‘The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you’ (John 14:26).

You Suggest: FSSP Spanish immersion program for priests and seminarians

Please see below from the hosts of this great program: 

Book Announcement: “Ego Eimi: It Is I — Falling in Eucharistic Love” by a Priest of the FSSP

Rorate is pleased to announce the publication of a new and beautiful book on the Most Holy Eucharist, written by Fr Armand de Malleray, rector of St. Mary’s Shrine in Warrington, England, and superior of the English apostolate of the FSSP. The book, with a foreword by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, is entitled “Ego Eimi: It Is I — Falling in Eucharistic Love.” I had the privilege of reading an earlier draft of the book and found it not only uncompromisingly traditional in doctrine but refreshing and (in the best sense) provocative in its approach. I would recommend it to anyone, but especially to catechizers and religion teachers. 

From the Foreword by Bishop Athanasius Schneider: