Your support and encouragement after the last newsletter was most appreciated. We also received a great consolation on the feast of Corpus Christi, when the entire Seminary, along with some of our faithful, professed its Faith in the real presence of Christ our Savior, Life of the world, in the divine bread of life. For after an outdoor Mass in Goulburn itself, the community processed with solemnity, carrying the monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of the city, ending up with a Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the courtyard of the old cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul.

A view of the entire community, seminarians, brothers, priests, teachers and lay workers,
assembled after lunch in the St. Ignatius Hall.

GENERAL CHAPTER

The Seminarians were grateful to receive a short, and somewhat delayed break during the first two weeks of July. It was the end of Semester break for the Seminarians, who have now completed two quarters of the year, but the end of the first term for the Major Seminarians. The dates were chosen to coincide with the Society’s General Chapter in Switzerland, that was attended by all Major Superiors and ten of the oldest members of the Society, in total 36 priests and 4 bishops. Preceded by a five day retreat, preached by the traditional Capuchin superior, Father Antoine, it was a time of great unity and harmony amongst the Fathers, with a clear sense of purpose: the salvation of souls and the restoration of the all things in Christ through the true Catholic priesthood.

All were convinced of the extraordinary leadership of His Excellency, Bishop Bernard Fellay over the past 12 years, which has seen such constant growth of our Society and development of our work. All were likewise very grateful for the firm but realistic position that he has maintained in his contacts with the authorities in Rome. It was consequently not surprising that the Chapter requested that he assume this responsibility for a further 12 years, which he accepted. Two new assistants were also elected to help him in his task of governing the Society. Father Niklaus Pfluger, a Swiss priest, 48 years of age, ordained in 1984 and presently District Superior of Germany, was elected First Assistant. Father Alain Nély, a Frenchman, 56 years of age, ordained in 1985, and presently District Superior of Italy, was elected Second Assistant. They are both very experienced and much appreciated, especially for the care they have shown for their fellow priests.

The rest of the General Chapter dwelt largely with matters internal to our Society, and in particular the means to take to remain faithful to our vocation. They concerned the community life, the apostolate, fidelity to our statutes and various measures of prudence to keep our Society from becoming affected by the spirit of the modern world. As expected, the Chapter finished by making a declaration concerning the Society’s relationships with Rome, confirming Bishop Fellay’s judgment concerning these contacts and that their purpose is not for us to obtain some kind of canonical approval, for such an approval is neither possible nor desirable until such time as Rome acknowledges the Society’s positions as truly Catholic ones. To the contrary, the purpose remains that of making traditional Catholic doctrine better known in Rome. This public declaration made by the General Chapter is attached at the end of this newsletter, along with the letter of H.E. Bishop Bernard Fellay to our faithful worldwide, explaining the Chapter and its request for a million Rosaries for the Sovereign Pontiff by the end of October.

A view of the new pews in the Seminary chapel,
with the community reciting the Noon Office of Sext.

PROVIDENCE & THE DIVINE WILL

The conclusion of this Chapter was a profound trust in Divine Providence, a perfect abandonment to the Divine Will, which has chosen the Society as its instrument despite all our individual weaknesses and imperfections. It is the recognition of how the Church continues faithful to its mission, in the supernatural unity of Faith, inspired by Charity, even through such a group of inconspicuous, unremarkable and ordinary men as are found in the Society, for “the foolish things of this world has God chosen to put to shame the wise, and the weak things of this world has God chosen to put to shame the strong” (I Cor I:26).

Indeed, it is conformity of our human wills with the divine will that is true happiness and peace of soul, in which consists all human perfection and goodness, and which is the sacrifice most acceptable to Almighty God. Here lies the whole purpose of our holy religion, as it was for our Divine Savior’s coming upon this earth: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, to accomplish His work…For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me” (Jn 4:34 & 6:38). If the Blessed Mother practiced such perfect conformity at the moment of the Incarnation by her wonderful consent: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it be done to me according to Thy word” (Lk 1:38), she has become the perfect model of this abandonment by which we conform ourselves in all things to God’s will. It is for this reason that when His Mother was outside seeking to speak with him, Our Divine Lord used the occasion to instruct us that we will be as close to Him as we imitate her embracing of the Divine Will: “Whosever shall do the will of My Father that is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister and mother” (Mt 12:50).

In this present crisis in the Church, the miracle of the Society, its growth and development, despite the affliction of constantly being treated as “outside”, is proof enough of its conformity with the Divine Will. Nor is there any human explanation. How we ought to desire with special fervor to say every day that simplest of prayers “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, not simply that God should do what He Himself wills, which He cannot help but do, but that we also should do what God wills. Surely this is the purpose of our assistance at the true Mass, that our will might be conformed to that of the Divine Victim embracing His Cross. Indeed, this is the reason why we refuse to compromise our Faith, that we might find thereby the path to heaven. Let us, then, embrace the divine Will in all things with perfect purity of intention, lovingly, readily, cheerfully, perfectly and perseveringly.

Yours faithfully in the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

Father Peter R. Scott

Another view of the new pews in the Seminary chapel.

UPCOMING EVENTS AT HOLY CROSS SEMINARY

Please make a note of the following public events, in which all our friends and benefactors are invited to participate:

Tuesday August 15 , feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
		10:30 a.m.	Solemn High Mass for the taking of the cassock/habit, followed by lunch and drama.
Family weekend: Saturday September 16 & Sunday September 17:
	Sat. 16:	10:30 a.m.	Procession in honor of the Blessed Mother, renewal of the consecration to Her Immaculate Heart & Solemn High Mass for the Solemnity of Our Lady of Sorrows.
		1:00 p.m.	Lunch
		3:00 p.m.	Conference
		5:00 p.m.	Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by All Night Adoration.
	Sun. 17:	10:30 a.m.	Procession with the relic of the True Cross & Solemn High Mass for the Solemnity of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
		12:30 p.m.	Lunch
		2:00 p.m.	Soccer tournament
		5:00 p.m.	Vespers
Priestly Ordinations.
	Sat. Dec.23:	9:30 a.m.	Ordinations to the Minor Orders and to the Subdiaconate.
	Wed.Dec. 27:	9:00 a.m.	Priestly Ordinations.
	Thur. Dec.28:		First Masses of newly ordained priests.

 

IGNATIAN RETREAT DATES AT HOLY CROSS SEMINARY DURING THE UPCOMING MONTHS:

COME & BRING YOUR FRIENDS!

The Procession of the Blessed Sacrament approaches Saints Peter & Paul, Goulburn.

A close-up of the Rector carrying the Blessed Sacrament.

Outdoor Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament alongside the Cathedral.

SUPERIOR GENERAL’S LETTER

Fraternité Sacerdotale Saint Pie X
Haus Mariae Verkundigung
CH-6313 MENZINGEN (ZG)
Tel: (41) 41.757.10.50
Fax: (41) 41.757.10.55

Dear faithful,

Allow me to begin this first letter by thanking you for your many prayers for our General Chapter. We indeed felt the spiritual support that you gave to us throughout the whole Chapter, in an atmosphere that was serene, but at the same time also intense.

I would like to explain to you some of the fruits of your prayers and of the Chapter.

First of all were the elections. The Chapter then decided to entrust to me once again, and this despite its length, a new term as Superior General. I come to request of you an increase of prayers in order that, with this precious help, I might better consecrate myself to the fulfillment of this task that is at the same time burdensome and magnificent.

The Chapter also elected two Assistants.

Father Niklaus Pfluger, who has two brothers and two nephews as priests with us, a third being a religious brother, without counting two religious sisters! He is Swiss, to whom was entrusted the responsibility of District Superior (in Switzerland and then in Germany) and Seminary Rector (Zaitzkofen). He has thus acquired a great deal of experience, both in the formation of priests, and also in the government of two districts.

Father Alain Nély, first of all teacher at the school of Saint Joseph des Carmes, then Prior in Marseille, and finally District Superior in Italy, has also acquired a profound knowledge of youth and of priests, as well as the government of a district.

The two Assistants will both reside at Menzingen in Switzerland, where our General House has been since 1993. They will be invaluable collaborators for the Society’s good functioning, and will have the opportunity of traveling throughout the world, thus enabling the General Headquarters to keep in closer touch with the Society’s members, as well as with the faithful.

The Chapter is not just a question of elections. It is also the opportunity of assessing our situation, of analysing the weaknesses that ought to be improved, of establishing rules in order that our priests might always live their priesthood better according to our statutes, and thereby obtaining more effectively grace and Heaven’s gifts.

We also, quite obviously, considered the state of our relationships with Rome. Out of a desire for the greatest clarity possible, and also with the intention of avoiding all false hope and every illusion, the Chapter unanimously decided to make the declaration that you will find as an annex.

Along the same lines, the Chapter asks me to communicate to you the following ambitious project: The Society has the intention of presenting a spiritual bouquet of a million Rosaries to the Sovereign  Pontiff for the end of the month of October, month of the Rosary.

These Rosaries will be recited for the following intentions:

We are calling you, therefore, to a true Crusade of the Rosary. This prayer has been so many times recommended by the Most Blessed Virgin Mary herself, and has been presented as the great means of support, of protection and of salvation for today’s Catholics in this time of crisis. For centuries, since the opposition between the world and the Church has become more and more clearly apparent, this prayer has appeared as the weapon given by Heaven for us to defend ourselves, to sanctify ourselves, and to vanquish.

We consequently request urgently that you begin without delay to bud forth the spiritual roses for our bouquet. Shortly, the priests will give you the directions required to put together this treasure.

By this obviously symbolic quantity, we desire also to make it clear to the authorities in Rome, as well as to Heaven, that we have the will and the determination “to pay the price”.

Confident that our good Mother in Heaven will hear the assiduous prayer of her children, and that she cannot but be touched by the harshness of the present time, as well as the spiritual misery that surrounds us, and that sooner or later she will hear our prayer and respond to our cry, we have entrusted all the Chapter’s decisions to the motherly kindness of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to the protection of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in order that He might bless them, and make them more efficacious for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of us all.

Nos cum prole pia benedicat Virgo Maria.

+ Bernard Fellay
July 16, 2006
On the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

DECLARATION OF THE GENERAL CHAPTER

For the glory of God, for the salvation of souls and for the true service of the Church, on the occasion of its Third General Chapter, held at Ecône in Switzerland, from July 3 to 15, 2006, the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X declares its firm resolution to continue its action, with the help of God, along the doctrinal and practical lines laid down by its venerated founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Following in his footsteps in the fight for the Catholic Faith, the Society fully endorses his criticisms of the Second Vatican Council and its reforms, as he expressed them in his conferences and sermons, and in particular in his Declaration of November 21, 1974: “We adhere with all our heart and all our soul to Catholic Rome, guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary for the maintaining of that Faith, to eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and of truth. On the contrary, we refuse, and we have always refused, to follow the Rome of neo-modernist and neo-protestant tendencies, which showed itself clearly in the Second Vatican Council and in the reforms that issued from it.”

Contacts held with Rome over the last few years have enabled the Society to see how right and necessary were the two pre-conditions ¹ that it laid down, since they would greatly benefit the Church by re-establishing, at least in part, her rights to her own Tradition. Not only would the treasure of graces available to the Society no longer be hidden under a bushel, but the Mystical Body would also be given the remedy it so needs to be healed.

If, upon these pre-conditions being fulfilled, the Society looks to a possible debate on doctrine, the purpose is still that of making the voice of traditional teaching sound more clearly within the Church. Likewise, the contacts made from time to time with the authorities in Rome have no other purpose than to help them embrace once again that Tradition which the Church cannot repudiate without losing her identity. The purpose is not just to benefit the Society, nor to arrive at some merely practical impossible agreement. When Tradition comes back into its own, “reconciliation will no longer be a problem, and the Church will spring back to life”. ²

In the long haul to victory, the Chapter encourages all members of the Society to live, as its statutes require, ever more intensely by the grace proper to it, namely, in union with the great prayer of the High Priest, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Let them be convinced, along with their faithful, that in this striving for an ever greater sanctification in the heart of the Church is to be found the only remedy for our present misfortunes, which is the Church being restored through the restoration of the priesthood.

In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.