Skip to main content

Canadian District Superior's Letter - The General Chapter

Image
By
+
JMJ

After the US District Superior, we now have to Canadian District Superior.   Looking forward to the next General Chapter.

Pray for the Holy Ghost to provide it with a continued strong leader to will keep the SSPX on the knifes edge for the next 12 years!

... following the Dogmas, Doctrines, Principles and Disciplines of the Catholic Church!

P^3

Courtesy of SSPX.ca

The General Chapter

Dear Friends and Benefactors,
At the start of this new liturgical year, allow me to propose a major prayer intention: the General Chapter of the Society of St Pius X which will take place next July 3-21. These General Chapters take place every twelve years in our Society (so this is our fourth one since our foundation in 1970), and it is during these important meetings that we elect (or re-elect) our Superior General and his two assistants. The General Chapter is an examination of conscience, at the level of the whole Society, to see if we live conscientiously according to our Statutes and strive to keep its spirit. “You are not of the world” Our Lord told His disciples. It is not easy to be in the world and to keep “our first charity”, to stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to Heaven and not to absorb any worldliness. In his Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius urges us to examine “if there is anything worldly and vain in us” (n. 63). This must be a constant effort if we want to keep the spirit of the Gospel.
What is the Society of Saint Pius X? The complete answer is found in the book of our Statutes, in which, like the Constitutions of every religious order, are found our ends, the means to reach these ends, and the whole structure of the organization. So, fidelity to the Statutes is the guarantee of the blessing of God on our work.
History tells us that at the origin of every religious legislation we can find God, the Church and the soul of the Founder, often a saint. These are the titles of supernatural nobility of our work, far more divine than human. We must never forget that the first Legislator of all religious order is always God Himself. Whether he is called Benedict, Dominic, Francis, Ignatius, Alphonsus or Marcel, the founder in reality is nothing other than an instrument in the hands of God, who raises a group of zealous souls to answer a particular need of the Church at a particular time in its history. So a religious Rule is holy because it was clearly inspired by God.
It is holy also because it is approved by the Church. When the Church approves a religious institute, whether at the diocesan or at the Roman level, it is a kind of spiritual birth and baptism. The approbation of the Church gives to the Rule a certain intangibility: without a special authorization, no one can change it. In the life of the saintly founders, we see how they were anxious to have the Church approve their work. What jubilation, what thanksgiving in their soul at the news that this was achieved! Our own history is no different. Archbishop Lefebvre recalled with emotion the day when he came back from the local bishop’s house in Fribourg with the official letter approving our Statutes, and showed it to the handful of seminarians he had in these early days of November 1970. Everyone with obvious joy wanted to hold the letter and to examine the fresh signature. Yes, it was official: the International Priestly Society of Saint Pius X was born! Until his death the Archbishop often reminded us that fidelity to these approved Statutes was the guarantee of God’s blessings over our work.
Inspired by the Holy Ghost, approved by Holy Mother Church, many Rules add a third jewel to their nobility, that of having been founded by a saint, already canonized or canonizable. With the Rule, we have the most precious relic of the Founder: the relic of his heart, of his soul. The Rule is usually a mirror of their soul, of the flame burning in their heart, much more precious than the relic of any of their bones. By living according to this Rule, one imitates the founder and his virtues.
So, what are the ends of the Society of St Pius X? There are six, and the order of these six is essential:

  1. The recruitment and formation of seminarians
  2. The education and assistance of priests outside the Society
  3. The formation of religious brothers, sisters, catechists and other auxiliaries
  4. The education of children within its own schools
  5. Parish ministry and preaching missions and retreats
  6. Spiritual and temporal succour to aged, infirm and lapsed priests.

“The Society’s purpose is the priesthood and all that pertains to it and nothing but what concerns it” (Statutes II, 1). In the early days, this was obvious, but now 47 years later, with over 630 priests, dozens of schools, ministering in 65 countries to a few hundred thousand souls, and only six seminaries manned by about only 40 of all these priests, it may not be so clear. But this is what SSPX is: an institute that trains priests.
Looking at it from that angle highlights the importance of the apostolate of the recruitment of vocations in all we do. As Pope Pius XI clearly said, the family is the first greenhouse of vocations, then the Holy Mass – especially if the boys can serve it –, the school, contacts with good priests, lives of the saints. Let us unite all our efforts to foster vocations in the youth, to prepare the ground into which the seed of the Divine Call will fall.
“O Lord, grant us priests, many holy priests, and many holy religious vocations!”

News from the District:
 

  • Between October 28 and November 5, His Excellency Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais visited many of our priories and mass centers (two of which, Edmonton, AB and Dryden, ON, had not had such a visit in more than 20 years!) and conferred the sacrament of confirmation to 56 candidates. May they all be faithful in the battle for Christ the King!
  • Then, between November 6 and 10, we had our Annual Priests’ Meeting in Saint-Césaire where 14 of our priests listened to interesting conferences on spiritual, doctrinal and moral matters. Our guest speaker this year was Fr. Albert, OP, who is now stationed in Vernon, B.C. helping Fr. Rusak with the apostolate of that province
Fr. Daniel Couture
District Superior
PDF: 
2017-12-01-district-superiors-letter.pdf


Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SSPX and the Resistance - A Comparison Of Ecclesiology

By
Shining the light of Church Teaching on the doctrinal positions of the SSPX and the Resistance. Principles are guides used to aid in decision making.  It stands to reason that bad principles will lead to bad decisions. The recent interactions between Rome and the SSPX has challenged a number of closely held cultural assumptions of people in both sides of the disagreement. This has resulted in cultural skirmishes in both Rome and the SSPX. Since it is the smaller of the two, the skirmishes have been more evident within the SSPX.  The cultural fault-line that Bishop Fellay crossed appears to be linked to two points of Catholic Doctrine: Ecclesiology and Obedience.  The cultural difference of view points is strong enough that it has resulted in the expulsion of a number of members.  It should also be noted that some other priests expelled since the beginning of the latest interactions (starting in 2000) held the same view points and have joined with the l...
8 comments
Read more

Morning and Evening and other sundry Prayers

By
+ JMJ Along the theme of P^3 (Prayer, Penance, Patience), and for my own reference ... here is a collection of Morning and Evening prayers from the Ideal Daily Missal along with some additional prayers. In this crisis of the Church, I do not think it is possible to do too much prayer, penance and have patience. P^3
Post a Comment
Read more

The Curious Case of Steve Skojec and the Dangers of Deep Diving into the Crisis Sub-Titled: The Failings of Others

By
 + JMJ It's been a while now since Steve Skojec sold 1P5 and abandoned the Catholic Faith. I've been a 'Trad' since 1982 and in those 40+ years I seen this death-spiral before with a similar end point. It seems that anyone who jumps into the fray unprepared for the enormous task of righting wrongs will, eventually, become discouraged by not the task but the people who surround them.   I remember when Skojec complained of the treatment his family received from a traditional priest.  This seems to have been the start of the end for him. So what can we learn from the likes of Steve Skojec, Michael Voris (maybe?), Louie Verrecchio, Gerry Matatix and other celebrity Catholics? Probably quite a lot about what not to do. First, don't burn out on the crisis?  When you burn out, on work or anything else, little things assume a more greater importance than they are due.   This is one of my 'canary in the coal mine' signals that I've been stretching myself too th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Church Militant TV and the SSPX - Again

By
+ JMJ The old narrative used to be that the SSPX was 'schismatic' and 'excommunicated'. Now the excommunication has been lifted for a number of years and the only ones who think it still has effect are the 'resistors'. That leaves the other opponents of the SSPX with the label 'schismatic'. Make it clear, the conservative Catholics have issues with the SSPX probably because they violate some of their assumptions about the Faith and this crisis of the Church. Church Militant TV is one of these the exists along the Catholic thought spectrum. They like the Traditional Mass but must ensure that they don't get tarred with the same 'schismatic' brush that the liberals use against the SSPX.  So what do they do, they use the same brush against the SSPX. The funny thing is that even when the Church does speak, they don't want to listen and persist in calling the SSPX 'schismatic'. Here's a transcript of the latest s...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Position of the SSPX on Canonizations by the Saint Factory

By
+ JMJ I have sometimes been criticized for including 'St' as a title for Pope John Paul II et al. I've given my reasons here  in a discussion with Alex Long. The question is one of prudence in discussions with ntCatholics and in some cases with tCatholics. In discussions with:  ntCatholics, I will use the title in order to continue the discussion and help them arrive at a realistic understanding of the crisis of the Church. tCatholics, I will use the title in order to broaden their perspective on the doctrine of dogmatic facts. This broader perspective is, in my opinion, essential maintaining a realistic understanding of the crisis of the Church. So from a doctrinal position, I have written the article Dogmatic Fact of Fancy  and includes a reference on canonizations. Now, I know the position of the SSPX is that the canonizations are doubtful (see references below) and I also know of at least one non-SSPX theologian who agrees with the level of doubt du...
Post a Comment
Read more