North American District Seminarians Ordained in England

Two priests from the North American District, Fr. Alex Stewart and Fr. Krzysztof Sanetra, were ordained by His Excellency Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool at St. Mary’s Shrine Church in Warrington, England on Saturday, June 17, 2017, in the first traditional ordination ceremony to take place in the UK in decades. For the full story, we checked in with Fr. Simon Harkins, Bursar of the North American District, who participated in the ordinations and gave us the 411 on what took place and why the Fraternity decided to hold the ordinations in England.

We thank Mr. John Aron, who took the photographs featured in this article and graciously granted us permission to use them. For more photos and videos of the ordinations, please visit St. Mary’s Flickr album here.

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by Fr. Simon Harkins, F.S.S.P.

From time to time the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter encourages ordinations in locations of specific interest in the furtherance of our mission. This year two men who completed their studies at our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary and who will serve their first years of priesthood in the North American District were ordained at the Shrine of St. Mary, Warrington, England.

The Shrine of St. Mary’s is the first fully functioning parish run by the Fraternity in the U.K. In order to draw attention to our work and to promote the Traditional Latin Mass in England and Scotland, it was determined that Fr. Alex Stewart (England) and Fr. Krzysztof Sanetra (Poland) should be ordained by His Grace the Most Reverend Malcolm McMahon, Archbishop of Liverpool, at a ceremony held on the 17th of June, 2017.

The event was a complete success! In a packed church and in the most perfect weather, the parishioners of St. Mary’s Warrington made the most of the occasion by providing spectacular sacred music and the very epitome of the quintessential English garden party. Masterminded by Fr. Armand de Malleray, F.S.S.P., Parish Priest of St. Mary’s, and in the presence of His Lordship Rt. Rev. Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury and members of the North American and French Districts, including the Very. Rev. Fr. Bisig, Rector of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Frs. Stewart and Sanetra joined their seven classmates already ordained this year for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter’s North American District.

This occasion marks the sixth ordination from the British Isles since 2009 and continues the trend of traditional vocations springing from the seeds first planted by Fr. de Malleray and subsequently nourished by Fr. Matthew Goddard in our apostolate in Reading, Berkshire. Every U.K. member of the Fraternity was on hand to welcome Frs. Stewart and Sanetra to the order of Melchizedek.

The shrine of St. Mary’s, Warrington, is well placed between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester to become the centerpiece of Fraternity activity in the North West of England, revitalizing traditional Catholicism in the industrial north. With the ordination of Fr. Stewart and the future ordination of Deacon Seth Phipps in 2018, it is clear that traditional vocations continue to grow among the recusant remains of Catholic England.

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The Priestly Fraternity has three houses in Great Britain which are currently served by five priests. Details are given below:

St. Cuthbert House
6 Belford Park
Edinburgh
Lothian, EH4 3DP

Most Pure Heart of Mary
Smith Street
Warrington
Cheshire, WA1 2NS

St. John Fisher House
17 Eastern Avenue
Reading
Berkshire, RG1 5RU