Fr. Daniel Heenan, FSSP, pastor of Our Lady of the Pillar, our parish in Guadalajara, Mexico, recently sent us a dispatch detailing the vicious storms that have afflicted the area recently. The parish suffered significant damage, and is in need of your help. Read on to find out more.

The city of Guadalajara, Jalisco is blessed to enjoy nearly idyllic weather year round. Although heavy rainstorms are not uncommon from June to early October, this year has already seen two that have been particularly tragic. Last week a quick but powerful storm hit the city, the second in a short space of time. Large amounts of hail fell, clogging city streets and drains and causing extensive damage, while intense gusts of wind were powerful enough to knock down trees and break windows.

Older structures such as the church of Our Lady of the Pillar, situated in the historic downtown and home to the FSSP in Guadalajara, were particularly susceptible to the inclement weather. These two storms exacerbated existing problems and caused new damage that will be costly to repair. Estimates are that the church needs around $75,000 worth of structural repairs in total. Right now, however, the parish needs to find close to $15,000 to address the most urgent problems and prevent further structural damage in the short term. The storm broke windows and old stone drainage pipes, causing water to leak into the woodwork. An already outdated and vulnerable electrical system was further at risk. Windows in the skylight in the cupola over the altar broke while Mass was being celebrated. An altar boy had to hold an umbrella over the priest so he could finish Mass without him or the Blessed Sacrament getting wet.

For a parish that it is already on a very tight budget these repairs are going to pose a big challenge and we are grateful for any help that can be offered. To donate, please visit www.fssp.com/missions or give via Paypal.

A Brief History of Our Lady of the Pillar Church

When Guadalajara started to grow towards the southeast of the city, it was necessary to build a new church for the faithful that were living there. Bishop Manuel de Mimbela therefore decided to construct a new church dedicated to Our Lady of the Pillar. The first stone was laid on October 12th, 1718, and the construction was finalized by 1720. The new church was so important that the neighborhood where the church was built was called “Parroquia”, or “parish”, in reference to the church of Pilar. An expansion project was inaugurated on October 6th, 1882, giving the church the current look we see today. The church has a central nave with a side chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas of Bari, a smaller chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart and a big lateral chapel known as Via Matris (as it has the stations of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady). The central nave has four side altars dedicated to St. Joseph, Our Lady of Refuge, Our Lady of Guadalupe and lastly to Mary Help of Christians and St. John Bosco.

The church was once the centerpiece of one of the most prestigious areas of downtown Guadalajara. For many years it was a favorite spot for weddings of the upper class. Now it serves as a beacon of hope in the midst of what has deteriorated into the red-light district of the city. This change in the culture of the neighborhood has had significant, negative effects on the finances of the church, making it a much less desirable place to visit.

On August 24th of 1931, during a visit of the pilgrim image of Our Lady of Zapopan, the patroness of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, a bomb was detonated in an attempt to destroy it. Thanks to her intercession and with the help of several faithful that hid and protected the image, it was saved. Also, the baptistery of the church has the honor to be the place where St. David Galván Bermúdez, martyr of the Cristiada persecution, was baptized. +

On Saturday, October 19th, 2019, FSSP Dallas will host their 2nd Blessed Karl Symposium. The event follows on the great success of last year’s sold-out inaugural event and will be held at a much larger venue, the parish auditorium of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Dallas. An honored guest last year, Princess Maria-Anna Habsburg-Galitzine, granddaughter of Blessed Karl, will return again this year, and joining for the first time is Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan.

Blessed Karl of Austria was the last emperor of the Austro-Hungarian empire. A voice for peace in the midst of the bloody conflict of World War I, he ascended to the throne in 1916 and was deposed and exiled to the island of Madeira in 1919. He, his wife Servant of God Empress Zita and their family lived there in poverty and he died from illness in 1922 at the age of 35. He was a man of great virtue and a model husband, father and monarch, and he was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 2004.

For more information and to buy your tickets, go to the event’s official website, www.blessedkarl.org.

The carefree days of summer are a fun and busy time for our bustling apostolate in Maple Hill, which is situated about 24 miles west of Topeka, KS and is celebrating its 25th anniversary as an FSSP apostolate this year. Fr. Marty Adams, assistant Chaplain at St. John Vianney Chapel, told us more about some of the events that the parish has enjoyed together during the warm weather months.

Each summer, FSSP seminarians are sent out for an assignment, helping at the different Fraternity parishes or organizing and running youth camps, with the goal of gaining valuable knowledge and experience for running a parish someday (God-willing).

There is a wide array of different talents that men bring with them to the seminary, and oftentimes they prove to be very useful at the seminary, in parish life and at the various youth camps happening throughout each summer.

St. John Vianney Chapel in Maple Hill, KS, with the help of one of these seminarians, held a basketball camp on three consecutive Wednesdays – June 19th and 26th and July 3rd – to teach the parish boys some of the fundamentals. Besides playing basketball, the boys get to spend time with the priests and the seminarian, listen to talks on sportsmanship and different virtues important for young Catholic men, participate in communal prayer and compete for best parish team!

In the midst of that, the families of St. John Vianney hosted their 16th annual family weekend, where anyone looking for a few days of organized, wholesome fun can come together to meet other like-minded Catholics to learn about and grow in their Faith. The event took place during the last weekend in June, in between the last two Wednesdays of the basketball camp.

Lectures, organized dancing, sports, a talent show and Holy Mass comprise the event, which has led to happy marriages, the chance for families from different parts of the country to meet and interact, and most importantly, a kindling of the hope that there is still a Catholic culture alive.

This year’s lectures were given by Fr. Scott Allen, FSSP on The Nature & Purpose of Marriage and The Elevation of Marriage by Christ, considered in light of the family of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

Everyone had a great time, despite the hot Kansas days, and is already looking forward to next year. +

I’ve never understood this Bible passage from Matthew 11:12: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.” – Hugh from Massachusetts

Dear Hugh,

This passage from Matthew reads with a certain harshness to our ears, especially considering the plethora of passages that portray the contrary image of meekness as the model of Christian virtue. “A quiet and a meek spirit which is rich in the sight of God” (1 Peter 3:4; cf. James 1:21; 1 Corinthians 4:21). Moreover, Christ explicitly commands meekness: “Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:29), and even enrolls it in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:4).

But the passivity in the above passages is only one face of Christian warfare. As Josef Pieper says,

There lies a broad field of active worldly endeavor and the struggle for the realization of the good against the opposition of stupidity, laziness, blindness and malevolence. Christ Himself… whose earthly life was entirely permeated and formed by His readiness for sacrificial death, to which He went “like a lamb to the slaughter”—Christ drove the money-changers from the temple with a whip.[1]

The kingdom of heaven is not attained by a weak, unresponsive, victim-oriented psyche, but rather a robust combative vigor is required for certain situations. The warrior image resides behind St. Paul’s lists of military armaments (Romans 13:12; 2 Corinthians 6:7; Ephesians 6:13-17). Albeit, we must always bear in mind that this warfare is primarily spiritual. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to God, unto the pulling down of fortifications, destroying counsels, and every height that exalts itself against God; bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). Very often the combat required is against the flesh—“I so fight, not as one beating the air. But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection” (1 Corinthians 9:26-27). Christian life requires tremendous effort against all things which impede discipleship to Christ. It is a violent affair analogous to warfare. Thus, St. Paul’s final farewell to Timothy should be no surprise to us: “I have fought a good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7).

Though the word violence strikes us with force, its proper understanding is in the above citations. Not as something opposed to meekness, but as something that is required by the virtue of meekness. One must not let fear or despair forestall grace and sanctification. Some situations require forbearance, yet not all…“if thy hand, or thy foot, scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee” (a violent image indeed!). “It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8).[2]

The key to the passage resides in the timeframe Christ places as an introduction, i.e., “From the days of John the Baptist until now.” Turn to the Baptist to understand the spiritual sense of “men of violence.” The Baptist was himself a dynamo, explosive and bursting in energy. According to Jerome, the symbol of Mark’s Gospel is a lion precisely because it commences with the voice of the
Baptist “roaring” in the wilderness: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (Mark 1:3).[3] The life of the Baptist was an example of what he preached. The Baptist lived a life of penance and proclaimed in earnest the necessity for his fellow men to repent, not only in words, “confessing their sins,” but also in deeds—“You brood of vipers!…bring forth fruit worthy of penance” (Matthew 3:8).

That voice which echoed in the hostile desert did not fall on deaf ears. Many repented in earnest, some eventually became apostles (Andrew and possibly John, cf. John 1:37-40). From the commencement of the Baptist’s preaching, Heaven was being stormed by those who heeded his message and as St. Jerome says, “There is great violence involved when we who have been born on the earth seek to possess a heavenly home through virtue.”[4]

The voice of the Baptist reverberates through the centuries and continues to teach. It moved St. Antony (†356) to flee into the desert. And upon hearing of St. Antony’s story a young Augustine (†430) seized his friend and cried out, “What is wrong with us? What is this? What heardest thou? The unlearned start up and ‘take’ heaven, and we, with our learning, but wanting heart, see where we wallow in flesh and blood!” Moments later Augustine converted and—after seizing Christ—would clutch the gates of heaven, even to his last breath.

Though a body nourished on locusts and honey was certainly emaciated, the Baptist remained unbent and his life was constantly colored with uncompromising confrontation, from pharisees to kings. Ironically, the Baptist who encouraged others to war, not against other men but against their own sins, suffered violence of the earthly sort at the end. Indomitable, even in prison and under the headsman’s axe, he violently grasped up toward Heaven and pointed others in the same direction (Matthew 11:2ff.). His head was laid low, yet no man greater has been born of woman (cf. Matthew 11:11). We would do well to heed his call, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand—and it only yields to the violent. +

Regnum coelorum suffers violence gladly
from fervent love, from vibrant hope—
only these powers can defeat God’s will:

not in the way one man conquers another,
for That will [God’s] wills its own defeat, and so
defeated it defeats through its own mercy.
Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, Canto XX, 94-99

Answered by:
Fr. Dominic Savoie, Assistant Pastor, FSSP Sacramento

1. Josef Pieper, The Four Cardinal Virtues, 131-132.
2. As a side note, there is no historical evidence of maimed one-eyed Christians processing
   through the centuries—save one suspected incident (Origen). This should serve as a
   warning against gross literal interpretation of Scripture and the necessity of reading it
   through tradition.
3. According to Jerome, see Homily 75.1 and Commentary on Matthew, preface.
4. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, ed. Thomas P. Halton, trans. Thomas P. Scheck,
   vol. 117, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of
   America Press, 2008), 131–132.

On Thursday, June 20th and Sunday, June 23rd, 2019, parishes throughout the world celebrated Corpus Christi, the great feast of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The feast falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, but is often commemorated as an External Solemnity on the following Sunday. One of the central features of the liturgy of this day is a beautiful procession after Mass with the Blessed Sacrament enthroned in the monstrance, the route traditionally including several altars set up along the way at which the procession halts and the Blessed Sacrament is adored. And so today we bring you, over 5 states, 5 countries and 5 time zones, the celebrations of the Sacrament that unites and transcends all three. +

Hic est panis, qui de cœlo descéndit. Non sicut manducavérunt patres vestri manna, et mórtui sunt. Qui mandúcat hunc panem, vivet in ætérnum.

This is the bread that has come down from heaven; not as your fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread shall live forever.

– John 6:58 (from the Gospel for the feast of Corpus Christi)

FSSP Dallas

Mater Dei Parish

FSSP Dayton

Holy Family Parish
Some parishes create elaborate carpets of dyed wood chips or flowers for the Corpus Christi procession. Dayton’s are real masterpieces. 

FSSP Harrisburg

Mater Dei Latin Mass Community at St. Lawrence Chapel

 

FSSP Houston

Regina Caeli Parish

FSSP Guadalajara

Templo Nuestra Señora del Pilar

FSSP Lyon

Collégiale Saint-Just, Lyon, France

FSSP Providence

St. Mary’s Church on Broadway

FSSP South Bend

St. Stanislaus Parish

FSSP Vancouver

Holy Family Parish
Photos by Crystal Matthews, Christine Uy, Claire Phillips

FSSP Warrington

St. Mary’s Shrine, Warrington, UK

Today, July 11th, 2019, St. Mary’s Church on Broadway, home of FSSP Providence, celebrates its 150th anniversary! This magnificent church, dedicated on July 11th, 1869 by Bishop Francis McFarland, became a Fraternity apostolate last summer when Bishop Thomas Tobin invited the FSSP to assume administration. The parish will celebrate their milestone anniversary with a Solemn High Mass this evening at 6:30 p.m., followed by refreshments and live Irish music. If you’re in town, be sure to join them!

The Rhode Island Catholic put out a splendid article today for the anniversary of the church. The story touches on the history of St. Mary’s and how the FSSP views its assignment here: as a mission to continue the work and sacrifices that generations of parishioners have dedicated to their beautiful church.

“From the beginning the current community has felt a great connection with the past history of St. Mary’s,” said pastor Fr. John Berg, as quoted in the article. “The church itself speaks constantly to us of its history and the sacrifices made . . . It was clear to us from the start that we inherited something which others had sacrificed a great deal for and now it was up to us to care for and give life to this historical edifice.”

Read the full story here! +

Mater Dei Latin Mass Community, our apostolate in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was recently featured as the cover story in the July 5th edition of The Catholic Witness, the newspaper of the Diocese of Harrisburg. The story covers Mater Dei’s recent chant camp in June, which brought together young people for classes that covered such topics as chant technique, notation and history and culminated in a Solemn High Mass where the campers tried out their new skills.

“The sacred music they’re getting from this chant camp is enabling them to reach back all the way to the beginning of the Church and experience the same chant that has helped so many other Catholics throughout the centuries,” said Mater Dei chaplain Fr. Gregory Eichman, as quoted in the article. “It also helps them get away from the strictly profane and secular music to the music that elevates our minds and our intellect and takes us to God.”

Read the full story here!

On Saturday, June 29th, 2019, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, six deacons from our seminary in Wigratzbad were ordained to the sacred priesthood by the Most Reverend Czesław Kozon, Bishop of Copenhagen. The region of Bavaria where the seminary is located certainly suffers no lack of fairy-tale landscapes, and the town of Heimenkirch, situated near the seminary and lit up by a flawless summer day, provided a glorious setting for such a momentous occasion in the lives of these men.

Four of the new priests come from France, Frs. Christophe Joly, Hubert Lion, Thibaut Matschek and Thomas Souville, and two from Germany, Frs. Janosch Donner and Julius Kappel. Please pray for them as they begin their priesthood! +

A happy Independence Day to all our American readers (and to our non-American readers who are celebrating with us)! As we spend time with our friends and families today, attend parades and watch the traditional fireworks displays, let us also take a moment to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy in the United States. This land was first consecrated by the blood of the missionaries who gave their lives that the Faith might be planted in the New World, and throughout the history of the USA, many men and women have labored, fought and died so that the home of the brave might remain the land of the free. Let us honor their sacrifices today and pray for our country, which has been under such severe spiritual attack in recent times. Prayer is certainly the most powerful weapon we can bring to such a fight, so let us beseech Our Lady, the Patroness of the United States, to defend and protect this land, and make of us a people well-pleasing to her Son.

The United States has proven to be fertile ground for the work of the Fraternity, which runs 55 apostolates in 41 American dioceses, in addition to a seminary that is brimming with vocations. We have also been entrusted with the care of several extraordinary pieces of American history, such as the National Shrine of St. Alphonsus Liguori in Baltimore, where St. John Neumann, the first American bishop (the first male citizen, in fact) to be canonized, served as pastor and was consecrated the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia. We thank God today for the success He has granted to us in the United States, and ask Him to bless our future work in these abundant vineyards. +

Anyone can pull off a stunt once, but if you can do it twice, you might be on to something. Last year, Mater Dei Parish, our apostolate in Dallas, Texas, hosted a successful inaugural Southwest Region Young Adult Conference, and this year, they did it again. 65 young adults gathered at Mater Dei Parish on the weekend of June 14th – 16th, traveling from as close as Dallas itself and as far as Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, El Paso and even Wisconsin.

The event began on Friday night with check-in and a Rosary in the church, followed by dinner and a talk by FSSP Dallas assistant pastor Fr. Timothy O’Brien, priest-in-charge both at this and last year’s conferences. Fr. O’Brien, who spent two years working in Nigeria after he was ordained in 2015, spoke on the history of Catholicism there, particularly among the Igbo people who once possessed a strong Catholic identity, and the unfortunate effects of Westernization upon the country. An attendee of Nigerian heritage assisted Fr. O’Brien with a demonstration of the traditional greeting of a Nigerian chief, some kind of hand-slap, finger-snap routine that looked like something two baseball players might do after a good double-play!

The next day kicked off early with Mass at 8am, celebrated by Fr. James Buckley, also an assistant at Mater Dei, with opportunities for Confession before, during and after Mass. Breakfast followed, along with the second talk: Fr. John Kodet, a classmate of Fr. O’Brien’s who currently serves as the assistant down in Houston, spoke on the four levels of happiness. “The talks were really good,” said Mary, an electrical engineer from California who recently moved to Dallas and attends Mater Dei. “They were very helpful and informative.”

Afterwards the attendees packed a lunch and headed to nearby Fritz Park, where they listened to a talk by Mr. Cedric Cortez, an FSSP seminarian entering his sixth year, and Mr. Savio Misquita, about to start his third. Mr. Cortez, from Hawaii, and Mr. Misquita, from Goa, India, spoke on the necessity of prayer in discovering God’s will for us and the image of Himself that He wishes to see in us. The two seminarians assisted throughout the weekend with tasks ranging from handing out the paperwork involved in Friday’s icebreaker games to leading games of volleyball. The afternoon in the park seemed to be a particularly popular element among the attendees. “I liked having the time in the park,” said Mary, as it was a chance to “get to know people at our own pace.”

Saturday concluded with a Texas-style fajita dinner back at the parish hall, after which the tables and chairs were cleared from the main floor for the evening’s contra dance, which featured instruction from an experienced caller. On Sunday, attendees had the option of attending any Mass they chose, and many came to the 9am Solemn High celebrated by Fr. Kodet, who was assisted by Fr. O’Brien and Mr. Cortez. The 9am is an especially well-attended Mass that usually fills to standing-room only, a testimony to the impressive and continuing growth of the world’s largest FSSP apostolate that is currently served by four priests and offers five Masses on Sundays to accommodate its numbers. After Mass many attendees partook of the pancake breakfast offered by the Knights of Columbus and spent a last couple of hours chatting with one another and the seminarians before going their separate ways.

Some other attendees told us their thoughts on the event. Alex, who comes from Atlanta, Georgia and attends St. Francis de Sales, our apostolate there, is new to the Latin Mass. She found St. Francis through Google and has been attending Mass there for the past three months. When asked what she thought of the conference, she said, “I loved it. I had a lot of fun. I made new friends.” One of those friends is Marie, a student at Benedictine College in Kansas. Averse to the Latin Mass as a teenager, she has grown to love it due to the reverence and respect that she finds there. She was a bit surprised at how much she enjoyed the conference, initially expecting that it might be a little bit dull. “It was really, really great,” she said. “It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. It was a lot more fun.”

In a world where human interaction has been reduced to texts and emojis, and where being “friends” on Facebook is more often discussed than actual friendships, it is encouraging to see the success of the Southwest Region Young Adult Conference. The importance of good friendships cannot be overstated; friends who share the Faith are spiritual comrades-in-arms who encourage one another, challenge one another, help each other along the path of virtue and sanctity and keep each other out of the ravines. We all long for simpler times when people were less mobile, faith was more common and you didn’t necessarily have to look far to find those kinds of friends. But some problems come packaged with a solution. The inherent mobility of the current generation and their lightning-fast methods of communication provide an avenue of success for things like Mater Dei’s Young Adult Conference, which drew together young people from near and far for the sake of faith and friendship. +