In a story featuring the contributions of current and former FSSP leaders, the National Catholic Register recently discussed the work of the FSSP and our extraordinary growth in North America in the 10+ years since Summorum Pontificum. Among the topics addressed by former Superior General Fr. John Berg, former North American District Superior Fr. Gerard Saguto and current District Superior Fr. Michael Stinson are the place of Summorum Pontificum in our ministry, the remarkable flourishing of our parishes, the constancy of the Latin Mass and the attraction of this liturgy for the young.

Read the full story here!

The USCCB will meet for the 2018 Fall General Assembly next week in our nation’s premier See, that of Baltimore, Maryland. Among the issues they will be discussing is the current abuse crisis in the Church. The National Shrine of St. Alphonsus Liguori, our apostolate in Baltimore, located just two blocks from where the Bishops will meet, is aware of the importance of this Assembly and will be supporting the Bishops in prayer with a special Mass and adoration schedule during the time of the meeting. Our North American Superior, Fr. Michael Stinson, will join the parish this weekend as they prepare to begin the three days of prayer.

From November 12th through the 15th, three Masses per day will be offered at the Shrine, the evening ones being High Masses and those on Tuesday and Wednesday Solemn High. All Masses will be offered for the intentions of the Bishops. You can also enroll your own intentions to be included with those of the Bishops by visiting St. Alphonsus’ site here.

The Shrine will also hold continual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and daily Confessions during these three days. You are invited to join in person if you can, or in spirit if you are far away. Wherever we are during this critical meeting, let us pray and offer sacrifices for our leaders as they address the grave crisis afflicting the Church.

You can download, print and share the flyer below with information on the activities at St. Alphonsus.

Our thanks to Amy Proctor for the photos used in this article.

With one last post, we bid a final farewell to Italy and wrap up our coverage of the Confraternity of St. Peter’s 30th Anniversary pilgrimage. On our last day, we drove to the city of Naples on the other side of the Bay, where we visited the Cathedral of Naples, dedicated to St. Januarius, or as the Neapolitans say, San Gennaro, the patron of the city. His blood, like that of St. Panteleon who was martyred about the same time and during the same persecution, miraculously liquefies every year on his feast day, as well as two other occasions during the year. The pilgrims venerated the bones of the saint that reside in a crypt underneath the high altar, and his blood and the bones of his skull that are kept in a side chapel. We had the great privilege of celebrating a sung Mass at an altar to the right of the main altar, near the tomb of St. Aspreno, the first bishop of Naples. As the ancient Mass was offered within the medieval cathedral and the chant drifted through its vast confines, inquisitive visitors joined us, drawn perhaps by the sound of the singing and by the sight of this beautiful liturgy that many of them may have been observing for the first time.

Afterwards we made our way to the church of Gesù Nuovo, where the pilgrims visited the tomb of St. Giuseppe Moscati, the “holy physician of Naples”. St. Giuseppe was a doctor who worked in Naples in the early 1900s and was renowned for his piety, his devotion to his patients and his remarkable skill.

Our final stop was the shrine of St. Philomena at Mugnano del Cardinale, a small town east of Naples. We were graciously welcomed by the rector of the shrine, and a Scottish volunteer told us a great deal about its history and how St. Philomena had come there. St. Philomena’s story is unique in that she was not known until 1802, when her grave was discovered in one of the Roman catacombs. Her remains were moved to Mugnano del Cardinale a few years later, and miracles began to take place, including the healing of the Venerable Pauline Jaricot.

That evening we returned to Rome and gathered for a final farewell dinner at our hotel in Fiumicino, where the Tiber flows into the Mediterranean Sea. Though the week had gone by far too quickly, we flew home the next morning with grateful hearts, new friends and a trove of memories of a grace-filled pilgrimage.

Thank you for taking the journey with us and supporting us with your prayers, and be assured we were praying for your intentions as well. Here’s a last round of pictures from our trip – including the beautiful images from our Solemn Mass of thanksgiving at Santissima Trinità in Rome on October 18th.

30th Anniversary Mass with Superior General

Cathedral of Naples

Gesù Nuovo – Tomb of St. Giuseppe Moscati

Shrine of St. Philomena

Today is the solemn commemoration of all the faithful departed. Following directly on the feast of All Saints, All Souls’ Day remembers the Church Suffering, those souls destined to join the Church Triumphant but who must still be purified of their past sins before they can enter Heaven. The Holy Souls rely upon us, the Church Militant upon earth, to offer prayers and sacrifices, particularly the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to speed their journey to Heaven, and they will certainly pray for us when they arrive.

On this day and the days following, the Church offers us special opportunities to gain plenary indulgences for the Holy Souls. You can obtain one such indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, if you visit a church or an oratory today and recite one Our Father and one Apostles’ Creed. You can also gain one per day from November 1st – 8th, again only applicable to the Souls in Purgatory, by visiting a cemetery and praying, even just mentally, for the Holy Souls. The usual conditions for plenary indulgences apply in both cases.

Today, countless Requiem Masses will be offered for the Holy Souls. In 2017, the Fraternity released Requiem, a chant setting of the Requiem Mass sung by the priests of the Fraternity and recorded at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. You can hear a sample of the album below, and you can buy a copy at our new bookstore website here.

Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine: et lux perpétua lúceat eis: cum Sanctis tuis in ætérnum: quia pius es.

Eternal rest give to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them: with Thy Saints for evermore, for Thou art gracious.

– from the Communion for today

A happy and most glorious feast day of all the Saints! On this day, a feast of such importance that the Church designates it a Holy Day of Obligation, we commemorate all the members of the Church Triumphant, both known and unknown, and whose number we, as the Church Militant, aspire to join in Heaven one day. The saints are our forerunners and exemplars in the spiritual life, men and women from every era, race, region of the world, background and state of life, different in so many ways but alike in their whole-hearted response to God’s call. And they are not only our models but our friends and advocates, who are always ready to assist us and whose intercession we should call upon in all our necessities.

We wish our Minneapolis parish, the Church of All Saints, a happy patronal feast day!

After this, I saw a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cried with a loud voice, saying: Salvation to our God Who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb.

– Revelation 7:9-10, from the Epistle for today

Pompei, in the region of Campania, was our next stop after San Giovanni Rotondo. Arriving on Sunday afternoon, the pilgrims first took a guided tour of the ruins of the city that was destroyed by an eruption of the nearby volcano Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The group then walked a short distance to the magnificent Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei, a minor basilica and the cathedral of that area. The grand edifice was commissioned in the latter half of the 19th century by Blessed Bartolo Longo, a former Satanic priest who became, as Pope St. John Paul II named him, the “Apostle of the Rosary”.

The origins of the Basilica are tied up with those of the miraculous image of Our Lady of the Rosary that hangs above the high altar. The painting was given to Blessed Bartolo in 1875, who placed it in a run-down church that he was repairing. Miracles began to take place immediately, and the Bishop of Nola suggested that Blessed Bartolo construct a larger church. Hence, work began on the current structure in 1876, its consecration taking place in 1891. It was reconsecrated as a basilica in 1901 and expanded in 1939. The pilgrims venerated Blessed Bartolo’s relics that rest in a chapel there.

We checked into Vico Equense that evening, just across the bay from Naples. It is probably safe to say that the next day set a new standard for Monday mornings. We took off early for the Amalfi coast, Italy’s version of Highway 1, and were awed by a stunning coastal drive along dizzying cliff-faces that stand high above the sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean. But the natural beauty that we saw paled in comparison with the real jewel of that region, the town of Amalfi’s Cathedral of St. Andrew, where the Apostle’s relics are housed. There, at a side altar, we celebrated a votive Mass of St. Andrew.

Our next destination was the town of Ravello, in the center of which rises the Cathedral of St. Pantaleon, a doctor from what is now Turkey who was martyred in the 4th century under Diocletian. His blood, like that of St. Januarius whom we would see in Naples the next day, has been preserved and miraculously liquefies on his July feast day. Usually, we were told, it coagulates again about a week later, but this year it has remained in a liquid state for longer than normal, and we were privileged to venerate the liquefied blood that is held in a vial in the Cathedral.

Despite a bout of bad weather that rolled into Ravello that afternoon and left us royally drenched, a vibrant rainbow accompanied us on the long drive home, and as we pulled into our home base of Vico Equense, it lingered peacefully over the towns that lie near the city of Naples where we would head for our next and last day in Italy.

We’re back! The pilgrimage came to an end on Wednesday, October 24th, when we flew unwillingly back to the United States. But we are going to spend the next week on the Missive continuing our narrative of our adventures – there is still so much to tell.

On Saturday, October 20th, we spent the day at San Giovanni Rotondo, having arrived the evening prior. We visited the Capuchin monastery and church where Padre Pio lived most of his life and carried out his priestly ministry, and were blessed to venerate his body that rests at the Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church nearby and to see many relics from his life.

In the afternoon we took a short bus trip to the nearby Sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo, a cave wherein St. Michael appeared several times. It is the only basilica in the world never to be consecrated by human hands, as the angelic saint chose and consecrated it himself when he appeared there in the 5th century.

After receiving such blessings at San Giovanni and Monte Sant’Angelo, we certainly were not looking for more (at least not until we left for Vico Equense the next day), but as we were soon to discover, the generosity of God is without limits. On Sunday, we were originally scheduled to celebrate Mass at the hotel chapel at 7:30, but we found ourselves in quite a different chapel at our new Mass time of 8:45. We were granted the immense privilege of celebrating Mass in the chapel of the town’s hospital, the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, or the House for Relief of the Suffering. A hospital chapel may not sound like an ideal setting for a sung Sunday Mass, but this is no ordinary hospital: set high upon the summit of the town alongside the monastery, it was founded by Padre Pio himself, who walked its halls and visited the sick that came there. He celebrated Mass in that very chapel, on that very altar. And the chalice that held the Blood of Our Lord during Mass that day was the very one that Padre Pio himself used.

Though it was a Mass to remember for all the pilgrims, it had a particular meaning for the celebrant, North American Superior Fr. Michael Stinson. When his parents, both serving in the Navy, were stationed in Italy, they wrote to Padre Pio asking to be his spiritual children. Receiving a positive response, they asked this favor for their children also, and again received a positive answer. And so, Fr. Stinson, a spiritual child of Padre Pio, was able to follow in his footsteps in a uniquely profound way.

Before Mass we received a small tour of the hospital, which includes a room dedicated to the relics of Padre Pio. The guide explained to us that the Casa is an international center of research and is the best hospital in Southern Europe. In the spirit of its founder, it welcomes all who come to its doors, regardless of their ability to pay.

It was a weekend spent in the company of an angel and a saint, a time of great and sometimes unexpected blessings, and we had much to be thankful for as we left San Giovanni Rotondo later that day and headed southwest towards the Mediterranean Sea.

Greetings from Vico Equense on the Bay of Naples! There is much to catch you up on. We departed Rome on Friday morning after Mass at Santissima Trinità, and arrived at San Giovanni Rotondo that evening after a beautiful drive through the mountains and dales of southern Italy. Our visit to the home of Padre Pio and the nearby shrine of St. Michael at Monte Sant’Angelo was truly extraordinary, and we will tell you about that very soon in another post. 

In the meantime we will take you on a more extensive tour of what we did in Rome. We spent three days total there, and perhaps everyone was a little sorry to leave it: countless jewels of our Faith are to be found within its walls, and you could spend years there and never see it all. It is the Eternal City, the heart of the Church, whose history is told by the beautiful churches and holy sites where so many great saints and sacred relics reside. Our time may have been short, but we were both grateful and joyful for the days that we had and for all the holy places we were able to visit. Here is a little more from our sojourn there.

St. Peter’s Basilica

Mass at the tomb of St. Peter

Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini

The FSSP’s parish in Rome, where we heard Mass on Thursday and Friday

Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

Resting place of the body of St. Catherine of Siena

The Gesù

Mother church of the Jesuit Order, resting place of St. Ignatius Loyola and the arm of St. Francis Xavier

Sant’Agostino

Resting place of St. Monica

On October 18th, 2018, the FSSP gave thanks to God for 30 years of service and fidelity to Him and His Church. The Confraternity of St. Peter’s 30th anniversary pilgrimage to Rome is currently underway, and at 8 o’clock this morning, Fr. Zachary Akers, who is leading the pilgrimage, offered Mass at the tomb of St. Peter for the intentions of the supporters of the FSSP.

Later, pilgrims attended a Solemn High Mass of thanksgiving at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, our parish in Rome, offered by FSSP Superior General Fr. Andrzej Komorowski with North American Superior Fr. Michael Stinson and one of our priests from France, Fr. La Croix, assisting. Fr. Komorowski and Fr. Jean-Cyrile Sow, pastor of Santissima Trinità, joined Fr. Akers, Fr. Stinson and the pilgrims for a festive dinner that evening with the sisters of St. Bridget, who run the Casa Santa Brigida where some of our pilgrims stayed.

We hit the ground running in Rome when we arrived here on Tuesday, and we will be posting more pictures soon from all the holy sites that we have been privileged to visit. Here are a few highlights – click on a photo to learn more!

On Saturday, September 15th, 2018, Mater Dei Parish, our apostolate in Dallas, Texas, hosted a sold-out symposium on Blessed Karl von Habsburg, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary. The event included the presence of several guests of honor, including the granddaughter of Blessed Karl, Princess Maria-Anna Habsburg Galitzine, and delegates from the Emperor Karl Prayer League. To learn more, we talked to David Ross, parishioner of Mater Dei and organizer of the event.

The event kicked off at 9:30 a.m. with a reception in the parish hall featuring a smorgasbord of Austrian sweets, handmade by the parishioner-owned Little Polish Bakery and representing the former territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A series of talks on Blessed Karl followed at 10 a.m., beginning with some opening remarks by Mr. Ross pertaining to the historical backdrop of the reign of Blessed Karl, who ascended to the throne of the Empire in the midst of World War I. Suzanne Pearson, North American Delegate of the Emperor Karl Prayer League, then gave a talk entitled Blessed Karl, Fatima & the Great War: A Centennial Retrospect, in which she touched on the Emperor’s exemplary leadership during the War and his desire for peace, and his marriage with Servant of God Empress Zita. Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB, priest delegate of the League, in a talk entitled Blessed Emperor Karl for Today, then spoke on Blessed Karl’s virtues and spirituality and how they guided his governance of the Empire.

At 11:45, Mr. Ross conducted an interview with Princess Maria-Anna, whose parents were married by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen in New York City in 1953. Among the topics they discussed were the princess’ time living with her grandmother, Empress Zita, and what she learned from her about her grandfather and the years during and after the War. At the conclusion of the program, three beautiful images of Blessed Karl were raffled off.

The event culminated with a Sung Mass at 12:30 p.m., where the choir of Mater Dei sang Austrian composer Joseph Haydn’s Little Organ Mass. They also sang his Kaiserhymn with the congregation during the veneration of a first-class relic of Blessed Karl.

About 275 people attended the event, traveling from different cities in Texas and even other states, and it was immensely well-received: Mr. Ross explains that he received emails, phone calls and even cards in the mail praising it. Saturday’s happenings were preceded by a free event in the auditorium of the Allen Public Library on Thursday, September 13th, with a similar but shorter program. That event was also packed.

To learn more about Blessed Karl, you can visit the Prayer League’s website at www.emperorcharles.org, and among other events you can attend is the yearly Solemn High Mass in honor of Blessed Karl at St. Mary Mother of God Parish in Washington, D.C., which will be celebrated this year on Saturday, October 20th. You can read our article about last year’s Mass, including a brief bio of Blessed Karl, here. +