Young Adult groups are a bit of a strange thing. Their constituency runs a wide age range, their purpose can be a little vague at times, and their nature seems to vary from instance to instance. And yet these groups pop up at parishes all over the District to address a real need that exists among young people. To find out more about these groups, what their purpose is, and how young adults are coming closer to Christ through these groups, we talked to Bernadette Bonner, leader of the Young Adult group at Holy Family Parish in Vancouver, British Columbia (That’s in Canada…). Editor’s Challenge: Find the awesome British spellings of things in this interview.

The Missive: So why have a young adult group, anyway? What do you think its purpose should be? What are your goals as a group?

BB: I’m a firm believer that support and community are healthy ways of encouraging and maintaining our narrow paths to Heaven. God made us communal creatures, to provoke charity and goodness in one another, to grow closer to Him through one another, and bring others closer to Him with us. The young adult stage of life is a crucial time, when we should be laying solid groundwork that the rest of our adult lives will be built on. To have support and encouragement from other young adults with the same core values, Faith, and overall goal of attaining Heaven is an invaluable asset.

The Missive: Tell us about some of the activities you do to further your goals. Do you have regular activities, or occasional ones, or both? What type of activities do you focus on?

BB: We all have the goal of reaching higher levels of holiness, that we might be as close to Our Lord as possible once we reach Heaven. This idea of camaraderie and fellowship between Catholic young adults as a beneficial means to attain said goal is the purpose of the Holy Family Young Adults Group. We usually meet once or twice a month. To keep it interesting, and not fall into a boring routine, we do a wide range of activities. Some of those this past year have been Holy Hour & pub nights, the symphony, Christmas markets, an Italian dinner cooked by Fr. Uy (in Rome he learned authentic Italian cooking which he was excited to share with us!), potlucks, fireworks in downtown Vancouver, hiking, etc.

The Missive: How do you reach out to the young adults both in the parish and in the general area? What are some of your methods – social media, email, word-of-mouth? What works best?

BB: Early on when I re-booted the group, I was inspired to snap a photo and send it out on the next event update, in the hope of providing a visual of what fun those who didn’t come missed out on. The next few events brought out new people and/or people who hadn’t come in a long time, and all said it was the photo that caught their attention, and it looked like a good time. I’m not much of one for social media, so I have yet to use that tool for our group. But I find we actually get quite a bit of exposure and emails from new people just by our group being listed on the Diocesan website as a young adults group.

I also find personal invitations go a long way. With a personal invitation you are singling someone out, and that personal touch is sometimes all it takes for someone to feel welcomed and wanted – which is an important part of loving one another, especially in the confusion and brokenness of our current world.

The Missive: How do you deal with the recurrent difficulty of getting young people to “show up”?

BB: The times when no ones shows up usually start off as a bit disheartening. But there are always two or three who come, and when the group is small, that is oftentimes when real bonding takes place. Fewer people provides the chance for deeper conversation, which brings a stronger bond between those involved. Sometimes there is just a slump where people get busy or lose interest. But that is never a reason to stop organizing events. That is the time to persevere with the group. In my experience, gaining true friendships has been a result and reward of persevering through the “slumps” or quiet events.

The Missive: What advice do you have for young adults who are trying to start a group at their parish? Especially those who might be tempted to give up because of the difficulty of getting a group started?

BB: As for starting a young adults group, re-booting one, or struggling to continue with one, try and read your crowd. Every group will have different needs to be met, so I think the group’s success will be based on the organizer reading the crowd accurately. Also, ask for input from other young adults. People like to know that their wants and opinions are heard. I regularly ask people for activity ideas, or tell them to let me know if there is something in particular they want to do. Sometimes it is good to take a break, too. Our group suddenly died a couple years ago under another organizer, and after the group being inactive for almost a year, I re-booted it with a renewed vigour. We’ve been (I’d say) fairly successful these past 16 months.

It’s also important to make people feel at ease. So many people have insecurities, are shy, introverted, etc. Those who aren’t (and even those who are!) need to go out of their way to make those people welcomed, comfortable, wanted. Nothing is perfect in this world, and keeping a young adults group going can be tiresome and frustrating when people don’t respond the way they perhaps should. But that’s life, and it’s an organizer’s job to continue being a leader, even if your army has slowly fallen out of step. A Young Adults group is not something to be reached and attained – just as in life, it’s a river that’s constantly moving and changing with time, and it’s our job as organizers to navigate and keep moving full speed ahead with as many other young adults as we can, all for the greater honour and glory of God.

by Mrs. Kathleen Kennedy, FSSP Seattle parishioner

The world-famous International Pilgrim Virgin statue of Our Lady of Fatima is currently touring more than 100 dioceses in the United States for the 100th anniversary of Our Blessed Lady’s appearances at Fatima. The image reflects the precise instructions of Sr. Lucia, one of the seers. Her desire was that the pilgrim image represent Our Lady’s position when she revealed herself as the Immaculate Heart to the shepherds in 1917. She remarked afterwards that she had never seen any image which so resembled the actual apparition of Our Lady.

In the presence of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at Fatima, the statue was blessed by the bishop of Fatima on October 13, 1947 who prayed that Mary herself would accompany the statue wherever it goes. In 1952 it was blessed by Pope Pius XII to bring the graces of Fatima to those many millions of people who may never have an opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Fatima itself. It has been traveling around the world ever since that time, visiting over 100 countries. The most famous tour occurred on October 16, 1992, when 6 bishops went to Red Square in Moscow and crowned this statue at midnight in front of Lenin’s tomb.

North American Martyrs Parish in Seattle joyfully welcomed the statue in July. The timing was perfect. Because the camps for boys and girls had just ended, there were seminarians to help with the ceremonies, along with four FSSP priests. It was a beautiful day, with a packed church of regular parishioners and as many guests. It was a wonderful opportunity to invite others to share our beloved Latin Mass.

The day included a Solemn High Mass preceded by a procession into the church and crowning of the statue, followed by children bringing flowers, an outdoor procession around the block, a talk by the statue’s custodian, Rosary and hymns, a great many enrolled in the brown scapular, Benediction and the farewell procession. The pastor, Fr. Joseph Heffernan, in his sermon reminded the faithful to follow Our Blessed Mother’s requests to pray the Rosary every day and to offer up our daily sufferings. Our Lady taught this prayer to Lucia and her cousins St. Francisco and St. Jacinta:

“O my Jesus, I accept and bear with submission whatever sufferings God permits in my life today, for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 1917)

On the preceding day, the statue visited St. Joseph Parish, the FSSP’s apostolate in Tacoma. A grand outdoor procession followed, where the statue was carried in public veneration to a neighboring church.

Our thanks to Mr. Michael Curtis for granting us permission to use the photographs he took of the event.

With the disastrous flooding that has recently afflicted Houston, Texas, many of you are probably concerned about the status of Regina Caeli Parish, the FSSP apostolate in Houston. We would like to inform you that the parish property is untouched and suffered no flooding.

However, there are parishioners who have been seriously affected and they need our help. If you are looking for ways to assist Houston, you can send contributions by check for the relief of Regina Caeli parishioners to the parish address below. Please designate FLOOD RELIEF in the memo line.

Regina Caeli Parish
8121 Breen Rd.
Houston, TX 77064

You can also contribute via Paypal by visiting the parish website here. Look for the gold Donate button. If you note FLOOD RELIEF on your contribution on Paypal (Add special instructions to the seller), the parish will use the money to provide relief for parishioners.

You can stay updated on the status of the Houston apostolate and ways you can help via their website here.

May God Reward You!

From July 31 – August 10, 2017, Nne Enyemaka, the FSSP’s parish in Nigeria, hosted Camp St. Patrick, their first summer boys’ camp. It was a resounding success, with 32 boys from the parish and surrounding areas dividing into four teams and participating in activities that included sports, games, flag-making, skits, camp fire singing and especially catechism, all the while competing for the Saint Patrick Cup. They also enjoyed three outings to a nearby zoo, the Biafra War Museum and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Onitsha, where the body of Nigeria’s only Blessed (Blessed Tansi, the camp’s co-patron) is housed. The camp will hopefully be an annual event, and the apostolate is already looking forward to hosting Camp St. Patrick again in 2018.

Seminarian Joe Loftus teaching Gregorian chant

A camp participant enjoying a lesson with Deacon (now Father) Charles Ike

Praying together at the statue of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

A lively game of frisbee!

Painting their team flag with careful hands

Nice to meet you!

1 Corinthians 9:24

Camp participants with their team flags

At the Biafra War Museum

You may have read the post here about the mission work being done at the Fraternity’s apostolate in Guadalajara. Recently we were blessed to receive a firsthand account of the experiences of a volunteer who served at the apostolate for ten months, and he told us about the extraordinary graces which God is causing to blossom in Mexico.

by Benjamin Misner-Elias

My name is Benjamin Misner-Elias and for ten months I had the opportunity to work with the FSSP in Guadalajara, Mexico. During those ten months, I lived in the apostolate house of the FSSP which, in a couple years, will also be considered an official house of discernment. While there, I participated in two St. Francis Xavier mission trips and a mission from Nuestra Señora del Pilar, the FSSP parish in Mexico. The first of the two St. Francis Xavier trips was to Zacatecas, Mexico, in the spring of 2017. The second one was to Tonalá, a town on the outskirts of Guadalajara. The mission group which the FSSP runs out of Nuestra Señora del Pilar is called Mission San Pedro.

St. Francis Xavier has two missions trips per year – one in the spring and one in late July. Each city receiving the missions is usually different, but the goal of the missions always stays the same: convert, convert, convert. The main premise of the St. Francis Xavier missions is to evangelize and spread our Catholic Faith. There are three ways this is accomplished: door-to-door, the Mass, and catechesis.

The door-to-door method of evangelization is successful. Participants split into a certain number of groups, for instance, five groups of five people. Then, each drives to a designated block or neighborhood that will be covered for that day. This allows the participants to reach as many people as possible in an organized structure. The people that you will encounter will be anybody from Protestants to pagans to Catholics that have fallen away from the Church. By going door to door, we are able to invite people to church, answer doubts that they have about the Faith, and explain the Latin Mass.

The Mass itself is one of the best forms of evangelization because the people are able to see the Sacrifice of Our Lord and participate in the highest form of prayer.

Finally, each group is usually responsible for having a class of catechesis, either for adults or children. The mission that most recently concluded in Tonalá was so successful because of how the catechesis was organized. Different groups chose a certain theme that they felt was necessary to teach to their class. For example, one day my group and I were discussing topics for catechesis. We decided that we should give a talk about the Rosary because we had noticed that, throughout the week, many of the young boys and girls didn’t know how to pray the Rosary, even those who were Catholic. After this, we gave the talk and prayed many Rosaries with them. They learned how to pray one of the world’s most powerful prayers by the end of the week.

San Pedro is one of our most recent mission groups and it mostly focuses on street evangelization. This mission primarily involves the parishioners of Nuestra Señora del Pilar. It is similar to the St. Francis Xavier mission groups but this group focuses on evangelizing in the streets and visiting hospitals.

Finally, the summer Spanish program, the San Junipero Serra Spanish Institute, based out of the apostolate house Casa Cristo Rey, allows seminarians and priests to experience two months of Spanish language immersion. Participants in the Institute were also able to participate in the street evangelizing that the San Pedro mission performs.

My volunteer experience allowed me to see another country and learn another language. More importantly, it allowed me to increase my faith, spread Catholicism, and assist thousands of people to witness to the Latin Mass. During my time there I was able to run four social media sites, including two sites used to reach a United States audience: the Mission Tradition and San Junipero Serra Spanish Institute Facebook pages. While living in Mexico, I took advantage of the opportunity to travel, which permitted me to see more of the natural and cultural beauty of Mexico. This experience was amazing! I encourage every person to take at least a year to live in another culture and spread their Faith.

On August 15, 2017, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, a new priest joined the ranks of the FSSP. Fr. Charles Ike’s ordination at the FSSP’s apstolate in Umuaka, Nigeria, brings the total number of new priests from the North American District this year to 10, with seven ordained in Lincoln, Nebraska in May and two in Warrington, England, in June. Fr. Ike was ordained by Bishop Gregory Ochiaga, Bishop Emeritus of the diocese of Orlu. This was the first traditional priestly ordination in Nigeria in over 50 years.

From July 12 through July 15, 2017, the 5th annual Sacred Liturgy Conference took place in Medford, Oregon. The focus of the yearly conference is the immense liturgical heritage of the Church and her attendant sacred music traditions, and this year’s theme was “The Voice of the Bridegroom.” Featured at the conference were lectures by His Eminence Cardinal Raymond Burke, Archbishop Alexander Sample, Bishop Robert Vasa and several other speakers, including Fr. Gerard Saguto, Superior of the North American District of the FSSP, who presented a lecture entitled The Offertory: Prelude to Sacrifice. The FSSP priests in attendance assisted Cardinal Burke at a Pontifical Solemn Mass at the Throne on July 14, the feast of St. Bonaventure.

The conference will take place again next year and is open to the public. To learn more and to sign up when registration begins on January 1st, 2018, visit the conference’s website here. You can also visit their Facebook page here, where you’ll find information on next year’s event and a sneak peek at the lineup!

Our thanks to Marc Salvatore for the photographs of this year’s conference. You can view the full album here.

On Thursday, September 14, 2017 at 7pm, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a Solemn Pontifical Mass will be celebrated by His Excellency the Most Reverend Joseph Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, PA. The Mass will mark the 10th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, the Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, which clarified that the Traditional Latin Mass was never abrogated and eliminated the need for priests to obtain permission to say the Latin Mass.

If you are an FSSP parishioner who plans to attend the Mass, please let us know! Send us a message using the form below. Then send us another message afterwards telling us your firsthand accounts and thoughts on the event.

…because there were way too many great pictures not to do another post!

Did you catch Vatican Radio’s interview with Fr. Akers about the recently released Requiem album? Requiem features our priests, directed by Fr. Akers, chanting the ancient Gregorian repertoire for the Mass and Burial of the Dead and it made waves this summer by hitting the very top of the Billboard classical music charts.

Hear the full interview at Vatican Radio here!

To order Requiem, please visit Amazon, iTunes or Barnes & Noble.

For discounted bulk orders, please email studio@DeMontfortMusic.com.