This Saturday, November 19th, 22 candidates will receive the minor orders of Porter, Lector, Exorcist, and Acolyte, which will be conferred by his Excellency Bishop Robert Finn. The ceremony will take place in the Chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. Both the ceremony and the reception will not be open to the public.

Pray for our Seminarians

The FSSP is celebrating its thirty-fourth anniversary this year. It will not be long before we see a good group of our members entering a stage of life where active ministry can become limited. We have also had some men, already priests for a number of years, join our ranks. Most Americans retire in their mid-60’s, but one of our priests recently and reluctantly transitioned from actively leading one of our apostolates at the age of 89! All of these priests deserve to know that we will take care of their housing, medical care, and other necessities of life. Many of our priests ordained in the past decades are soon reaching a stage in life in which medical costs can increase exponentially.

Some priests will experience serious medical problems. For reasons only He can understand, God sometimes allows His faithful workers to undergo medical hardships that require costly care. In just this last year one of our priests had a sudden illness that required immediate heart surgery. Now he must travel regularly to a specialist doctor for ongoing care. Thanks to God’s providence in giving us many wonderful benefactors who helped us establish the Priest Forever fund last year, we are able to care for our priests without question in such necessities. Father is doing well and continues caring for souls thanks to your support!

Please Support the FSSP’s “Priest Forever” Fund on Giving Tuesday

As the North American Province expands, we will need more priests to work outside of parish life for the benefit of the internal life and working of the Fraternity. There are certain decisions within a community that can only be made by priests. Ordaining more priests, opening more apostolates, and expanding current apostolates will require more oversight and support from provincial headquarters.

As our order grows and ages, the need grows with it. Your ongoing support of this fund helps us provide for the physical needs of our FSSP priests even when they are not assigned to active life in a parish apostolate. Your donation to this fund is a profound “thank you” to our hardworking priests for making a total gift of their lives

Last year, we raised $278,633 to establish this fund. This year, to continue supporting the needs of our priests, we hope to raise $200,000. Here is how you can help.

Please Make Your Gift on November 29th

As you may already know, Giving Tuesday is an annual online event in which nonprofits of all kinds seek to raise money on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. This year it will be on November 29, 2022.

Your gifts on Giving Tuesday will support the overall good of FSSP priests wherever they find themselves in life, be it working in an active apostolate, assigned to other duties, or in need of medical care. You’ll help us establish new apostolates and staff them with hardworking priests. Your gift will give those priests confidence that just as they have always been there for your spiritual needs, you will always be there to care for their physical needs.

Just in time for winter, donors who give a gift at the $1500 level will receive a Fraternity branded fleece jacket, and those who give a gift at the $500 level will receive an FSSP-branded beanie hat. Additionally, those who give at the $250 level will receive an FSSP holy water bottle. As a special thanks to all who support us, every donor to this fund will be entered into a drawing to win special gifts like rosaries, prayer books, or FSSP-branded items.

Check your email, social media accounts, and the Missive for reminders as Giving Tuesday approaches.

We are always profoundly humbled by your generosity and immensely grateful for your friendship and support. With your help, the FSSP will continue to form priests for life.

In 1998, Camp St. Peter in the Black Hills was born.  Since then, the seminarians of OLGS have organized and run successful annual camps for more than 1,000 young boys.  In 2020, a not-for-profit organization, Saint John Bosco Camps (SJBC), was founded to continue the camps. The mission of SJBC? To form young men in the virtues they need to become strong Catholics and strong fathers – either as natural fathers of children or as spiritual fathers in the holy priesthood.

SJBC strives to provide the boys of our traditional Catholic communities with a positive experience of the Church and its sacred teachings and traditions through joy-filled interactions with FSSP priests and the seminarians of OLGS. They experience the grandeur of God’s creation during their time in His beautiful, untouched wilderness.

Demand continues to grow for these unique camps. In 2022, SJBC had over 200 applicants, for only 96 spots between its two camps. Up until now the difficulties of renting properties and moving equipment has presented an obstacle to more growth.  But SJBC is up for the challenge of meeting this growing demand and is even considering expanding its operations through the offering of additional types of camps in the future. A critical first step is to locate a permanent home for the camps.

In order to secure the foundation of its charism, St. John Bosco Camps has launched a capital campaign, “Building on Rock”, to purchase and develop a property.  This campaign will also help establish a fund to develop further programs in the future.  Please consider helping St. John Bosco Camps to achieve this goal by donating now at https://www.stjohnboscocamps.org/building-on-rock/.

by Fr. John Rickert, FSSP.

An online article from Brill says the following:

The slogan cuius regio eius religio (Latin, “whose land, his religion”) was coined early in the 17th century by the Protestant canon lawyer Joachim Stephani to describe a key principle of the Peace of Augsburg of September 29, 1555, which gave the Imperial estates the freedom of deciding between Catholicism (Roman Catholic Church) and Lutheranism (Protestantism; Protestant churches) in their own territories.

The idea is that the prince of each region would decide what the religion would be for that region.  The result was that Bavaria and southern Germany remained Catholic, whereas the parts north of the old Roman Empire became Lutheran.

The manifest Relativism of this approach clearly leads the way to secularism, in which the State officially becomes “neutral” but in reality, as seen over and over, becomes hostile to religion in general and the tenets of Christianity in particular.

Yet the great Catholic thinker Juan Donoso Cortés (1809 – 1853) argues convincingly in his Essay on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism that every State is a confessional state; the only real question is what religion the State will profess.  (For a brief summary of this masterpiece, see his Letter to Cardinal Fornari.)

Thus, the question becomes, “Can a Catholic accept the principle, ‘Cujus regio, ejus religio‘?”

Yes, and in fact, must.  Why?

Because Christ is the King of all the Earth, and we should follow the religion that He Himself has given us.

Padre Antonio Vieira (1608 – 1697) says that the Reign of Christ, Our Lord, is not only spiritual but also temporal, and he demonstrates this from the Holy Scriptures and Church Fathers.  “It would be absurd,” he says, “to think that Christ did not have as much dominion as Adam.”

Vivat Christus Rex!

Fr. William Rock FSSP recently sat down with the Catholic Drive Time YouTube channel to answer some questions on the history of All Hallows Eve and how modern-day Catholics should approach the holiday.

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP

“It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” (2 Mac 12:46)

It is a dogma of the Catholic Church that the souls detained in Purgatory (the Church Suffering) can be assisted by the suffrages of the living faithful (the members of the Church Militant).  These suffrages (intercessory prayers, indulgences, alms and other pious works, and above all the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass) remit before God some degree of the temporal punishments due to their sins which the poor souls still have to render.¹ So important is the undertaking of these suffrages that the Church has listed it as part of one of the Spiritual Works of Mercy, namely, “to pray for the living and the dead.”

As the Roman Liturgy developed, certain Masses were produced whose sole purpose is to pray for the dead.  When the various forms of the Masses for the Dead were settled, only the readings and the three prayers (the Collect, Secret, and Postcommunion) of these Masses differed among them.  The chants and ceremonies for the different types of Masses for the Dead are the same.  Among these Masses are the Funeral Mass and the three Masses assigned to All Souls’ Day.  Each of these Masses for the Dead may be called a “Requiem Mass” based on the first word of the Introit (the entrance chant) which is common to all.

Sorrow is the natural response to the loss of a loved one.  The Church shares in this sorrow of her children.  This sorrow is deepened by the Church’s general uncertainty concerning the eternal fate of her children who have died (except, of course, those solemnly canonized).  For these reasons, during a Requiem Mass, she vests her ministers in the color black, a color symbolizing the deepest mourning and grief.  The yellow hue of the unbleached candles and the absence of flowers and organ add to the sorrowful atmosphere.  But the Church and her children, relying on the mercy and love of God, hope that a blessed, eternal reward will be granted to the faithful departed.  These two themes, of sorrow and of hope, are intermingled throughout the Requiem Mass both in the texts themselves and in the tones of the chants.  For example, the chants at the start of the Mass are in a sorrowful tone, but, at the end of the ceremonies, the chant is lighter.

The sole focus of the Church during a Requiem Mass is the soul or souls for whom the Mass is being offered.  This is clearly brought out in the liturgical ceremonies that are proper (although not necessarily unique) to this Mass.  Many of these proper ceremonies are omissions from what is normally performed, as they would be unfitting for such a Mass or would draw the Church’s attention away from the departed.  Other changes are made to direct the liturgical focus to the departed and away from those present.  The following are practices proper to the Requiem Mass:

• All of the ceremonial kisses during the Mass are omitted except during vesting and divesting and those that reverence the Altar (which represents Christ).
• The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar are shortened, as the joy expressed in the excluded portion is out of place in such a Mass.
• The Altar is not incensed at the beginning of the Mass.
• At the Introit, all present would normally cross themselves, but during a Requiem, they do not. Instead, the Priest makes a Sign of the Cross over the Missal, which, for this act, represents the deceased.
• The Gloria and Alleluia, as they are joyful, are omitted. The Alleluia is replaced by a Tract.
• The Sequence Dies Iræ is recited before the Gospel.
• Unless performing an action that would require otherwise, all but the Sacred Ministers kneel during the Collect (opening prayer) and Postcommunion (prayer after communion) in supplication for the departed.
• The Subdeacon is not blessed after chanting the Epistle.
• Prior to the reading of the Gospel, a preparatory prayer is omitted and the Deacon is not blessed.
• Candles and incense are not used during the proclamation of the Gospel.
• After the proclamation of the Gospel, the Gospel Book (Evangeliarium) is not kissed and the associated prayer is omitted.
• The water in the cruet at the Offertory, which represents the people, is not blessed.
• The Gloria Patri (the Glory be), as it is an expression of joy, is omitted.
• During the Offertory, only the Oblations (the offered bread and wine), Altar, and Priest are incensed. Usually, all present would be incensed as well.
• Unless performing an action that would require otherwise, all but the Sacred Ministers kneel from the Sanctus until the reception of Communion (not even standing for the Our Father).
• During the Canon (Eucharistic Prayer), the Subdeacon does not hold the paten as the Roman Rite does not have a black humeral veil. He does, however, incense the Host and the Chalice during the Elevations.
• The endings of the Angus Dei (the Lamb of God) are changed from “have mercy on us” and “grant us peace” to “grant them rest” and “grant them eternal rest.” The striking of the breast is omitted.
• The Pax (Sign of Peace) is omitted.
• The normal dismissal, Ite, missa est, is omitted. In its place is said Requiescant in pace (may they rest in peace).
• The blessing of the faithful at the end of Mass is omitted.
• If a Bishop celebrates a Requiem, he does not use the crosier, the ceremonial shoes and stockings (buskins), or gloves. He wears only the simple white mitre during the ceremonies and puts on the maniple before the Prayers at the Foot.  He does not bless any of the servers or ministers during the ceremonies.

An Absolution ceremony may be performed following the Mass.  This ceremony takes place at the coffin or, if the body (or bodies) is (are) not present, at a catafalque (a coffin-like structure) or at a black pall spread on the floor.  The catafalque or pall represent the body (bodies) of the deceased.  During the ceremony, the coffin, catafalque or pall is incensed and sprinkled with Holy Water and prayers are said on behalf of the departed.

The previously mentioned uncertainty concerning the final state of the souls of the Church’s children who have died is, in a sense, a blessing for those who survive the departed.  This is because our Faith teaches us that one can always pray for good outcomes of past events whose conclusions are hidden from mortal eyes.  As God is outside of time, past, present and future have no real meaning for Him.  As strange as it might seem, God can act in the past due to things which happen in the future.  Therefore, prayers offered on behalf of the dead not only effect their state in Purgatory but can also have an influence at a moment of death that occurred in the past of those praying.

The Liturgy for the dead, based on this truth, places the Church and the faithful as pleading figures accompanying the departed soul into the presence of the Judge at the moment of death – pleading figures praying, imploring, on behalf of the soul before the unchangeable eternal sentence is pronounced.  This also explains why this Liturgy asks for things that would have chronologically already been decided irrevocably (such as the welcome to heaven or condemnation to hell).  While treating of the ceremonies of All Souls’ Day, Dom Guéranger explains this as follows: “to God, Who sees all times at one glance, this day’s supplication was present at the moment of the dread passage, and obtained assistance for the straitened souls.”² It should always be remembered that death does not end relationships, but only changes them.

But the Church in her Liturgy is not content with simply being a pleading figure.  So great is her love for her children, that the Church, and the faithful united with her, takes on, as it were, the identity of the departing soul and speaks as the soul should have spoken at the moment of passing.  This explains why the first person (“I” or “me”) is used in many of the chants of the Mass and surrounding ceremonies.  In these places it should be understood that the reciters are speaking on behalf of the deceased at the moment of death.³

As the faithful prepare to celebrate the Masses of the upcoming All Souls Day and to keep November as the Month Dedicated to the Poor Souls, may these reflections aid them in understanding the great work of mercy they are undertaking.

Fr. William Rock, FSSP was ordained in the fall of 2019 and is currently assigned to Regina Caeli Parish in Houston, TX.

1. See the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Prayers for the Dead.”
2. Guéranger, Prosper. The Liturgical Year, 15 (Time After Pentecost Book VI). Trans. Shepherd, Laurence. (Fitzwilliam: Loreto Publications, 2000), 142 (All Souls’ Day).
3. See the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Libera Me.”

Today the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter celebrates its 34th anniversary. For the benefit of the many new souls in our parishes who are just learning about us, it is a good time to take stock and reflect on the FSSP’s founding and growth.

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter was founded by eleven priests, one deacon, and a handful of seminarians at the Abbey of Hauterive in the French Alps on July 18, 1988. Only three months later, on October 18, the Fraternity was established as a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right by Pope John Paul II.

The first priestly ordination for the new community took place in Rome in December, 1988. In the fall of 1989, the first Fraternity seminary, the Seminary of St. Peter, opened its doors in the small Bavarian town of Wigratzbad. The seminary offers priestly formation to students from more than a dozen countries. In Europe, priests of the Fraternity work in, among other venues, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy.

The Fraternity’s work in the New World began in 1991 in Dallas, Texas. The months that followed saw the establishment of two additional apostolates: Rapid City, South Dakota and Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was the invitation to Scranton by Bishop James C. Timlin that would prove most significant for the Fraternity’s future growth.

The North American Headquarters was moved there in 1993 and both a year-long program for prospective seminarians and a boarding school for boys opened in Elmhurst, Pennsylvania, a few miles outside of Scranton. In 1994, Bishop Timlin approved the establishment of a full-fledged seminary, with one year to be added to the academic program each year. In 2000, the first men to complete the full seven-year course at the new Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary were ordained to the priesthood.

By 1997, growing enrollment had forced the seminary to relocate to a closed hotel in Paupack, Pennsylvania. A few months later, the decision was made to build a new seminary in the Diocese of Lincoln, with the kind permission of Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz. Ground was broken for this exciting project—the first seminary to be built “from the ground up” in the United States in decades—on October 3, 1998. Classes began there in September of 2000.

Today, the over 300 priests of the Fraternity work in many dioceses throughout the world, including in Europe, the United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, South and Central America, and Africa.

by Fr. John Rickert, FSSP

Taking part in a Fraternity apostolate means having the Traditional Mass, yes, but it means much more than that; it means absorbing, internalizing, living, and transmitting Tradition in its fullness.

We receive Tradition as a holy gift, treasure it, and pass it on to those who come after us. We realize, in humility, that in the long run, Tradition will judge us and that it is really not for us to pass judgement on Tradition.  Traditio sacra sacrorum tuitio. Sacred tradition is a safeguarding of sacred things, and more importantly, of being safeguarded by them.

For those who are still being formed by Tradition – a formation that can indeed fill a lifetime – it may be hard to understand why it is so important for women to wear veils in church.

Let me begin with an experience that occurred to me some years ago now. Once, when I stopped for gas at a roadside convenience store, the attendant at the cash register saw me in my cassock and asked, completely at a loss, “What’s with…???” and motioned up and down with her hands to indicate that she was referring to my garb.  She didn’t even know what to call it.  At that time I was still a seminarian, and I explained to her that I was hoping to become a priest.

When we see a policeman or a soldier or a nurse, for example, we know who they are by the way they are dressed.  And I hope that when you get ready to come to church, you dress with church in mind: you realize a distinctiveness in being in church. It is not like going anywhere else.

Proper attire for a woman, according to the Tradition given to us clearly by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 and confirmed by Pope St. Linus, who was the second pope, right after St. Peter, is to wear a veil or head covering while in church.  I have noticed that men tend to be good in observing the rule that applies to them, namely, that they should not wear a hat in church.  I hope that if you saw someone wearing a baseball cap or a fishing hat in church, you would realize that this is not appropriate and indicate in some way to him that he needs to take it off.

Now, you might be wondering why a priest wears a biretta in church and could wear one even during the sermon. Some Fraternity priests do.  The answer is that the biretta is a sign of office; a much more striking sign of a higher office is the bishop’s mitre, which he does wear when he preaches.

Dear faithful who are ladies, what I hope you will find in wearing the veil is that you have a particularly strong awareness of where you are, that you are focused completely on Our Lord and not worried about external appearance.

The glory cloud of the Lord covered Mount Sinai in the Old Testament and Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration. We cover the altar with three layers of linen cloths; we veil the tabernacle; we even, in a sense, veil the cassock by the surplice or the alb; we veil a ciborium that contains consecrated Hosts; and the priest uses a humeral veil to hold the monstrance. And Our Lady is veiled in her apparitions.

A veil indicates sacredness and dedication to God.

On Saturday, October 1st, after a 7 AM Holy Mass, Father José Zepeda, Chaplain for Holy Cross Chaplaincy in Fresno California, held the bimonthly Blessing of Items. The faithful have been coming from all over the Central Valley, some farther than 2 hours, to have their items blessed. Father also enrolls the faithful in the brown scapular and the miraculous medal. Father has been promoting the use of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on this Saturday he held a class to explain the Office and how to use it to enrich our spiritual lives.

This October 2022,  Michigan native Philip Webb will begin the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage from the Via de la Plata in western Spain. The pilgrimage dates to the ninth century and is dedicated to the veneration of St. James the Apostle’s tomb.

Philip is dedicating his trek to the rural children who are assisted by the missions of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) especially in Anolaima, Colombia, and Umuaka, Nigeria.

“My family loves attending the traditional Latin Mass in Jerez, Spain — especially my daughter, who has expressed a desire to help poor children since she was four. I value the focus on agriculture that the FSSP provides to rural families outside of Bogota. My upbringing in a rural school integrated agriculture into education. So, I understand agricultural knowledge’s value to poor communities. As a Marine deployed in Central America during the Panama invasion and subsequent counter-narcotics missions in the early 1990s, I recognized the need for moral development in children to combat narco-culture. I’ve found the Our Lady of Fatima FSSP mission in Colombia a worthy cause to support.”

With God’s help, he aims to complete the walk on November 10th, the U.S. Marine Corps’ 247th birthday. The forty-day pilgrimage will begin in Seville, Spain, at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the See and end in Galicia, Spain, at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. He will travel 621 miles carrying only the bare necessities in his old military backpack, and he will stay in Albergues (pilgrim hostels) along the way.

We are grateful to Philip for remembering our missions and ask God to reward his work of mercy.

To learn more about Phil’s pilgrimage, send prayers, and follow his progress, visit PhilsCaminoCharity.

Like and follow his Facebook page, Phil’s Camino, as he posts daily updates on his journey.