Saint Benedict’s Chapel, the Fraternity parish in Chesapeake Virginia, offered adoration and thanksgiving to our Lord in a solemn Corpus Christi Procession between three altars. The Feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated by St. Benedict’s assistant pastor, Fr. Peter Byrne FSSP.

The final closing of St. Gregory’s Academy occurred on May 26, 2012.

St. Gregory’s Academy was a boarding school for young men grades 9-12, located in Elmhurst, Pennsylvania, and operated by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

After nearly twenty years, the Fraternity decided to close the school in order to better focus on our dual mission of forming priests at our seminary in Nebraska and offering the Traditional Latin Mass and Sacraments for the Faithful at our many apostolates.

TRANSCRIPT REQUESTS

Transcripts will be issued only to:

• Educational institutions which request it (colleges, schools). These transcripts will be sent directly to the educational institution.
• Parents or former students who have reached the age of 18 and who have requested a copy of the transcript in writing and have signed the letter. For these requests, the FSSP will send one copy to the individual.

All other requests for transcripts will not be given until further notice or unless determined as an exception to the above.

Requests may be mailed to:

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
Attn. St. Gregory’s Academy Records
119 Griffin Road
Elmhurst Twp, PA  18444

As a reminder, Fr. James Buckley, FSSP, Retreat Master, will be giving a three day retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola at:

St. Benedict Abbey Still River (Harvard), Massachusetts

3-Day Women’s Retreat: July 27-29, 2012 (Fri-Sun)
3-Day Men’s Retreat: August 10-12, 2012 (Fri-Sun)

Cost is $230.00

Includes meals, room and board, and (now mandatory) liability insurance. Arrival time is the Thursday evening before the retreat begins.

For information, contact Mr. James Buxton, preferably by e-mail: janthonybuxton@yahoo.com or call (978) 957-3118 and leave a message. (you will hear the phone message “You have reached Pa and Babchi.”)

Our own Father Joseph Kramer, FSSP, was interviewed by the Catholic News Service this spring, in a short but excellent interview on the draw of young people to the ancient traditions of our Catholic Faith.

Father Kramer’s central question is this:

Has one of the reasons Pope John XXIII called Vatican II — to find a new language to better engage the modern world — occurred?  Have we found this new language?

From Pope John’s opening speech:

Our task, our primary goal, is not a discussion of any particular articles of the fundamental doctrine of the Church, nor that we repeat at greater length what has been repeatedly taught by the Fathers and by ancient and modern theologians, and which we think to be well known and familiar to all. For this a Council was not necessary. But at the present time what is needed is that the entire Christian teaching with no part omitted, be accepted by all in our time with fresh zeal, with serene and tranquil minds, as it still shines forth in the Acts of the Council of Trent and First Vatican Council. It is necessary that as all sincere cultivators of the Christian, Catholic, and apostolic reality ardently desire that the same doctrine be more fully and deeply understood that consciences be more deeply imbued and formed by it; it is necessary that such certain and immutable doctrine, to which we owe the obedience of faith, be scrutinized and expounded with the method that our times require. One thing is the deposit of faith and the truths contained in our venerable doctrine, another thing is the way they are announced, with the same meaning and the same content. – Oct. 11, 1962

Fr. Kramer is pastor of the Fraternity parish in Rome. Santissima Trinita dei Pellegrini, or Church of the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims, is a baroque 17th-century church which sits about a mile from St. Peter’s Square.

In his interview, Fr. Kramer emphasizes the enduring appeal of traditional worship in its beauty, aesthetics and meaning, as well as being drawn into the traditional liturgy’s emphasis on the Mass as Sacrifice, which makes it “more obvious that Christ is offering His Body and pouring out His Blood for the remission of sin.”

Classical liturgical music, too, has an “uplifting, energizing effect, it really moves people to prayer,” he says. “Both Gregorian chant and polyphony highlight the texts of the liturgy. When you’re listening to them, you meditate on the words and internalize their meaning.”

The loss of traditional worship and the anticipated shock is reflected in Pope Paul’s general audience the week before the new Missal was put into use for Advent in 1969:

No longer Latin, but the spoken language will be the principal language of the Mass. The introduction of the vernacular will certainly be a great sacrifice for those who know the beauty, the power and the expressive sacrality of Latin. We are parting with the speech of the Christian centuries; we are becoming like profane intruders in the literary preserve of sacred utterance. We will lose a great part of that stupendous and incomparable artistic and spiritual thing, the Gregorian chant. We have reason indeed for regret, reason almost for bewilderment. What can we put in the place of that language of the angels? We are giving up something of priceless worth. But why? What is more precious than these loftiest of our Church’s values? The answer will seem banal, prosaic. Yet it is a good answer, because it is human, because it is apostolic. Understanding of prayer is worth more than the silken garments in which it is royally dressed. Participation by the people is worth more—particularly participation by modern people, so fond of plain language which is easily understood and converted into everyday speech. – Nov. 26, 1969

Father Kramer notes that the ethos of the Council brought an overwhelming desire of the clergy of the council generation — not so much the laity — to update the Church and reconcile the Church to the modern world. However, as that period has faded, it has given ground to a desire by the youth of the Church to regain what was lost, recapture clearer teaching and catechetics, more discipline, and find greater certitude and commitment.

A longer article on Father Kramer’s interview can be found on the CNS website.

This month of June closes with the great feast of Saints Peter and Paul on the 29th. Those who have visited Rome know firsthand the importance to the Eternal City of these two great martyrs. Because the rite we celebrate is truly Roman, this feast has also always held a particular pride of place in the liturgical calendar.

It is, of course, also the principle feast of our Fraternity of St. Peter, and we have considered ourselves fortunate to have such a great intercessor and example in the Prince of the Apostles. The choice of taking on the title of St. Peter for our institute was really a rather audacious one. Just as no Pope has dared to take the name Peter II for two millennia, so too, no institute or religious order has taken the title of the one chosen to be the first Vicar of Christ. But given the circumstances of our inception, our founders were encouraged to choose as our patron the one upon whom Christ chose to build His Church.

In our coat of arms (as found at the top of this page), upon the blue field which invokes the Blessed Virgin Mary are placed two symbols of St. Peter. The most recognizable are the keys which we are accustomed to seeing in the hands of almost every depiction of the Prince of the Apostles.

For our Fraternity they represent our particular attachment to the See of Peter, upon whom rests the authority to bind and to loosen: “And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven” (Mt. 16:19).

An important aspect of our work is the formation of men for the priesthood who are prepared to combat error with truth. To do so requires a well-formed intellect to recognize what is dangerous to souls striving to walk along the straight and narrow path towards heaven. For example, if you come from a cold climate, you know that it is not wise to say that it is the springtime when it is really the winter. A mother who would say this to her children would put them at risk, as they would go out without being properly dressed for the elements.

Oftentimes, the battle against error accompanies suffering with the Church as she suffers.

The second symbol on our coat of arms is the three tears which represent the triple confession of contrition of Simon Peter when our Lord asks him if he loves Him, following his denial of Christ (Jn. 21:15-17). These three tears are principally intended to remind our members of the deep love of St. Peter for Christ; and that, despite his weaknesses, he had the charity and humility to carry out the difficult task entrusted to him by our Lord to “confirm thy brethren” (Lk. 22:32).

These tears are also meant to signify the fact that the Fraternity was born at a moment of difficulties and sorrows within the Church: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming they shall come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves” (Ps. 126:1-5).

But they could just as well be tears for the state of the world in which we live, where man’s positive law seems to move daily further and further away from God’s Natural Law. The present Administration’s so-called “HHS Mandate” is perhaps the most frightening example yet in that not only are the most heinous crimes allowed in the name of “choice” by the state, but now it wishes to force everyone to participate in these acts in some manner.

In the face of such “mandates” from the state—which would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago—it would be easy for our hope to be shaken. Yet it is, of course, only a step in the long slippery slope of secularization in the Western world. The poet T.S. Eliot describes the perseverance necessary in such a state: “The World is trying to experiment with attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide” (Thoughts After Lambeth, 1931).

Here, too, St. Peter provides for us a great model of the perseverance and the courage of the Church: His epistles are an exhortation to his flock to concentrate upon faith and charity in the face of a world hostile to the message and moral teaching of Christianity.

The people’s faith was to be the anchor of their daily lives in the midst of tribulations: “Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if for now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations. That the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory…” (I Pet. 1:6,7).

Their charity was to be seen in all aspects of their lives in offering up wrongs done to them in imitation of our Lord: “For this is thankworthy: if for conscience towards God, a man endure sorrows, suffering wrongfully” (I Pet. 2:19). Charity was further to be lived out by showing a worthy example in society to those who did not believe: “Having your conversation good among the Gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by the good works which they shall behold in you, glorify God in the day of visitation” (I Pet. 2:12).

But our patron St. Peter did not stop simply with words and exhortations. He also set an example—which would serve so many of his successors as the Vicar of Christ—as to how to live this out unto martyrdom. May St. Peter, our great patron, intercede for each of us to have the courage and perseverance of the early Christian martyrs in the face of this world in which we live!

Yours in Christ,

Fr. John Berg, FSSP
General Superior of The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter

Father Kenneth Walker FSSP was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz on Saturday, May 19, 2012, offering his First Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, in the chapel of Saints Peter and Paul. The sermon was given by Fr. John Berg FSSP, the General Superior of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

Congratulations to Father Walker, and let us give thanks to God for him and our four other priests John reminds us in his letter,

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’”

Father Kevin O’Neill FSSP was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz on Saturday, May 19, 2012. Soon after, Father returned to his previous apostolate at Holy Family parish in Dayton, Ohio, for his First Mass. The solemn High Mass was offered with Holy Family pastor Fr. Mark Wojdleski FSSP and Deacon Russell Baldwin of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Congratulations to Father O’Neill, and let us give thanks to God for him and our four other priests as the Fraternity echos the call of our Lord,

And Christ called to him the twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over unclean spirits… So they went out andpreached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.

Father Karl Marsolle was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz on Saturday, May 19, 2012, Father Marsolle soon after offered his First Mass with Father Rhone Lillard FSSP, Father Matthew McNeely FSSP and Father Simon Harkins FSSP.  Joining in choir were Fathers Bisig, Lawrence, Kemna and Van der Putten FSSP.

Congratulations to Father Marsolle, and let us give thanks to God for him and our four other priests as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Hebrews,

“For every high priest taken from among men, is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins:  Who can have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err: because he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And therefore he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. Neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was. So Christ also did not glorify himself, that he might be made a high priest: but he that said unto him: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”  (Hebrews 5: 1-4)

Having been Ordained by Bp. Fabian Bruskewitz on Saturday, May 19, 2012, Fr. Gregory Eichman FSSP returned home to offer First Mass in the Diocese of Fort Wayne – South Bend at the church of St. Peter’s. Assisting Father Eichman was the pastor of Sacred Heart in Fort Wayne, Father George Gabet FSSP — our former District Superior, and Father John Shannon, FSSP.

Congratulations to Father Eichman, and let us give thanks to God for him and our four other priests as our Lord said, “The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2)

Having been Ordained by Bp. Fabian Bruskewitz on Saturday, May 19, 2012, Fr. Brian McDonnell FSSP returned to his home parish, Holy Family in Vancouver, Canada for his first Holy Mass.

Congratulations to our apostolate for their priestly vocation, and let us give thanks to God for Fr. McDonnell FSSP and our four other priests, for “…He said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2)