The Fraternity’s apostolate in Baltimore, the National Shrine of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, is offering an octave of Masses beginning with the Feast of the Most Precious Blood in thanksgiving for the establishment of the new North American Province and to implore God’s graces, protection, and guidance for the Fraternity, its new Provincial, and its priests during their first Provincial Meeting. They invite you to enroll your own intentions, specific or general, for your local parish and priests, for the Fraternity, for its leadership, and for its seminarians in the Masses offered on this special and auspicious feast day and throughout the week following. Your intentions will be placed in a gold box on the first gradine of the altar during the Masses offered for them.

Visit the website to submit your intentions or to watch the High Mass as it is broadcast live beginning at 7pm on 1 July:

https://stalphonsusbalt.org/preciousblood

Christum Dei Filium, qui suo nos redemit sanguine, Venite adoremus!

by Fr. William Rock, FSSP.

Some of the greenery in the arrangements of the High Altar were painted silver – a simple yet heartfelt touch to honor the Silver Anniversary of a Priestly Ordination.

For it was on June 15, 1996, that Fr. Charles Van Vliet, FSSP was ordained to the Catholic Priesthood. And 25 years to the day later, his parish, Regina Cæli [Queen of Heaven] in Houston, Texas, celebrated this milestone along with him.

In the time leading up to the celebration, the faithful arranged, in addition to the flowers for the Altar, a spiritual bouquet.  Some also prepared for the cake reception which followed the anniversary Mass, while others produced a slide show from old pictures or fashioned a trifold poster recounting Father’s steps to the Priesthood and his Priestly ministry.

On the day of the anniversary itself, Fr. Van Vliet celebrated a Solemn High Mass.  He was assisted by Fr. William Rock, FSSP as Deacon, and Fr. Stephen Braun, FSSP as Subdeacon.  This thanksgiving Mass was the Mass of the Queenship of Mary with the additional orations for the Priest himself and the Te Deum – the hymn of thanksgiving – was chanted at the conclusion.  The parish’s schola chanted the Mass with additional pieces sung by a mixed polyphonic choir.

During his sermon, Fr. Van Vliet related parts of his vocation story.  He recalled how, when he was young, a Priest calling him “Father Van Vliet” never left him, and led him to seriously consider the Catholic Priesthood.  He entered seminary, but his time there was not without difficulties.  Following the advice he was given, he suspended his clerical studies and entered college.  After graduating, he again undertook and completed his Priestly formation.

Fr. Van Vliet also shared some information about his first Mass.  The advice given to him by the preacher – to rely on the Holy Ghost as he fulfills his ministry – has stayed with him all these years.  In addition to relating other stories about his ministry – including saying Mass in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Carmelites – Father additionally touched on the theology of the Priesthood drawing from the Priestly Ordination Rites.

Making the sermon more personal for the members of his parish, Fr. Van Vliet told how the first Mass he celebrated for what would eventually become Regina Cæli Parish, when the Fraternity was becoming established in Houston, was the Mass celebrating his 15th anniversary.  He went on to relate the early struggles of the community and the help received from local clergy, for which he was very thankful.  And now, 10 years later, the community is an established parish with its own land and major building projects.  And while he has no plans of leaving the parish anytime soon, Father did say he does not foresee still being Pastor in Houston when he competes his next 25 years.  (The full text of the sermon can be found here.)

Following the Mass, there was a cake reception during which Fr. Braun, an early member of the community, presented Fr. Van Vliet with the spiritual bouquet.

The stories that Father can tell about his life both before and after his Priestly Ordination are varied.  And while it is impossible to capture the way he tells them in a printed format like this, we nevertheless offer our readers a short biography of Fr. Van Vliet and an interview he gave for the Texas Catholic Herald so that his life and ministry may be more fully illustrated.  In the same vein, there are also several past Missive posts detailing the growth and activity which Regina Cæli Parish has experienced under Fr. Van Vliet’s tenure as pastor, which we invite our reads to view:

• Rosary Procession in Honor of Our Lady in Houston
• Regina Caeli Formally Erected as a Parish in Houston
• Groundbreaking and Blessing at Regina Caeli in Houston
• Building, and Marian Devotion, at Regina Caeli in Houston
• Introibit Rex Gloriæ: FSSP Houston Aims to Expand
• FSSP Houston Breaks Ground on Blessed Solanus Casey Gatehouse
• Gatehouse Blessing: Regina Caeli in Houston

Please join us in thanking God for the gift of Fr. Van Vliet’s Priesthood and in praying for him so that he may continue to become the saintly priest and the priestly saint God desires him to be.

Ad multos annos, Pater!

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

A week from today on June 29th we are celebrating the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, a feast of exceptional importance for the FSSP. Not only are we honoring these two great saints, we are also celebrating our newly-ordained priests, and the family and parish life that formed them in Catholic tradition and allowed them to respond to the call from Almighty God.

On June 29th, Help Us Build a Culture of Vocations

What we need now more than ever is an authentically Catholic culture: a wellspring from which many future vocations will be drawn. And since so many things we do to help build that culture can’t be funded from Sunday collections, they depend entirely on your support of the FSSP as a whole.

Also, because of last year’s restrictions and lockdowns, we have added many new faces to our FSSP family who are hungry to experience the beauty of our Catholic traditions. We now have to rise to this challenge and grow to accommodate them.

Our goal is to raise $100,000

Do you believe in what the Fraternity stands for? Will you remember us in your prayers and gifts, that we can continue our work for the glory of God?

Every offering, no matter how small, helps us further our wider mission beyond our parish boundaries. Donations are easy to make online, and all givers above $500 will receive a special FSSP tote bag in gratitude for your support.

On June 29th we’ll have a special video to share with all of you, featuring our newly ordained priests. And we’ll also be sharing updates on social media throughout the day to let you know how we are doing relative to our goal.

As always, we thank you so much for your support, and we ask Our Lord to reward you from His treasury of grace.

fssp.com/ss-peter-paul

Fr. Armand de Malleray, author of X-Ray of a Priest in a Field Hospital and Ego Eimi: It is I, has a new book out with Arouca Press titled Near Missed Masses: Ten Short Stories Based on Actual Events:

Can priests miss Mass? This little book light-heartedly depicts ten Holy Masses nearly missed by priests due to some opposition. From Kilimanjaro to Loch Ness, from Burma to Paris and more, the ten humorous short stories describe obstacles to the celebration of Holy Mass, thankfully overcome. The ten priests persevered, spurred by the conviction that Holy Mass: 1) honours God, whose extrinsic glory increases each time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered; 2) helps souls through the temporal application of Christ’s saving merits that Holy Mass brings about; 3) fortifies priests, whose ontological raison d’être is to offer the divine Victim on the altar. Leaving aside theological arguments, Near Missed Masses entertainingly illustrates these truths through fiction.

Praise for Near Missed Masses

“In the real world, which is the world that God made, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the power station feeding the life of grace. Without such grace, we die. In this volume of true stories, Fr Armand de Malleray shows us the life-giving power of the Mass in a world darkened with devildom. The light-hearted and humorous tone of the stories makes them easily readable without ignoring the gravity of the topic.”

— Joseph Pearce, author of biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien, Oscar Wilde, C. S. Lewis, and G. K. Chesterton

“The unusual theme that unites a good number of the stories in this compendium is a scenario with which many a freshly-ordained priest will soon become familiar—the battle royal that often ensues in the attempt to secure an altar at which the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass may be offered in an atmosphere of recollection and decorum. With tact and good humour, Father de Malleray explores the intra-ecclesial prejudices and neuroses which have given rise to such a state of affairs, and illustrates how perseverance, charity and prayer are the most effective weapons we possess against suspicion and bigotry. An edifying read for both priests and laity, which we should pray will contribute to the healing of self-inflicted wounds which for too long have hampered the Church’s mission of evangelisation.”

— Fr Julian Large, Provost of the London Oratory

“The stories in this collection give us precious evidence of the hidden persistence of the grace of the true priestly vocation in unexpected situations. The ten narratives portray priestly candidates and priests of various ages and cultures. All reveal that secret dialogue in the soul that takes place when grace is at work. Based on my experience in teaching Thomistic philosophy to seminarians for a decade and catechesis to seminarians and priests as well as lay people, I cannot recommend this book highly enough for young Catholic men and for all those who nurture vocations, or who could, but who are not sufficiently alert to the quiet presence of the Holy Spirit in many young souls.”

— Dr Caroline Farey, Annunciation Catechesis

“In Near Missed Masses, Fr de Malleray finds a delightfully playful and imaginative way to reinvent true contemporary stories and drive home a serious point: the value of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the zeal that we should have to celebrate (as priests) or attend (as layfaithful) this Sacrifice worthily and frequently. In this way, the book functions like the proverbial storeroom containing things both new and old!”

— Fr Henry Whisenant, Diocese of East Anglia (England)

* * * * *

About the Author

Born in 1971 in the Loire Valley, Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, left France in 1994 after completing a Master’s Degree in Literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. He taught French at the Military Academy in Budapest before joining the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter in 1995 in Bavaria, where he was ordained in 2001. His first priestly assignment was in London, Southwark Archdiocese. He served in England since, apart from five years in Switzerland, then in an administrative position at his Fraternity’s headquarters. Since 2008, he has been the editor of Dowry, the quarterly magazine of his Fraternity in the UK & Ireland. Fr de Malleray has been chaplain to the international Juventutem youth movement since its inception in 2004 (cf. www.juventutem.org), and to the Confraternity of St Peter, his Fraternity’s international prayer-network for priestly vocations. Since 2015, he is the rector of St Mary’s Shrine in Warrington, Liverpool Archdiocese, where he also oversees the apostolate of his Fraternity in England and promotes vocations to the priesthood and to the religious life.

A parishioner of FSSP Phoenix sends along this very heartening news:

I wanted to share some pictures of the Eucharistic Procession that was led by our Bishop Olmsted in Phoenix last Sunday. Our church, Mater Misericordiae, was the mid stopping point on the 3 mile procession through downtown. Father Passo led the procession around our city block.

It was an amazing honor and blessing for our parish and our city.  I am told this is the first time our bishop has led such a procession.  I hope it’s not the last.  There was so much energy and enthusiasm.

We met the procession a block before it reached our church, and this is where Fr. Passo took up carrying our Lord.  At this point our parish, led by our Helpers of the Immaculate Heart girls, threw rose petals before our Lord down the block until we reached our church where we had an altar set up waiting for our Lord just outside the main doors.  Everyone at the parish donated roses, so we had petals from about 200 dozen roses.  We filled the street and the air for that entire block with roses.

The procession stopped in front of Mater Misericordiae to kneel and pray and sing the O Salutaris Hostiam.  Then we proceeded around the city block chanting the Litany of the Sacred Heart in Latin, led by our schola.

FSSP Mexico has produced a number of videos for its Summorum Pontificum conference, which begins later this week. Far from being merely promotions for the conference, the videos are well-produced and have a very inspirational tone that we thought readers of the Missive would enjoy. We hope that these videos, together with the priestly ordination in Guadalajara this Friday, are a sign of great things to come for the traditional Latin Mass in Mexico.

In the Office of Matins for the Friday after Corpus Christi, lessons four through six are taken from the Sermons of St Thomas Aquinas (Lesser works, 57.). Here the Angelic Doctor describes the origin and necessity of the feast, as well as its appropriateness for the week after the Pentecost octave. 

“It would serve well therefore to the edifying of the faithful to make memorial of the institution of this so health-giving and so wonderful a Sacrament, that we may worship the unspeakable way by which the Divine Presence in-dwelleth in this Sacrament, Which we see, and we may praise the power of God whereby in this Sacrament are wrought so many wonders, and also give God some of those thanks which we owe unto Him for this so health-giving gift of His loving-kindness.

It is true that on Holy Thursday, on which day we know it to have been that He ordained this Sacrament, at the solemn celebration of the Mass, the memory of the institution thereof is more particularly mentioned. But all the rest of the services on that day deal chiefly with Christ Suffering, to the worshipping of Whom the Church, at that season, gives all her mind.

But, that the congregation of Christ’s faithful people might celebrate with a whole Festal Office all to itself the institution of this so great Sacrament, Urban IV, Bishop of Rome, being touched with love toward this said Sacrament, made a godly ordinance that the memory of the said institution should be celebrated by all the faithful upon the Fifth Day of the week, next after the Eighth Day of Pentecost.

From one end of the year to the other, we use this Sacrament to our souls’ health, and we more particularly celebrate the institution thereof at that season when the Holy Ghost taught the hearts of the disciples to acknowledge the mysteries thereof. For then it was, as we read, that they continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread (Acts ii. 42).

And, moreover, to the end that on the aforesaid Thursday, and the seven days next following, the memory of this health-giving Institution might be the more honorably celebrated, and the Feast thereby be held in more excellent worship, the above-named Bishop of Rome, after the manner of the doles which in Cathedral Churches are given to those who come to the singling or saying of the Canonical Hours by night and day, has out of his Apostolic bounty granted spiritual rewards to all who are personally present in the Church at the Canonical Hours during all this Festival, thereby to stir up the faithful to come to the keeping of this great Feast in greater eagerness and numbers.”

“Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

We give thanks to Almighty God for our five newly ordained priests in the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter: Fr. John Audino, Fr. Joseph Dalimata,  Fr. James Eichman, Fr. Nicholas Eichman, and Fr. Thu Truong.

Mexico will witness its first Traditional Ordination in decades as Rev. Mr. Joel Pinto Rodriguez, FSSP is ordained to the priesthood by His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke.

The ceremony will take place at the Sanctuary of the Martyrs in Guadalajara, Mexico on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, June 11th, 2021, at 5PM CST.

The ordination is open to the public and free of charge.

Also, the ceremony will be broadcast on LiveMass and Facebook.

The ordination will also be part of a larger event, the Third Congress of Summorum Pontificum, featuring H.E. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Fr. Javier Olivera Ravasi, Dr. John Pepino, Matt Fradd, Gregory DiPippo, and more, including the Very Rev. P. Andrzej Komorowski, FSSP Superior General, and Fr. Jonathan Romanowski, FSSP. Virtual tickets to view the conference online can be purchased here.

Note that space at the ordination is limited, and seats are reserved for those attending the conference, after which they will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

More information can be found at the Conference website: https://summorumpontificum.mx

Please pray for our deacons who will be ordained to the priesthood this week in Lincoln, Nebraska:

* Rev. Mr. John Audino of Clifton Park, NY

* Rev. Mr. Joseph Dalimata of Coram, MT

* Rev. Mr. James Eichman of Fort Wayne, IN

* Rev. Mr. Nicholas Eichman of Fort Wayne, IN

* Rev. Mr. Thu Truong of Brentwood, TN

The Ordination Mass will take place at North American Martyrs Church  on Friday, May 28 at 10:00 a.m.  The celebrant will be the Most Rev. Joseph Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago.  Mass is open to the public, but the reception afterwards at the Seminary is for family and friends only. The ceremony will be livestreamed on Friday, May 28 at 10 AM Central time, at LiveMass.net.

Also, Rev. Mr. Joel Pinto Rodriguez of Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico will be ordained on June 11 at the Shrine of the Martyrs of Christ the King in Guadalajara.  Conferring the priesthood will be His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke.