FSSR, FSSP VISITATIONS: ROME'S REVENGE

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Bishop Michael Gielen who expelled the FSSR: he's "torn" on the question of married priests

 

It's ominous tidings. Two days ago the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP) reported "the opening of an apostolic visitation of the Fraternity " by the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (the Vatican). It could be the writing on the wall for this Catholic order, created in 1988 for traditional clergy to disassociate themselves from the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/fssp-gets-apostolic-visitation-from-the-vatican/

In 2021 the FSSP were expelled from the diocese of Dijon, France, by Archbishop Roland Minnerath who ignored FSSP District Superior Fr. Benoît Paul-Joseph's request to discuss his decision. Sounds familiar? There are obvious parallels with the visitation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (FSSR) in Christchurch, NZ, last year and their subsequent expulsion from the diocese by Bishop Michael Gielen. 

Just why does the Vatican have the FSSP and FSSR in the crosshairs? An educated guess would postulate their traditional Catholic faith, which finds its supreme expression in the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). 

The FSSP had refused to concelebrate the Novus Ordo Mass and the French Bishops' Conference found that to be problematic. They called for steps to “induce the faithful of the extraordinary form (the TLM) to participate more in diocesan life,” to avoid the creation of a “parallel Church.” Which is pretty rich, considering the man they call Pope Francis has been busily creating a parallel church (the Ape church prophesied by Ven Fulton Sheen - who should have been canonised by now) since his 'election' in 2013. 

Fr Michael Mary FSSR has now published an open letter to supporters of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, giving a resume of the sorry situation created for his community and parishioners by the unexplained - and inexplicable - decision of Bishop Gielen to expel New Zealand's first home-grown religious order from Christchurch Diocese. Fr Michael Mary doesn't mention in his letter that the FSSR are taking +Gielen to court. 

The response of the FSSP in Dijon to the plight of their 300 abandoned parishioners was to launch a Facebook page and online petition in support of the Fraternity, which gathered almost 2,500 signatures in a week. Ah, but the diocese proved equal to that. It stated that the initiative “will not change anything” because a majority of the signatures were from outside the Dijon archdiocese.   https://ewtn.co.uk/article-why-is-a-french-catholic-archdiocese-expelling-the-fssp/#:~:text=Archbishop%20Roland%20Minneraththeir aas

Pre-Vatican II, the astonishing lack of charity evinced by the Vatican in its "recommendations" that +Gielen expel these holy priests would have been inconceivable. Once again, it's the Novus Ordo effect. In his letter (below) Fr Michael Mary refers to enmity as "a mortal sin". Although - as this blog is told by FB commenters who can't tell the difference between judging words and deeds (right) and judging those who do them (wrong) - one cannot discern others' motivations, one can clearly see that while Bishop Gielen is "consolidating" (i.e. closing) parishes, the Sons' support - especially with young families - was growing. That scenario of Novus Ordo failure and Latin Mass popularity worldwide, is a big burr under Rome's saddle.

Fr Michael Mary prepares with participants for the Our Lady of Christchurch procession 

Dear Reader,

 

May Christ reign in our hearts! May Mary shed abundant graces upon us all!

 

Like so many, I have also been bewildered by several months, and even by more than a year, at the controversy that has surrounded our community. It is bewildering and takes time to absorb and think about it. I am now ready to write some reflections, and although they are personal to me, I think that they are worth sharing with all who wonder what it means.

 

 

The reality of what we have been living through does not make sense to me.
Nobody has been found guilty of anything. There is no crime committed. There is no canonical crime either. Yet as criminals we
have all been sentenced to forfeit our priestly faculties, and all of us (including the sick), are under expulsion orders to be cast out
of the diocese as the worst of men.

 

 

Speaking of canonical crimes, Fr Timothy Radcliffe (Dominican) and Fr James Martin (Jesuit)Ahead of Synod, Prominent Prelates Publish on ‘LGBTQ Issues’ (complicitclergy.com) 

There are religious orders in New Zealand who have had their members sentenced to prison; or who have had members commit enormous and multiple crimes and who would have been put in prison if they were still alive. But no religious order in New Zealand - whatever the crimes of some of their members have been – have, for that reason, had all their members expelled from
one diocese to find no shelter in any diocese in the country.

 

The Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer is a
religious order without a criminal record. Yet this religious order is to be cast out from the Christchurch diocese, and out of New Zealand, sentenced to the gills with double signatures and many stamps! Humanly speaking it doesn’t make sense to anybody that I know.

However confused reality may appear - and it does - it cannot and should not be separated from the spiritual life. Spiritual life cannot be separated from reality. Therefore, what we have been living through in Christchurch has been and remains something spiritual, and therefore also containing a dimension of the mysterious.

 

Casting about for some understanding of all this, has brought me to the following facts that I am sure about:

 

1. The Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer is a Religious Institute in the Church. 

2. It is also the first and only religious order that finds its beginning with New Zealanders. 

3. As such then, it is New Zealand's own religious Order, the only clerical religious order begun by New Zealanders. 

4. The order was not only started by Kiwis, but in God's Providence the bulk of its members come from this part of the world.

5. As of today, our Congregation counts 33 men: 12 New Zealanders, 2 Australians, 2 NZ Residents; 5 of us are Samoan.

6. Over half of the Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer are from here.

7. Our Congregation is enriched by brethren from nine other countries, with 10 different mother-tongues.

8. We form a small but strong unit in the Mystical Body of the Church.

9. Is it significant to note that as an order we number 33 men.

10. When our different years of birth are noted down, the median or average age of the Congregation is also 33 years.

11. There are 33 of us with an average age of 33 - the age of Our Most Holy Redeemer when He was crucified.

12. It is the speciality of this religious order to strive to directly imitate the Most Holy Redeemer, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

May the Most Holy Redeemer grant us the graces we need that we might bear the Holy Cross with Him.

All the above is examining reality that is factual. There is nothing speculative.
It is factual that the Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer is:
1) A Clerical Religious Institute; its priests belong to the Congregation and not to any diocese.

2) An order that is legally established in the Church.

3) Its Constitutions were overseen personally by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith;
4) The first Constitution is to imitate Jesus to the point of: I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me. (Gal 2:20).

 

In this context, I ask: How have the Christchurch events been part of the imitation of the Most Holy Redeemer?

For a long time I have mulled this question over in my prayer and in my free moments. I come to this conclusion: If it is true that I live now, not I but Christ liveth in me, then I am living, and Christ is living in me, the mystery of the: In propria venit, et sui eum non receperunt (the He came unto his own, and His own received him not) (Jn 1:11).

 

This has been the reality of a New Zealand Congregation coming to its own people in New Zealand; and its being rejected. The high point of the “non receperunt” (they received Him not) was the blanket decrees and precepts officially rejecting each and every Son of the Most Holy Redeemer,
‘receiving them not’, although they had done no crime and there was no guilt upon them.

 

It is a spiritual mystery. Christ came to His own. His own received Him not. If in Christchurch we must have Christ live in us, then it is in living the mystery of His rejection by His own people. We must live it in us, to the Glory of His Holy Name.

 

It is a fact that every religious order is violently attacked by the devil especially in its early years. The devil tries to destroy any
new order that will do him harm. The trials nearly always come from within the Church by persecutions of one kind or another.

 

We are a new order. We expect persecution; and as every novice is told by the Holy Ghost: Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation (Ecclesiasticus 2:1) and as Our Most Holy Redeemer tells us: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Lk 9:23).

The devil loves to force souls into exile. The Holy Family were forced into the exile of Egypt. Many early Christians were banished into exile. St John Chrysostom was exiled twice. Scottish and Irish Catholics were sentenced to exile for trivial crimes; but unlike them, none of us have been found guilty of so much as stealing a loaf of bread.

And so, I return to the spiritual world to find an answer in direct imitation of Jesus who came to His own. And they rose up and thrust him out of the city (Lk 4:29).

 

Our rejection is extreme. Those who pressed for this expulsion may in fact bring about what they first hoped for; they would also have to live that fact. And the consequences of a successful expulsion would also be theirs. Chaos would come in the wake of the physical disappearance of this Kiwi religious order from our diocese and our country.

Someone said to me that we are on the right side of history. May Jesus in His mercy grant through the graces of reconciliation that we may, one and all, find ourselves on the right side of history; and more especially may we be found as sheep to the right side of our Most Holy Judge when he weighs our souls for eternity.

The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer are the victims. We, for our part, bear no ill will towards anyone who has spoken or acted against us. Enmity is a mortal sin, and this is the Vale of Tears where reconciliations, and the humility that is needed to bring them about, is what Our Lord asks of us all, if we believe in heaven and hope to go there.

 

Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls (Mt 11:29). I hope for goodness to come. I await the coming of someone (perhaps you who read this), who might act efficaciously to establish fraternal unity: Blessed are the
peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God (Mt. 5:9).

 

In the Vale of Tears we surely expect our share of tears, as many as God permits us, and for as long as He permits them. What a small exchange they are to be, for the tears of joy we firmly hope to weep for all eternity.

 

May the Blessed Trinity bless all who read this letter, whether friend or not; we offer our present difficulties for all without exception. In the hope of goodness yet to come.

 

Devotedly, in the strength of the Holy Name of Jesus
and in the Sweet Name of Mary His Mother, the Mediatrix of All Graces,

 

Father Michael Mary, F.SS.R.
Rector Major
Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer
Monastery of Our Mother of Perpetual Succour
145 Rutland Street
St Albans, Christchurch, 8052
21st September 2024
Feast of St Matthew, Apostle.

 

 

St Michael, Archangel, please pray for the Church