June 2016 - District Superior's Letter

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

June is the month of priestly ordinations in three of our six seminaries, two others will have them in December. This year, God willing, we will ordain 23 much needed priests. Deo gratias! These priests will play a front-line role in this chapter of Church history which future historians will call the “The crisis of the Second Vatican Council”. The Society of St. Pius X is at the front-line because we are dedicated primarily to the formation and sanctification of priests. We read in our Statutes: “The Society's purpose is the Priesthood and whatever pertains to it and nothing but that which concerns it; that is, the Priesthood as Our Lord Jesus Christ willed it when He said, Do this for a commemoration of me." (Statutes II, 1)

Keep this in mind as we make a careful study of approved Marian apparitions and other Marian texts written since the 17th century announcing this end-times’ crisis of the Church. Allow me to be a little longer this month in order to present some of Our Lady’s prophetic announcements about the crisis of the priesthood and the priestly society that will come to the rescue of the Church in its darkest hours. The pattern of the following texts is amazingly similar: 1) there will be a terrible crisis of the priesthood affecting the whole Church and 2) it will only be overcome by a revival of the priestly ideal.

1. Our Lady of Quito

Announcement of the priestly crisis: "The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ...The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labour with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good pastors of the Church...."

During this time, Our Lady foretold, "the secular Clergy will leave much to be desired because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! Lacking a prelate and father to guide them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, wisdom and prudence, many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger. This will mark the arrival of My hour." (Fourth apparition, 1610)

The solution: Implore God to send "to this Church the prelate who will restore the spirit of its priests." (Sixth apparition, 1634)

(Admirable Life of Madre Mariana, volume II)

2. St Louis de Montfort (+1716), True Devotion to Mary

The announcement of the crisis: “50. 7) Lastly, Mary must become as terrible as an army in battle array to the devil and his followers, especially in these latter times. For Satan, knowing that he has little time - even less now than ever - to destroy souls, intensifies his efforts and his onslaughts every day. He will not hesitate to stir up savage persecutions and set treacherous snares for Mary's faithful servants and children whom he finds more difficult to overcome than others.

The solution: “56. But what will they be like, these servants, these slaves, these children of Mary?

They will be ministers of the Lord who, like a flaming fire, will enkindle everywhere the fires of divine love. They will become, in Mary's powerful hands, like sharp arrows, with which she will transfix her enemies. …

58. … They will sleep without gold or silver and, more important still, without concern in the midst of other priests, ecclesiastics and clerics: inter medios cleros. Yet they will have the silver wings of the dove enabling them to go wherever the Holy Spirit calls them, filled as they are with the resolve to seek the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Wherever they preach, they will leave behind them nothing but the gold of love, which is the fulfillment of the whole law.

59. … They will point out the narrow way to God in pure truth according to the holy Gospel, and not according to the maxims of the world. Their hearts will not be troubled, nor will they show favour to anyone; they will not spare or heed or fear any man, however powerful he may be. They will have the two-edged sword of the word of God in their mouths and the blood-stained standard of the Cross on their shoulders. They will carry the crucifix in their right hand and the rosary in their left, and the holy names of Jesus and Mary on their heart. The simplicity and self-sacrifice of Jesus will be reflected in their whole behaviour.” (http://www.montfort.org.uk/Writings/TD.php)

This book, written in the early 1700s, was lost until 1842 and published the following year, 1843. It is interesting to note that this is only three years before La Salette (1846) where Our Lady gave us a similar program of priestly holiness as the solution to a frightening crisis in the Church.

3. Our Lady of La Salette, 1846 A.D.

The announcement of the crisis. The message begins with: "Priests, my Son's ministers, priests, by their evil life, by their irreverences and their impiety in celebrating the holy mysteries, love of money, love of honor and pleasures, priests have become sewers of impurity. Yes, priests call forth vengeance, and vengeance is suspended over their heads. Woe to priests, and to persons consecrated to God, who by their infidelities and their evil life are crucifying my Son anew! The sins of persons consecrated to God cry to heaven and call for vengeance, and now here is vengeance at their very doors, for no longer is anyone found to beg mercy and pardon for the people; there are no more generous souls, there is now no one worthy of offering the spotless Victim to the Eternal on the world’s behalf.”

Then further down: “Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist”.

And just before saying “The Church will be eclipsed, the world will be in consternation” she gives the solution: "I call upon the Apostles of the Latter Times, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in contempt of the world and of themselves, in poverty and humility, in contempt and silence, in prayer and mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering, and unknown to the world. It is time for them to emerge and come enlighten the earth.”

(http://www.catholicapologetics.info/catholicteaching/privaterevelation/lasalet.html)

4. Our Lady of Fatima, 1917

The announcement. The elements known about the Third Secret, what those who have read it have said about it, and various words of Sr. Lucy clearly indicate that the worldwide apostasy that will come after 1960 will be greatly caused by the infidelities of the clergy, starting from the top. In 1957, Sr. Lucy told Fr. Fuentes the following:

… the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them.

That which afflicts the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Heart of Jesus is the fall of religious and priestly souls. The devil knows that religious and priests who fall away from their beautiful vocation drag numerous souls to hell. The devil wishes to take possession of consecrated souls. He tries to corrupt them in order to lull to sleep the souls of laypeople and thereby lead them to final impenitence." (Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Volume III, pp. 336-338)

The solution to the fall of priestly souls is simply the restoration of the priestly spirit. The little known historical date when Archbishop Lefebvre, in Fribourg, Switzerland, opened the door of his embryonic Society of St Pius X was October 13, 1969, a month and a half before the New Mass came out! Coincidence? Looking at the big picture of the history of the Church and the above prophecies, we can see the providential hand of God preparing Archbishop Lefebvre and his the Society of St. Pius X to be in the front-line in the end times’ battles of the Church.

To sum up, let us repeat the burning Prayer for Missionaries, for saintly priests, written by St Louis de Montfort, whose third centenary we are celebrating this year:

Da Matri tuae- Give your mother: it is for your Mother's sake that I make this request. It is she who gave you birth and nurtured you. Remembering this, how can you refuse me? Remember whose Son you are, and grant my plea. Remember what she means to you and what you mean to her, and fulfil my holy desires. It is no personal favour that I ask, but something which concerns your glory alone, something you can and, I make bold to say, you must grant since not only are you true God having all power in heaven and on earth, but you are also the most dutiful of sons with an infinite love for your Mother.

What, then, am I asking for? Liberos- children, men who are free, priests who are free with the freedom that comes from you, detached from everything, without father, mother, brothers, sisters or relatives and friends as the world and the flesh understand them, without worldly possessions to encumber or distract them, and devoid of all self-interest.

Liberos: men who are free but still in bondage to your love and your will; men after your own heart who, without taint or impediment of self-love, will carry out your will to the full and, like David of old, lay low all your enemies, with the Cross for their staff and the Rosary for their sling: in baculo Cruce et in virga Virgine.

Liberos: men as free as the clouds that sail high above the earth, filled with the dew of heaven, and moving, without let or hindrance, according to the inspiration of the Spirit. They are included among those whom the prophet had in mind when he asked: What men are these who move like clouds in the sky, wherever the Spirit leads them?

Liberos: free men. Men always available, always ready to obey you when those in authority speak. Always with the words of Samuel on their lips: praesto sum, here I am; always ready to be on the move and to suffer with you and for you, just as the Apostles were: let us go and die along with him.

Liberos: true children of Mary whom she has conceived and begotten by her love, nurtured and reared, upheld by her and enriched with her graces.

Liberos: true servants of the Blessed Virgin who, like a Dominic of old, will range far and wide, with the holy Gospel issuing from their mouths like a bright and burning flame, and the Rosary in their hands, and bay like your watchdogs, burn like fire and dispel the darkness of the world like a sun. Their inspiration will be their authentic devotion to Mary which will be interior and devoid of all hypocrisy, exterior but not critical, prudent and well-informed, tender without indifference, constant without fickleness, holy without presumption. In this way, they will crush the head of the serpent wherever they go and ensure that the curse you have laid upon it of old will be fulfilled to the letter: I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed and he shall bruise your head.

Qui Domini est jungatur mihi: if anyone has the Lord's cause at heart, let him stand side by side with me. Let all those worthy priests who are to be found throughout the world, those still in the fight and those who have withdrawn to deserts and secluded places, let them, I say, come and join us. In unity there is strength. With the cross as our standard, let us form a strongly disciplined army drawn up in lines of battle. Let us make a concerted attack on the enemies of God who have already sounded the call to arms: They have sounded the alarm, vented their anger and become a mighty army. Let us break their bonds asunder and throw away their yoke. He who dwells in heaven will laugh them to scorn.

Let the Lord arise and let his enemies be scattered. Arise, Lord. Why is it You appear to be like one asleep? Arise in Your might, Your mercy and Your justice and create this bodyguard of hand-picked men who will protect Your house, defend Your glory and save the souls that are Yours. Thus, there will be but one sheepfold and one shepherd, and all will make Your temple resound with their praise of Your glory: et in templo ejus omnes dicent gloriam. Amen. God alone! (http://www.montfort.org.uk/Writings/PM.php)

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News from the District:

 

• Recently, on May 1st, we celebrated a “Poland Day” in union with the SSPX in Poland. Fr. Marian Kowalski, SSPX, came from Warsaw to Toronto to pray for the reign of Christ over Poland and to deliver two conferences about the “Baptism of Poland” in 966 A.D. and on the Crisis in the Church. This 1050th anniversary is being celebrated specially in Poland because the Communists did not allow a proper celebration in 1966. We took the opportunity to encourage our Polish parishioners and to reach out to the Polish Catholics of the Toronto area.
• Vocations: The teaching Dominican Sisters of Massena (NY, USA) have presented their Dominican ideal in many of our mass centers of Québec and Ontario in the last months in an effort to attract young girls to attend their excellent school and perhaps awaken some Dominican vocations.
• Fr. Matthew, OSB, from Silver City, New Mexico, in almost the same period also presented the Benedictine vocation to young men in the same mass centers.
• On June 29, our deacon, Marcel Stannus, from Orillia, Ontario, will be ordained priest in Écône, Switzerland. His brother Joseph was ordained last year in Germany. O Lord grant us priests!

Yours truly in Jesus and Mary Immaculate,

Fr. Daniel Couture

District Superior