Last month’s visit by Fr Niklaus Pfluger, First Assistant to the Superior General, went well and began with his preaching the Priests’ and Brothers’ annual retreat at Saint Saviour’s House in Bristol. The considerations of the retreat were based upon the Society’s Statutes or Rule which begins with the significant phrase, ‘the Society is a priestly society of common life without vows after the example of the Societies of the Foreign Missions.’ So it was that the retreat provided the welcome opportunity to prayerfully consider our Statutes as ‘the subject of our meditation, under the loving gaze of Mary, the Mother of the Priest,’ as called for by our Founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre himself.

Father Pfluger then gave conferences on ‘the Society and the talks with Rome’ in Bristol, Burghclere, Preston, and Glasgow, all of which were well attended. The First Assistant spoke of the importance of these talks but also of the limitations. Their importance consists in our being able to give witness to the Faith of all time before the Roman authorities. Their limitations lie in the fact that Rome remains imbued with conciliar ideas, these being declared as no longer new, but instead in continuity with Tradition! This contrasting scenario was made apparent in the course of the recent talks in January on the topic of the New Mass for, whilst it had been previously agreed that the Church’s traditional teaching would be the reference point for a critical study of Vatican II, the Roman Commission soon appealed to the post-conciliar ‘magisterium’. Hence the Roman Commission would ask how the New Mass could be wrong when the Pope and all the bishops celebrate it . . . The talks continue this month on the subject of Religious Liberty.

Over seven million Rosaries to date have been pledged for the intention of the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, hence we do well to redouble our efforts in this regard whilst encouraging others to join this great crusade.
Father Pfluger said he was impressed by the numbers of families and children at his Sunday Masses in Burghclere and Glasgow, and emphasised the importance of focusing our efforts on building up Catholic communities in and around our main centres. He was happy to visit Scotland for the first time and to see Saint Andrew’s House in Carluke, which has the distinction, at the present time, of being the Society’s most northerly Priory in the world!
Lord Christopher Monckton’s recent talk on the subject of ‘Climate Change’ at Saint Michael’s School was very successful, and we are grateful to him for having generously made his time available. He was preceded at the podium by several ‘pro-climate change’ speakers whose contribution to the debate was also appreciated. A lively question and answer session concluded the afternoon’s proceedings which lasted in total some four hours. Sadly, member of staff Dr Brendan Kavanagh, who had worked hard to organise the conference, could not be in attendance due to his father’s death in Ireland following a long illness. R.I.P.
Whilst mentioning the school, recent reports in the media about state-funded Catholic schools having to comply with compulsory sex education lessons, which would include having to inform pupils where they can obtain an abortion, as well as the acceptability of homosexual life-styles, raise concerns also regarding future legislation affecting independent schools such as our own. In this context may I refer readers to the newsletters of the ‘Family Education Trust’ which expose the government’s agenda of imposing its new morality on children and the replacing of parents by institutions.
[Jubilee House, 19-21High Street, Whitton, Twickenham, TW2
7LB. Website: www.famyouth.org.uk ]

May I draw your attention also to the Holy week schedules, as well as to the various notices contained in this newsletter, not least Mr John Wetherall’s contact details regarding the Turin pilgrimage, and those of Miss Tamara Martinez in view of a pilgrimage to Compostela in July 2010? Please God, one of the Father’s will also be attending, at least part of, this latter worthwhile event, whilst Fr John McLaughlin will be chaplain to the Turin pilgrimage (I myself being in Scandinavia over Pentecost with the Second Assistant, Fr AlainNely).
In this month of Saint Joseph, we do well to honour the patron of the Universal Church, with our prayers and devotions, and to thank Almighty God for the numberless graces and obtained through his powerful intercession, not least the manifest material blessings on our work in this country.

 

Wishing you a good and fervent Lent in preparation for Holy Week,