Why Women Can't Be Priests

Bro. Tom Forde, OFM Cap, an Irish Capuchin, has an illuminating article entitled Why Women Can't Be Priests on his highly recommendable blog Breathing With Both Lungs.

Institute of Christ the King takes up permanent residence in Ireland

by Mgr. Wach

Canon Lebocq celebrates Holy Mass at St. Patrick's Church in Limerick

Dear Friends of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest,

For the last four years Divine Providence has permitted the Institute of Christ the King to exercise a ministry in the Diocese of Limerick with the permission of the Most Reverend Bishop Murray, then Bishop of Limerick, whom I had the pleasure to meet several times on my visits.

Thanks to your prayers and perseverance, and also to Father Irwin, Pastor of St. Patrick Church, we have celebrated mass more and more often in Limerick.

This year as every year, I have asked all the canons of our Institute to come together at our mother house and seminary at Gricigliano, near Florence, Italy, for the first week of September. Canon Lebocq knows this house well, having received his priestly formation here and having spent another seven years here as vice-rector and choirmaster.

Our 57 young priests have thus come together this year, first of all, to pray together and also to cultivate a spirit of family and true brotherhood. It is also the occasion when I receive them individually and announce to them the place where they will exercise their ministry for the next year.

As you know, Canon Lebocq has been coming regularly from Italy for several years to tend to your souls. Thanks to your prayers, patience and perseverance, I have the pleasure to announce to you that Canon Lebocq will soon stay in Ireland permanently; you will thus be able to attend the extraordinary form of the mass every Sunday in Limerick, as encouraged by our Holy Father, Benedict XVI. Monsignor R. Michael Schmitz, my Vicar General, whom many of you know, will assist me as Provincial for Ireland. The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right in canonical form, which means that all the priests of our community are canons. This title is not first of all an honour but above all a duty. The principal duty of a canon is to make the prayer of the Church public by chanting the divine office in community. For this reason, I have asked a seminarian and an oblate to form a community life with him. They will pray together, study and work in St. Joseph House in Graigacurragh, Granagh, to advance the reign of Christ the King on your beautiful island.

I will have the pleasure to come visit you soon and to sing the mass again at St. Patrick Church. In the meantime, I ask you to give thanks to God for sending you our young community which, by the Catholic priesthood, will bring to you the wonders of God in a spirit of great love for the Church. I thank each one of you for supporting by your prayers and fidelity this apostolate which we have placed under the patronage of St. Joseph, foster father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Msgr Wach
Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

(reproduced from Rorate Caeli)

Proclaim an Holy Year for Nuns!

As the Holy Year for Priests comes to a close, it is surely time to turn our minds to another section of the members of the Church that has been an essential part of our Catholic heritage since the first days of the Church and a source of countless blessings, namely consecrated virgins and widows. Therefore, dear reader, we urge you to ask Ecclesiastical Authorities to dedicate a special year to give thanks to God for Nuns and to pray for Nuns and for more Nuns.

Please proclaim an Holy Year for Nuns!

St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association proposes to keep such a year from 1st February next, the feast of St. Brigid of Ireland.

Ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo sexu!

ICRSS in Ireland

by Shawn Tribe

The following photos were sent in of a Mass organized by the Latin Mass Society of Ireland, offered at St. Mary's Church, Navan in the Diocese of Meath. The celebrant was Fr. Wulfran Lebocq, the deacon Aaron Huberfeld, the subdeacon Fedrico de Martin Pazat de Lys. Music was provided by the Lassus Scholars under the direction of Ite O'Donovan.










(reposted from The New Liturgical Movement)

New Irish Vocation for the FSsR

The Transalpine Redemptorists or Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer have just announced the first profession of a new novice, Brother Gerardo Maria Majella, F.Ss.R. The image above shows the 'interrogation', an element of the profession ceremony where the professi is asked what he seeks of the Order, that is, where he is prompted to ask to be received into the Order under temporary vows. It is similar to the interrogation of the candidate or their sponsors at Baptism.

The image below shows the novice with his family.

News from the Seminaire St. Vincent de Paul

After only four years, the Institute of the Good Shepherd's Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul has seen remarkable growth both in numbers and in strength. Recently, news was posed in French on their website. It translates roughly as follows:

After the ordinations of July 4 at St. Anne d'Auray, where Fathers Beaugrand and Raffray were ordained, the seminary has (almost) emptied of its occupants for a well deserved holiday before a sizeable inflow. Indeed, the seminary is entering its fourth year and this means that we open the cycle of theology in September 2009. For the more senior seminarians who have completed their year of spirituality and their two years of philosophy Courtalain will be able to continue their training on site by commencing the study from September of Catholic theology. This is a milestone because it shows that the seminary of St. Vincent de Paul has reached a certain maturity that allows it to provide comprehensive training for future priests.

The venture commenced three years ago when there opened in France a traditional seminary under the auspices of the Institute of the Good Shepherd that we hoped would be successful and that, by the Will of God, we would be able to answer the call of the Pope who recalled the necessity of the seminary in the life of the Church during his catechesis on 19 August:

"Foundations laid during seminary training, are the irreplaceable "spiritual soil", in which we can "learn Christ" by gradually letting ourselves be configured to Him, the one true High Priest and Good Shepherd. Time at the seminary should be regarded as the realization of the moment when the Lord Jesus, after calling the apostles before sending them to preach, granted their request to stay with him (cf. Mk 3 14).

The faculty of the Seminaire St. Vincent has changed this year as l'Abbé Henri Forestier, IBP, having successfully undertaken for three years the heavy task of the foundation of this house, has left the seminary to direct the Little Sisters of the Good Shepherd full time; l'Abbé Yannick Vella leaves the faculty to join the staff of the parish of Saint-Eloi in Bordeaux. We wish to express our gratitude for the work they have completed while at the seminary.

Providence is good. Since l'Abbé Emmanuel Ducla, IBP has been conferred with his licentiate in Canonical and Dogmatic Theology this month, he will begin to teach these subjects to the Fourth Year Seminarians. l'Abbé Leszek Krolikowski will continue to give courses in philosophy and moral theology, in addition to his PhD in philosophy at the Angelicum in Rome. The younger generation of the Institute is will represented by l'Abbé Stefano Carusi who will undertake the teaching of Latin and Greek and Ecclesiastical History. l'Abbé Matthew M. Raffray begins his first year of priesthood by teaching our courses in philosophy and theology.

Finally, I will assume the office of rector of the seminary and undertake particularly the education of first-year seminarians and ensuring the general introduction to Sacred Scripture. We will be aided by some outsiders who transmit their knowledge and apostolic flame, especially l'Abbé Paul Aulagnier through his course on the recent history of the Church.

Seminarians return to Courtalain Saturday, September 19 and will begin the year with a retreat preached by l'Abbé Chanut which will launch the Holy Year of Priests of the Holy Father. Then we receive the fourteen new candidates that come from around the world to increase the Institute of the Good Shepherd. With twenty-seven seminarians, three brothers and five teachers, the house begans to crack at the seams and this presents us with difficulties of all kinds. It is urgent for us to make the investments necessary to accommodate these young people open to God. Also, we are asking for your generosity to give us the means to carry out the noble work of training future priests.

l'Abbé Roch Perrel, IBP
Rector

Cistercian Tradition

Regular readers of this blog will recall that the Abbey of Mariawald, the only Abbey of the Order of Cistercium of the Strict Observance (OCSO), that is, the Trappists, in Germany, was granted permission, pursuant to the provisions of Summorum Pontificum to return to the Liturgy and Observances of the Order current in 1963/4 known as the Use of Monte Cistello.

Strangely, this permission is dated 21st November, 2009, on the website of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. Nice to see the Holy See ahead of the game!

Two video clips of the Gregorian Rite Liturgy in Mariawald have recently been posted on gloria.tv. The first (above) is the Preface and Sanctus. The second (below) is of the Pater Noster and Pax Domini.

There are five Trappist houses for men in Ireland and one in Scotland. None of them have sought or been given permission to revert to the Use of Monte Cistello - nor is it likely that they will. Those houses in Ireland are, in order of foundation, Mount Melleray Abbey (1832), Mount Saint Joseph (1878), New Mellifont Abbey (1938), Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey (1948), and Bolton Abbey (1965). Sancta Maria Abbey is in Scotland.

There is one Trappistine house for ladies in Ireland, St. Mary's Abbey. It is equally unlikely to seek permission for the Use of Monte Cistello.

Reception of the Habit

On 31st January last, Sr. Alexandra of the Holy Face received the habit of a novice in the Sisters Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus, the sister Congregation of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, based near Fesiole, just outside Florence, Italy, and now flourishing in Ireland.

A full pictorial record of the ceremonies is available here. The Most Reverend Dr. Luciano Giovannetti, Bishop of Fesiole performed the ceremony and celebrated Pontifical High Mass.

It is traditional for the future bride of Christ to come to the ceremony attired as any bride and sometimes accompanied by her father, or, in this case, her brother, to the ceremony.

The Holy Ghost is invoked by the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus.

The putitative novice must express her free desire to be received as a novice.

The ceremony of tonsure is performed as a sign of the abandonment of the world and an old life in the world.

The habit of a novice is imposed.


The Sisters Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus gather with their new sister and the Bishop of Fesiole after the ceremony. A remarkable gathering a mere five years after the first Sisters Adorers were professed.

Anyone interested in finding out more about their life and vocation can apply to:

La Rév.de Mère,

Adoratrices du Cœur Royal de Jésus-Christ Souverain Prêtre,
Maison du Cœur Royal,
Via di Gricigliano, 45,
50065 - SIECI (FI),
Italy.

Rev. William Doyle, S.J., M.C.

The Year of Vocations has ended and the Holy Year for Priests is about to begin. In the brief interim, let us pause to remember Fr. William Doyle, of the Society of Jesus, awarded the Military Cross for his work as a Chaplain in the trenches of World War I.

Fr. Doyle is worth remembering not only for his own saintly, 'though some would say imprudent, example, nor for his heroic zeal for souls most especially during the greatest soul harvest that the world had, until then, seen, but also for the depth and richness of his spiritual writings.

In particular, we wish to remember his work entitled: Vocations. This work, while not about traditional vocations in the modern sense, in that it relates not to the traditionalist ghetto but to the soul in relation to Eternity, and, to be fair, it is equally applicable to vocations within the Church but outside of the ghetto. However, for the soul in discernment, it is a spiritual treasure to be consumed and made one's own.

At the same time, Fr. Doyle's Prayer for Priests is surely not only a powerful call upon the Treasury of Heaven for God's Ministers but equally an edifying and enlightening text worthy of much and deep meditation upon the nature of the Catholic Priesthood.

The vita by Professor Alfred O'Rahilly is a spiritual classic. In summary, Professor O'Rahilly writes: "William Joseph Gabriel Doyle was born in Dalkey, a suburb of Dublin, in Ireland on March 3, 1873. He was the youngest of seven children, four boys and three girls, out of which two boys became Jesuits, another died a few days before his priestly ordination and one of the three girls became a Sister of Mercy: four vocations out of seven children."

"He entered the Jesuit Novitiate at the age of 18 after reading St. Alphonsus’ book “Instructions and Consideration on the Religious State”. Soon after his ordination in 1907, his superiors appointed him on the mission staff for five years. From 1908 to 1925, he gave no less than 152 missions and retreats. His fame as preacher, confessor and spiritual director spread wide and far, and he had a special gift to hunt out the most hardened and neglected sinners and to bring them back with him to the church for confession."

"In the midst of such an active apostolate, he maintained a fervent spiritual life of union with his Eucharistic Lord, offering himself as a victim for the salvation of souls with the Divine Victim.
He was finally appointed during World War I chaplain of the 16th Irish Division at the front in November 1915 and having fulfilled his priestly duties in an outstanding fashion for almost two years, he was killed in the Battle of Ypres on August 16, 1917, having run “all day hither and thither over the battlefield like an angel of mercy.” This good shepherd truly gave his life for his sheep."

The IBP in Ireland

Fr. Yannick Vella, I.B.P., the Professor of Moral and Positive Theology of the Institute of the Good Shepherd's Seminary in Courtalain, France, visited Ireland a couple of months ago. It is understood to be the first visit of the member of the Institute to Ireland.

Founded on 8th September, 2006, by a decree of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, the Institute has grown rapidly from 5 founding members to more than 30 Priests and a similar number of Seminarians in only 3 years. The Institute has apostolates in several countries.

As well as its Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul in Courtalain, the Institute also has a House of Higher Studies in Rome. The Roman House of Studies is reported to have been described by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos thus: "This project is one of the greatest of which I know! It extends beyond the interests of Institute of the Good Shepherd, as it is of immense value to all communities, but also for the whole Church."

Just over a week ago, on 28th February, four Seminarians of the Institute received Minor Orders in the Church of San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome at the hands of Archbishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

The Institute has also established a community of sisters known as the Little Sisters of the Good Shepherd based in Arrou, the next village to Courtalain.