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French Diocesan Priests Call Faithful to join SSPX Rosary Crusade

rosary-1566816_960_720L’Homme Nouveau, the official distributor of the French version of the Vatican’s newspaper Osservatore Romano, has published a call to join the SSPX’s Rosary Crusade (to which OnePeterFive also has given its support). This new initiative – which has been already picked up by various other websites in France – now comes from diocesan priests and faithful in France who are not members of the Society of Saint Pius X themselves. The text, as published by L’Homme Nouveau’s blog on 1 September, says:

A group of French priests and faithful who are not affiliated with the Society of Sainst Pius X wishes to associate with and positively support the Appeal launched by Monsignor Bernard Fellay, the General Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X. These priests – mostly diocesan – come from the regions of the Rhône-Alpes, of the West, of the Auvergne, and of the South-West; they are members of the AFC [Les Associations Familiales Catholiques], Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, pilgrims of Chartres, of Compostello, engaged in their parishes, … Some are sick with cancer, others have to face professional difficulties…

This little introduction shows us already how important this new French initiative is, since it shows that it comes out of the fuller heart of the French Catholic Church and is carried out by very devout Catholics. These Catholic priests and faithful also hope to gain much spiritual refreshment from the SSPX’s Rosary Crusade for their own parishes, as they say in the following:

They wish to amplify this happy initiative [of the SSPX] by adding to it a new resonance even from within the parishes, religious communities, families, … and thereby to contribute to the internal renewal of the Catholic Church. To enter into a spiritual crusade means to join Christ Who invites us: “He who does not pick up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10:38)

These Catholics who are supporting the Rosary Crusade also explicitly follow Pope Benedict XVI’s sobering and cautionary words according to which “to venerate the Cross sometimes also attracts mockeries and persecution.” As quoted by this initiative, Benedict continues: “The Cross also puts at risk, or compromises in some way, our human security, but it also and especially affirms the Grace of God and confirms [the trustful possibility of]  our salvation.” (Aux jeunes de France sur le parvis de la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris en 2008)

It is to be hoped that this recent French initiative will find additional imitators throughout the world. May this become a truly universal – Catholic – initiative, especially to plead to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to have mercy on our disordered world, a world in misery that cannot, it seems, adequately anymore help itself – neither within the very bosom of the Catholic Church, nor without.

10 thoughts on “French Diocesan Priests Call Faithful to join SSPX Rosary Crusade”

    • Dear Ana,

      No. Most Catholics here are Catholics on Sunday, been there and done that crap. 3 or 2 or 1 go to confession in the year of mercy but 86 approx. went through the stupid gate of mercy near our parish. I’m going to be blunt most of my problems rest with Catholic’s that like to show off but in reality the have no substance. However these types of Catholic’s want special communion days for their kids and their parents are

      the most vindictive, two faced, back stabbing people that we have ever had the pleasure to meet. Amen.

      Reply
      • Oh dear, you paint a very drab picture Christopher. I thought the churches I attend were bad, but one has a queue on Sunday for Confession which means waiting penitents having to stand at the main entrance door (confessional badly placed just inside main door) which hampers people from entering the church. My local priest has started hearing confessions for about thirty minutes before Holy Mass begins but it is in the open & close to the vestry door. No privacy, which I feel is essential.

        I must say I’m not sure whether Catholics in general here would have heard about Bishop Fellay’s Rosary Crusade as the SSPX aren’t known due to NO Bishop, but certainly would have heard of Cardinal Burke’s more recent appeal for similar Novena. Personally I feel every Catholic should be saying the Rosary anyway but it is particularly essential in these times & joining with others worldwide makes it a particularly Catholic invocation to Our Blessed Lady.

        Reply
        • Actually, if you think about it, the confessional should be near the entrance to the church. Traditionally in the Eastern Church, when the deacon or priest said “The doors, the doors!” anyone who was not in the state of sanctifying grace (Catholics in mortal sin, non-Catholics, excommunicated persons) left the church because they couldn’t receive Holy Communion. Only if you had been to Confession could you receive Holy Communion.

          Therefore, anyone who could not receive Holy Communion generally stood in the vestibule. So having the confessional in the vestibule or in the back of the nave would make sense for Eastern Catholics.

          My priest told us that in the Ukraine, if you had not been to Confession and/or the priest did not know you, he would not give you Holy Communion. The admonition:. “The Holy Things for the Holy!” is taken VERY seriously in Ukraine. Here in the USA, it varies. Some parishes are more conservative, others will make allowances. Only at funerals have I seen priests be more conservative (because non-Catholics are usually present). That’s why Metropolitan Stefan has tried to go back to the traditional funeral service – Parastas – instead of Divine Liturgy for funerals. This way priests won’t have to admonish those who are not worthy to receive Communion to abstain from receiving.

          Reply
  1. And saying the Rosary means more than rattling off a bunch of Hail Mary’s.

    In his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope St. John Paul wrote:

    “To look upon the face of Christ, to recognize its mystery amid the daily events and the sufferings of his human life, and then to grasp the divine splendor definitively revealed in the Risen Lord, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father: this is the task of every follower of Christ . . . .”

    And elsewhere in the same document, the Holy Father continues, “But the most important reason for strongly encouraging the practice of the Rosary is that it represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery which I have proposed in the Apostolic Letter ‘Novo Millennio Ineunte’ as a genuine training in holiness.”

    Reply
  2. SEPTEMBER’S LIGHT

    The light is
    In the sun
    Of gold
    To warm you
    When your thoughts
    Grow cold.

    The light is
    In the wafered
    Moon
    Piercing
    Pitch,
    A glorious Boon.

    The light
    Reflects in
    Crystal snow,
    A glittering
    Mantle
    Blanketing woe.

    The light is
    Stagnant
    In infants’ souls,
    Glistening water
    Will deepen
    Their shoals.

    The light is
    In your flocks’
    Flawed faces,
    Waiting to
    Heal from
    Penanced graces.

    For you are robed,
    Royal, purpled
    Unfurled.
    Chosen
    September’s,
    Light of the world!

    Reply

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