In the early 1970s, a group of devoted Catholics in the Detroit area, known as the Committee of Concerned Catholics, sought the assistance of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre...
Dear Friends,
50 years ago, a newly-ordained priest of a newly-founded order of priests received the assignment to celebrate the traditional Mass for a group of Catholics in Detroit. The order of priests, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), was practically unknown at the time. The Church was in a state of chaos in the devastating aftermath of Vatican II. Priests and nuns were abandoning their vocations in the thousands; faithful were leaving the Church in the tens of thousands.
It was in that bleak context that the SSPX’s U.S. District began its work. Since then, half-a-century has passed. The crisis in the Church has not abated. Many churches, seminaries, and convents have been shuttered. The faithful have not been properly catechized, and they have been subjected to a liturgy that fails to nourish their faith. Many American dioceses are struggling to staff their churches with priests and to fill their pews.
Meanwhile, the SSPX has managed to reverse all the trends in the Church in that same period. The small seed that was planted in Detroit back in 1973 has grown into a thriving apostolate. There are now 124 priests stationed in the United States, providing Mass at 115 chapels for around 30,000 faithful. Many of these chapels have been blessed with a Mass each Sunday for decades.
The source of the SSPX’s stability and growth is not a secret. It is Tradition. Our traditional Catholic Faith bears supernatural fruits. Those fruits are not dependent on a historical time or context. They are available to whomever wishes to employ the Church’s traditional means of sanctification. That certainly includes “modern man”! The flourishing state of the SSPX in the United States is a testimony to that.
The 50th anniversary of our first U.S. chapel is an occasion of thanksgiving. We must be grateful to Our Lord and Our Lady for the graces that they have bestowed on our apostolate. We must be grateful to Archbishop Lefebvre, who made the difficult choices necessary to be faithful to Tradition and promote its expansion around the world. We must be grateful to the SSPX’s priests who give their lives for souls and faithfully fulfill their priestly duties year after year.
May this milestone in the SSPX’s history in our country also be an occasion for us to look forward to the future. We desire to continue this great work for the glory of God in difficult times and we hope to grow even stronger and provide the traditional means of sanctification to many more souls in the next 50 years. May God continue to bless our work.
Fr. John Fullerton
US District Superior
