Stirring words and colorful views from India
The SSPX's untiring work for souls in India continues as evidenced by some recent letters and a large gallery of beautiful pictures.
From India we present a few words of Fr. Robert Brucciani about the Society of St. Pius X growing missionary work in India, often referred to as the "Sub-continent", as well as a gallery of colorful images depicting this [see below the letters].
A wonderful aspect of this apostolate for the salvation of souls are the many lay volunteers who out of love for their neighbors, come from various parts of the world to devote their time and talents in assisting in this beautiful task of the Mystical Body of Christ.
We are also pleased to reproduce the inspiring letter of Fr. Karl Stehlin, the new Asia District Superior, who actually wrote his first District Superior's Letter from the SSPX's priory at Palayamkottai, India.
A report on the SSPX's mission in India mission
The India mission of the SSPX was founded in 1986 in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu in the hot and sunny south of India. The mission is challenging mainly because there is little desire for Catholic tradition among India’s 2 million Catholics (less than 2% of the population). While there remains a great love of Catholic devotions in India, there is a profound ignorance of Catholic doctrine, a faith-destroying degree of inculturation, and a devastating contraceptive mentality among Catholic families.
The main goals of our mission are to form a traditional Catholic “eco-system” around a parish, a school, an orphanage, an old age home and our Mass centers (so that Catholic families and vocations may grow within a truly Catholic environment) and to reach out to all Catholics by way of the media apostolate (printed, email, website, CDs, DVDs).
The mission runs 17 Mass centers with 3 SSPX priests, 3 heroic helper-priests (with an average age of 87) and 1 very zealous brother. It also looks after a school of 70 pupils, works very closely with an orphanage run by the Consoling Sisters of the Sacred Heart and supports a new pious union of 5 sisters: the Reparation Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The mission demands great faith and a spirit of sacrifice, but there are many consolations for those who work with charity-filled hearts in this sparse, dry vineyard.
For more information and wonderful photos, please visit our webpage. You can also subscribe to the newsletter of the District of Asia, Apostle. And if you really want to help, offer a decade of the rosary every now and then for this far-flung mission.
May God bless you all.
In Jesu et Maria, Fr. Robert Brucciani
Fr. Karl Stehlin's September 2014 letter
New District Superior to all faithful of Catholic Tradition in Asia and to all friends and benefactors of the apostolate of the SSPX in Asia
Dear friends, dear faithful!
Divine Providence has decided, through the voice of my superiors, to send me into the vast territories of Asia to serve your souls as an unworthy instrument of the Immaculata!
When St. Maximilian Kolbe came to Asia to found his City of the Immaculata in Japan, his heart was so full of sorrow and desire: so many people on this biggest continent had never heard that they had a loving Father in heaven, that their Creator wanted them to gain an eternal life in heaven, that the Son of God Himself had come to save us from eternal damnation and, for this end, had offered Himself upon the Cross to wash away our innumerable sins with His own Blood, that all people had a mother in heaven who loved them more than the best mother on earth could love her only child, and that, without knowing and accepting these realities, man could not enter eternal happiness.
Therefore, he, in union with all missionaries since St. Francis Xavier, had one desire, one determination: to give their time, their talents, their strength, their body and soul, their whole life in order to bring to the people the only Truth, the only Way, the only Life, Jesus Christ, God and man, second Person of the Holy Trinity, Son of God the Father, and of Mary His mother. How many have in the past welcomed with all their heart the eternal truth that came through missionaries to them! How many have given their lives to defend and not abandon that truth: the glory of innumerable martyrs, first in Japan, then Korea, Indochina, China etc.! How many have made incredible sacrifices to uphold the Catholic Faith and save their homelands from the devastation of false religions! Yes, our Catholic ancestors realized the motto of St. Paul which was then taken by our Patron, Pope St. Pius X: Omnia instaurare in Christo—to renew, restore, repair all things in Christ Our Lord. And they all understood the importance and greatness of Mary too, that they received the graces of conversion and sanctification only through her.
It is incredible to realize that this missionary zeal of all missionaries in all Asian countries from the 16th century onwards was suddenly silenced to the detriment of billions of souls. In fact, for many years now, we have been going through the worst spiritual devastation the Church has ever seen. For 70 years, Asia has undergone the destructive practices of so-called enculturation, and for 50 years the leaders of the Church have been adopting ideologies coming from the worst enemies of Christ and many times condemned by the Church like religious liberty, ecumenism, etc. Should the blood of so many martyrs and the sweat of so many bishops, priests and faithful become sterile and useless in our times? Would Our Lord abandon those many souls living the darkness of ignorance and the stain of sin?
I think it is especially necessary for us to thank Our Lord and Our Lady that the merits of so many confessors and martyrs will never be fruitless. Only in heaven will we understand how they continue to work, but we can surely see that, across the darkening centuries, the light of Christ's truth continues to shine in Asia. Everywhere, priests have come back to the celebration of the "Mass of All Time", that venerable Roman Rite which perfectly expresses the entire Faith and accomplishes without ambiguity the Sacrifice of Our Lord. They come back because they come to understand the banality, sterility and objective harm of a new rite which “eclipsed the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrifice” (Cardinal Ottaviani), and pushed forward the above mentioned destructive ideologies, and made the liturgy more or less a “cult of man” (Michael Davies).
Everywhere, fathers and mothers of families come back to appreciate the traditional discipline of the Church to educate their children, to make them convinced Catholics, soldiers of Our Lord and knights of Our Lady in these dangerous times. Everywhere, young people are fed up with the false prophets of materialism, impurity and the dream of a paradise on earth. Human intelligence cannot live in permanent contradictions and relativism; therefore, they seek for truth, for the logical explanation of reality and for the true happiness to which the human heart naturally aspires.
All the work of the Society of St. Pius X has been, is and will be to serve souls that they may be saved. This service of souls consists of handing down to others, that which we what we have received (“tradidi quod et accepi!”): the very ancient and always brand-new everlasting unchangeable fascinating Catholic Faith, without any alteration, diminution or defect. And this heritage of Our Lord, given to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, we must safeguard and defend against all the enemies of salvation, especially those who, like a horrible cancer, attack, wound and try destroy the Holy Mother Church from the inside.
Archbishop Lefebvre fought almost alone for the treasure of Catholic Tradition and did the Holy Church the greatest service in our times. We, his spiritual sons, want to continue his work of “restoration of all things in Christ”. And, because we are no match for the almost infinite number of obstacles and enmities, we have only one chance to bring back the unchangeable Catholic Faith and life to Asia, and this chance is the Immaculata.
Omnia instaurare in Christo per immaculatam
According to the will of our saintly founder, our primary concerns are vocations to the priesthood, our brother priests and souls consecrated to the religious life. To those searching for God’s will, we dare to knock on the doors of their hearts and invite them to discover 2000 years of Catholic doctrine, the spirituality of all the saints and of 260 popes. We want to encourage them all to work for the salvation of souls, to fight against heresy, sin and the devil, to serve Holy Mother Church through a truly priestly or religious life, fully imitating the High Priest himself, Our Lord. Therefore, we offer them all to the Mother of the clergy and of all consecrated souls that she may use her motherly rights and power to make us a second Christ (alter Christus) or handmaids of the Lord.
Furthermore, we want to communicate the beauty of everlasting truth and life to all people of good will in Asia. St. Maximilian Kolbe invites us to use the most modern means of communication to reach souls even unto the farthest regions of this world. May the Immaculata allow us to find generous hearts and means to send the message of unaltered Catholic doctrine to all countries and in all languages spoken in Asia. May she continue to accomplish the miracle bringing all souls of good will into contact with the mysteries of the only true Faith, of bringing them to conversion and sanctification and holiness.
After making known the mysteries of Our Faith, we want to use the great means given by Divine Providence to bring people effectively closer to God. According to the popes, these means are especially the “Spiritual Exercises” which Our Lady gave to St. Ignatius, the practice of the “True Devotion to Our Lady” given by Providence to St. Louis Mary Grignion de Montfort, the spirituality of both the Sacred Heart of Jesus (given to St. Marguerite Mary) and that of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (given to us particularly at Fatima) etc. In this way we hope to foster the spiritual life of souls so that they may keep the Faith and travel the 'narrow path' through this vale of tears to reach the gates of heaven.
The last point of our spiritual program is to make all faithful aware of the great commandment of the “love of neighbor, as Christ has loved him”. According to Pope Pius XII (encyclical Mystici Corporis), it is the will of God, that He wants to save many people through the efforts of the members of the Mystical Body. Our Lady herself says this in other words: “Pray and do sacrifices, for so many souls go to hell, because there is nobody to pray and make sacrifices for them” (Fatima, August 19, 1917). The great Marian movements of the 20th century lived this truth: the Legion of Mary, the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, the Militia Immaculatae of St. Maximilian Kolbe. They all gathered many millions of children, apostles and “knights of the Immaculata” to bring their fellow people closer to Mary through prayer, sacrifices, good example and many different apostolic works. May the Immaculata grant us this miracle: that once again such apostles and knights might stand up and bring many souls from the clutches of pagan materialism to joys of eternal salvation.
Fr. Karl Stehlin
Palayamkottai
September 3, 2014 (Feast of St. Pius X)
