July 2, 1979, is the “birthday” of the Society of Saint Pius X’s (SSPX) mission in the Twin Cities. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre had visited the area a few years earlier and at that time, priests only offered the traditional Mass in the area on occasion. That July marked the first of the many Masses to be offered on a regular basis...
Dear Friends,
Archbishop Lefebvre founded the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) for the formation of good and holy priests. He understood that a priest today faces many difficulties, especially secularization or the removal of God from the public sphere, and the loss of faith in the Church itself. He realized that any priest hoping to accomplish his mission of saving souls in the modern world would have to possess both doctrinal purity and missionary charity.
In addition, the priest today needs to be provided a life in which he can sustain his priestly identity. The Archbishop had first-hand contact with the loneliness and isolation that priests were experiencing in Europe even before the Second Vatican Council. Priests felt like an island because they were living a consecrated life in a deconsecrated, revolutionary world.
This situation motivated the Archbishop, when it came time to form his own priestly order in 1970, to provide his priests the necessary support to sustain their priesthood. The primary means for doing this was to have priests live together in community, have their meals together, pray together, and recreate together. SSPX priests would not be religious but would observe some of the practices of the religious life—practices that would assist them to be constantly connected with their priestly vocation.
There was another reason why His Excellency decided on the model of priories and missions for the SSPX. The priories would be places where traditional Catholic communities could be formed, where families would be provided all the resources necessary to save their souls in a time of spiritual crisis, something made possible by the daily presence of multiple priests. Meanwhile, by the priests going out on the weekends to service mission chapels, the Society could reach more souls in chapels that are within a reasonable distance of the priories.
It is for this reason that I am pleased to announce the opening of a new priory this past August, in a suburb of the Twin Cities—Oak Grove, Minnesota. Three SSPX priests have now taken up residence there, to the great joy of the faithful. Every opening of a priory is a special grace from God.
Would that we could open up a new priory every year in this District—there are certainly many mission chapels that are asking for and deserving that this happen! We must ask Our Lord to grant us many more holy priests, that the number of our ordinations increases. Our priory in Oak Grove is the first one that we have opened in the U.S. District since the priories in Nicholville, New York and Chicago, Illinois in 2012, and the Oak Grove chapel was first opened in 1979!
Persevere in praying for your priests, for vocations, and that our communities in the United States and throughout the world may continue to grow, for the glory of God.
Fr. John Fullerton
US District Superior
