Dowry – an English periodical of Catholic Tradition by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (N°5, Winter 2010) Dowry(N°5, Winter 2010) "O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gracious Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England thy Dowry." (Cardinal Wiseman) (Picture: Your priests tomorrow? Well, rather than seminarians, these are altar servers processing at the priestly ordination of Rev Mr Jose Zepeda, FSSP by His Excellency, The Most Reverend Salvatore Joseph Cordileone (Bishop of Oakland) at St. Jarlath Church, th Oakland, California, on 19 December 2009 – (© www.garciaimages.smugmug.com). Please God, some among them may be called to the priesthood. Let us pray for numerous saintly priestly vocations.) In this issue: Editorial: the great service of education Et in Arcadia ego: British deacon’s fond memories of FSSP seminary in Bavaria Parents’ rights and duties to educate their children American deacon’s ministry in traditional boarding-school in Normandy Education for boys at St Gregory’s Academy, PA Priestly spirituality: the office of governing Prefects of two main Roman dicasteries to visit FSSP seminaries A discreet convert, Johannes Vermeer Charter of the Confraternity of Saint Peter Ongoing ministry Forthcoming events Work now started at FSSP house in Reading 1 Dowry – an English periodical of Catholic Tradition by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (N°5, Winter 2010) Editorial: the great service of education Dear Reader and Friend, encyclopedical minds, but it will not give us religious souls, i.e. human hat to build first in a village: the church or the spirits aware that their common school? „Build the school first‟- was the reply Origin and Destination is a loving made by the Curé of Ars when asked this Person. On the contrary, knowing Wquestion. His statement is all the more that all persons and things are relative striking when one remembers the outstanding dedication to a unique God, and cannot be with which the holy Curé would fulfil his priestly considered but in the divine light, is functions in his little village church, either at the altar or the best guarantee for social harmony in the confessional – not to mention the many hours and for responsible use of world resources. Sharing such spent in silent contemplation before the tabernacle. With knowledge is education. so deep a desire to put the service of God above all things, how could this same holy pastor put the building We can be sure that the curriculum in the school built by of a church second only after the building of a school? the holy Curé in Ars had been designed so that, as future adult Catholics, the pupils would be: “equipped to hand He knew that people‟s assiduousness at the church would on the faith to new generations comprehensively, but express their understanding accurately, and with a keen of their human condition as awareness that in so doing they rational creatures in need of are playing their part in the redemption. The order of Church‟s mission”, to quote the creation then, the correct use of Holy Father‟s Address to the reason, the principles for the Bishops of England and Wales morality of our actions, etc – all (1st February 2010). In the same this needed to be taught first (a perspective, the Constitutions of logical precedence, not a the Priestly Fraternity of Saint chronological one). Souls would It sounds like Peter (definitively approved by adhere to the truths manifested in the Holy See) state that: “The the liturgy, they would join in members of the Fraternity will devotional activities – inasmuch teaching astronomy facilitate and eventually found as the intellects would have been schools, free, as far as possible, equipped to grasp the without mentioning of all secular interference, in articulations and meanings of the accordance with the law of the sacred Drama of the Creation, there is a sun. Church (see Can. 796 ff.). From Fall and Redemption. these schools will come vocations and Christian homes” As a boy, young John-Mary (§14). Vianney had been deprived of that right to education, when the Although we don‟t have the French revolutionaries, means to start or run a school in forgetting that the Church among England at this stage, we are other achievements had invented actively committed to educating the university and free primary souls through retreats, education, had confiscated Its teaching mandate. In the conferences, sermons, catechism, articles and spiritual name of „freedom‟, these stern ideologues were direction given by our priests. As part of the largest EF promoting their atheistic agenda. If the new priestly community worldwide, we contribute according „enlightened‟ State indeed was to become the ultimate to our means to the great service of education, as you authority, then it could not tolerate an institution – Holy will find in this issue of Dowry. This involves dozens of Mother Church – who taught that every power comes actual schools where FSSP priests serve as chaplains, or from God. indeed schools entirely run by our Fraternity. It also includes our two international seminaries, where we Thankfully, in our democratic countries, schools form future educators of souls who will bring the Good normally don‟t teach atheism as such. But does it make a News of Salvation wherever the Church will send them, difference since in most cases they consider the existence sub Petro et ad majorem Dei gloriam. of God irrelevant to teaching and at best a private opinion? It sounds like teaching astronomy without Yours devotedly in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, mentioning there is a sun. Surely grammar, mathematics, history, literature, biology etc. do not refer to God in an explicit manner as is proper to catechism in general and to the various branches of theology in particular. However, an education that specialises whatever deeply Fr Armand de Malleray, in diverse fields without showing to man his actual place Superior of the English FSSP Apostolate nd in the universe may give to our world expert and 2 February 2010, St John Fisher House (Reading) 2 Dowry – an English periodical of Catholic Tradition by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (N°5, Winter 2010) Et in Arcadia ego: British deacon’s fond memories of FSSP seminary in Bavaria have been here before.” These are the opening Peter is shortly to begin construction to increase the words of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel capacity of its international seminary. “I Brideshead Revisited. These same words must have occurred to Fr. Bisig as he arrived in the sleepy So what makes Wigratzbad so extraordinary hamlet of Wigratzbad, Germany in August 1988. Indeed and what is the connection with Brideshead? It was late he had! As trusted lieutenant of Archbishop Lefebvre he September when I first arrived in the region and coming, first came to Wigratzbad looking for a site for a German as I did, from the Fraternity's other international seminary for the Society of St Pius X. His return as seminary in Denton, USA, I was well acquainted with Superior General of Fraternity of St Peter some ten years small rural towns. But situated on the ancient frontier of later at the invitation of the Bishop of Augsburg was not Bavaria and Swabia, a short distance from Germany‟s a case of deja-vue, but the borders with Austria and fulfillment of a prophecy. Switzerland, Wigratzbad is a small town at the heart of an But whose prophecy? ancient Catholic kingdom. In the late 1930's Wigratzbad The Council of Constance was home to Miss Antonie (1414 – 1418), which Rädler and a small Marian condemned the heretics John shrine under the titles of the Hus and John Wycliffe and Immaculate Conception and elected Pope Martin I, was Mother of Victory. Later it held only one hour away on developed into a site of the southern shore of the international of pilgrimage. Bodensee (Lake Constance). This transformation has its Not far from Constance on the origin in the extraordinary life isle of Reichenau the skull of of Miss Rädler. During the St. Mark the Evangelist has Second World War suffering been venerated in the abbey at the hands of the Gestapo, church of SS. Mary & Mark she vowed that should she since the 10th Century. survive her persecutors she Originally founded in 724 by would build a Chapel in the abbot and bishop St. which to adore the Blessed Pirminius, the island of Sacrament. Providentially she Reichenau flourished between survived and built her Chapel. the 8th and the 11th centuries, Over the years this Chapel becoming an important centre with its Marian Shrine of art and culture of the attracted an increasing region and in the Holy Roman number of pilgrims to pray Empire. Of the twenty and make acts of reparation to churches and chapels once on the Immaculate and Sacred (Rev Mr Harkins, FSSP and confrere visiting this small island, only three Hearts. Fr Bisig remembers Ottobeuren Abbey near Wigratzbad, November 2009) remain: the monastery church that Archbishop Josef of SS. Mary & Mark, Stimpfle of Augsburg was convinced that Miss Rädler consecrated in 816; the church of St. George, built was inspired by God. By the late 1950's Miss Rädler, around the end of the 9th century, with mural paintings guided by an inspired intuition, began praying for a dating from before the year 1000; and the church of St. seminary at Wigratzbad. But it wasn't until she was Peter and Paul, founded in 799 and rebuilt in 1134, with joined by Passionist Fr. Johannes Schmid, as Chaplain to Rococo decorations dating from 1760. Visiting these the shrine, that the idea was given new impetus.