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My Dear Brethren

Very soon Bishop Tissier de Malerais will be visiting Australia in order to confer the Sacred Priesthood on Mr Todd Stephens, an Australian and Mr Remi Picot, a Frenchman and I ask you to pray for these young men that God may abundantly bless their future apostolate.

I am delighted to announce that Todd Stephens, who parents are very prominent members of our congregation at Tynong and caretakers of St. Thomas Aquinas College, will be remaining here in Australia and will take up his first priestly duties here at Rockdale.  Father Jordie Stephens will then move to Tynong.  He will replace Father Richard Vachon who has spent five years at St. Thomas Aquinas College and will now move to Brisbane where he will be resident at Park Ridge with Fathers MacDonald and Arthur with responsibility for our congregations in North Queensland.

By the time you receive this letter Father Niklaus Pfluger, the First Assistant of the Society, will be in Australia and assist at the Speech Night for the end of the school year at Tynong and then preach the Retreat to the Ordinands.  Afterwards he will accompany me to Fiji where we will spend Christmas together at the Society’s house in Suva.  Unfortunately, our congregation in Fiji remains without a resident priest and is served by our priests from Hampton every two months.  When there is no Mass on Sundays they nevertheless gather at the Chapel and recite the Mass prayers.  Let us hope and pray that after waiting many years there may soon be an improvement in their situation. Read more

My dear Brethren,

The visit of Bishop Fellay which took place a few weeks ago was, as always, a great success.  It was a great pleasure to have our Superior General amongst us.  At each of the places he visited he gave a conference which was most informative in regard to the recent events since the lifting of the “excommunications” some months ago and the current situation with regard to the Vatican.

The highlight of the visit was the tenth anniversary of St. Philomena’s School at Park Ridge on Saturday 8th August.  This was a delightful occasion with Pontifical High Mass celebrated in the school grounds followed by a concert performed by the school children and an excellent lunch.  Various celebrities were present including the Mayor of Logan and a former Speaker of the Queensland Parliament.  This was also an occasion to unveil plans for the complete replacement of the present school buildings by others of a more substantial and permanent character which are to be executed in a Spanish colonial style which will be highly attractive in the woodland setting of the property.  Read more

Bishop Bernard Fellay has appointed the following representatives of the Society of St. Pius X for the theological discussions with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, Rector of the Seminary Nuestra Señora Corredentora at La Reja (Argentina); Rev. Fr. Benoit de Jorna, Rector of the International Seminary of Saint Pius X in Econe (Switzerland); Rev. Fr. Jean-Michel Gleize, professor of ecclesiology at the Seminary of Econe, and Rev. Fr. Patrick de La Rocque, prior of the Priory Saint Louis in Nantes (France).

Bishop de Galarreta was already president of the commission  — within the Society — to which the preparation of the upcoming discussions had been entrusted in April 2009.

The work will begin in the second half of the month of October. It will demand the discretion necessary to ensure serene talks about the doctrinal issues which raise difficulties.

Menzingen, October 15, 2009

My dear Brethren,

As most of you already know, we will have the privilege and pleasure of a visit to Australia of our Superior-General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, next month.  Unfortunately, time will not allow him to visit all of our centres but he will manage to visit the three largest in addition to the Seminary.  The programme of his visit has been arranged as follows:

Please come in large numbers to these various functions and welcome our Superior General to our country.  I imagine that in his public conferences he will have many interesting things to relate about all of the important events which have taken place between the Society and Rome over the last few months.

Here in Australia various things have happened since my last letter in March which will be of interest to you. Read more

My Dear Brethren,

Many significant events have happened since I last wrote to you.

Father Jordie Stephens was ordained by Bishop de Galarreta at the seminary at Goulburn on 27th December and he has now been appointed to Sydney to begin his priestly apostolate by taking up the position formerly held by Father Christopher Curtis.  The latter has been transferred to the seminary to teach there in place of Father Bourmaud who has gone to labour in the Lord’s vineyard in Kenya.

Father Anthony Esposito preached a retreat to the priests in January and was guest of honour, together with the new seminary rector, Father Vincente Griego, at our annual Australia Day Dinner at Rockdale.  Father Emeric Baudot, the Bursar-General of the Society has just completed a visit to all of our major houses and other properties accompanied by Father Elias who has recently been appointed as District Bursar of Australia. Read more

 Press Release from the Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X

The excommunication of the bishops consecrated by His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, on June 30, 1988, which had been declared by the Congregation for Bishops in a decree dated July 1, 1988, and which we had always contested, has been withdrawn by another decree mandated by Benedict XVI and issued by the same Congregation on January 21, 2009.

We express our filial gratitude to the Holy Father for this gesture which, beyond the Priestly Society  of Saint Pius X, will benefit the whole Church. Our Society wishes to be always more able to help the pope to remedy the unprecedented crisis which presently shakes the Catholic world, and which Pope John Paul II had designated as a state of “silent apostasy.”

Besides our gratitude towards the Holy Father and towards all those who helped him to make this courageous act, we are pleased that the decree of January 21 considers as “necessary” talks with the Holy See, talks which will enable the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X to explain the fundamental doctrinal reasons which it believes to be at the origin of the present difficulties of the Church.

In this new atmosphere, we have the firm hope to obtain soon the recognition of the rights of Catholic Tradition.

Menzingen, January 24, 2009

+Bernard Fellay