June 2007 Print

Last Summer, the General Chapter of the Society of Saint Pius X elected Fr. Niklaus Pfluger as first assistant and Fr. Alain-Marc Nély as second assistant to the General Superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay. Christendom had the opportunity to ask for their first impressions and their projects.

What was your schedule like during the first six months following your election?

Fr. Niklaus Pfluger: I went to Austria for a priests' meeting, where I gave a conference and talked with them. Then I journeyed to southern France, to Nice and Marseilles, where I had long conversations with our priests. Next I accompanied Bishop Fellay to Southern Africa where we visited our priories in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and we also went to Namibia. I also flew to Chile, to Buenos Aires in Argentina, and to Brazil to visit the new priories. And lastly, I went to England where I devoted all my time to visiting the priories and meeting with our priests.

And you, Fr. Nély, what have you been doing since your election? Which countries have you already visited?

Fr. Alain-Marc Nély: The first country I went to was a "white" country, since I went to preach a retreat to the Sisters of Brignoles (teaching Dominicans Sisters, in southern France), almost on the day after the General Chapter. In August, I flew to Libreville to preach the priests' retreat to our confrères of the Gabon mission. I took advantage of this opportunity to visit the country and go to Lambaréné in the footsteps of Archbishop Lefebvre together with Fr. Groche. We also toured the islands. Then I went back to Italy to finish packing my belongings and hand everything over to my successor, Fr. Davide Pagliarani. I arrived in Menzingen in October, and I went immediately to the United States to give a conference to the seminarians and take part in the celebrations for the ordination anniversary of Fr. Iscara. Next, I went to Kenya to preach a retreat to the faithful, and I also visited Uganda, where we have a long-term project for a foundation, maybe an orphanage. While in Africa I met with two bishops: the bishop of Nairobi, who received us very kindly. He is at the end of his career since he is thinking of retiring next year. And I also met the bishop of Kampala, who had just been appointed. He received us with evident curiosity but very warmly and gave us his blessing. However, we parted with something of a question mark over the visit. Back from Africa, I went to preach the retreat prior to the taking of the cassock in Flavigny at the end of January. It was a very nice experience to be with those very young aspirants to the priesthood.

What are your first impressions as you discover your new charge? Is it exhausting, exciting?

Fr. Nély: It is exciting, because the confrères are happy to receive us. As a rule, they ask for our visit, and it is an occasion for us to encourage them. They are happy to show us the progress in their mission, and occasionally they take advantage of our presence to request conferences, Masses, and retreats. It is also exhausting, and I must admit that I feel my age. But it is quite a different experience from the life I have known up to now. I think we feel closer to our priests, and it changes many things in our spiritual life: in prayer, in the concern we have for their good, and the good we can do to them. I have three retreats scheduled for this summer, and I can tell you that I am already working on them, because I want to give to my confrères what I think they need and expect from us. We have to rekindle, or rather to feed their desire for holiness, their desire to be good priests.

Do you have any anecdotes to tell about your journeys?

Fr. Nély: I was very much enthused by my visits to Africa, by this candor and natural joy that Africans retain despite the precarious living conditions most of them experience. Apart from a few well-off families, we mainly have contacts with very simple people to whom our priests often give material help as well.

During my journeys, I was often surprised by the food. You have to eat some bizarre things. For instance, in Gabon, we ate snake and crocodile. The fishermen with whom we were staying on the island near Lambaréné caught in their net a little crocodile that was too keen on eating their catch of fish. There was a great commotion on the island, so we all went down to the seashore. The fishermen killed the crocodile, cut it up and served it that same evening! The meat was a little too raw, and quite uneatable.

Fortunately, there were chickens in the vicinity!

What struck me very much in Kenya was the pastoral ministry in the slums. I could see that they live in relative poverty, but life is not that bad with the little they have. They do not look too unhappy; they are content with little, and they are joyful. During the retreat I preached, I became acquainted with the faithful, of whom there were 34 on the retreat. I established ties of friendship with them. I am paying the tuition for two young converts who serve Mass almost every Sunday. With $25 (US) you can pay tuition for one month in a private school. I keep in touch with the boys, and I hope to go to Africa a third time before the end of the year, probably in November.

Do you have other journeys scheduled for the year?

Fr. Nély: [This intreview was conducted for the March-April issue of Christendom.] I am going to Singapore with Bishop Fellay, and from there we will visit New Caledonia [an island in the southwest Pacific–Ed.], Australia, New Zealand, and the Fiji Islands. After spending a few days in each of these countries we will go back to Singapore and from there to Menzingen. Nine days later I will start out for St. Mary's in the United States to meet with the priests of the US District, give conferences to the faithful. Then I will head further west to Post Falls for the last three days of Holy Week and Easter. On Easter Monday and Tuesday I will visit the Carmelites in Spokane, Washington and the Dominican Sisters in Post Falls, Idaho. Back in Europe I will answer Fr. Pagliarani's invitation and go to Italy for the inauguration of the new chapel in Albano.

It will also be for me a good opportunity to make the pilgrimage of the seven Basilicas in Rome. I may go to Canada for their three-day Pentecost pilgrimage–it is the Canadian counterpart of the Chartres Pilgrimage–and to Calgary, where Fr. Ockerse has built a new chapel dedicated to St. Joseph. In August, I am due to preach a retreat to the priests of the US District in California, and I will also travel north to Canada. I will preach the retreat to the SiSiNoNo Sisters in Italy. And from mid-November to mid-December I will discover a new country, India, where I will preach a retreat and visit the priests.

 

Fr. Pfluger: As for me, I am going to Gabon at the beginning of March. Then around Easter, I will start out for a three-week visit to Canada. I will travel both through English-speaking and French-speaking Canada. Summer is the time for the ordinations; I will remain in Europe. In the fall, I heard about a possible journey to Asia, but nothing is settled yet. And one of us will go to Mexico, but there again the decision is in the offing.

When you thus visit the Society, which is developing all over the world, do you have a particular concern?

Fr. Pfluger: During our visits to the priories we can establish contacts with the priests more on a fraternal than a hierarchical level. It is not merely for us a matter of making canonical visits.

 

Fr. Nély: My main concern is to help the priests, our priests who are sometimes very much isolated. I think my age is also an advantage: most of the confrères being younger than I, they confide more easily to an older priest. Of course, we also have a concern for vocations, as for instance in Africa. If those two boys decide to enter the seminary, I will be very happy. But the concern for the confrére remains the highest priority.

As assistants to the Superior General, you reside at the motherhouse when you are not traveling. In Menzingen, do you have the impression of being at the General Headquarters, from where you can see the whole Society? Is it not too bureaucratic a life?

Fr. Nély: Precisely, I did not want to have too much of a bureaucratic existence. And I think I can tell this attitude does not exist here, not even among the secretaries. We would like our priests to come more often to the Motherhouse, but even when we talk to them over the phone, there is always a way of saying things outside of the more official aspect of our conversations. No, I do not feel like I am living in headquarters surrounded by watchtowers–not at all! The Society is living, and from the Motherhouse you realize to what extent there would still be much more to do if there were more of us. We can see this everywhere. For instance, there are presently only two priests in Kenya. They go to Uganda, Tanzania; their visit is requested in other nearby countries. People want a school; a chapel has just been built; they have to give catechism classes... If there were four of them, there would be enough work for all.

As for you, Fr. Pfluger, how do you see your function near the priests? Are you the "eye of Menzingen"?

Fr. Pfluger: The most important thing is to maintain contact with the confrères. It is of utmost importance to know them, to listen to them in order to understand their worries and be able to counsel them. It is also necessary to know them well to make the right choice for nominations and transfers. We are always welcomed by the priests when we visit them, and as assistants we must be at their disposal. Far from being a bureaucratic task, it is essentially a matter of making ourselves completely available to them and of being counselors.

Archbishop Lefebvre used to say: "The priest has two duties: the desire for holiness, and the desire to convert souls," which are mutually enhancing. We are here to help the priest to accomplish his priestly vocation. Because, added the Archbishop, there are three conditions for priestly holiness: the desire for sanctity, the liturgical life, and the life in common. Zeal for souls causes this desire for holiness to bear fruits, and we must help priests to keep up this enthusiasm, this momentum.

 

Exclusive Interview with the General Assistants of the SSPX. From Christendom, No.10. Christendom is a publication of DICI, the press bureau of the Society of Saint Pius X (www.dici.org).