By invitation of Fr. Kenneth Novak, Editor of The Angelus, I may be writing for The Angelus once a month, but let me admit straightaway that as far as I am concerned, it is for a very practical reason: the South American seminary of the Society of St. Pius X is in need of help.
So from Fr. John Fullerton, SSPX District Superior for the USA, I have permission to address myself for this purpose through the pages of The Angelus to a number of old friends in the English-speaking world, especially in the United States, and possibly to some new friends as well.
Have no fear! Not every month's article will consist of a direct appeal for funds–far from it. But underneath each article, starting with this one, should be posted a note explaining how to help the seminary in Argentina. We are in need.
It stands then to reason that readers of The Angelus might like to know something of the seminary in La Reja, some 40 miles outside of Argentina's capital city, Buenos Aires. The foundation stone was laid in August of 1981 by Archbishop Lefebvre on one of his early visits to Argentina as Superior of the SSPX. It was as Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers between 1962 and 1968 that his missionary visits to the South American continent gave him to see that Argentina might be the most suitable country in Latin America from which to launch the Society's mission of forming priests for this once huge part of the Catholic world.
"Once huge part" because who has not heard of the ravages wrought amongst Catholics in Latin America by the Protestant sects, following Vatican II? On Archbishop Lefebvre's first post-conciliar visit to Argentina in 1977, he met with a number of distressed Catholics, eager to defend Tradition against its destruction by the neo-modernists. These Catholics benefited from Argentina's high level of Catholic culture, especially in the main cities of Buenos Aires, Cordova and Mendoza. In the following year I can remember the good impression made by three Argentinian seminarians when they arrived at Ecône in order to become priests with the SSPX. One of the three is now a bishop–His Excellency Alfonso de Galarreta.
Over the next few years several more Argentinian seminarians followed in their footsteps, so that it was natural for the Archbishop to think of founding for South Americans a seminary of their own. Another memory of mine is his laying of the foundation stone in the middle of a property recently purchased for the Society from Europe, about 50 minutes by car west-northwest of Buenos Aires. I remember the unspoken determination of the Archbishop as he dug his spade into the grassy mud of a wide open field, with no buildings for hundreds of yards around. He was re-building the Church out of a handful of local Catholics' convictions, and thin air!
Today you find there handsome colonial-style seminary buildings, and a beautiful church, completed and consecrated in 1999, both paid for largely by contributions from outside of Latin America.
It is one of those things that the Church in Latin America needs so much support from abroad. Argentina is a country rich in resources, and its wealthy upper class used to support the Church as part of its Catholic duty. But what 150 years of Freemasonic "independence" had not yet succeeded in corrupting of that Catholic elite was virtually finished off by the next 50-odd years of Vatican II and Opus Dei. As for the middle class, it was hard hit by the economic crisis of a few years ago, while the working class in Argentina is neither necessarily lazy nor without brains, but it simply has no means of supporting the Church.
Notwithstanding, over the quarter-century of its existence, the Society's Argentinian seminary has succeeded in forming a small but tenacious network of traditional priests, serving souls and helping to keep the Faith from Mexico down to Chile. And while vocations slowed down for a while, in Argentina in particular, numbers over the last few years have been picking up again, so that if we count in the preliminary year of Humanities, there is now hardly a cell available in the Archbishop's original building. If this trend continues, we shall need to add the extra wing which he planned for, but which was never needed in his own time.
Dear friends, the financial and economic crisis now rolling in the USA has possibly made the assets on paper of a number of you lose seriously in value. For this reason it may not seem a good moment to ask you for help. But think back to last summer, of 2007, before this crisis declared itself. Might you not now wish that you had then, as Our Lord says, stored up treasure in Heaven where neither inflation steals, nor banks threaten to collapse? (Mt. 6:19-20.) Assets that could really have served the Church then have simply vanished since. If this financial crisis continues, or gets worse as it may well do, might it not make sense to make an investment in the security of your heavenly bank account, safe from all politicians and bankers?
The Argentinian seminary's present shortfall (having to be made up by SSPX HQ in Switzerland) is of the order of $10,000 (USD) a month. What would really help us would be a bank order sending to us a regular monthly donation. In return you will have each month news and views from your former correspondent in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and Winona, Minnesota. Many thanks in advance, from all our priests and seminarians.
+ Bishop Richard Williamson
