Remembering Fr Bourmaud
When did you first become acquainted with Fr. Bourmaud?
I met Fr. Bourmaud when I was assigned to St. Vincent de Paul Church in August of 2014. Before that there was a nodding acquaintance at best. I recall that he was very welcoming and made the move to Kansas City a pleasant one. I had read his first book, One Hundred Years of Modernism, five years before then and knew that he was a man of stature among Society priests.
Fr. Bourmaud and his family hail from the Vendée region of France. He took a lot of pride in that. What is significant about that region and why was it significant for him?
The family town is Rocheservière, a small but smart looking village just south of Nantes. It lies just within the Vendée department. Historically, the Vendée has been a war-torn region; every other century saw some new significant strife. From the Hundred Year’s War to the Wars of Religion to the French Revolution, this strip of soil bordering the Atlantic formed a tough people. There was even a battle at Rocheservière between Vendean Royalists and a Napoleonic troop two days after Waterloo.
Today, we remember the Vendée for its opposition and active military resistance to the anti-Catholic government and laws of the Revolution. When the revolutionary government required military conscription, the Vendée went into open revolt and formed The Catholic Army. One can understand the pride of a Catholic descending from such heroes of the Faith. Having known Fr. Bourmaud and having met two of his brothers, the spirit of the region lives on.
An interesting detail: the coat of arms for the Vendée region is the double hearts, the very same of the Society of Saint Pius X.
Fr. Bourmaud was ordained at a young age. Why did Archbishop Lefebvre decide to ordain him so young?
In summary, there were two reasons: he was qualified and there was a need in the Church. He had finished his high school courses and was deeply impressed with Archbishop Lefebvre who was given large public attention for the cause of Tradition. It was 1976, a turbulent year in the life of the Archbishop and the Society. This inspired the response to his vocation. Dominique Bourmaud was serious and virtuous and further there was a need for priests.
The seminary program was only five years at that time. Since then, depending upon the seminary, one or two years have been added. Also, the canonical age of ordination was 24 at that time, a year earlier than the present canonical age.
Can you say something about Fr. Bourmaud’s ministry before he came to the United States? Where was he assigned to and why?
Fr. Bourmaud’s immediate assignment was to Madrid, Spain. However, because of the crisis in the American seminary with nine priests leaving, he was sent to Ridgefield, Connecticut in his second year of priesthood. That would set the tone for most of his priestly life which was connected to the formation of priests.
He would teach in the U.S. seminary until 1993. The last five years were in Winona, MN. He also taught at the Seminary of Our Lady Co-Redemptrix in Argentina from 1994 to 1997 and Holy Cross Seminary in Australia from 1997 to 2009. Even after returning to the United States, he spent the better part of a decade shepherding diocesan and religious priests to the traditional Mass or even the Society of Saint Pius X through its “priests program.”
Fr. Bourmaud spent 25 of his 40 years of priesthood teaching in the SSPX’s seminaries. He would spend only six months as a priest in his native France. His was a missionary life and he was most fit for it. He seemed to assimilate well and quickly to local languages and customs.
Further, he embraced his missionary vocation. The following prayer from St. Louis de Montfort’s Prayer for Missionaries (Prière Embrasée) was written in his hand on the back of a card in his breviary:
My God, what then am I asking for? Liberos. Priests who are free with the freedom that comes from you, detached from everything, without father, mother, brothers, sisters or relatives and friends as the world and the flesh understand them, without worldly possessions to encumber or distract them, and devoid of all self-interest.
Fr. Bourmaud is probably most widely known for his book One Hundred Years of Modernism. What interested him in this topic and what motivated him to write about it?
Being in the seminary milieu he understood deeply the importance of the philosophical ideas shaping Catholic thought. At the same time he understood the need to arm future priests against the philosophical errors of our time which have a long history. There is a bigger picture historically than meets the eye. The faithful needed this awareness as well. His book was a means to share his seminary work with them.
What was Fr. Bourmaud’s impression of the United States? It seemed like he enjoyed his time here. Did he have any views of this country, its culture, and landscape?
He was happy to be in the States. Americans are generally enthusiastic, and that fit his personality. He adapted himself very well here. I can’t guess the number of missions he covered through his years in the U.S., but they were many. It was a reprieve for him to cover a mission chapel occasionally and enjoy on the side a detour of historical or geographical interest.
Fr. Boumaud’s death has been a great sorrow for many within the Society of Saint Pius X and the faithful who attend our chapels. If you could summarize, what do you think his most important contribution was to the Society’s mission and how do you think he should be remembered?
I’ve mentioned already the amount of time and effort he placed in the formation of priests. This is something which is hard to quantify in its effects, but there is no question that it was a very important contribution. Further, his effect upon priests came from more than his teaching. He was a model of priestly fidelity in the details of schedule and in the spirit of priestly charity. Fr. James Peek recalled to me that when he himself arrived at Ecône, two years after Dominique Bourmaud had entered, it was known throughout the seminary that if someone needed help, for example requiring a replacement on dish washing, Mr. Bourmaud would always be willing. This was how I knew him in the ministry as well.
As I was sorting through his affairs, I came upon a card written in his hand in 1978 in which he lists several weighty resolutions. The card is entitled “Resolutions for the Whole of Life,” and ends with the resolution to read the card each week. Circumstances suggest that he kept the card close and was faithful to these resolutions.
I’m sure Angelus Press feels his absence knowing how active he was in driving deadlines and organizing the plan for each issue. The priests at St. Vincent’s were aware that besides the articles he wrote in his own name there were times he would write additional articles anonymously or credit the work to someone else.
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