Interview of Fr. Couture: An SSPX Interview worth Dissecting
http://www.sspx.org/regional_sspx_news/asia/interview_of_fr_couture_7-2011/interview_of_fr_couture_asia_district_superior_7-2011-part1.htmInterview
of Fr. Couture
Asia District Superior
PART 1
7-6-2011
The USA District sincerely thanks Fr. Daniel Couture for granting this interview about the SSPX's work in its Asia District.
Father, thank you for agreeing to give this interview. You are here in Winona for the ordinations to the priesthood. This morning [June 17] five priests were ordained, one of whom is an Indian, who will go to India. What are your thoughts during these ordinations?
Fr. Couture: It is always a great joy to see the priesthood perpetuated, to see that the Society of St. Pius X is truly serving the Church by ordaining these young priests, who come from every corner of the world. Here, we can see that grace continues to take root in the souls of young people, who wish to work for the Church, for the reign of our Lord. I came here to the United States to assist at the ordination of one of our Indians, who is in fact the son of our translator in Palayamkottai, in southern India. His father is the one who translates our sermons and catechism lessons every Sunday. It is a great joy for us and for the entire District of Asia.
You are District Superior of Asia, now in the middle of your third term. Asia is an immense district, containing many different countries and peoples. An enormous amount of work has already been done. Can you summarize the work in your district?
Fr. Couture: Asia represents half of the world's population. Starting from the west, it extends from the Middle East, where we have opened or taken charge of a few Mass centers this year in the United Arab Emirates and in Oman, where we have some French, Indian, Sri-Lankan, and Filipino traditional Catholic families, and encompasses everything as far east as Japan, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands as well. It is immense. It is the adventure of the missionary, just as we read in the lives of the great missionaries such as St. Theophane Venard, the martyrs from the Seminary for the Foreign Missions in Paris, etc.
It fills us with enthusiasm and it is very encouraging to see, as Archbishop Lefebvre would say, the Holy Ghost everywhere. In whatever country we may be, we find precious pearls that the Good God chooses for Himself.
And for us missionaries, this is missionary work that is not quite the same as in the past, when missionaries settled somewhere and built villages, schools, etc. We work a little more superficially, but we save what can be saved. But it is encouraging to find everywhere pure and generous souls that thirst for the truth. That encourages us; it is like the fuel that keeps us going in the missions.
You operate out of the District Headquarters in Singapore. How many priories and permanently-established religious houses do you have? From these priories, how many chapels and Mass centers do you visit regularly?
Fr. Couture: For the 18 countries that we cover in Asia, we have six priories. I say six, because we are now in the process of opening the sixth one; in the coming weeks, we will be purchasing a property in the southern Philippines. We have one priory in southern India, one in Singapore, three in the Philippines, and one in New Zealand. They house 22 priests, including the young priest who was just ordained. As for the chapels, I do not know their exact number, but it's close to 40 or 50. In India itself, we have at least twenty or so. In some areas of the Philippines, there is one chapel per region. As Fr. Schmidberger always said, the Society plays its role by its presence. It exercises its apostolate “by its presence”, by being a point of reference. There are confused Catholics in these various countries: Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. They do not know who is going to guide them, they search and search, and finally they come across the Society. There they find the Faith, the truth, the liturgy, and the catechism, all of which satisfies them since they come from God. It is encouraging.
Just as they do everywhere else, the priests of the Society bring the Faith and the sacraments to those who thirst for them. Of course, like every priest of the Society, you of course keep close to heart the priesthood, since it is the first end of our congregation. Are priests or even bishops today more attentive to or interested in the Society? Has the impact of the Motu Proprio led to results that are truly beneficial for Tradition?
Fr. Couture: Here and there, yes, it has. We have more and more contacts with priests. I will give an example: in one country, the bishop sent two of his priests to a week-long Una Voce session in England to learn to say the traditional Mass. But, for whatever reason―I think there were probably too many priests, and they did not have enough personal attention―after having gone through that week-long session in England to learn the traditional Mass, they came to see us, to start again from scratch: “Teach us the Mass. May we do a session just to be able to read the Latin of the missal?”
So there are priests, and there are also bishops in several countries. I am thinking especially of the Philippines. There, it is not quite the effect of the Motu Proprio, although it is certainly related. In the Philippines, we are organizing a pro-life campaign, under the direction of Fr. Onoda, who is leading it. He launched a Rosary Crusade and the bishops were impressed. There are also some bishops who have come to lunch at the priory and who even agreed to provide letters of recommendation to obtain visas for our Filipinos who are leaving to enter the convents or seminaries. So it is very positive.
In another diocese―at the end of May 2010, during the year the Pope dedicated to the priesthood—a bishop allowed one of our priests to give a conference to 45 diocesan priests on the priesthood. This conference will certainly bear fruit, because they really appreciated it. This archbishop clearly sees that the Society has something to offer on the one hand, and on the other, among his priests there is an absence, there is a lack of spiritual life.
This archbishop said to me recently, “Speak to my priests about the breviary, speak to them about the importance of the breviary, about the importance of the Holy Hour.” There is a terrible lack of prayer. An old priest of the diocese said to me, “The priests in our diocese do not say the breviary, nor the Rosary, neither do they do meditation. Imagine the priesthood without these foundations of the spiritual life: what is left? What is left? We are not surprised to see a decline in vocations, if there is no spiritual life supporting them!”
So it is very interesting that this archbishop turns to us: “Teach my priests how to say the breviary” or “Speak to them of the importance of the breviary.” And that is when we have this joy to be part of the Society, and to work for the Church, which was Archbishop Lefebvre’s intuition. We are at the Church’s service and therefore―here and there, it is starting already and it will certainly grow—we are also at the service of bishops who do not know where to turn to help their priests. They see there is a problem but they do not have the solution, and they see that, after all, the Society has kept something, a treasure which they need.
As for the problem with the traditional Mass, there are several priests who are interested, but since they do not know Latin, and do not have the books containing the rubrics, etc., there is a great weakness there. I know one bishop in Vietnam who said―and I even have it in writing―that “all priests who wish to say the traditional Mass in my diocese may do so.” That comes from the bishop, so there is no objection. However, they lack the means necessary to return to the traditional Mass. They also have a certain fear. In Vietnam, I once heard a priest say to me, “But we do not know Latin, and without Latin, we cannot return to the traditional Mass.” So the lack of Latin is a hurdle we must jump.
I once taught some priests to say the traditional Mass in Chinese. They were Chinese priests who did not know Latin. We justified this by what Archbishop Lefebvre taught: “We are not fighting firstly for Latin; we are fighting for the Faith.” And we have explained to priests that it is better to say the traditional Mass in the vernacular tongue than to say the New Mass in Latin. It is not firstly a question of language; it is a question of Faith. And we have had a few Masses like this with certain priests. So, there is a desire, but there are obstacles to overcome that are serious and difficult. Nevertheless, it is possible with a little good will.
Father, to return to the subject of China, we have many visitors and readers who are interested in what is happening there. Recently the media has been covering the elections, nominations, and consecrations of Chinese bishops, with, without, or against the Vatican’s authorization. Could you go over the difficulty of the situation in China, including the struggle between the Catholic Church and the Patriotic National Church, and the Vatican’s policy during these last few years?
Fr. Couture: China is very complicated. The French have a saying: C’est du chinois (“It's all Chinese”), which is a colloquialism for something that is difficult to understand. It's not just the Chinese language, which is very elaborate. For us who come from the West, it is difficult to understand them, but its religious situation is also very delicate and difficult.
http://www.sspx.org/regional_sspx_news/asia/interview_of_fr_couture_7-2011/interview_of_fr_couture_asia_district_superior_7-2011-part2.htmFather, to return to the subject of China, we have many visitors and readers who are interested in what is happening there. Recently the media has been covering the elections, nominations, and consecrations of Chinese bishops, with, without, or against the Vatican’s authorization. Could you go over the difficulty of the situation in China, including the struggle between the Catholic Church and the Patriotic National Church, and the Vatican’s policy during these last few years?
Fr. Couture: China is very complicated. The French have a saying: C’est du chinois (“It's all Chinese”), which is a colloquialism for something that is difficult to understand. It's not just the Chinese language, which is very elaborate. For us who come from the West, it is difficult to understand them, but its religious situation is also very delicate and difficult. The underground Catholics truly believe that they have been betrayed and abandoned by the authorities of the Church. I have been told of several incidents: priests who come from Europe, visiting a clandestine seminary and spending a few hours there without giving any donations or material support; then the same priests go to the Patriotic seminary, in the hands of the government, and there they spend weeks, giving them money, goods, etc. And in another diocese, if I am not mistaken, a Patriotic priest was nominated, with the approval of the Vatican, head of the clandestine Church, because there was no bishop there. You see how great the confusion is. It is as if a conciliar priest was nominated to become the head of a district of the Society. That, in Europe, would not last long, I think.
As for other difficult situations in China, in certain dioceses you have two bishops: one Patriotic bishop and one clandestine bishop. In two dioceses in particular, there are even three. One Patriotic priest said—and it is well known in these dioceses—“when the underground bishop dies, the Patriotic bishop will take his place.” The Patriotic bishop is nominated auxiliary bishop by the Vatican. The Patriotic priests say so themselves. I heard from friends who went there that there are certain Patriotic priests who are starting to say the traditional Mass now. Consider all the subtleties, the degrees of confusion: it is all quite complicated.
There are traditional priests who are official members of the Patriotic Church without having the membership card of the party. They say the traditional Mass whereas the underground priests say the New Mass. I know a young Patriotic priest who says the traditional Mass every Sunday. He was asked: “Which bishop do you name during the Canon of the Mass?” He candidly answered: “I name the legitimate, underground bishop.” This is a priest in the Patriotic Church! So he does not even name the bishop who ordained him, he names the underground bishop. He even said, to those who were present and could hear him: “In a few days there will be an ordination for the Patriotic Church, and the young priests will be ordained by the Patriotic bishop. But the same day, they will go to see the clandestine bishop in order to be reordained.” This is common practice there; it is enough to give you a headache. So we do not know what to make of it any more.
There are similar situations just about everywhere in China, a truly terrible confusion. A vicar general said that he no hope left in Rome because they do not know what Rome has in mind. Are they sacrificing the underground Church like they did in the Ukraine ten or twenty years ago? We do not know, but sometimes they get the impression that politics goes before the good God. And that hurts.
I know a priest who was arrested a few years ago. He was condemned to five days in prison. They did not complicate things: five days without sleep, standing, without eating or drinking. He told everything. That kind of torture does not leave any mark. It is very easy. They have very simple techniques.
So, there is all this confusion in addition to the feeling that they have been abandoned. Further, doubt exists about the validity of ordinations done in the Patriotic Church by bishops recognized by the Vatican. There is a clandestine bishop who wrote a study on the episcopal consecrations of the Patriotic bishops. The bishop concluded in favor of the invalidity of these consecrations. It is not enough for Rome to say, “Okay, we absolve you, we approve you”, in order to validate an ordination. If the bishop is invalid, all the priests he ordains are invalid as well. And, as I was saying a moment ago, the young priests who are ordained by the Patriotic Church go to get re-ordained by the underground bishops. There is even a bishop who says he has received bishops of the Patriotic Church who wanted to be reconsecrated. There is a doubt as to the validity of the ordinations and consecrations in the Patriot Church. There is massive confusion.
So, how is it that Rome, by making a sign of the Cross (as I would say), approves an ordination or a consecration? That does not solve the problem. That makes it worse, because by doing that, Rome gives its placet, its blessing, to situations that put into question the validity of the consecrations. It is not enough to say “yes” for it to be valid; it has to be redone.
We can speak of martyrs today in Asia. On the one hand, there are those who are being persecuted, as they are in China by the communist regime which is still in power. On the other hand, we can also speak of martyrs in reference to those who are persecuted by Muslims. Is all this a reality in Asia today?
Fr. Couture: Certainly. We have to be very discreet in our apostolate in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Middle East. We have to be careful. We are really a small handful of faithful. In India, there are still martyrs. There are religious men and women, even priests, who are burned alive or shot dead in front of their convents, orphanages, or churches, which are also burned and destroyed. This happens almost every month. There was a message that circulated a few months ago throughout the whole world, a call for help, for prayers from some Catholics in northern India who were being persecuted violently. And there is the famous incident with the elephants in 2009 in the state of Orissa, in India.
Yes, could you give us your understanding of the events?
Fr. Couture: Well, I do not know all the details, but according to the story, in 2008, angry mobs came into a Catholic village, and killed and persecuted Catholics. I believe they even burned churches and orphanages. The following
year, on the same day, a herd of wild elephants came out of the forest, went into one of the village, and came to attack the houses of those who had terrorized and persecuted the Catholics, but avoided the Catholic homes. It is almost scriptural, like the story of the bears with the prophet in the Bible (4 Kg 2:24). But this time it was in India recently. The archdiocese of Colombo, Sri Lanka, published the story and you can find it on their website [http://www.archdioceseofcolombo.com/news.php?id=851].
It is interesting to see that today the Good God uses, just as He has in the past, the animals and sometimes the elements as well. I am referring to the tsunami in 2004. What was not spoken of in the media, but what we learned on the spot in Sri Lanka, is that two days before Christmas in 2004, the advertisements on the buses and billboards, all throughout the country, but especially in Colombo, in the Catholic communities, there had been a message placed: “Isn't Baby Jesus stupid and weak?” Just after Christmas, they got their answer. Out of the forty thousand deaths in Sri Lanka, thirty-five thousand were Buddhists. Certain temples in southern India were completely washed away, temples where curses are made. (For example, if you have a competitor who settles in your city, you go to the temple, pay the monks, and they will curse your competitor!) One temple simply disappeared.
God is not mocked. There is a God, and Scripture tells us that the elements and creation serve the Creator. Sometimes the Good God uses them. Of course, there are innocent people who perish, as happens everywhere, in war, etc. But divine justice is still there and it exists.
To stay on the same topic, the media has been talking a lot about the recent catastrophe in Japan. What can you tell us about it? What have you been able to learn about it from the Japanese who assist at the Masses you say? What is the situation if the Church in Japan like, and that of Tradition in particular?
Fr. Couture: The tsunami took place last March 11th. Until that day, we had no faithful in the village. A week later, I baptized a young lady whose family came from a village near Fukushima, twenty kilometers from the nuclear plant. The village was swept away by the receding waves. It was a Buddhist village, nevertheless. Well, thanks be to God, the parents of this young lady survived; only their house was damaged. It is a tragedy for Japan; they had terrible fears. They thought the plant was going to explode. Moreover, we had serious reports from very good sources saying that it was going to explode. But it did not explode, thanks be to God.
There is certainly some good that will come of it. Perhaps there will be conversions. Someone in France contacted us for this project and offered to give a miraculous medal to all those who survived the tsunami. Thanks to that young lady who came from the village, we will try to go there in September to meet the townspeople. We will give out miraculous medals so that they may thank the Blessed Virgin that they are still alive, thank the Good God, and place themselves in the hands of the Blessed Virgin.
In Japan, we have two Mass centers: one in Tokyo and one in Osaka, which is about 300 miles or more to the south. They are very small Mass centers. In Tokyo there are fifty faithful, and in Osaka twenty or thirty faithful. None of our faithful perished in the recent tragedy. On several websites (SSPX.org, La Porte Latine, DICI, the Asian District's site) we asked for donations to help the victims. They have truly suffered a great deal.
The Japanese are really very, very grateful, and very expressive of this great virtue of gratitude. We sure need to learn from them how to be grateful. If you give them ten cents, they will make a deep bow, and their gratitude is very genuine and authentic. Now we hope that we will be able to help them once things calm down a little bit. It is still a little risky for the time being. We are going to try to help them in their plans to build something to lodge families that have lost everything. We have a few thousands Euros that have already arrived, and we hope to see, in the coming months, how we can help them.
It is difficult since the people have been evacuated from their villages, as there is still a risk of radiation. They have returned to their families or relatives, and they would like very much to go back to their villages, but they do not know where to go: “Should we go back, should we not?” They are not really sure.
On another note, what is really interesting is the pilgrimage to Akita that we have been making for five years now, in northern Japan. It is the Fatima of Japan, if you will. It is starting to become a large-scale pilgrimage, though, of course, it’s not Chartres. We do it each year on the first weekend in May. This year our numbers went up to fifty. We started with fifteen. So we are moving forward gradually and we’re making good progress.
Often, we have adult baptisms, as we had this year. It is a great joy to see these souls coming to the Faith.
So we ask for prayers for Japan, and if you wish to help materially, please contact us, and we will see what we can do.
Speaking of those opportunities to help, which the faithful have in addition to prayer, you have come to the United States with a book that you are trying to promote, the story of a Chinese woman who was incarcerated by the Marxist regime. It is a very beautiful story divided into chapters that are easy to read. How did you come to know this person and how can the book help both your work, Tradition, and Catholics here in the United States?
Fr. Couture: Mrs Rose Hu spent twenty-six years in the cσncєnтrαтισn cαмρs of China under Mao Tse-Tung, from 1955 to 1981. Thanks to her brother, she came to the United States in 1989. After about ten years going to the New Mass in her parish, she discovered Tradition. Someone spoke to her about Communion in the hand, telling her that Communion in the hand was bad, and she discovered the Society. Now she is a member of the Society’s Third Order.
She wrote this extraordinary account saying, “My twenty-six years in communist prison were the best preparation to be a member of the Society of St. Pius X, the best novitiate for me.” Her book, which is now in its second English edition, has just been re-printed recently by the Society in Korea. This book is now being translated into French and Spanish also. It tells her story, which is very simple, as you say, in very beautiful chapters.
She had converted at the age of sixteen. Seven years later, she was arrested because of the Legion of Mary. In Mao Tse-Tung’s eyes, the Legion of Mary was the vanguard of the Catholic Church in China. The story of the Legion of Mary in China is really extraordinary. Bishop Riberi, who was the Apostolic Nuncio in 1948, felt the revolution coming, and before Mao’s take over in 1949, he sent for an Irish priest, who had already founded the...
http://www.sspx.org/regional_sspx_news/asia/interview_of_fr_couture_7-2011/interview_of_fr_couture_asia_district_superior_7-2011-part3.htmSpeaking of those opportunities that the faithful have to help in addition to prayer, you have come to the United States with a book that you are trying to promote, on the story of a Korean woman who was incarcerated by the Marxist regime. It is a very beautiful story divided into chapters that are easy to read. How did you come to know this person and how can the book help your work, Tradition as a whole, and Catholics here in the United States?
Fr. Couture: First of all, Mrs. Rose Hu is a Chinese woman who spent twenty-six years in the cσncєnтrαтισn cαмρs in China under Mao Tse-Tung, from 1955 to 1981. She came to the United States in 1989, and after about ten years going to the New Mass in her parish, she discovered Tradition. Someone spoke to her about Communion in the hand, telling her that Communion in the hand was bad, and thus she discovered the Society of St Pius X. Now she is a member of the Society’s Third Order. She made this extraordinary statement, “My twenty-six years in communist prisons were the best preparation to be a member of the Society of St. Pius X, the best novitiate for me.”
Her book, Joy in Suffering (available from the Asian District or from Angelus Press), has been published in English and we have just finished the second printing. It was printed by the Society of St. Pius X in Korea. It is now being translated into French and Spanish, and soon will be in Japanese too. It relates her story, which is simple, in very beautiful chapters. When she was arrested, she was twenty-two years old; she had converted at the age of sixteen. She was arrested because of her membership in the Legion of Mary. Everything in her life is linked to the Legion of Mary which, in Mao Tse-Tung’s eyes, was his enemy number one, the spearhead of the Catholic Church in China.
The Legion of Mary in China is an extraordinary story [read more here on the SSPX's Asia District website]. [Arch]Bishop Riberi, who was the Apostolic Nuncio in 1948, felt the revolution coming as early as 1947 (Mao took control in 1949). Then the Nuncio sent for Fr. McGrath, an Irishman, who had already founded the Legion of Mary in his small Chinese parish with extraordinary results. The Apostolic Nuncio said to Fr. McGrath: “Mao will take control very soon. I give you the order to establish the Legion of Mary all over China, because Catholics will have to stand firm without priests.” In two years, he established nearly two thousand praesidia, and that is what saved the Catholics there and prepared many to martyrdom.
Mrs. Rose Hu was part of the Aurora Girls’ school in Shanghai, which was where Fr. McGrath started his national campaign. It was a school for wealthy families, and it succeeded against all odds. It grew like weeds; it spread by the grace of God. Many of those young girls who were later tortured stood firm. The book is her testimony, written under obedience to Fr. McGrath, her spiritual director then (+2000). It was he who told her, “You have to put your story down in writing.” Her book, first written in Chinese, was read on Vatican Chinese Radio, so it is an important testimony. We have just translated it into English, and we hope that, a year or two from now, it will come out in French, Spanish, Japanese and perhaps in German.
Her example is instructive even for us priests, and will likely promote vocations in this wealthy, materialistic world, because it is the example of young people who stand firm in a heroic way.
I’ll give you an example taken from the book, one of the many anecdotes you'll find in it. One time Rose was sick with pneumonia. She was bedridden for two weeks, but was unable to find any medicine. Finally, she managed to have someone send her some by mail. Then, she got better, but as soon as she was back on her feet, she had to go back to work in the fields. As she was passing by a building with her friend Therese, they found an egg on the ground, an ordinary chicken’s egg. For them, an egg was like a bottle of vitamins—it was a gift from heaven! So Therese took the egg and said, “Rose, look! The Good God sent you an egg to get your strength back.” And Rose answered, “But there are people who are still sick. As for me, I am better now, but there are other people who are still sick.” “Yes, but you have to take it, because the Good God wants you to work.” “No, no, no, I can’t take this egg. We’ll talk about it this evening.” So, they work all day in the fields, and came back to their quarters in the evening. They met up with their fellow Catholics, and Rose said, “No, no, no, I cannot take this egg. There are people who are still sick.” So they passed on the egg from person to person, and it went around the whole group of fifteen people, to finally come back to Rose. Every one said, “There are others who are feeling worse than I am.” And even though some of them were dying of hunger, they would say, “No, no, there are other people who need it more than I do.” There could be found a heroic spirit of charity and sacrifice in these labor camps. In the end, they broke the egg, put it in a bowl of water, and made soup with that one egg; they ended up with a spoonful each. And when we asked Rose, “What did you do with the eggshell?” And she answered, “Oh, we ate it, because we could not leave traces.”
Father, India has always received great help from the United States. We take advantage of the opportunity to thank our many benefactors and missionaries who come from the United States. What can you say today to the young Indian who has just been ordained? If you had to give him a few words of encouragement or of priestly advice for the future, what would you tell him?
Fr. Couture: What am I going to tell him tomorrow morning at his first Mass, you mean? This: we have to live the priest’s ideal that His Excellency spoke of this morning. That ideal is to live the vocation of the Society of St. Pius X. As I was saying a moment ago while speaking about the priests and bishops who turn to us for help, the Society is entering more and more into a new period, thanks to Archbishop Lefebvre, who kept not only the Holy Mass, but also the priesthood that goes with the Mass.
Archbishop Lefebvre said, “They are not attacking me personally, they are attacking Tradition.” In the same way—if we continue the same analogy—it is not we who, I would say, put ourselves up on a pedestal in those areas of our missions, but it is rather what we represent: it is a kind of priesthood that has practically disappeared. And that is what I am going to tell him.
The priest has to make manifest those treasures that are linked to the true Catholic priesthood: the Mass, the sacraments, Catholic sermons. In a book published a few years ago in France about those who converted to the Faith at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, our church in Paris, the author speaks of a university professor who received the grace of conversion because she was struck by the fact that before and after each sermon, the priest made the sign of the Cross. These are details that we do not think much of because we do it all the time, but, think about it, a university professor received that grace through these simple signs of the Cross. We really hold in our hands treasures of grace. I remember one of our faithful here in Asia, a doctor and a former Protestant, , who was converted at twenty-five or twenty-six years old at the moment a priest blessed the crucifix her friend had just given her.
So, on one hand, I will tell this newly ordained priest tomorrow, “Always remember what you represent, and that people turn to us because we have these treasures of grace, these channels of grace: the sacraments, Catholic doctrine, etc.” And on the other hand, that alone is not enough. For us, young priests, we must live our ideal.
Priests are not canonized for saying Mass; otherwise all priests would be canonized. They are canonized for the virtues they have practiced, for having lived the holy Mass. That is what other people need to see as well. We young priests in the Society, we need to unceasingly remind ourselves of that fact. When he described the ideal virtues of a priest in his exhortation Haerent Animo, St. Pius X wanted his priests to be holy. And I think this is the most beautiful example we can give, and the most beautiful gift we can give to the people in those places where we send our priests: to present to them priests who not only carry treasures in their hands, the treasures of the Church, but who also live them, who are convinced of the duty that is theirs to lead a life worthy of those treasures.
Father, do you have perhaps a few words for the faithful, a message that you would like to send to them in particular, and perhaps in a more special way to young people?
First of all, thank you to all those who pray for the missions. I know that people are praying for the missions everywhere, in the families, in the schools, adults as well as children. Many times I have been assured that it is so. Every year I receive short notes, post cards from the Society’s schools, even from children in primary school, saying, “Here, Father, we have offered our Lenten sacrifices for the missions.” That moves us. The Archbishop often used the example of the garden hose. We, priests, missionaries, we are at the end, and we see the water flowing out. And then I see these faithful throughout the world praying for the missions, they are at the faucet. So I want to assure you that the graces you pray for are getting through at our end. The graces are coming through. Last Saturday, a week ago, we baptized a Muslim lady in Singapore. A week before that, we had baptized a Buddhist. There are adult conversions. We see it. It is mysterious. But grace is coming through, for sure. Sometimes, it is even simultaneous. I have many proofs of this. I have seen with my own eyes the power of prayer, of the communion of Saints. So, a sincere thanks to all those who pray, who make sacrifices, offer their Communions, their rosaries, those who remember the missions.
On the other hand, the harvest is overflowing. For those young people who are looking for adventure, for a life in which they can be enriched, the missionary life still exists. Pray for vocations, perhaps for your own vocation. Let the young people ask themselves, seeing the abundance of the harvest, “Wouldn’t God perhaps need me too? Why wouldn't He send me too?” As the prophet said, “Send me, Lord! If you need my help, here I am. What wilt thou have me do?” It was St. Francis Xavier, a graduate of the Sorbonne, who wrote around 1544, in one of the most famous passages of his letters to the Jesuits in Rome, “I wish I could run through the hallways of the Sorbonne and shout out to the students, ‘What are you doing? Think of your eternity.
What will you present to the Good God on the day of your death? If you have the time and the talents, don’t waste that time, those talents, your whole life, in vain and useless things. Go, work in the harvest, in order to reap eternal fruits one day'.” St. Francis Xavier saw what was going on; he was in India at that time. He would say the same today.
So, thank you, keep courage, and think about your life on earth and in eternity. Do a retreat if you have doubts, if you are looking for your state of life. It would be good, perhaps, before starting in one way of life or another, to put things straight: “What is the best use I can make of my life, considering the glory of Heaven and eternity?” At the same time, be assured of our prayers. In answer to your prayers, you can be assured of ours, especially that the Good God may plant the seeds of ever more numerous missionary vocations amongst our youth.
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