https://respicestellam.wordpress.com/2018/10/31/a-most-edifying-story-of-how-catholic-tradition-continues-its-missionary-spirity/

From Oct. 2018

This story is told by Fr Salenave who is based at the St Grignion Seminary near Avrillé in France and shows how the Fight for the Faith is well and truly alive —

Some of our readers ask us for news about the apostolate undertaken among prisoners. Here, we give some fresh and positive news on this subject.

Nothing good and constructive in the supernatural domain can be done without prayer and sacrifice since the salvation of a soul is essentially the work of Our Lord. So we want to give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is to God’s, because if Providence allowed us to visit prisoners when nothing was leading us there, it is through prayer and the intercession of the contemplative and suffering souls here below, that everything was done. And in this case, in this (Belgian!) story, we can be sure that the Dominican lay brothers’ prayers play a very large part. These brothers, however, never leave their convent and have no direct apostolate with  the world and dedicate their lives to obedience, to poverty and prayer.

But by a mysterious providence, our Muslim prisoner was attracted by the Dominican order: he had even put his small group of prisoners under the patronage of Fr. Lataste (OP), a saintly soul from the end of the 19th century. He was looking for a Dominican convent that remained quite traditional and as there is not a multitude of traditional Dominican convents, our ex-Muslim eventually discovered Avrillé. From there, he asked for the visit of a Dominican priest, but as Belgium is far away and we regularly go there for the ministry, it is this way that things ended with a memorable Baptism in the prison, under the no less angry eye of the modernist chaplain than the stunned prison guards.

But things have not stopped there, since our newly baptized soul is a true apostle of the Faith. He managed to gather around him about fifteen prisoners who regularly pray together and watch the traditional Mass on a CD that I could pass onto them thanks to the kindness of the prison governor. No question any more for them to attend the modernist Mass of the chaplain!
In this group, there are not only Catholics. Some Muslims join in and pray the rosary (yes!) And unbelievers also come regularly. All this is perhaps fragile but do we not see the grace that descends on these souls, naturally and socially, the most deprived of this world? All these benefits could not exist if there were no generous souls to pray and sacrifice.

One of the lay brothers of the convent of Avrillé was able to visit the prisoners because of an exceptional dispensation from the prior. He was the object of an immense attention of the guards and especially of the prisoners who wanted all to speak to him, to approach him, to touch his habit, etc … These people understand better than Menzingen and any other liberal tyrant the value of contemplative souls!

In this ministry, we do not neglect confession, in the absence of being able to celebrate the Holy Mysteries, because these converts want, in spite of their past, to believe in the infinite mercy of the Saviour for their poor souls. It is also by this means, in addition to the Rosary and reading, that they find strength to resist prison corruption and various mafia that could bring them back to square one. Regular visits are also necessary for maintaining them as moving from being a public sinner to a real Christian life is not without difficulties. I can also count on the faithful of the region who have invested themselves in this apostolate: visits, encouragement and support in various ways of the prisoners in their efforts. Even children take their share. Let’s all pray for their perseverance!

As Father Pivert said very well to the [SSPX] Capitulants last June: “As for humility, I will tell you only one thing: you are bourgeois and chaplains of the Bourgeoisie. You did not seek to convert them,  you did not send your religious to live among them as Father de Foucauld begged? “

God forbid us to abandon these poor souls in today’s world and to worry only about our material comfort and our personal benefits. It is by giving that we will receive. God allowed the crisis of the SSPX to strip bishops, priests and faithful of big bourgeois possessions and launch them into a real reconquest. May we take advantage of this opportunity offered by Heaven to do good to souls, especially those who may suffer from the gentrification of Catholics of Tradition. May God keep us poor and simple so that any soul can approach the priest without apprehension. It was the true spirit of Archbishop Lefebvre.

May this little chronicle of prison make us understand that Catholic Tradition will survive if it does not lose the missionary sense or the apostolate whatever the contradictions.

Original article – https://cristiadatradicinalista.blogspot.com/2018/10/chronique-apostolique-en-prison.html

Thank you, Mr G. The prison apostolate is one that has always been close to my heart. How wonderful for those prisoners!