A quick exercise:

1. Take a map of the U.S.A.
2. Put in 2 push pins: 1 for Winona, MN (the old seminary location) and one for the new seminary location.
3. Put in a push pin for Washington DC.
4. Note how much closer the Seminary is moving to where stuff "happens" over on the East Coast. Much more wealth and population there. Within driving distance rather than 1000 miles away, etc.

Before, the seminary was in a more "survivalist friendly" location. Away from large population centers, cozily tucked into the middle of "flyover country".

In 2001 or 2002, Bishop Williamson was getting a natural gas tank and generator installed. The seminary already had quite the farm setup -- garden, orchard, pigs, chickens, cows, and much of our food came from there. 100% of our fruit preserves (for daily breakfast) was produced from the land and the volunteer work of the canning ladies. He infused reality into daily life, trying to re-form the minds of the seminarians who lived there. It worked on me; I don't know about the others. Even small things like having the chef bake bread rather than buying the ridiculous stuff that passes for bread at the store. Everything was "real". Very down to earth and connected to reality. The seminarians did all the chores, the maintenance work, and even chopped wood which provided 1/2 of our heat every winter. And let's not forget +W's famous guideline for when the heat came on every winter -- let's just say he made us wait a bit.

He was trying to make real men out of us. And even though the minimum age was 18, there were plenty of boys entering the seminary :)

And I believe he succeeded with many of us. Remember the saying "nemo dat quod non habet" (no one gives what he doesn't have)? So I'm not surprised that +W was able to help teach us how to be men. He's a man himself.

As many people know, he also expects a chastisement in the near future. He also had a speaker come in and give a talk to the seminarians about biological, chemical, and nuclear warfare survival. He is very friendly to the survivalist movement. He would never have wanted to move the seminary anywhere near the East Coast (of course, it was never up to him).

When I first came across the SSPX about 10 years ago there was a lot of talk about how "pedigree" played a large part in SSPX seminarians.  This was among the mother's that were from there.  In spite of being a newbie, this kind of talk was made quite openly.  I guess this is why they needed to build a new seminary - for wealthier more affluent "pedigreed" seminarians.

It is ludicrous to build a new seminary when the current one has everything necessary, including room to build.  The cost of fixing up and expanding the current one would be far less than building from scratch.

Marsha

The SSPX video of the "new" seminary as envisioned several years ago:


Survivalism indeed.  It seems to me that the new seminary information as presented on the SSPX website http://www.newseminaryproject.org/ is the opposite of survivalism.  The SSPX is making their case that the new location has the ability to even have a brewery and book bindery of all things that will help sustain itself.  In the event they plan to invite outside parties into the grounds to buy this or that, this will certainly impact the "soaked in silence" goal their initial videos of the seminary touted.  

We were told the new seminary would allow the seminarians to " feel the presence of God " and I suppose by saying this, the old location did not allow this???

Say anything to get the stupid laity to give, is that it?  

Finally, we were told the "new" seminary would "spread the love of Jesus Christ to all who are looking for the truth".  What?   The "old" location did not allow this?  What is the purpose of a seminary, gentlemen??  I always thought it was about forming priests, period.  

List me in the category of "dizzy and disgusted" with wallet closed. Please people, throwing money at this project is throwing it down a rat hole and by the way, the chapel is not even to square one.  Perhaps they should have built a chapel first?  Where are the priorities?   The SSPX will still keep their old location but use it for a different purpose.  So much for saving on maintenance.  Who would do this kind of financial ѕυιcιdє?  Where is the wisdom?  

Quote from: Matthew

A quick exercise:

1. Take a map of the U.S.A.
2. Put in 2 push pins: 1 for Winona, MN (the old seminary location) and one for the new seminary location.
3. Put in a push pin for Washington DC.
4. Note how much closer the Seminary is moving to where stuff "happens" over on the East Coast. Much more wealth and population there. Within driving distance rather than 1000 miles away, etc.

Before, the seminary was in a more "survivalist friendly" location. Away from large population centers, cozily tucked into the middle of "flyover country".

In 2001 or 2002, Bishop Williamson was getting a natural gas tank and generator installed. The seminary already had quite the farm setup -- garden, orchard, pigs, chickens, cows, and much of our food came from there. 100% of our fruit preserves (for daily breakfast) was produced from the land and the volunteer work of the canning ladies. He infused reality into daily life, trying to re-form the minds of the seminarians who lived there. It worked on me; I don't know about the others. Even small things like having the chef bake bread rather than buying the ridiculous stuff that passes for bread at the store. Everything was "real". Very down to earth and connected to reality. The seminarians did all the chores, the maintenance work, and even chopped wood which provided 1/2 of our heat every winter. And let's not forget +W's famous guideline for when the heat came on every winter -- let's just say he made us wait a bit.

He was trying to make real men out of us. And even though the minimum age was 18, there were plenty of boys entering the seminary :)

And I believe he succeeded with many of us. Remember the saying "nemo dat quod non habet" (no one gives what he doesn't have)? So I'm not surprised that +W was able to help teach us how to be men. He's a man himself.

As many people know, he also expects a chastisement in the near future. He also had a speaker come in and give a talk to the seminarians about biological, chemical, and nuclear warfare survival. He is very friendly to the survivalist movement. He would never have wanted to move the seminary anywhere near the East Coast (of course, it was never up to him).

It wasn't until several years later that I appreciated the survivalist aspects of the formation we were given.

As my view began to encompass more than just the strictly religious field, I began to see the wisdom of that man.

Eventually, I embraced the survivalist aspects, and even wrote about it a few times, such as here at Mr. Wansbutter's defunct blog:

http://rencesvals.blogspot.com/2010/09/guest-article-on-preparedness-part-i.html

If anyone cares, you can find the subsequent installemnts easily enough.

SeanJohnson, I've spent several enjoyable hours today exploring this website - fantastic.  Thank you so much.
(and I like your contributions there, fwiw)

The "powers that be" on Capitol Hill and heads of corporations, etc. live in Virginia and in Rockville, Potomac, and Bethesda--three cities in nearby Maryland.  They are all within easy distance to the seminary.  Government officials, heads of corporations, you name it.  They've got money to burn and are always looking for places to donate for tax write-offs.  It makes little difference to them personally what the donation goes for--at least for those I knew and their friends and I knew many.  I definitely think this is very strategic planning.  Virginia is where you schmooze and booze with the best.  Plans are made in Virginia and carried out in DC.  It's where the action is.  You can find funding for anything there.  In my opinion, it's a wise location for an organization that needs funds and easy access to those who control many and varied institutions.

I do wonder if the fact that the world's embassies are in DC plays any role in this undertaking now or in the future.  It's much easier to go to an embassy by limousine than fly to a country.  I realize embassies are secular but the line between secular and religious is becoming less pronounced all the time, unfortunately leaning in the wrong direction.

Speaking of flying, there is Dulles International Airport in Virginia and National Airport in DC.  Maybe "National" is now called Reagan?    

You also have the (is it) Apostolic Delegate/Nuncio(?) -- the person who represents Rome -- in DC.  It is a small mansion that can accommodate a large crowd if they still use the same place.  It's just a couple of miles up the road from downtown DC.  I can't remember the official title of the person right now.  

Virginia's countryside is beautiful and very inspirational.

And speaking of inspirational, there may still be many motherhouses of the various Religious Orders around the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC.  Maybe they are hoping to get some transfer vocations.  

Anyway, the seminary is in a very convenient place to access anyone by various means while still being in a lush countryside location which should be spiritually enriching--unless a local Hunt Club comes through often on horseback chasing foxes!  I don't know why they don't invest in show horses or some sort of equestrian sport.  Virginia is horse country at its finest.

.

Winona is a perfect setting for the formation of SSPX priests, so long as you presume from the start that the priests being formed would be the kind that ABL had in mind, fighters for the Faith of Catholics.

It is ludicrous to build a new seminary when the current one has everything necessary, including room to build.  The cost of fixing up and expanding the current one would be far less than building from scratch.

Marsha

Notice we are never given a truthful explanation of the real reason behind this obviously nonsensical decision to build a replacement seminary in Virginia.  We are given a lot of doublespeak rhetoric, which upon cursory examination, gives no real reasons, and is therefore only smoke and mirrors (like almost everything else coming out of Menzingen these days).

The video below claims they did not have room in MN, with too many applicants and they were housed 3 to a room.  But the land area they had there is plenty big enough for expansion.  The "problem" they were facing was not the one they claimed it was.  

Now, just a few years later, after the nefarious shenannigans in Menzingen (plus other factors) the erstwhile burgeoning list of new seminarians is suddenly shrinking, with fewer applicants this current year than in many previous years.

The SSPX video of the "new" seminary as envisioned several years ago:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/embed/KgOS9m-SBHg[/youtube]


Survivalism indeed.  It seems to me that the new seminary information as presented on the SSPX website http://www.newseminaryproject.org/ is the opposite of survivalism.  The SSPX is making their case that the new location has the ability to even have a brewery and book bindery of all things that will help sustain itself.  In the event they plan to invite outside parties into the grounds to buy this or that, this will certainly impact the "soaked in silence" goal their initial videos of the seminary touted.  

We were told the new seminary would allow the seminarians to "feel the presence of God," and I suppose by saying this, the old location did not allow this???

Say anything to get the stupid laity to give, is that it?  

Finally, we were told the "new" seminary would "spread the love of Jesus Christ to all who are looking for the truth."  What?   The "old" location did not allow this?  What is the purpose of a seminary, gentlemen??  I always thought it was about forming priests, period.  

List me in the category of "dizzy and disgusted" with wallet closed. Please people, throwing money at this project is throwing it down a rat hole and by the way, the chapel is not even to square one.  

Perhaps they should have built a chapel first?  Where are the priorities?  

The SSPX will still keep their old location but use it for a different purpose.  So much for saving on maintenance.  

Who would do this kind of financial ѕυιcιdє?  Where is the wisdom?  

Add to this the little murmurings of "pedigree" mentioned in another post.  They're looking for applicants from families with lots of money.  There have been some recent applicants from independent chapels who have been marginalized and sidelined and discriminated against at Winona because (they said) they had not come from SSPX schools and parishes.  Upon further examination, maybe they also did not come from families with lots of money.  But in any case, these young men came away from Winona saying that if they had to choose between becoming a priest in the SSPX or not pursuing their vocation, they would choose the latter.  

That provides another clue for what's really going on.  

A big new seminary in close proximity to Washington D.C., with all the associated allurement of worldliness close at hand -- and this is supposed to give the seminarians a "soaked in silence" environment, a place where they can "feel the presence of God?"

At a time when SSPX chapels worldwide are not expanding but rather being closed down (here and there, small numbers) and good priests are being expelled (+F claims they are also "small numbers"), while Resistance priests are having a hard time keeping up with the demand for new groups who request their visits for Mass, a new and LARGE commitment to a new seminary is undertaken with insufficient funding, the erstwhile growing numbers of new seminarians is suddenly shrinking, and the contributions of the Faithful are declining as well (for many reasons most of which are traceable directly to Menzingen!), there is only one reasonable explanation.

The real purpose of this seminary is something other than what they say it is.

One possibility is that as the SSPX surges on to its financial nosedive, it feels the need to make big plans erupt as if in denial of the ongoing crisis.  Another is that the longstanding push for 'normalization' with the modernists in Rome would be enhanced by the prospect of allowing NovusOrdo seminarians to supplement the empty spaces in the new Virginia seminary, in which case, it would be touted as a "win-win situation."  

If the latter is the real deal, you can expect all the more to hear positive words from Menzingen about what happened in Rome this past Quasimodo Sunday, at least liturgically.  Sure, +Fellay will stick to his principled opposition to WHAT was done (canonizing popes who were not models of virtue), but nonetheless he will admit to being impressed with HOW they conducted the liturgy, for after all, if ABL had seen canonizations celebrated like that, he might not have taken the step he did!!  

And when you do hear such words, just keep in mind, that NovusOrdo seminarians will likely be soon to arrive at the new seminary.  And furthermore, you can expect an increasingly malleable format to liturgical practices at your local SSPX chapels.  It will not be acceptable to have a militant spirit anymore.  Militant spirit priests are shown the door, and so too militant spirit seminarians shall not be countenanced.

The new breed of seminarian will have to be able to rub shoulders with their NovusOrdo neighbors, and the words of Rodney King will echo in their minds:
.

A couple of things you overlook, for the record.

1) Archbishop Lefebvre chose to put the first US Seminary in one of the most affluent neighborhoods within spitting distance of the the largest metropolis in the U.S.

2) It is well-known that Bishop Williamson and Father Pfeiffer were very interested in a plot of land north of Ridgefield along the Hudson River in 2006 as an ideal site for the Winona replacement and together made visits to the site. Perhaps Adrian Hammers was more important than cows and pigs at that point.

  Just a note :
   The first Seminary of the Society of St Pius X in the United States was in the countryside of Armada, Michigan-- hardly  next to a large metropolis.It was a run-down old building with lean-to's and a couple of trailers-- certainly not splashy or gold-gilt.
     Not until the acquisition of Ridgefield, Connecticut  by Fathers Kelly and Sanborn, was the seminary then moved to Ridgefield; which, by the way, offered many of the amenities of a small town, yet also the access to major sufficient airports and highways for the necessary transportation to the weekly missions.

    One has to think that , as of 2006, Bp. Williamson was still being fooled by the traitors in Menzingen, and thus obediently reviewed available buildings and seminary possibilities.