2013 Annual Lenten Appeal Letter

Fr. Arnaud Rostand
US District Superior

Dear Friend of Catholic Tradition:

This letter is sent full of trust that you've had a holy and fruitful Lenten season as we prepare to rejoice in the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I want to ask you a simple-yet profound-question.  Have you ever thought about what your life would be like without your local chapel or mission?

What would your life look like?  Would you have access to the sacraments?  Would you be walking a tightrope at a "Motu" Mass, never knowing when the "Spirit of Vatican II" might invade the sanctuary? Who would your friends be?  Committed Catholics who urge you to press on when life gets difficult?  Or people with a take-it-or-leave it approach to living faithfully to God's Commandments?

As I tour the US District, I'm struck by how many of you are sincerely devoted to your chapels!  I'm updated frequently regarding the sacrifices and hard work from so many of you toward the maintenance and upkeep of your chapel.  In supporting your chapel, you're participating in an ancient and noble practice that reaches back to the very foundation of the Church (and earlier under the Old Law with the Israelites).   I encourage you to continue to be generous toward your chapel, to visit it frequently, and to make it a worthy house for our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this season of renewal and thanksgiving for the sacrifice of our Lord, I'm asking you to consider a worthy opportunity for almsgiving and make a special gift to your chapel, which depends entirely on your generosity.

As you know, it's the motto and mission of the Society of St. Pius X "To restore all things in Christ," and I trust that you share that goal and strive to achieve it in your daily life.

But you can't accomplish this mission alone. You need the support of priests and religious and fellow laymen.

You need your chapel.  And your chapel needs you.

Consider all the ways your chapel plays an important part in your life, day in and day out.  Think of your pastor.  He says Mass, provides spiritual guidance, and prays for you.  He baptizes, hears your confessions, officiates at weddings, and is there for you at the end of your life. Think of the orthodox teaching you and your family receive-teaching that may not be available elsewhere simply because a church has a "Latin Mass" each Sunday.  Think of the friendships that mean so much to you and your family.  Think of the experiences you share with them that help join you as Catholics against a world that hates you.  All of this happens because your chapel exists.

Your chapel provides refuge from a world gone mad.  When you enter into your chapel, you literally enter into the presence of God's love and mercy.  You share your cares and troubles with Him without the distractions that continually hassle you on the outside.  You receive supernatural graces that sustain you in the fight for the salvation of your soul.  Your chapel, then, is vitally important.

One of the faithful wrote to the District Office recently to describe why his chapel is important to him:

“Our chapel embodies all that is good and noble about the Church.  It has been a home to the True Mass for decades originally serviced by the Society.  For some time its care fell into the hands of others more committed to liturgical customs than doctrinal purity.  Yet, when forces conspired to destroy the chapel-by which I mean not merely closing its doors but ending its mission of resisting the doctrinal and liturgical dangers to the Faith initiated by Vatican II-the Society came to its rescue.  The Society has kept the sanctuary lamp lit, the doors open, and the whole Truth taught from the pulpit.  Although another nearby option exists for those who merely prefer a reverent Latin Mass, our chapel stands open as a gauntlet thrown in the face of the enemies of the Church proclaiming our obligations transcend our aesthetic or liturgical preferences.  The truth matters!  The sacrifices lived out each week by clergy and laity alike to keep the sanctuary lamp lit and the whole Truth alive challenges all Catholics to answer the question: What does it profit a man if he gains a regular reverent Latin Mass but loses his soul nonetheless in the forest of the errors and ambiguities of Vatican II?”

What an eloquent tribute to the generous graces that a chapel yields!

I'm sure you have your own testimonial about your chapel written at least in your heart.

Just as you need your chapel, your chapel needs you and relies so much on your generosity.  I know that it is possible to develop a tendency to take your chapel for granted.  The lights are on, heat flows from the vents, flowers are on the altar, the organ plays-everything seems to be working fine.

But things aren't always as they seem.  There are always needs, both hidden and visible.  Whether your chapel is small or large, new or old, your gift of any size is essential for tending to present needs, planning for the future, and supporting the SSPX in expanding our apostolates.

I know you want to do all you can to help your chapel, so as an extra incentive, I'm offering you unique packages as my way of saying "thank you" for your support (please see insert for photos and descriptions).  

Please join your fellow parishioners this Easter in sending a special gift to your chapel.  What a befitting way to thank God for all that He has given you!

In trusting your souls to the protection of Saint Joseph and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I assure you once again of my gratitude, my prayers and offer you with my whole heart my blessing.

 
Father Arnaud Rostand

P.S.: Your gift needs to be post marked no later than April 30, 2013 in order to be eligible for these special offers!

I find this new letter of Fr. Rostand interesting on a few levels.

First, is in the type of plea for money – to give money to "support your chapels".
It seems to imply, along with his implications in his other letters, that there has been a big “holding back of support” to the US District at large.  When you know how money trickles to the District House, that giving money to the chapels is a main source of income for him.

Second, we have never read in any district letter, EVER, to be reminded “to support your chapel with money” (…), and with such an “appeal”.  In fact, his whole letter was based on it.

Third, knowing there is a staunch resistance against the present SSPX leader's new orientation, that Fr. Rostand now puts injections in his letter of trying to go back, and look like again, the “old” pre-2012 SSPX language: “Would you be walking a tightrope at a "Motu" Mass, never knowing when the "Spirit of Vatican II" might invade the sanctuary?”;  “Think of the orthodox teaching you and your family receive-teaching that may not be available elsewhere…”;  “As you know, it's the motto and mission of the Society of St. Pius X "To restore all things in Christ," and I trust that you share that goal and strive to achieve it in your daily life.”

All the while secretly trying to get a “practical” suicidal agreement with conciliar Rome without doctrine involved.  Remember that the Doctrinal discussions with conciliar Rome were a disaster.

Forth, Fr. Rostand is not being honest with the CAUSE of the problem of why there is such a “lack of support” to each of the chapels –the betrayal of the Faith- in putting the deposit it has received from Archbishop Lefebvre into the hands of the conciliar enemies.  Instead, in Fr. Rostand’s letter, he only wants to “fix” the “effects” of the problem with pleas for more money!

Such is the continued crisis…they are causing.  Like the chosen people in the Old Testament, when they were faithful, there were blessings; when they were un-faithful, there was crisis and chastisement…

During the heyday of the Talks were we not told that the SSPX is a PRIESTLY organization - meaning that the laity should have a minimal input into it's affairs? Some years ago a District Superior visited a Mass Center that had Mass once a month or so. All he did during his stay was sightseeing, even though he had been to this center a few times over the years. When it was mentioned to the Prior of the country that sightseeing was all the DS did, the Prior retorted that the SSPX is a priestly society and that the District Superior was in the country to visit his priests.

During the heyday of the Talks were we not told that the SSPX is a PRIESTLY organization - meaning that the laity should have a minimal input into it's affairs? Some years ago a District Superior visited a Mass Center that had Mass once a month or so. All he did during his stay was sightseeing, even though he had been to this center a few times over the years. When it was mentioned to the Prior of the country that sightseeing was all the DS did, the Prior retorted that the SSPX is a priestly society and that the District Superior was in the country to visit his priests.

Indeed. For example, the Irish District has this note.

http://ireland.sspx.net/miscellaneous/note.htm

NOTE CONCERNING MEMBERSHIP IN THE SSPX

The Society of St. Pius X in Ireland is a Catholic priestly institute with a priestly apostolate, defined in its canonically approved constitutions as a "society of common life without vows." The only members of the Society in Ireland are the priests incardinated in the Society and living in the three residences of the Society, and one professed religious brother.

The faithful attending our churches and chapels are not members of the Society, neither are the priests and religious from other dioceses, orders, congregations, or institutes who may collaborate eventually in our apostolate. The Society is not responsible for their actions, writings, or declarations, and none of them speaks for or represents the Society. Similarly, nobody can speak for or represent the faithful attending our chapels.

The General superior and the District superior are responsible only for their priests, and they exercise their authority exclusively over them and over their apostolate in Ireland. The superiors of the Society are not the "superiors of the faithful", they are the ecclesiastical superiors of the priests.

The Society in Ireland is not affiliated with any organization or publication, religious, educational, cultural, or political, and it does not endorse directly or indirectly any religious, educational, cultural, or political association.

Any contrary claim by individuals or associations is a fraudulent one.

The Neo-SSPX won't get a cent from me. When they return to truly remaining faithful to the mission of Archbishop Lefebvre, then I'll give them money. Until then, no way.

Absolutely!!!

....and furthermore.....no supporting of the SSPX until the deceivers, betrayers, imposters, and habitual offenders of the Truth are permanently removed.

 :boxer:

, so as an extra incentive, I'm offering you unique packages as my way of saying "thank you" for your support (please see insert for photos and descriptions).

What are these "unique packages of incentives"?

PATHETIC!!!  That letter was pathetic.  In over 35 years of supporting the SSPX I have NEVER read such a request for donations.  To hear Fr. Rostand try and use guilt, emotion, and sentimentality to generate funds was downright embarrassing!  The SSPX has never had to stoop to such tactics to support their endeavors.  They must be desperate!  They have gotten in over their heads!  They will never be able to support that monster seminary!

As Bishop Williamson once said.  “Where a man’s heart is, then so is his treasure”.  It is obvious that the SSPX is losing the hearts of the faithful.  

I took a broad red marker and wrote on the appeal “No donations till +Fellay and Rostand are gone!”  

Bowler, unfortunately there happens to be two independent chapels just about ready to be given away to Fr. Rostand: one in Indiana; the other in Wisconsin. There are protesters and they have been stalling, but I fear there are not enough of them. The deadline for the decision to turn the Indiana chapel over is mid-April.