Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce
Non
cessant clamare quotidie UNA VOCE dicentes: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Quae patronum
invocat sanctum Gregorium Magnum Papam
2015 - 50th Anniversary Year of the Federation
founded in 1965
Dear Members of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce,
It is with great expectations that I write this letter to all of you, in my new capacity of President of our beloved International Federation.
As you might have been noticed previously, this weekend, thanks to the hard work of our former President, Col. James Bogle (to whom I’m deeply grateful), the biennial Statutory General Assembly has taken place in Rome, with its last event being the Monday’s morning Mass. In this special occasion and according to our statutes, last Saturday the delegates of the FIUV associations proceeded to the election of the new Council, for which we had the largest number of candidates in the history of our organization, coming from all around the world. This single fact demonstrates the wonderful health and relevance that the Una Voce movement has reached, and if you allow me to say, was the greatest way to start the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of its creation.
Five decades ago, in 1965, the first Una Voce meeting took place in Rome with delegates from six European countries in order to gather in defence of the Church's liturgical heritage. Two years later, in 1967, the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce was formally erected when 20 associations approved its statutes, elected a council and a founding President: my predecessor Dr Erich Vermehren de Saventhem.
Currently, in 2015, we have 45 member associations from every continent and the legacy from our former Presidents: the above mentioned Dr. de Saventhem, Mr. Michael Davis, Mr. Ralf Siebenburger, Fra' Fredrik Crichton-Stuart, Mr. Jack Oostveen, Mr. Leo Darroch and Col. James Bogle. This legacy is so important and fruitful that, as the first non-European FIUV President, I neither represent a choice for a change of spirit nor pretend to be a renewed beginning: on the contrary, it is a natural development of a steady and organic growth of the institution worldwide, in the more Catholic sense of the Church, which can be enriched with the different gifts that God gives to his children.
And if someone could dare to affirm that nowadays the Traditional Mass only fits well within a very specific cultural background, our new Council proves it to be very wrong, as could be seen in the list of our new elected councillors and officers whose names I have the great honour to communicate you:
President: Felipe Alanís Suárez (myself) – Una Voce México
Vice-President: Patrick Banken – Una Voce France
Secretary: Juan Manuel Rodríguez González-Cordero – Una Voce Sevilla (Spain)
Treasurer: Monika Rheinschmitt – Pro Missa Tridentina Germany
Councillors:
Alain Cassagnau – Una Voce France
Albert Edward Doskey – Una Voce Cuba
Eduardo Colón – Una Voce Puerto Rico
Fabio Marino – Una Voce Italia
Hajime Kato – Una Voce Japan
Johann von Behr – Una Voce Germany
Joseph Shaw – Latin Mass Society of England and Wales
Marcin Gola – Una Voce Poland
Oleg-Michael Martynov – Una Voce Russia
Othon de Medeiros Alves – Una Voce Natal, Brazil
Rodolfo Vargas Rubio – Roma Æterna, Barcelona (Spain)
All of us, blessed by the physical or moral presence of our Presidents d’honneur:
Professor Count Neri Capponi; M. Jacques Dhaussy; His Excellency Dr. Helmut Ruckriegel.
With special joy, I can announce that the Council has decided to create the honorary office of Past President Consultor, with the informal role of closely and personally advising the President in the main questions raised about the governance of the Federation. This is to recognize and take benefit of the experience of former FIUV Presidents. So, each of them is allowed and respectfully asked to bear this new position personally and exclusively attached to the President in charge, who assumes, of course, the whole responsibility of the decisions he makes. I take the occasion to express my sincere and deep gratitude to my predecessors. As we could verify in our very first Council meeting, to leave our humble skills in the hands of the our Lady who, under the mystery of her Immaculate Conception, will allow us to work in a beautiful concord and unity ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam animarumque salutem.
I would like to assure the member associations of the best of my efforts in this period as President of the Federation and also encourage them not to be afraid to go out and keep fighting together –always with Charity, Joy, Respect and Humbleness– the spiritual combat for the sake of the souls, that in the present and in the future, will be saved by the Holy sacrifice of Christ in the Altar of the Mass.
¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Felipe Alanís Suárez
President of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce
In Rome, 25 October 2015
