Report FIUV General Assemblee in Rome - 2005
This report was originally filed by William Basile as attendee of the Rome meeting of the Una Voce International Conference representing Una Voce America.
Some additional texts here are edited by Jack P. Oostveen, president
Saturday October 7th. The first impression that perhaps everyone had upon meeting was a sense of loss with the absense of Michael Davies and Eric de Saventhem who both died over the past year. While we have some excellent leaders in FIUV, it will be nearly impossible to compensate for the loss of these two. Dr. De Saventhem alone served for over 25 years as president and his leadership was always felt in the conferences. So we started by remembered prayers for the repose of the souls of our recently departed brethren. Count Neri Capponi and Helmut Ruckreigel were the senior members at the event and we benefited from their continued presence and sage advice during the proceedings. The formal events on Saturday progressed well, with some spirited discussion along the way, with regards to the election of the President and Council members. By the time the day had ended, the new FIUV President was announced: Fra Frederick Crichton-Stuart of Una Voce Scotland. After the meeting was over, Fra Frederick engaged in an interesting discussion and he mentioned especially that he appreciated learning more the situation in the U.S. and how Una Voce America provides a lot of authority to the local chapters, in contrast with other international groups. Fra Frederick recognized that UVA has perhaps the most dynamic worldwide organization in terms of approved Masses and member involvement (although the sheer size of our country is a major factor) and that UV America’s approach has seen some significant results and perhaps other associations could benefit from our concepts of teamwork and committee membership.
The Sunday program brought some informative talks from priests of the Institute of Christ the King and the Fraternity of St. Peter.
Mgr. Giles Wach of the Institute of Christ the King gave an informative view of the work of the Institute and its growth over the past years.
Mgr. Wach opened by saying that the Institute was doing well because the Church was doing badly, and that he would prefer that it were the other way around. He made an interesting aside about what he has discovered about American Catholics that he has encountered, and he was surprised to see the great devotion and enthusiasm from the faithful in various locations, as well as the friendly cooperation of several bishops. The European delegates seemed interested in this, and perhaps that opened some eyes and minds about the good quality of many of our American Catholics -- and the strong contribution we have really made to the Church. In the past, perhaps many might have thought that we were only good for having large bank accounts from which various groups might appeal for funds -- but clearly, we offer much more than that in terms of our religious devotion and drive to create living parish communities. The Institute is very happy about Pope Benedict. Msgr. Wach said that we must stay firm and not give in to pressures for concessions, but be charitable and diplomatic.
Father Bisig of the Fraternity of St. Peter reminded GA-delegates that during the next months unity between priests and laity is very important. We shall pray and hope that the plans of Cardinal Ratzinger will be realized by Pope Benedict XVI.
Father Bisig offered the FIUV his condolences for the death of the two honorary Presidents,Michael Davies and Eric de Saventhem, mentioning that Mr. de Saventhem was one of the initiators of the traditional apostolate in the USA and then followed with an interesting report on the continued growth of the Fraternity of St. Peter around the world. The seminary programs in Europe and America are both growing, and more bishops are welcoming Fraternity priests.
Then Father Bisig read a letter from Father Devillers to the GA describing new developments in the FSSP
Msgr. Perl of the Ecclesia Dei Commission then spoke to our group and also offered some encouragement as well as some caution about expecting a timeline for new legislation from Rome. It was clear that Msgr. Perl knew that changes (whether the PAA or a Universal Indult) were at least in serious discussion in Rome, and very likely to be implemented (one or the other) within a framework of time, but the PAA (Personal Apostolic Administration) carries significant problems, not the least of which are the many concordats given between the Holy See and various European countries which would have to be amended or entirely re-written before a PAA could be established anywhere there. So, while we've heard the message of "wait and be patient" for many years already, most delegates interpreted Msgr. Perl’s comments as containing a promise of significant steps forward for the traditional Mass in the near future.
Following Msgr. Perl's talk there were some excellent talks by Miklós István Földváry of our Hungarian delegate and our newest association in Belorussia, mr. Aljaksandar Jan Stralcou-Karwacki from belarus. In the former case, we heard about some good strides taken with the hierarchy and some outstanding musical and language initiatives among the faithful in Hungary. The delegate from Belorussia made a direct appeal to the FSSP or Institute to send priests because there is a bishop who is suffering from so few clergy that he is willing to take traditional Mass priests just to meet basic needs in the diocese.
At the end of the 1980's there were 2.5 million baptised Catholics in Belarus and only about 70 Catholic priests who were quite old and often of Polish origin. During the Russian occupation there were nearly no outside contacts so that the liturgical changes were implemented very slowly. When young priests came from Poland the NOM was established in Belarus, especially as it is used in the two seminaries. Now there are some 500 priests in Belarus. A priest of the FSSP is celebrating the traditional Mass in Minsk and some old priests are celebrating it in their local churches.
The NOM is not completely "new", i.e. there are still some traditional elements, such as celebration versus Deum, receiving Holy Communion on the tongue. Therefore it is difficult to argue for the classical Roman rite to be necessary. Groups like Neocatechumenate come from Poland and try to find supporters.
With the exception of one bishop the episcopate in Belarus is conservative. It is important that priestly fraternities/institutes get into contact with the hierarchy, e.g. with the auxiliary bishop of Minsk.
Fr. Bisig immediately offered his support and we believe something very good will emerge from that.
We also had the pleasure of hearing from the delegate of the newly created Russian association and he’s a very young man (as were the leaders of the other new associations) and we owed the emergence of these Central European groups to Ralf Seibenbürger’s work in that part of the world, (for which we acknowledged Ralf). The situation for Catholics in Russia and other ex-communist countries is radically different than what we have in the West and the struggles that traditional Catholics face there are based on perhaps a more primary level of Christian survival and hope than where Catholicism is more widespread and taken for granted. It’s important for UVA to keep a good awareness of others in far reaching countries also (although it is often difficult to stay in touch with them or reach them) and I offered our prayers and support as much as we are able.
After most of the delegates left, I was able to stay an extra day on Monday and I had a profitable meeting privately with Msgr. Calkins of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. Msgr. Calkins has a good understanding of the pressures and difficulties that American Catholic traditionalists can face from various sides, and he offered some suggestions for use by the UVA Board on governance matters, and confirmed his help on our current efforts in organizational restructuring — as he has already contributed some advice in that matter prior to this meeting.
On the question of “when can we expect ... whatever”, Msgr. Calkins didn’t know about when upcoming legislation could be expected from the Holy See, but he echoed Msgr. Perl’s confidence that something of benefit to the traditional Mass would be forthcoming (the PAA or Universal Indult). We discussed also the dangers of schismatic developments that can occur within our ranks, as well as varieties of sedevacantism which have given some lack of credibility to those trying to prove that the movement for the traditional Mass will actually draw people closer to the Church.
Msgr. Calkins mentioned that his office continues to get a steady stream of mail from around the world, but that most of the requests and complaints are not matters that fall to his office to take action with, given the limitations of the current structure of the Ecclesia Dei Commission. At the end of the weekend for the General Assembly this year, it was clear that FIUV was well-positioned to continue offering its unique service in support of the faithful in the Church for future generations.