Newsletter of the District of Asia  Jan - June 2005 Editorial Dear Friends and Benefactors, Since this Asian Newsletter is now published whenever time allows us to do so, which has become only twice a year, it is impossible to deal with all the various events happening in the period covered since the previous issue. (More frequent news are published regularly on our website www.sspxasia.com, which had, in the month of March 2005 alone, visitors from 116 countries!) First, there is the news of the passing away of the Holy Father, John Paul II. The SSPX Press Release expresses in brief our attitude towards this Pope. Let us pray! This was more or less the attitude of St Alphonsus about 300 years ago at the death of a pope. We cannot but speak next of the Tsunami which has affected our part of the world in a truly tragic way. For our readers who have not yet read the theological considerations, which I wrote on this matter, we publish them here. While in Sri Lanka during the recent month of March, I noticed again some newspaper articles on the same subject, in the tune of "God has nothing to do with natural disasters...". Appalling. "(Only) the fool said in his heart: there is no God." (Ps. 13,1) "and the number of fools is infinite" (Eccle. 1,15) So that "They are inexcusable!" (Rom. 1,20). I would like here to express our deepest gratitude to all those who have donated to help these victims. The gifts ranged from $1 with some candies (from a 4 year old child in the USA, see p. 31) to more than $20,000. By the time of this writing, we have exceeded the US$300,000 mark. With all this, we are mainly helping 1) a refugee camp in Sri Lanka to purchase a property for 130 families (600 people), 2) a fiberglass fishing boat village factory in South India as well as 3) an orphanage for 52 children, also in India. "I was a stranger and you took me in!" (Matt. 25,35) Thank you all and may God bless you! We want to give in extenso the magistral conference of Bishop Bernard Fellay, our Superior General, in November 2004, in Kansas City, USA, on the situation in the Church and on the status of the SSPX. It was published in that month's Angelus, but, since not everyone (unfortunately) do get this SSPX American high quality publication, it is worth reading slowly and completely. The Bishop shows great wisdom in it, and particularly in the use of simple examples to illustrate the sound principles underneath our position within the Holy Catholic Church. While living through all these events, Holy Church at every Mass, our continual and firm anchor in this storm affecting the Church, reminds us to always lift up our hearts by its daily "Sursum Corda" and never to loose sight of the big picture, the salvation of souls, our own immortal souls first, which is an on-going battle at every moment. Since the Blessed Virgin is at the front line of this battle, in order to make her better known ("Qui elucidant me vitam eternam habebunt - They that explain me will have life everlasting" Eccli. 24, 31), we would like to give the first of a series of 3 or 4 articles on the beautiful relations which existed between Jesus and Mary, on the particular aspect of "What Jesus owed His Mother". This is a 1959 conference given in Canada, (translated here for the first time in English, thanks in great part to Rev. Fr. Adrian Wee, a Malaysian Carmelite priest, who, God willing, will soon revive the Traditional Carmelite Fathers!), a conference given by the great and famous Rev. Fr. C. Spicq, O.P. (R.I.P.) who taught Sacred Scripture in the early years of the SSPX Seminary in Econe (1973-4). A very profound insight in how much our Lord was indebted to His beloved Mother, much more than we will ever think. Just to give you a foretaste (Fathers and Mothers! Read carefully!), Fr. Spicq explained that The Holy Virgin had to be perfect in her body, because she had to provide the whole matter from which the body of her child would be formed. But why was it absolutely necessary that the body of Christ be perfect as a human body? Because the human body -or to be more precise, this body which is human in perspective - was going to be united to a soul to form a human composite, was going to be united to a soul whose activity and operations, even the intellectual ones, it was going to determine according to a certain condition and measure. God creates the soul at the moment when he is about to unite it to a body which human generation has prepared. Now, every human soul, including that of our Lord, is identical, not only in nature and in the structure of its species, but also in dignity. There are souls who, on the one hand impart nothing to the body where some of their operations are concerned, being spiritual, they are also immortal. But on the other hand, they also have within themselves the principle of sensible and vegetative life, the "soul" which is the life of the body to which it is going to give its form. In this regard, every soul is of equal worth. Considered as such, there cannot be any difference among souls which is not a difference in species. Such a soul will be more energetic because its spiritual will, will be equipped with a more favourable organism. It has a more delicate heart because its sensitivity will be more complex and dynamic. All our spiritual faculties are conditioned in a large measure by the state of our vegetative and sensitive life. Certainly, the soul is absolutely and definitely not a prisoner of these conditions, but it would be the task of education and virtue to "liberate" the soul from any bodily influence, and everyone knows how laborious this is - this undertaking to correct and repair agift that has been defective from the beginning. Consequently, since all souk are equal and the quality of bodies makes each soul different from the others, we now understand the extreme importance that the body of Our Lord had to be perfect, like any organised body destined for union with a soul. It follows therefore, that the body of his Mother should also be perfect. Not only should the Blessed Virgin Mary be holy but she should not pass on to her Son anything that does not form an integral part of her body. If a special providence on the part of God had not watched over the proper formation of the Mother's body, then on the day of her Son's Incarnation, it would be necessary for the Holy Ghost to multiply miracles in order to preserve the organism of the Infant Jesus from the hereditary stains which his Mother would have albeit involuntarily but necessarily transmitted. But since the body of the Mother was perfect, the body of Christ was also perfect." To finish on an Easter note, have you ever noticed that, on the first Easter Sunday, no one at the Cenacle believed the Holy Women who had seen first Angels, then Our Lord Himself ? It was only when Peter said he had seen the Lord that peace and faith returned in the Cenacle. "The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon!" (Lk 24, 34) This is simply a first application of Our Lord's command: "And thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren!" (Lk 22,32). Now, since "what things soever were written were written for our learning" (Rom. 15, 4), can we not see in this the key to the solution of the present crisis in the Church? In brief: when Peter doubted, the whole Church, in the disciples, doubted and did not even believe the other disciples, and when Peter believed, the whole Church believed, and every one simply took Peter's word for it. The crisis in the Church could end rather suddenly when the Successor of Peter does 'convert and confirm his brethren' in the faith of the Fathers. Oremus. Let us pray that the next pope be that Pope. May the Virgin Mother, Mother of the Church, hasten that blessed day! God bless you. Fr. Daniel Couture District Superior   Priests' Retreat in Tamil Nadu, January 2005 contents