Monday, February 25, 2008

Today is a very special day for us here on Papa Stronsay, for we celebrate the 259th anniversary of the approbation of our Rule by His Holiness Pope Benedict XIV. It was a great Joy for St Alphonsus, our holy Father, after nearly 20 years to finally have the rule of his congregation approved by Rome.

"Anyone who keeps this rule will be a saint" - Pope Benedict XIV on approving the Redemptorist rule.
On a different note, today we also said goodbye to Br. Dominic Mary, C.SS.R. today, as he left Papa Stronsay for New Zealand, where he will join the community in the Monastery of Our
Mother of Perpetual Succour in Christchurch. We wish him the best of luck.


With the devil doing everything in his power to make things difficult, a storm had blown up, enabling Orkney to say goodbye to Brother in a traditional manner. Here, Brother's 'taxi' awaits him at Papa Stronsay pier.

Brother, in a howling wind, leaps for the boat one last time, while his confreres struggle to hold it at the pier.



Brother heads off for Stronsay. We wish him, and the whole Christchurch community all possible graces and blessings in their work to spread the faith and the love of the traditions of the Church.

5 comments:

  1. Dear Reverend Fathers,
    I rejoice with you at this new:
    thanks God, for your Congregation a New Era begins.

    I wish Br. Dominic Mary, C.SS.R. all the best.

    God bless
    Yours Sincerely
    A.B.

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  2. Our best wishes and prayers Brother, from all at 'Our Lady of the Angels', Stronsay. Good health and God's blessings.

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  3. Happy anniversary to the community, and all the best to Brother Dominic

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  4. I was most impressed by Brother Dominic Mary when we met in Buffalo. A worthy and holy son of St. Alphonsus to be sure.

    Good luck and God-speed, Brother!

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  5. Dear Reverend Fathers,

    The following has been posted on the Angelqueen discussion forum and is making its way around the internet. Could you squash these rumours before they do any damage please.

    Thank you and God bless.
    Michael.

    Quote:
    I have been a regular reader of AQ for about the last year or so, though I have never signed up before as I didn't ever think that I would like to comment on any given subject. I have done so now, however, because I have heard some very disquieting news from a number of high-ranking clerics and influential laymen in Tradition which I think needs to be aired publicly.

    Some time ago, a number of your readers commented on a statement made by Cardinal Hoyos after some/the majority of the people associated with the traditionalist group, Oasis, in Spain rallied to Rome. Cardinal Hoyos said that he was also in negotiation with another traditionalist order which was seeking to "reconcile" itself with the Holy See. Some of your contributors said that they did not believe this, that Hoyos was lying in order to promote more fractures and doubts in Tradition. I say, now, that I am only paraphrasing this from memory, but I am sure the substance is correct. To be honest, I was in two minds as to whether or not this was true.

    However, what I have heard in recent weeks has concerned me greatly. Clerics primarily, but also a number of laymen and women, have told me that there is an Order in negotiation with Rome. That Order is said to be the Redemptorists in Scotland. I want to emphasize the phrase "said to be" because at this stage it is a speculation. I have been told that Fr. Michael Mary has been in Rome talking to the head of the "official" Order's chief. That the Redemptorist website carried a saccharine-sweet and unduly precipitious statement saying that they were humbly and submissively accepting the Holy Father's orders to change the Prayer for the Jews in the Good Friday Liturgy, a prayer that goes back at least 1,200 years, is very strange and very suspicious. The Redemptorists of Fr. Michael Mary have always had a reputation for being "hardline". This being so, this public internet statement goes wholly against the grain. It may be the reed in the wind that provides the clue.

    IF this suggestion that they are going to rally to Rome is true, I will be most upset. My family has been a strong supporter of theirs since the earliest days. All of our family have been enrolled in the Purgatorian Archconfraternity, and we have given generously within our means.

    I want this posting NOT to be the source of gossip, but of one action. That is, that people should write/phone/fax/email Fr. Michael Mary and ask him to confirm or deny that he is negotiations with Rome (said, I am told, to be at a mature stage) and to state publicly, clearly, unequivocally and without mental reservation that he is rallying or that he is not rallying. He does not need to write to everyone personally, he merely needs to post a declaration on their website of the utmost clarity and definition.

    Given that he has had several million pounds donated to him for the project in Papa Stronsay by a wide range of traditionalists, I think that he has a strong moral obligation to state the Truth so that those who are disturbed by this suggestion can be enlightened one way or the other.

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