The following letter is taken from The Remnant website. For the full account of how this appeal came to be written, please visit their site. A slumbering church is awakening!
Dear Mr. Michael Matt and friends of the Remnant,
Greetings from Fr. Jonathan Romanoski FSSP in Guadalajara México. As you may have heard the Fraternity of St. Peter opened up its second Latin American apostolate two years ago in the “holy land” of Mexico. I say “holy land” as the area of Guadalajara, Jalisco was in many ways the heart of the Cristero movement less than a century ago, when valiant Catholics rose up, ready to shed their blood in defense of the one true faith that Christ is King of all the earth, against a Masonic government which had prohibited all public worship, and was literally hunting down priests to kill them.
I am sure that you have all heard of el niño Cristero, Bl. José Sanchez del Río, who at 14 yrs. of age, begged his mother leave to join the Catholic army, telling her that never was it so easy to gain heaven as now.
Taken captive, he was told that he would never see his parents again if he did not join the enemy’s ranks. He told them to tell his parents that they would see each other in heaven, and as they stabbed him to death he cried out “long live Christ the King, long live Our Lady of Guadalupe.”
This is the patrimony of faith of our dear Mexican people here, who boast more canonized saints from this one state, than there are in all the Americas combined. The eldest among them still have memories of the persecution when public masses were not permitted. It is a faith that inspires many vocations as well. The Archdiocese of Guadalajara boasts the highest number of vocations in the world, with well over a thousand seminarians, their minor seminaries very much in operation still.
Hence our ever wise superior general deemed it fit to plant the base of the future growth of the Fraternity of St. Peter in Latin America, here in this fertile soil. Yet as we know from the parable of Our Lord, the devil is always sewing chaff to suffocate the wheat of Christ. And the persecution is in some way worse than before, as so many now voluntarily put their faith in danger by viewing bad programs on television, listening to worldly music, and conforming to a pop-culture so poisonous to a good, holy catholic life.
Hence we have plenty of work to accomplish, and it is indeed the crucial time to salvage and foment what remains of catholic civilization, and to speak boldly against modern evils which so few pastors do. We see very much the providence of God in our apostolate here, as we introduce once again the traditional Mass, source and summit of our traditional catholic culture, to the Archdiocese while there yet remains such traditional sensibilities in the hearts of the faithful, despite the ignorance and opposition which so often accompany the first phase of the return of the traditional Mass.
But thanks be to God we were invited by a very traditional Cardinal, who neither allows communion in the hand nor girl “altar-boys.” At the visit of the Very Rev. John Berg, the Cardinal elevated us to the status of a quasi-parish, but with only two more years in the church that we use now. And thus we embark upon an urgent fundraising project to obtain our own property for the exclusive celebration of the Mass of the ages, to continue our work in perpetuity in the land of the Cristeros, and to have one day soon a house of formation for Latin American candidates for the priesthood. And so I beg first of all your prayers, that our Lord grants success to the work of our hands, and humbly ask that you consider in your charity a donation to this important work for the expansion of the FSSP throughout the Americas.
Donations can be sent directly to the FSSP headquarters in Scranton at the address below, noted that it is for the FSSP Mexican apostolate. If you would like more info on our apostolate down here, or if you know of any who might be interested to help us in any way in this project, please feel free to contact us, Fr. Ken Fryar FSSP, padre.fryar@gmail.com; Fr. Jonathan Romanoski FSSP, padre.romo@gmail.com. An American tel. number at which one can reach us is 402-403-1783.
May God himself be your reward!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Donations FOR FSSP MEXICAN APOSTOLATE can be sent to: Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter North American District Headquarters Griffin Road, PO Box 196 Elmhurst, PA 18416
