First and Final Engagements into the SSPX; New policy for priestly ordinands
At St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, the country’s patronal feast coincides with the date for engagements into the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8.
This year at the Seminary, 19 men gave themselves to the Church through the Society during a Solemn Mass celebrated by Fr. Jurgen Wegner, District Superior of the United States, who also received their promises. Five priests, Five deacons, and one acolyte committed themselves for life to the priestly fraternity, while eight other Seminarians made their first engagements.
This event marked the implementation of a new policy for the Society, requiring that any candidate for major orders be perpetually engaged within her family. The desire of the Church that her clergy be firmly planted in one of her dioceses or religious families flows from the doctrine of the Mystical Body. The more completely we are incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ, the more fully we participate in its life of grace. Of course, we are all incorporated at baptism, and therefore share in the life of Christ, but certainly the Church, a real society, is made up of different families, dioceses and religious congregations, which provide a place and function for each soul. Entrance into one of these families places the soul in closer contact with the life-force of the Mystical Body, realizing its dependence on the same, and directing it with the soul of the Church. For this reason the Society of St. Pius X demands that every soul she gives to the priesthood be submitted to authority, bound for life to her family and in turn bound to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Stability and integrity will be the fruits of this commitment, so needed today. Indeed, it is only by submission to authority in God’s order that we participate in His Charity, which is the true bond of perfection.
Thus Mary, by her fiat, at the Incarnation and at the Cross, entered into the perfect act of man towards God, and of God towards man. We ask her on the feast of the Immaculate Conception to prepare in us a worthy dwelling place for her Divine Son, just as she was prepared by God to be His mother. Then, echoing her we will say: He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His Name.
