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FFICIAL DATES for the 2018 Sacred Music Symposium are: JUNE 18-22. And this year, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Fraternity of Saint Peter, we have a very special guest: Fr. Josef Bisig.
FR. JOSEF BISIG played a crucial role in 1988, when Pope John Paul II established the FSSP. Elected as Superior General twice—the maximum allowed—he has generously agreed to offer the Symposium’s final Mass (22 June 2018).
The Symposium committee will begin accepting applications soon.
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Examine incredible testimony (scroll to bottom) from last year’s attendees.
HE Sacred Music Symposium, sponsored by FSSP.la, will once again take place on the beautiful campus of St. Therese (1100 East Alhambra Road; Alhambra, California, 91801). Learn about St. Therese Carmelite School here.
EXCERPT • Intervention of Fr. Josef Bisig
Synod of European Bishops, 8 Oct 1999
WOULD LIKE to say a word about number 69 of the lnstrumentum laboris: we cannot identify ourselves with this image that is given of the traditionalist faithful. Our experience is another one: these faithful are helped by the traditional liturgical forms in their spirituality and feel themselves more closely united to the mysteries of the Cross and of the Resurrection, celebrated in the Holy Mass. Our priests who make every effort to center their priestly life around the Holy Sacrifice of Mass, exercise undeniably considerable attraction to youths who aspire to serve the Church as future priests.
In conclusion, it would seem to me that for a pastoral of hope, our Churches in Europe cannot put aside what makes up their spiritual patrimony; the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter was founded in an act of hope. Far from being nostalgic, its attachment to the Latin liturgical tradition is the bearer of a humble source of continuity. Thus, the living use of the Latin liturgy will have as its effect that of not allowing the language of the Church to be reduced to the literary form of official documents, but to allow a “Cor unum” and an “anima una” of those faithful to Christ.
Historial information about the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter: The Fraternity was founded on July 18, 1988 at the Abbey of Hauterive (Switzerland) by a dozen priests and a score of seminarians. Shortly after the Fraternity’s foundation—and following upon a request by Cardinal Ratzinger—Bishop Joseph Stimpfle of Augsburg, Germany granted the Fraternity a home in Wigratzbad, a Marian shrine in Bavaria that now lodges the Fraternity’s European seminary. In the same month of October there arrived a handful of priests and some thirty seminarians ready to start “from scratch.” As of 15 January 2018, the FSSP has 437 members, including 293 incardinated priests.
Photo credit: John Aron.
Julia Garcia contributed to this article.