FSSP
United Kingdom and Ireland

Reading

November 2, 2023

All Saints Party!

Thank you to all who organised the children’s All Saints Day party on Wednesday morning. There were many wonderful costumes, and Fr Phipps was deeply impressed at the knowledge of saints on display in the quiz!

October 30, 2023

All Saints and All Souls

All Saints Day (1 Nov.) is a Holy Day of Obligation – all Catholics must attend Mass on pain of mortal sin, and to the extent possible, abstain from servile works. Masses in Reading will be at 10am (Low Mass), and 7pm (Sung).

After the morning Mass, there will be a children’s All Saints party – come dressed as your favourite saint! Please bring a packed lunch and something to share.

All Souls Day is not a Holy Day of Obligation, but it is strongly encouraged that you attend Mass and pray for the poor souls in purgatory. Priests have the privilege this day of offering three Requiem Masses – three different formularies are provided in the missal. In Reading, there will be two consecutive Low Masses at 10am, and a Sung Mass at 7pm.

Indulgences

A reminder of the indulgences available in November, applicable only to the poor souls in purgatory:

1-8 November: a plenary indulgence is granted for visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead, if only mentally. Partial indulgences are granted to those who recite Lauds or Vespers of the Office of the Dead, and to those who recite the prayer Requiem æternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis (‘eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them’).

On 2 November, a plenary indulgence (applicable only for the dead) is granted to the faithful who devoutly visit a church or an oratory and recite there an Our Father and the Creed.

Only one indulgence may be gained per day. To gain the indulgence, one must be in the state of grace at the time of performing the work, and fulfil the following three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion (both within a few days), and prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff.

September 19, 2023

Dowry Autumn No59 now online

Click here to open the 20-page magazine or on the picture below.

In this issue:

Editorial: The Youth of Roman Traditions

Fr de Malleray reports on World Youth Day in Portugal last August with the Juventutem youth movement. A low-key presence but loaded with many graces, not least the protection of Our Lady of Fatima.

Juventutem Summer Weekend at Ampleforth

Tom Clovis, FSSP describes the successful annual Summer Weekend organised by Juventutem for 70 young adults in Ampleforth Abbey last July, boding well of next summer’s edition for the 20th anniversary of Juventutem.

Good News: Truth Can Be Known

A typed version of the talk by Conan McGonagle, FSSP on objective truth and how we can grasp it. Relativism influences us all. With St Thomas Aquinas, common sense is the best guide to use God’s creation fruitfully.

Priest Novelists: Evangelising through Fiction

The example of Cardinals Newman and Wiseman, among others, illustrates why some priests write novels to reach out to souls. Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP surveys the involvement of clerics in the literary apostolate.

First FSSP House in Ireland

Fr Patrick O’Donohue, FSSP rejoices as the Bishop of Waterford blesses the first permanent dwelling of the FSSP on the Emerald Isle in Waterford. A major encouragement in our Irish mission.

Novel The Island without Seasons

Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP reviews a recent novel by a Romanian author and Tolkien expert. Hero Alexander Wills is sent on a quest for lost Atlantis, a warning to our modern age to have to learn from the past.

Support our Apostolate  

Our ministry depends on the charity of our benefactors: parishioners, visitors and readers. Every little (and big) help enables us to do more and better across these Isles. Thank you for your generosity!

July 30, 2023

Summer reading: Vermeer’s Angel

A publisher, an editor, a novelist and an academic comment on a Catholic novel just released.

Summary:

He survived Hiroshima. He escaped East-Germany. Will he elude the Church?

Deceased art expert Ken Kokura seemingly reappears in Japan, upsetting the plans of priestly diplomats. They fear, lest a ruthless schemer may have stolen his identity. How far will that possible super spy dare to go to subvert Church policy? The answer may be hidden in Vermeer’s celebrated paintings.

Against a Cold War backdrop, friendship, religion, the fine arts, and ideology intertwine. Loyalties are tested, leaving the only alternatives of betrayal or sacrifice. In the Church under attack, the worst infiltration is sin. Safety then will start with repentance.



Vermeer’s Angel is Fr de Malleray’s brilliant debut novel in an intriguing genre that could accurately be called ‘Vatican Noir’. The author’s detailed knowledge of the ecclesiastical backdrop and the artistic foreground make for a convincing ‘high resolution’ world in which ambition, morality, psychology, espionage and high drama intersect.

Pierpaolo Finaldi, Master of the Keys – The Catholic Writers Guild (UK). Pierpaolo Finaldi is also the CEO of The Catholic Truth Society.


A remarkable novel, a tale of Ostpolitik set in expertly orchestrated scenes alternating between the aftermath of Hiroshima and the collapse of Eastern European communism. Ingeniously interweaving the various strands of his fiction with real history, Japanese culture, Vatican diplomacy, Kim Philby’s Soviet spy ring, and a penetrating analysis of art that makes painting come alive, this is not only a culturally sophisticated narrative, but a gripping read, full of human interest.

Robert Asch, St Austin Review.

Writer, literary critic, and scholar, Robert Asch is co-editor of the St Austin Review and of the St Austin Press.


Armand de Malleray’s stunning prose draws the reader into a world of intrigue and uncertainty where nothing is quite as it seems. This is more than just a novel, it is a haunting meditation on the significance of memory, identity, betrayal, guilt and the insatiable human yearning for the Truth.

Fiorella De Maria, author of The Father Gabriel Mysteries

Award-winning novelist De Maria studied Literature in Cambridge and has published nine books with Ignatius Press.


Vermeer’s Angel is a triumph of a novel. It is a startlingly broad canvas that crosses several continents, cultures and decades, unfolding for the reader subtle readings of both artistic masterpieces and men’s souls. It is a novel about the loss of the self, caused by the atomic blast of modernity and the lingering radiation of older ills. It is a novel about memory and about self-betrayal, suffused with a gentle but persistent sense of the need to recover spiritual responsibility in a world of pragmatic compromise.

Brian Sudlow, author of Catholic Literature and Secularisation in France and England (Manchester University Press)

Dr Brian Sudlow teaches at Aston University (Birmingham, UK) and has written extensively about Catholic literature and Catholic thought in France and England.


Published by Arouca Press, 2023.

Vermeer’s Angel is available on the publisher’s website and on Amazon, including for UK customers, whose copy will be printed in the UK and shipped nationwide without custom taxes.

It is also for sale on the Latin Mass Society‘s bookshop.

Size: 23 × 15 × 2.5 cm

390 pages

Paperback £17.50 GBP ; $22.95 USD


See more of Fr de Malleray’s books here.

July 18, 2023

Happy 35th anniversary FSSP

Today, 18 July 2023, is the 35th anniversary of the foundation of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter by a dozen priests at the Abbey of Hauterive in Switzerland on 18 July 1988.


Schedule at St Mary’s Shrine on Tuesday 18 July 2023:

35th anniversary of Foundation of FSSP in Switzerland; St. Camillus de Lellis, Confessor:

  • 12:10pm Holy Mass
  • 5:00pm Vespers
  • 6:00pm Holy Mass

Act of Foundation

Published 

[Original: French]

By this act the undersigned clerics found the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter as a clerical Society of Apostolic Life, in conformity with the dispositions of CIC (can. 731-46), taking into consideration the exemption foreseen in the Protocol of 5 May 1988 and the Motu proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta of 2 July 1988.  This society can associate lay brothers to its work.

The Constitutions, which will specify the goals and the spirituality of this society, are inspired by the approved statutes of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, the society reserving to itself the right to make any changes which it judges necessary by reason of present circumstances.

The undersigned respectfully request the Holy See to approve the said society in the shortest delay possible in order that they may act effectively for the unity and the good of the Church.

Made at Hauterive on 18 July 1988.

[Signatures]

  • P. Josef Bisig
  • Abbé Ph. Tournyol du Clos
  • P. Gabriel Baumann
  • Abbé Christian Lafargue
  • Abbé Patrick du Faÿ de Choisinet
  • Abbé Albert Jacquemin
  • P. J-M. Gervais1
  • P. Klaus Gorges
  • P. Engelbert Recktenwald
  • Abbé Christian Gouyaud
  • P. Franz Prosinger
  • Walthard Zimmer (deacon)
  • [Abbé Denis Coiffet]2

See more documents here https://www.fssp.org/en/presentation-2/documents/.

See FSSP figures here: https://www.fssp.org/en/presentation-2/figures/.

July 7, 2023

Ladies’ Vocation Discernment Day

Facebook page for this event here.

Sat 29 July 2023: 10:00am-5:00pm. For single Catholic Ladies 18+ (under 18 welcome if accompanied by responsible adult family member), at St Mary’s Shrine Church, WA1 2NS, Warrington.

May be an image of 1 person

Conferences on discernment, celibacy and prayer, with Sr Mari Caritas (then visiting from Minneapolis, erstwhile from St Mary’s Shrine) and Fr de Malleray, FSSP. Free. Bring your picnic.

Bookings: stmaryssecretary@fssp.org.

SCHEDULE:
10am Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
10:15am First Conference
11:30am Eucharistic Adoration, Holy Rosary and Confessions
12:10pm Holy Mass
1pm Shared picnic lunch
2pm Conference
3pm Quiet time or individual meeting with Father or Sister
4pm Last conference and refreshments
6pm Sung Vespers (on option)

Watch conference by Fr de Malleray on religious life in general https://www.facebook.com/londonjuventutem/videos/449301119087599

on Poverty, Chastity, Obedience: https://www.facebook.com/londonjuventutem/videos/569868520474876/