Catholic Tradition in Africa, #10 - Society of St. Pius X

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$(N\2601 March 2012 English) - Society of St. Pius X$

Gabonese, as well as for our priests, brothers and sisters of the Society of St. Pius X, because I believe it is a work of Divine Providence. As we said in the beginning, it is a work that has made generous souls devote themselves to the cause of the Mass, the cause of the catechism, the sacraments and Gregorian chant. It is nothing other than the cause of the Catholic Church that they had once known and that they wished to see live on as before, as it always had, and that in Gabon and everywhere in Africa, Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Holy Mother must reign. But some will still say: “But is there no school for girls? You have done nothing for them!” It is true, and yet, I have asked the Dominicans Teaching sisters of St. Pré and of Fanjeaux, but it is not yet God's time. We must pray for this intention. If we want to have good and holy Catholic mothers, I think it is very important to have a girl's school. But the Catholic education of their children is first and foremost the parents responsibility. TCA: Thank you, Father. As a final word, could you tell us the first anecdote that comes to mind when you think of Gabon? Sunday Vespers at the St Pius X Mission 1 – Father MEDARD CTA: Father, you are the first Gabonese to have been ordained a priest in the Society of Saint Pius X. Can you tell us about your first steps at the Mission, the first years of this mission you have known since its foundation, your training in France and at Ecône? Father Médard: Indeed, God deigned to call me to follow him as a priest from my country of Gabon and to be under the banner of the Society which plays a providential role in the Church today – these are the reasons for me to offer humble and continual thanksgiving. I must thank God first, but I must also thank those who were the instruments God used for my vocation. God wanted to make the grace I received to come through the generous priesthood of Father Patrick Groche and Rev. Mr. Karl Stehlin – I say Rev. Mr. because Father Karl Stehlin was still a deacon at the time. These two are part of my earliest memories of the Missionary Fathers of the Society of St. Pius X, and if my memory serves me, it was about March of 1986. I was fourteen years old and I can still see myself accompanying my father to the Mission for the first time, and meeting these young priests in white cassocks. It is a source of pride for our Fr. Groche: I remember an old lady who lived at “PK 52”, who felt that she was dying and wished to receive the last sacraments and see the priest before she died. So I went and I saw this old lady who was lying in her kitchen, which was separate from the house. Yes, I thought she was dying! I heard her confession and gave her Extreme Unction, and I had also brought the Holy Viaticum. All of a sudden she sat up on her mat and said: “Wait, Father, I'll be right back.” She went into the house and came back three minutes later with a beautiful white dress, like she might wear for a First Communion! And it turned out to be her last communion. Eight days later, I came back to bury her. This is a testimony of the people's Faith, which they had known and wanted to possess forever. One last fact: I once asked Bishop François N'Dong why he had wanted Archbishop Lefebvre to be the one who consecrated him bishop. Bishop N'Dong answered that “for him, Archbishop Lefebvre had always been the model of a priest!” May it be the same for us all, with the grace of Our Lord God! � Interview with Fathers Médard Bie Bibang & Paterne Longuelet by the redaction of Catholic Tradition in Africa family. Papa Daniel-Marie Bibang was the second parishioner to come to the Mission, working right from the start for Catholic Tradition in Libreville. Several years later Our Blessed Lord rewarded him by calling his son to become the first Gabonese priest of the Society. At the Mission, I was immediately impressed with the liturgy, even though I did not understand a word of Latin! It was Catholic; there was no doubt about that! It did not take me and my friend Claude Effa very long to involve ourselves as altar servers. And then there was the Gregorian chant – that I cannot forget, there is nothing like it to raise a soul to God. All this was used by God to draw me to Him, but a person needs to know Him in depth. The Fathers possessed the words of Truth. They also taught us Catholic doctrine – those blessed hours of catechism! I must say that all this was happening at the same time as the founding of the Saint Pius X Mission, which was already growing rapidly. Every day there were new parishioners, new children in catechism, new activities, it was all really exciting. At first we served Mass in the Priests living room which served as a chapel, but soon it became too small to accommodate the ever growing number of faithful! I remember the first reinforcements from Europe: Father 2012 - No 10 9 tholic TR DITION frica in A C RIS TUS OMNIA IN OMN CH IBU S - - A S F U T I R C C I A R E T FR S DI AT MI ER CI NI E TA II D TIS I P SA NCT CERD OTALIS SA
2012 - No 10 10 tholic TR DITION frica in A C OTALIS SA CERD SA I P NCT TIS TA E II D NI CI ER MI AT DI S FR T E R A I C C T I R U F S A - S - IBU CH OMN RIS OMNIA IN TUS Loïc Duverger and Rev. Mr. John the Baptist, a seminarian. The Fathers were really resourceful, and nothing could overcome their zeal, not even their sweating under the equatorial sun. What a really great job they did. They taught us all that was Catholic. They put up large tents in order to celebrate the great feasts for all the faithful and they had already drawn up architectural plans to build a church ... Fr. Groche stunned us all with his practical mind and with his talents as a builder. A year and a half later, I left the African continent for the first time. Thanks to the Fathers, I had won a place in one of the Society schools in France, l'Ètoile du Matin, led by Fr. Jacques Laguérie. It was an extraordinary and beneficial grace, a complete formation: intellectual, moral and religious, which forged strong convictions in my soul. Admittedly, I was far from my country and my family and I became acquainted with a Siberian-like cold, unknown to our latitudes. But I inherited a new family, that of Tradition and the warm hospitality of Alsace. And then other Gabonese joined me. I was particularly heartened by the arrival of my younger brother Bruno. When I think back to all those blessed years, all those families who were so generous to us, who, for example, welcomed us during the holidays, I can only renew my grateful prayers for them. You must understand, I discovered a Christian civilisation – we only have a hundred and fifty years of religious history in Gabon! I'm not saying that everything was rosy, far from it, and I also noticed how materialism had in so little time uprooted the Christian ethos even in ancient Europe. But I understand more and more that it also prepared me for future combat. It was almost a natural follow-on from this grounding in a solid Catholic Faith that my vocation became obvious from early on. My parents and the Mission Fathers encouraged me to answer the call from God. So I knocked on the door of the seminary at Flavigny and that became the starting point of a new formation, assuredly one much more intimate with God. Six years in the seminary, which at that time was divided into three years in France and three in Switzerland, at Ecône. So many more graces were gained in training for the priesthood. There were also great sacrifices required, with the constant ideal of becoming a good and holy priest! A Catholic Priest, I became by the grace of God on June 29th, 1998 through the hands of Bishop Tissier de Mallerais. As a Catholic Priest, I have practiced, by the grace of God, for thirteen years, having given the first fruits of my priesthood to Gabon during my first seven years, two at the school, five at the Mission; I have done much in my beloved country. I am now in Canada and have been here since 2005. CTA: What are the benefits, the most notable work the Father Paterne in Donguila foundation of the Mission has made in Gabon, for you and your family in particular? Father Médard: The Mission is a true work of the Church, and as such, a supernatural and divine work. It has brought to the Gabonese souls inestimable spiritual riches, because it is directly concerned with the salvation of their souls. One cannot ask a question about the blessings of the Mission without first answering that the sacraments are worthily administered to such a large number of souls. This is their missionary work, and it will not be removed from them. And then we must speak about the Mass, from which flow so many graces to Gabon. Only in Heaven will we know how all these efforts toward liturgical beauty may have affected these souls. We have to admit it, in Gabon we are in Africa, and it is an extraordinary consolation to think that the Mission has allowed whole families to reject paganism and to convert, or to resume the practice of the Catholic Faith, and with such conviction! I can attest personally to several abnormal matrimonial situations which have been regularised, of children and adults who have made up for their delay in receiving the sacraments. In short, I have seen the profound and magnificent work that grace produces in souls. We must of course also talk about the founding of our primary and secondary school. The solid formation of youth in these schools is a huge benefit for Gabon, both for the state and the Church. I am certain that you will find among our graduates good citizens, good Catholics, and probably even more vocations. Let us not forget to mention the material benefits that make the propagation of the Faith possible: I am speaking of the construction of our church and of our chapels which edified our people, – the fruits of Charity coming mainly from Europe, Africa and elsewhere. Believe me, all this did not happen without effort and sacrifice. Concerning the benefits for me and my family – I can summarise my priestly vocation in this way: it is the Mission which fostered it, and it can do so again today in the hearts of many children of good will. CTA: Do you have a fact, an event, a word that has had a particular effect on you that you would like to tell our readers? Father Médard: Yes. It is an event that proves that God is always able to draw a greater good from evil. The year of the consecration of the four bishops in 1988, Rome having brandished threats of excommunication against the Society, the Diocese of Libreville cleverly used this to snatch our faithful from us and to deter other Catholics from associating with us. Only the diocese did not count on the free publicity it gave to the Mission, many curious people Vocations from Gabon in Ecône
Page 1 and 2: In this issue: Editorial p 2 Gabon
Page 3 and 4: virtues! Our gratitude extends also
Page 5 and 6: Building of the School them before
Page 7: 2012 - No 10 8 tholic TR DITION fri
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Catholic Tradition in Africa, #10 - Society of St. Pius X

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