Anexo B: Entrevista com o Padre Michael por John Vennari (original en inglês)

http://www.archconfraternity.com/News/Interview_Fr_Michael_Mary_2006.htm

**Transalpine **Redemptorists and the Purgatorian **Archconfraternity

Note: Catholic Family News Editor John Vennari interviews Father Michael Mary, founder and superior of the Transalpine Redemptorists, about the religious community and the re-establishment of the Puragatorian Archconfraternity.

J. Vennari: Father Michael Mary when did you become a Redemptorist?

Father Michael Mary: At the age of seventeen I entered the Redemptorists and was professed at the end of my novitiate in 1972. I did the course of studies provided by the province to which I belonged and was duly ordained a Redemptorist priest in August 1978. After that time I preached missions and was also attached to the Ukrainian Byzantine rite.

J. Vennari: How were the Transalpine Redemptorists founded?

Father Michael Mary: In March 1987 I arrived at Econe in Switzerland, having been sent to meet Archbishop Lefebvre by a priest of the Society of St. Pius X. I had been studying the important subject of the New and Old Mass since January 1986 and had reached the stage of being unable in conscience to say the Novus Ordo Mass any longer: even although I had said it since my ordination in 1978. I needed to see the Archbishop to discuss the matter, of my ordination which had been in the Novus Ordo. Having examined the matter he proceeded to my conditional re-ordination. It was a great relief. I remained on at Econe during the next fifteen months.

It was during this time that the traditional priest and personal friend of Archbishop Lefebvre, Father Epiney, paid me a visit to propose to me the idea of returning to the traditional Redemptorist Rule and beginning a Traditional Redemptorist monastery. He told me to ask the Archbishop. It took some time to ask the Archbishop. I was not sure how it could be done. However I finally asked the Archbishop for an appointment and he told me to come the next day which was December 3, 1987. I explained about the visit of Father Epiney and the thought of beginning a traditional Redemptorist foundation. The Archbishop was silent for a little while thinking about the matter and then he asked me: “Where will you begin?” I replied that I had no ideas on how to do this. He then gave me some advice and encouragement. The foundation had his blessing.

A few days later on December 8, I had an interview with Cardinal Gagnon who was visiting Econe as the representative of the Pope. I told him of the proposed foundation. His response was quite amazing for me to hear. He also was positive. He said that: The Redemptorists needed a reform; that he, as the head of the Pontifical Commission for the Family had tried to have Redemptorist Father Bernard Haring silenced for his unorthodox teaching but he had not had success; he said that we would have to be like St. Teresa of Avila and work ‘outside the structures’ of the Church and then he made the negative statement that I would have difficulty finding young people to enlist in such a reform. This appeared to me as God’s seal of approval on the project. I remember thinking later that that was the Pope’s personal representative to Traditionalists. He had come in the Pope’s name. Why did he not say to me: “Listen to me, young man, you get home to your province and do what you’re told”? Just the opposite: he left me with a clear indication of approval. The proposed foundation sounded like the kind of scene from a spy movie where the Authority is giving approval for the undertaking but if the mission goes wrong the Government would know nothing about it.

J. Vennari: And so at that point did you decide to begin the traditional Redemptorist?

Father Michael Mary: I’m afraid not. It is true the Archbishop blessed it. The Pope’s representative encouraged it. But I was a foreigner from Australia living in Switzerland thousands of miles from home. How could it be done? Where would I start? And more importantly, who would begin with me. There was one person who could begin with me. He knew of the project but he was a seminarian for the Society of St. Pius X and it was not sure that he wanted to begin; and his Spiritual Director had not given his permission. So we both turned to Our Lady of Fatima; She had led me thus far She must show the way ahead. It was therefore decided that we would make a pilgrimage from Econe to Fatima to pray for the grace to make the right decision and to consecrate ourselves to Her Immaculate Heart. The pilgrimage was to involve a novena of Masses. The first was the midnight Mass of Christmas 1987 and the 9th was the First Saturday of January 1988.

During the pilgrimage I offered Mass in the grotto at Lourdes, at the altars beside the bodies of Jacinta and Francisco. On the last day of the Novena we went by bus to Coimbra where we kept Our Lady company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary and in the rain in the evening we made Lucy’s Mile on our knees. The seminarian, who is now our Father Anthony Mary, said he wanted to join me in the foundation if his Spiritual Director gave his blessing.

J. Vennari: And the blessing was given then?

Father Michael Mary: Yes. Our Lady had done more than was necessary. When we arrived back at Econe not only did Father Anthony Mary receive the blessing to be the first novice but the Archbishop announced at table that “the first stone of the foundation had been laid” we would have a place to begin the foundation! Divine Providence put everything in place.

We began on August 2, 1988 on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, England.

J. Vennari: What does “Transalpine” mean?

Father Michael Mary: Transalpine comes from the fact that we were founded firstly as “Traditional” Redemptorists. This appellation was contested by the Novus Ordo Redemptorists who wanted us to be separate from them. They claimed that they were the “Traditional Redemptorists.” We were forced to change our name. Therefore, to make a difference between our foundation and the parent body of Redemptorists we chose the name “Transalpine Redemptorists.”

This name, Transalpine Redemptorist, was a holy inspiration because it is, in fact, better than the first name “Traditional Redemptorists.” “Transalpine Redemptorists” refers to the Redemptorists who were under the Vicar General St. Clement Mary Hofbauer. During the 1800’s the Redemptorists were separated into two groups: Those who were based in Pagani in the Kingdom of Naples and those who were across the Alps in Warsaw and Vienna; these latter being the “Transalpine Branch” of the Congregation. We do not claim to be the only Redemptorists in the world. But we claim that we are a branch of Redemptorists; begun during this crisis in the Church. It is a name that does not say a lot to the Faithful Catholics but it says a great deal to Redemptorists. It says: For the moment we are “separated” but we have the hope that in the future we will be reunited just as the earlier Transalpine Redemptorists were finally reunited. We see that hope for reunion when the Novus Ordo Redemptorists return to the traditional Rule of St. Alphonsus and the traditional Latin Mass.

J. Vennari: Where are you now located?

Father Michael Mary: We are located on the island of Papa Stronsay in the Orkney Islands which about 30 miles into the sea off the northern tip of Scotland. The Orkney Islands are on the 59th latitude which is equivalent to being a few miles south of Anchorage and about the same as Lake Athabaska and Uranium City in Canada. Within the Orkney archipelago our island, of which we are the only inhabitants, is one of the northern islands about 20 miles north of the Orkney Mainland. Papa Stronsay measures roughly one mile by one and a quarter miles; about 250 acres at low tide. We are closer to the neighboring island of Stronsay so we have local facilities like the doctor and travel to Orkney Mainland.

J. Vennari: Has the name Papa Stronsay got some significance you could tell us about?

Father Michael Mary: The “Papa” in Papa Stronsay signifies an island of priests, monastic Fathers as in the Latin word for Father. Thus our island has been called “Papa” for well over a thousand years, perhaps fifteen hundred years. It has been called Papa in Litia, Papa Minora the last centuries has called it Papa Stronsay because we are close to our neighboring island of Stronsay.

(…)

My address details are:

Father Michael Mary, C.SS.R.,

Golgotha Monastery Island ,

Papa Stronsay, KW17 2AR,

Orkney Islands, Scotland,

Great Britain.