Interview of Fr. Couture Asia District Superior June 2011

[Dawn Marie]

Interview of Fr. Couture Asia District Superior   7-6-2011 The USA District sincerely thanks Fr. Daniel Couture for granting this interview about the SSPX's work in its Asia District. Fr. Daniel Couture during the banquet for his Priestly Silver Jubilee in 2009 >

A new priest for India: Fr. Therasian Xavier Father, thank you for agreeing to give this interview. You are here in Winona for the ordinations to the priesthood. This morning [June 17] five priests were ordained, one of whom is an Indian, who will go to India. What are your thoughts during these ordinations? Fr. Couture: It is always a great joy to see the priesthood perpetuated, to see that the Society of St. Pius X is truly serving the Church by ordaining these young priests, who come from every corner of the world. Here, we can see that grace continues to take root in the souls of young people, who wish to work for the Church, for the reign of our Lord. I came here to the United States to assist at the ordination of one of our Indians, who is in fact the son of our translator in Palayamkottai, in southern India. His father is the one who translates our sermons and catechism lessons every Sunday. It is a great joy for us and for the entire District of Asia.

You are District Superior of Asia, now in the middle of your third term. Asia is an immense district, containing many different countries and peoples. An enormous amount of work has already been done. Can you summarize the work in your district?

Fr. Couture: Asia represents half of the world's population. Starting from the west, it extends from the Middle East, where we have opened or taken charge of a few Mass centers this year in the United Arab Emirates and in Oman, where we have some French, Indian, Sri-Lankan, and Filipino traditional Catholic families, and encompasses everything as far east as Japan, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands as well. It is immense. It is the adventure of the missionary, just as we read in the lives of the great missionaries such as St. Theophane Venard, the martyrs from the Seminary for the Foreign Missions in Paris, etc. It fills us with enthusiasm and it is very encouraging to see, as Archbishop Lefebvre would say, the Holy Ghost everywhere. In whatever country we may be, we find precious pearls that the Good God chooses for Himself. And for us missionaries, this is missionary work that is not quite the same as in the past, when missionaries settled somewhere and built villages, schools, etc. We work a little more superficially, but we save what can be saved. But it is encouraging to find everywhere pure and generous souls that thirst for the truth. That encourages us; it is like the fuel that keeps us going in the missions.

The chapel in the St. Pius X Priory, the Asia District headquarters You operate out of the District Headquarters in Singapore. How many priories and permanently-established religious houses do you have? From these priories, how many chapels and Mass centers do you visit regularly?

Fr. Couture: For the 18 countries that we cover in Asia, we have six priories. I say six, because we are now in the process of opening the sixth one; in the coming weeks, we will be purchasing a property in the southern Philippines. We have one priory in southern India, one in Singapore, three in the Philippines, and one in New Zealand. They house 22 priests, including the young priest who was just ordained. As for the chapels, I do not know their exact number, but it's close to 40 or 50. In India itself, we have at least twenty or so. In some areas of the Philippines, there is one chapel per region. As Fr. Schmidberger always said, the Society plays its role by its presence. It exercises its apostolate “by its presence”, by being a point of reference. There are confused Catholics in these various countries: Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. They do not know who is going to guide them, they search and search, and finally they come across the Society. There they find the Faith, the truth, the liturgy, and the catechism, all of which satisfies them since they come from God. It is encouraging.

Fr. Couture (center) with the priests stationed at the SSPX's priory in Palayamkottai, India

Just as they do everywhere else, the priests of the Society bring the Faith and the sacraments to those who thirst for them. Of course, like every priest of the Society, you of course keep close to heart the priesthood, since it is the first end of our congregation. Are priests or even bishops today more attentive to or interested in the Society? Has the impact of the Motu Proprio led to results that are truly beneficial for Tradition?

The Roman Missal: "Teach us the Mass!" Fr. Couture: Here and there, yes, it has. We have more and more contacts with priests. I will give an example: in one country, the bishop sent two of his priests to a week-long Una Voce session in England to learn to say the traditional Mass. But, for whatever reason―I think there were probably too many priests, and they did not have enough personal attention―after having gone through that week-long session in England to learn the traditional Mass, they came to see us, to start again from scratch: “Teach us the Mass. May we do a session just to be able to read the Latin of the missal?”

So there are priests, and there are also bishops in several countries. I am thinking especially of the Philippines. There, it is not quite the effect of the Motu Proprio, although it is certainly related. In the Philippines, we are organizing a pro-life campaign, under the direction of Fr. Onoda, who is leading it. He launched a Rosary Crusade and the bishops were impressed. There are also some bishops who have come to lunch at the priory and who even agreed to provide letters of recommendation to obtain visas for our Filipinos who are leaving to enter the convents or seminaries. So it is very positive. In another diocese―at the end of May 2010, during the year the Pope dedicated to the priesthood—a bishop allowed one of our priests to give a conference to 45 diocesan priests on the priesthood. This conference will certainly bear fruit, because they really appreciated it. This archbishop clearly sees that the Society has something to offer on the one hand, and on the other, among his priests there is an absence, there is a lack of spiritual life.

This archbishop said to me recently, “Speak to my priests about the breviary, speak to them about the importance of the breviary, about the importance of the Holy Hour.” There is a terrible lack of prayer. An old priest of the diocese said to me, “The priests in our diocese do not say the breviary, nor the Rosary, neither do they do meditation. Imagine the priesthood without these foundations of the spiritual life: what is left? What is left? We are not surprised to see a decline in vocations, if there is no spiritual life supporting them!” The Breviary: the Church's official prayers for sanctifying the hours of the day

So it is very interesting that this archbishop turns to us: “Teach my priests how to say the breviary” or “Speak to them of the importance of the breviary.” And that is when we have this joy to be part of the Society, and to work for the Church, which was Archbishop Lefebvre’s intuition. We are at the Church’s service and therefore―here and there, it is starting already and it will certainly grow—we are also at the service of bishops who do not know where to turn to help their priests. They see there is a problem but they do not have the solution, and they see that, after all, the Society has kept something, a treasure which they need.

The Mass of All Time As for the problem with the traditional Mass, there are several priests who are interested, but since they do not know Latin, and do not have the books containing the rubrics, etc., there is a great weakness there. I know one bishop in Vietnam who told me―and I even have it in writing―that “all priests who wish to say the traditional Mass in my diocese may do so.” That comes from the bishop, so there is no objection. However, they lack the means necessary to return to the traditional Mass. They also have a certain fear. In Vietnam, I once heard a priest say to me, “But we do not know Latin, and without Latin, we cannot return to the traditional Mass.” So the lack of Latin is a hurdle we must jump.

I once taught some priests to say the traditional Mass in Chinese. They were Chinese priests who did not know Latin. We justified this by what Archbishop Lefebvre taught: “We are not fighting firstly for Latin; we are fighting for the Faith.” And we have explained to priests that it is better to say the traditional Mass in the vernacular tongue than to say the New Mass in Latin. It is not firstly a question of language; it is a question of Faith. And we have had a few Masses like this with certain priests. So, there is a desire, but there are obstacles to overcome that are serious and difficult. Nevertheless, it is possible with a little good will.

Father, to return to the subject of China, we have many visitors and readers who are interested in what is happening there. Recently the media has been covering the elections, nominations, and consecrations of Chinese bishops, with, without, or against the Vatican’s authorization. Could you go over the difficulty of the situation in China, including the struggle between the Catholic Church and the Patriotic National Church, and the Vatican’s policy during these last few years? The illicitly-ordained Bishop Guo of the schismatic Chinese Patriotic Church

Fr. Couture: China is very complicated. The French have a saying: C’est du chinois (“It's all Chinese”), which is a colloquialism for something that is difficult to understand. It's not just the Chinese language, which is very elaborate. For us who come from the West, it is difficult to understand them, but its religious situation is also very delicate and difficult. To be continued...

Interview of Fr. Couture Asia District Superior   PART 2   7-13-2011 Fr. Daniel Couture during the banquet for his Priestly Silver Jubilee in 2009 >

Our Lady of China Father, to return to the subject of China, we have many visitors and readers who are interested in what is happening there. Recently the media has been covering the elections, nominations, and consecrations of Chinese bishops, with, without, or against the Vatican’s authorization. Could you go over the difficulty of the situation in China, including the struggle between the Catholic Church and the Patriotic National Church, and the Vatican’s policy during these last few years?

Fr. Couture: China is very complicated. The French have a saying: C’est du chinois (“It's all Chinese”), which is a colloquialism for something that is difficult to understand. It's not just the Chinese language, which is very elaborate. For us who come from the West, it is difficult to understand them, but its religious situation is also very delicate and difficult. The underground Catholics truly believe that they have been betrayed and abandoned by the authorities of the Church. I have been told of several incidents: priests who come from Europe, visiting a clandestine seminary and spending a few hours there without giving any donations or material support; then the same priests go to the Patriotic seminary, in the hands of the government, and there they spend weeks, giving them money, goods, etc. And in another diocese, if I am not mistaken, a Patriotic priest was nominated, with the approval of the Vatican, head of the clandestine Church, because there was no bishop there. You see how great the confusion is. It is as if a conciliar priest was nominated to become the head of a district of the Society. That, in Europe, would not last long, I think. As for other difficult situations in China, in certain dioceses you have two bishops: one Patriotic bishop and one clandestine bishop. In two dioceses in particular, there are even three. One Patriotic priest said—and it is well known in these dioceses—“when the underground bishop dies, the Patriotic bishop will take his place.” The Patriotic bishop is nominated auxiliary bishop by the Vatican. The Patriotic priests say so themselves. I heard from friends who went there that there are certain Patriotic priests who are starting to say the traditional Mass now. Consider all the subtleties, the degrees of confusion: it is all quite complicated. There are traditional priests who are official members of the Patriotic Church without having the membership card of the party. They say the traditional Mass whereas the underground priests say the New Mass. I know a young Patriotic priest who must say the traditional Mass every Sunday. I asked him once: “Which bishop do you name during the Canon of the Mass?” He candidly answered: “I name the legitimate, underground bishop.” This is a priest in the Patriotic Church! So he does not even name the bishop who ordained him, he names the underground bishop. He even said, to those who were present and could hear him: “In a few days there will be an ordination for the Patriotic Church, and the young priests will be ordained by the Patriotic bishop. But the same day, they will go to see the clandestine bishop in order to be reordained.” This is common practice there; it is enough to give you a headache. So we do not know what to make of it any more.

There are similar situations just about everywhere in China, a truly terrible confusion. A vicar general said that he no hope left in Rome because they do not know what Rome has in mind. Are they sacrificing the underground Church like they did in the Ukraine ten or twenty years ago? We do not know, but sometimes they get the impression that politics goes before the good God. And that hurts. I know a priest who was arrested a few years ago. He was condemned to five days in prison. They did not complicate things: five days without sleep, standing, without eating or drinking. He told everything. That kind of torture does not leave any mark. It is very easy. They have very simple techniques. Cardinal Kung (+2000) with Pope John Paul II after being released from a Communist prison. The cardinal was greatly disappointed when he discovered later that the Vatican often ignored situations where dioceses were allowing schismatic Patriotic Chinese clergy to study in their seminaries

So, there is all this confusion in addition to the feeling that they have been abandoned. Further, doubt exists about the validity of ordinations done in the Patriotic Church by bishops nominated by the Vatican. There is a clandestine bishop who wrote a study on the episcopal consecrations of the Patriotic bishops. The bishop concluded in favor of the invalidity of these consecrations. It is not enough for Rome to say, “Okay, we absolve you, we approve you”, in order to validate an ordination. If the bishop is invalid, all the priests he ordains are invalid as well. And, as I was saying a moment ago, the young priests who are ordained by the Patriotic Church go to get re-ordained by the underground bishops. There is even a bishop who says he has received bishops of the Patriotic Church who wanted to be reconsecrated. There is a doubt as to the validity of the ordinations and consecrations in the Patriot Church. There is massive confusion. So, how is it that Rome, by making a sign of the Cross (as I would say), approves an ordination or a consecration? That does not solve the problem. That makes it worse, because by doing that, Rome gives its placet, its blessing, to situations that put into question the validity of the consecrations. It is not enough to say “yes” for it to be valid; it has to be redone.

Islamic extremists in Indonesia recently disrupted a Catholic Mass on Easter Day We can speak of martyrs today in Asia. On the one hand, there are those who are being persecuted, as they are in China by the communist regime which is still in power. On the other hand, we can also speak of martyrs in reference to those who are persecuted by Muslims. Is all this a reality in Asia today?

Fr. Couture: Certainly. We have to be very discreet in our apostolate in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Middle East. We have to be careful. We are really a small handful of faithful. In India, there are still martyrs. There are religious men and women, even priests, who are burned alive or shot dead in front of their convents, orphanages, or churches, which are also burned and destroyed. This happens almost every month. There was a message that circulated a few months ago throughout the whole world, a call for help, for prayers from some Catholics in northern India who were being persecuted violently. I am not sure whether you are aware of the incident with the elephants in India. Yes, could you give us your understanding of the events? Fr. Couture: Well, I do not know all the details, but according to the story, a year ago there was a group that came into a Catholic village, and killed and persecuted Catholics. I believe they even burned the church. The following year, on the same day, a herd of wild elephants came out of the forest, went into the village, and came to attack the houses of those who had terrorized and persecuted the Catholics, but avoided the Catholic homes. It is almost scriptural, like the story of the bears with the prophets in the Bible. But this time it was in India recently. The archdiocese of Colombo, Sri Lanka, published the story and you can find it on their website. It is interesting to see that today the Good God uses, just as He has in the past, the animals and sometimes the elements as well. I am referring to the tsunami in 2004. What was not spoken of in the media, but what we learned on the spot in Sri Lanka, is that two days before Christmas in 2004, the advertisements on the buses and billboards, all throughout the country, but especially in Colombo, in the Catholic communities, there had been a message placed: “Isn't Baby Jesus stupid and weak?” Just before Christmas, they got their answer. Out of the forty thousand deaths in Sri Lanka, thirty-five thousand were Buddhists. Certain temples in southern India were completely washed away, temples where curses are made. (For example, if you have a competitor who settles in your city, you go to the temple, pay the monks, and they will curse your competitor!) One temple simply disappeared. God is not mocked. There is a God, and Scripture tells us that the elements and creation serve the Creator. Sometimes the Good God uses them. Of course, there are innocent people who perish, as happens everywhere, in war, etc. But divine justice is still there and it exists.

To stay on the same topic, the media has been talking a lot about the recent catastrophe in Japan. What can you tell us about it? What have you been able to learn about it from the Japanese who assist at the Masses you say? What is the situation if the Church in Japan like, and that of Tradition in particular? Fukushima during the tsunami

Fr. Couture: The tsunami took place last March 11th. Until that day, we had no faithful in the village. A week later, I baptized a young lady whose family came from the village next to Fukushima, twenty kilometers from the nuclear plant. The village was swept away by the receding waves. It was a Buddhist village, nevertheless. Well, thanks be to God, none of our faithful perished. The parents of this young lady survived; only their house disappeared, more or less. It is a tragedy for Japan; they had terrible fears. They thought the plant was going to explode. Moreover, we had serious reports from very good sources saying that it was going to explode. But it did not explode, thanks be to God. There is certainly some good that will come of it. Perhaps there will be conversions. Someone in France contacted us for this project and offered to give a miraculous medal to all those who survived the tsunami. Thanks to that young lady who came from the village, we will try to go there in September to meet the townspeople. We will give out miraculous medals so that they may thank the Blessed Virgin that they are still alive, thank the Good God, and place themselves in the hands of the Blessed Virgin.

The SSPX's Mass center in Tokyo In Japan, we have two Mass centers: one in Tokyo and one in Osaka, which is about 200 miles or more to the south. They are very small Mass centers. In Tokyo there are fifty faithful, and in Osaka twenty or thirty faithful. They have suffered a great deal. On several websites (La Porte Latine, DICI, the Asian District's site) we asked for donations to help these villages. The Japanese are really very, very grateful.

If you give them ten cents, they will make a deep bow, and their gratitude is very genuine and authentic. Now we hope that we will be able to help them once things calm down a little bit. It is still a little risky for the time being. We are going to try to help them in their plans to build something to lodge families that have lost everything. We have a few thousands Euros that have already arrived, and we hope to see, in the coming months, how we can help them. It is difficult since the people have been evacuated from their villages since there is still a risk of radiation. They return to their families or relatives, and they would like very much to go back to their villages, but they do not know where to go: “Should we go back, should we not?” They are not really sure.

On another note, what is really interesting is the pilgrimage to Akita that we have been making for five years now, in northern Japan. It is the Fatima of Japan, if you will. It is starting to become a large-scale pilgrimage, though, of course, it’s not Chartres. We do it each year on the first weekend in May. This year our number went up to fifty. We started with fifteen. So we are moving forward gradually and we’re making good progress. SSPX's Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Akita

Every year, there is a baptism; this year, we had an adult baptism Each year, we have people who come to the Faith, and we are happy about that. So we ask for prayers for Japan, and if you wish to help materially, please contact us, and we will see what we can do.

Speaking of those opportunities to help, which the faithful have in addition to prayer, you have come to the United States with a book that you are trying to promote, the story of a Chinese woman who was incarcerated by the Marxist regime. It is a very beautiful story divided into chapters that are easy to read. How did you come to know this person and how can the book help both your work, Tradition, and Catholics here in the United States?

Mrs. Rose Hu tells her story of incarceration as a Catholic under the Chinese Communist regime Fr. Couture: She spent twenty-six years in the concentration camps in China under Mao Tse-Tung, from 1955 to 1981, and who came to the United States in 1989. After about ten years going to the New Mass in her parish, she discovered Tradition. Someone spoke to her about Communion in the hand, telling her that Communion in the hand was bad, and she discovered the Society. Now she is a member of the Society’s Third Order.

She wrote this extraordinary account saying, “My twenty-six years in communist prison were the best preparation to be a member of the Society of St. Pius X, the best novitiate for me.” Her book, which is now in its second English edition, has just been re-printed recently by the Society in Korea. This book is now being translated into French and Spanish also. It tells her story, which is very simple, as you say, in very beautiful chapters. When she was arrested, she was twenty tears old. She had converted at the age of sixteen. Four years later, she was arrested because of the Legion of Mary. Everything is linked to the Legion of Mary which, in Mao Tse-Tung’s eyes, was the primary target of the Catholic Church in China. The story of the Legion of Mary in China is extraordinary. Bishop Riberi, who was the Apostolic Nuncio in 1948, felt the revolution coming in 1947. Mao took power in 1949. Then, the Nuncio sent for an Irish priest, who had already founded the...

To be continued...

a href="http://www.sspx.org/regional_sspx_news/asia/interview_of_fr_couture_asia_district_superior_7-2011.htm">part 1

[žena vojnik]

"I once taught some priests to say the traditional Mass in Chinese. They were Chinese priests who did not know Latin. We justified this by what Archbishop Lefebvre taught: “We are not fighting firstly for Latin; we are fighting for the Faith.” And we have explained to priests that it is better to say the traditional Mass in the vernacular tongue than to say the New Mass in Latin. It is not firstly a question of language; it is a question of Faith. And we have had a few Masses like this with certain priests. So, there is a desire, but there are obstacles to overcome that are serious and difficult. Nevertheless, it is possible with a little good will."

 

And THAT good people is the very reason why most in the Conciliar Church refuse it. They have not the Faith.

 

I could listen to Father Couture audio sermons all day long. I hope this comes out in audio later.

[Dawn Marie]

Part 2 is now available

[žena vojnik]

Interview with Rose Hu in Tokyo

http://www.sspxasia.com/sermons/Rose_Hu_Tokyo_07-05-06.mp3

 

 

[Cathleen]

Thank you for posting this.  It is always enlightening and very interesting to hear news from other parts of the world, from a truly Catholic perspective.  Father always makes things so clear.  May God grant him another 25+ years in His service.