2023-05-09 04:23:51
After 45 years of celebrating Mass in classrooms, a refectory and an auditorium, the priory of the Society of Saint Pius X of Saint Marys finally has its own church. Many Catholics living in and around Saint Marys, Kansas have been waiting for this day for decades.
While it is now the largest spiritual home for Catholics attending services offered by the SSPX in the United States, the Fraternity had not had a church of its own at Saint Marys since its arrival in 1978.
The atmosphere that day was as jubilant as it was respectful. Clergy and laity alike admired the magnificent church erected in the Kansas hills. “Faith,” Monsignor Bernard Fellay said in his sermon, “has moved this magnificent mountain.”
“What a great joy today to receive the new church of God,” he continued. “And what a church!” (…) It is such a beautiful manifestation of faith”.
Monsignor Fellay consecrated the church in front of 120 brothers, seminarians and priests of the FSSPX, as well as dozens of religious. Nearly 3,000 people attended the consecration ceremony of the new church dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin, coming from as far away as England and Australia.
Other thousands of faithful followed the ceremony live. At times, there were up to 2,800 spectators. Thanks to this remote monitoring, Catholics from all over the world were able to join the faithful present at Saint Marys.
Why, one might ask, build a church in the middle of Kansas? How can the Fellowship afford such a magnificent church? “Such churches,” Bishop Fellay replied, “are not the product of a large amount of money, but of the faithful who have faith. These are works of faith. And people are convinced of the duty to glorify God.”
The church exceeded the expectations of Father Héctor Bolduc, the first rector, who decided to rebuild it after the original church burned down shortly after the FSSPX acquired the property. This consecration ceremony confirmed the hopes of Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre, who saw in Saint Marys a bastion of the Catholic Church in America.
The pain caused by the loss of the original church turned into great joy. May 3, 2023 will be remembered as a day of wonder, happiness, and thanksgiving.
“But our happiness is much deeper,” Bishop Fellay said. “Once again, this happiness is linked to faith. What does this mean? What does this ceremony concretize? We have just sung it: it is nothing more than the gate of Heaven and the house of God, literally.”
The Church, he said, leads the laity to paradise. Thus, a new Catholic church “opens a new window or a new door to heaven.” Likewise, Monsignor Fellay added, through the Church, “heaven touches earth.”
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