Letter from the Rector
Growth and Litigation
Dear Friends and Benefactors of the Seminary,
In the present state of difficulties between the Society of St. Pius X in America and nine of its former priests, with litigation, alas, imminent, you must be wondering what is happening, or likely to happen, to the Seminary....
Even before questions of property and buildings, come questions of people: where a Seminary is concerned, of priests and vocations. As for priests, the Seminary should have in the autumn a full teaching staff as soon as Fr. Pierre Delaplace from France and Fr. Wolfgang Goettler from Germany can join us. Fr. Delaplace was ordained only this June, Fr. Goettler has been working as a priest for two years already in Austria and Germany. Both will be great assets, and welcome in America's more and more international Seminary.
As for vocations; besides a dozen and more serious applications to enter the Seminary already received, the mail has brought me in the last week alone another half dozen applications to the Seminary or the Brotherhood! Of course, not all these may prove to be serious, or well suited, but with only thirteen rooms left at our disposal, we have a serious problem of accommodation, and it is most likely that by September 24 when the new seminarians enter, we may have to be turning some applicants away for lack of space.
Hence the problem of buildings and property is indeed a problem. As for the property, the Society enters into litigation with a preliminary hearing on August 8 in New York State, on a suit involving not only the Seminary property but also many other properties throughout the Northeast District. As for the construction work on the Seminary, the imminence of dispute over title had brought this to a close, but the Society's new Superior General, Fr. Franz Schmidberger, could not stand the thought of several hundred thousand dollars' worth of materials being left exposed to rot by wind and rain, so he decided to enter upon a direct contract with the construction company to ensure that the building already there is fully protected by the time winter comes. Hence, construction work will start again, also on Monday. Please then resume your contributions to the Building Fund if you had interrupted them, and be assured that we have as yet no evidence of a single penny contributed for that purpose being diverted from it. The winterizing contract is for $150,000.00 worth of work
Please also, SCSF contributors who may have interrupted your contributions, resume! We have considerably cut the Seminary's running expenses, but when term re-starts in September, they climb back up to well over $20,000 a month. Here are your future priests, please God, so please look after them. And may Jesus Christ the High Priest in return look after you, and bless you. "You look after my interests", He said to St. Theresa of Avila, "and I will look after yours".
With all good wishes and blessings,
Sincerely yours in Our Divine Lord,
Fr. Richard Williamson
Growth and Litigation
Dear Friends and Benefactors of the Seminary,
In the present state of difficulties between the Society of St. Pius X in America and nine of its former priests, with litigation, alas, imminent, you must be wondering what is happening, or likely to happen, to the Seminary....
Even before questions of property and buildings, come questions of people: where a Seminary is concerned, of priests and vocations. As for priests, the Seminary should have in the autumn a full teaching staff as soon as Fr. Pierre Delaplace from France and Fr. Wolfgang Goettler from Germany can join us. Fr. Delaplace was ordained only this June, Fr. Goettler has been working as a priest for two years already in Austria and Germany. Both will be great assets, and welcome in America's more and more international Seminary.
As for vocations; besides a dozen and more serious applications to enter the Seminary already received, the mail has brought me in the last week alone another half dozen applications to the Seminary or the Brotherhood! Of course, not all these may prove to be serious, or well suited, but with only thirteen rooms left at our disposal, we have a serious problem of accommodation, and it is most likely that by September 24 when the new seminarians enter, we may have to be turning some applicants away for lack of space.
Hence the problem of buildings and property is indeed a problem. As for the property, the Society enters into litigation with a preliminary hearing on August 8 in New York State, on a suit involving not only the Seminary property but also many other properties throughout the Northeast District. As for the construction work on the Seminary, the imminence of dispute over title had brought this to a close, but the Society's new Superior General, Fr. Franz Schmidberger, could not stand the thought of several hundred thousand dollars' worth of materials being left exposed to rot by wind and rain, so he decided to enter upon a direct contract with the construction company to ensure that the building already there is fully protected by the time winter comes. Hence, construction work will start again, also on Monday. Please then resume your contributions to the Building Fund if you had interrupted them, and be assured that we have as yet no evidence of a single penny contributed for that purpose being diverted from it. The winterizing contract is for $150,000.00 worth of work
Please also, SCSF contributors who may have interrupted your contributions, resume! We have considerably cut the Seminary's running expenses, but when term re-starts in September, they climb back up to well over $20,000 a month. Here are your future priests, please God, so please look after them. And may Jesus Christ the High Priest in return look after you, and bless you. "You look after my interests", He said to St. Theresa of Avila, "and I will look after yours".
With all good wishes and blessings,
Sincerely yours in Our Divine Lord,
Fr. Richard Williamson
