MESSAGE OF THE PRIOR GENERAL

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From the Prior General, Monsignor Gilles WACH

DEUS CARITAS EST!

Dear friends,

With the Holy Father having opened the Holy Year, I’m pleased to send you all my best wishes for this important year, which I hope will be full of heavenly graces and blessings.

It is by the side of the manger that we gather on this beautiful Christmas night, where the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph invite us to contemplate the Son of God made man.

What does this beautiful Child do? He gives us his Heart full of love, as Pope Francis teaches us in his encyclical Dilexit nos: ‘Entering into the Heart of Christ, we feel loved by a human heart filled with affections and emotions like our own. Jesus’ human will freely choose to love us, and that spiritual love is flooded with grace and charity. When we plunge into the depths of his heart, we find ourselves overwhelmed by the immense glory of his infinite love as the eternal Son, which we can no longer separate from his human love.’

Let us adore this Heart, so sacred and so good. Let us confide in Him and implore Him for the Church and the world. In this way, we will become true ‘pilgrims of hope’!

Finally, as the encyclical reminds us, let us not neglect to make reparation for all the countless offences committed by men against his ineffable goodness, his generosity and his divinity.

May the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus extend over the world and bless us all.

Happy Holy Year to all!

TU ES SACERDOS IN AETERNUM!

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Florence, Italy
4th July 2024

At the culmination of the week of ordainations, five deacons were ordained to the priesthood by His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke at the beautiful Romanesque church of  Ss Michael & Cajetan in central Florence on Thursday morning last.

Please pray for these new priests of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest at they begin their ministries:

From left to right: Rev’d Canon Mirko Perucchini, Rev’d Canon Paul McKown,
Rev’d Canon Thibault Pérez, Rev’d Canon Alban Colomb and Rev’d Canon Pol Lecerf

 

The week began on Monday where seminarians at the end of their first year received the cassock. On Tuesday, the Tonsures and Minor Orders took place and on Wednesday, ordinations to sub diaconate and diaconate.

PRIVATE AUDIENCE OF THE PRIOR GENERAL AND THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFF

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On the 24th June 2024, the 45th anniversary of his Priestly Ordination by Saint John Paul II, Monsignor Gilles Wach, Prior General of our Institute, was received in private audience by His Holiness Pope Francis, accompanied by Monsignor Rudolf Michael Schmitz, Vicar General of the Institute, and by Canon Louis Valadier, Provincial of France.

This audience was an occasion to thank the Holy Father for his inspiring Apostolic Letter, Totum amoris est, dedicated to Saint Francis de Sales, our Patron Saint. Monseigneur Wach was also able to present all the pastoral work carried out by the priests of the Institute throughout the world in the service of souls. On two occasions, the Pope insisted that we continue to serve the Church according to our own, proper charism, in the spirit of unity and communion which the harmony and balance of the Salesian spirituality allow. The Holy Father also expressed his gratitude for the prayers and for the apostolic and missionary work of the Sister Adorers.

At the end of the meeting, the Holy Father invited our Prior General to visit him again with all the members of the Institute, as well as the Sister Adorers, whom he would be very happy to receive in audience.

A WORD FROM THE SISTER ADORERS: RENOVATIONS IN NAPLES

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There has been significant work done for the novitiate in Naples, Italy, called the House of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Leaking windows have been replaced, and the facades on one side of the house have been completely redone. Part of the basement is currently being transformed into a large pantry, and the building attached to the convent is being restored. The second floor will be lodging for the sisters’ chaplain and other canons, while the first floor will have three guest rooms, allowing the sisters’ family members a place to stay while they are visiting. Deo gratias!

TWO NEW PRIESTS ORDAINED

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Always with thanks to God, two new priests for eternity have been ordained at Gricigliano, the Institute seminary near Florence, Italy on the feast of St. Francis de Sales.

His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke ordained Canon Morrow and Canon Ringeval las Monday.

Hopefully one or both will visit us soon.

FIVE NEW POSTULANTS FOR THE SISTERS ADORERS

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Five new postulants arrived at the novitiate of the Sister Adorers of the Royal Heart in Naples, Italy last month, including three Americans, one from Germany and one from France. Postulancy is an year of discernment during which the young lady begins to learn the life of a Sister Adorer.

On the Feast of St. Gertrude, November 16, Monsignor Wach gave each new postulant the cross of St Francis de Sales and the postulant choir cape. The ceremony was followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Please join us in praying for these young ladies as they begin their initial formation in the religious life!

ARCHBISHOP FRANÇOIS BACQUÉ RIP

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Of your charity, please offer prayers for the Eternal rest of the soul of Archbishop François Bacqué, Apostolic Nuncio and friend of the Institute, who died suddenly in Rome on 9 November 2023.

Born in Bordeaux on 2 September 1936, he was ordained a priest on the 1st October 1966. In 1988, Pope Saint John Paul II appointed him pro-Apostolic Nuncio in Sri Lanka and he was consecrated Archbishop that same year.

From 1994 to 2001, he served as Apostolic Nuncio to the Dominican Republic and Apostolic Delegate in Puerto Rico. He was finally Apostolic Nuncio to the Netherlands before retiring in 2012.

In 2013, Archbishop Bacqué was commissioned to conduct an Apostolic Visit to Gricigliano and our Institute. After the final approval of our Constitutions by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, He celebrated the Thanksgiving Mass on 2 February 2016 (photos below).

 

COUNT WOLFGANG WALDSTEIN RIP

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Of your charity, please add to your prayers the Eternal rest of the soul of Count Wolfgang Waldstein, Governor-General of the Society of the Sacred Heart (secular branch of the Institute), called to God at about noon, 17 October 2023, at the age of 95.