Last Sunday’s External Solemnity of the feast of SS. Peter & Paul coincided with the anniversary of my priestly ordination by Cardinal Burke (then Bishop of La Crosse in Wisconsin, USA) 25 years ago in Gricigliano.
I thank Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church every day for having called me to the Catholic priesthood. I am most grateful to my superiors in the Institute, especially to our Prior General, Msgr. Gilles Wach, to Canon Phillippe Mora, the cofounder of our Institute and rector of the seminary in Gricigliano, and to Msgr. Michael Schmitz, Vicar General in the Institute; I thank them for the patient and fatherly support they gave me, and continue to give, throughout the seminary years and thereafter in various apostolates in Europe and the United States.
I thank also my late parents and my sister for their loving support. And here in Shrewsbury I wish to thank you, dear faithful, for your always generous loyalty toward the Church and its perennial teachings as toward the priests of the Church who want to serve God and your families.
At last Sunday’s visit of my superior and Provincial, Canon Amaury Montjean and the four Sister Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus Christ Sovereign Priest, you demonstrated once again your great love and reverence for the clergy of the Institute since its arrival in Shrewsbury six years ago. I thank you for all your most generous gifts and cards I have received and for your kind participation in the acquisition of a beautiful chalice pall. Your love for Jesus Christ and His priests is a great encouragement for me and my confreres. May God bless you and reward you for all your spiritual and material support.