Due to recent events in my life, it has made me recall the fond memories my family and I had with visiting priests from S.S.P.X. I would like to share with you my family’s story. In recalling, I first thought of producing a video showing the history, of S.S.P.X. coming to K. Lumpur, then I remembered that I did make such a video 10 years ago while I was a guest at the SSPX German girl’s school, when I sent my daughter, Maria, there (to show how we are part of SSPX "family"). The school was: St.-Theresien-Gymnasium Schönenberg Watch the video below. Maria was 12 at that time. (ya, so young but that was the maximum age allowed). There were much tears shed when I left her there. My wife couldn’t bear sending her off so she didn’t come on that trip. After 2 months of struggle, Maria was able to cope with the school system and communicate in German. The school was impressed that she did well throughout, but sadly her time there was only a year because, the school found out later that officially they were only allowed to accept students from the E.U. Maria was so sad to leave, at the end of the school year, but it was the most memorable fulfilling experience she ever had. St. Theresien-Gymnasium is a wonderful school for girls run by the S.S.P.X. sisters and headed by Sr. Maria Michaela. It is an Accredited Private Grammar Boarding School for Girls. It was in 2011 that Fr. D. Couture (former District Superior of Asia) who recommended us this school, after having the opportunity to visit it. The wonderful experiences of my 3 days stay there, made me wished I was a 12 year old girl attending school there too. I was drawn to the wholesome and happy school environment noting the high German standards. The most significant memory was the musical life there; whenever the headmistress intoned a hymn all the girls would sing. In 2013, SSPX girl’s school, St. Dominic’s Girls’ College in Whanganui, N.Z. (managed by Dominican nuns) was opened to accept boarders, and with the recommendation of Fr. Laisney, who was close to my family, we sent Maria there. At that time, we already had some friends from Malaysia and Singapore who had settled there within the Catholic community living around the location of SSPX priory, which included the church and school. They were some consolation for Maria being there. My wife and I visited once and we thought of staying for good because of the wholesome Catholic community there. Eventually in the following years we helped convince 6 other Malaysian girls to attend school there too. Maria eventually spent 5 memorable years there and graduated with awards. My older boys also had their secondary school education at SSPX schools. At 15, my eldest, Nigel, spent more than 2 years at the St. Michael’s school in Burghclere, Newbury, England. Because of his stint there, Nigel has been teased as the Englishman in the family. To complete their secondary school education (Cambridge ‘O’ and “A” Levels), Nigel and Daryl, my 2nd son, spent 2 years in the SSPX’s Holy Cross Minor Seminary in Lake Bathurst NSW Australia. While they were there, another Malaysian boy, Jonathan Peters and Christian Warella from Jakarta, Indonesia was with them. My third son, Gabriel, followed suit a couple of years later. Regretably, my 4th son, could not attend as the minor seminary closed. So after home schooling he completed his education locally. Thanks to their education and experiences at Holy Cross my boys could contribute to the liturgy and the choir whenever we have Mass. Why did we send our children so far away to complete their secondary school education? Well in the ‘80s the education in Malaysia began to deteriorate and proper Catholic schools became non-existent. Having since late 1993 embraced traditional Catholicism, due to our growing relationship with SSPX priest and our love for the Latin Mass, we decided that our children should have a solid Catholic education and spiritual life. The encouragement from Fr. De Merode, who was our spiritual director then, inspired my wife to start home schooling for our children whose ages were then ranged from 4 to 12 yrs. Each one was home schooled until the age of 15 years, then they were sent to SSPX’s boarding schools, as described earlier. When SSPX first came to Kuala Lumpur, we had the first Mass said in our friend Gregory’s home in T.T.D.I. This was sometime in late 1993. Fr. Gentili was the first priest who came all the way from Whanganui, N. Zealand. Masses then were available about 3 months at a time. Eventually Fr. Laisney took over and he too was coming from N.Z. Around 1993/1994 when SSPX began establishing in Manila, Philippines, they sent Fr. De Merode and Fr. Morgan (former District Superior of Asia) to give us Mass here in K.L. Eventually in 1999, the Singapore priory was established and other priests began to alternate in visiting us in K.L. like Fr. Couture, Fr. Mcmahon, Fr. Vachon, Fr. Salvador, Fr. Onoda, Fr. Todd and many more. I can’t recall chronologically when each one f them came. Sometimes we had “bonus” Masses when priests on transit stop over in K.L. All the while we had Masses at our homes in T.T.D.I and at our friend Jimmy’s home in Section 14 P.J. so we hosted them in our homes. Their visits usually fall on a Friday/Saturday and stayed until Monday mornings and sometimes longer if they are on a short holiday. Of course we also introduce to them the hospitality of Malaysia. During their stay with us, Jimmy would volunteer to take them to visit the historical sites of Malacca (about 2hrs by car) to visit the tomb of St. Francis Xavier. On the Saturdays, that they are here with us, the priests would spend time talking to us about the faith, answering questions, teaching us how to serve Mass and various ceremonies and giving us Catechism. Spending time with them helped us grow in fervour in our faith. In 2000, we were then able to offer a small shop-lot in Sungai Buloh to be the chapel which was named: The Sacred Heart of Jesus. Masses were more regular from monthly to weekly until we had regular Sunday Masses from 2014/2015, I think. The 4 bishops: Bishop Tissier, Bishop Gelaratta, BishopFellay, and Bishop Williamson, all visited the chapel here while it was still at Sungai Buloh. It was Bishop Tissier who blessed the chapel in 2000. The other Bishops visited to perform confirmations for the faithful. Over the years, we had conferences, pilgrimages to local shrines and charity works organized together with the visiting priests. Even the faithful from Singapore joined us on the pilgrimages, especially to Malacca. We also joined pilgrimages organized by SSPX, led by Fr. Couture for the Asia district, to Chartre, Fatimah, and Lourdes. These were important events but not as important and significant as the 5 day Ignatian retreats (5 days of silence spent with Our Lord, with spiritual conferences and meditations) that were organized for the benefit of the faithful here in K.L. and Singapore and held at locations here in Malaysia and Singapore. I think we had a dozen or more of such retreats led by Fr. Couture, and his assistant priests during these many years. In 2006, thanks to students from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, we were able to have Mass for the first time at the home of one of the students. We brought Fr. Davide to K.K. and after the Mass we had a little holiday there. Eventually a proper Mass centre, a chapel was set up and in the following years we even brought Bishop Gelaratta accompanied by Fr. Couture to visit K.Kinabalu. In 2008, we managed to register a society, with the guidance of Fr. Davide and Fr. Couture, and lawyers, and officially formed a society to legalize our invitations to SSPX priest to say Mass in K. Lumpur, Malaysia, a Muslim country. The society: Friends of the International Society of St. Pius X. We applied it in 2006 and the process took 2 years, for the local Registrar of Societies to approve. With the society registered, the Chapel could operate legitimately and continue to invite and host the priests and not be accused of breaking local laws. Since then we were able to publicly promote the Latin Mass at the chapel and today the majority of local Catholics here know of our existence and the traditional Catholic community here are gradually growing. 27 years relationship with SSPX from 1993 to 2020. We treasure our ties with the many priests who have visited and guided us and especially of those whom we have built good relationships with and are dear to us. May our children continue to grow and love the traditional Catholic faith and the Latin Mass and abiding in God’s will for the many years to come. We are thankful that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in his dedication and his love of Christ, who had through his various SSPX seminaries in Europe and USA, continue to give us holy traditional Catholic priests to enable the spread of the traditional Latin Mass (the true Mass) and the Sacraments throughout the world. May these priests uphold priestly holiness which was the crux of what Archbishop Lefebvre taught in the formation of priests. Deo gratias! ( Thanks be to God!) The End with S.S.P.X. Relations
April 2021. Sadly after 29 years of being loyal to SSPX, the relationship with them has ended due to their mistreatment and abuse of the authority of the current District Superior of Asia and priests. The Chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is owned and managed by our local association and the District Superior wanted absolute authority over the chapel and the community here, in managing our association, when according to the Malaysian Registrar of Society ( R.O.S.) rules, foreign priests cannot be members but can only be visitors/guests. The visiting priests and the previous District Superiors, in the past had no issue with this regulation and had accepted it. The close co-operation and problem free relationship with them is testament to this; but not now. We have always respected the priests’ authority in all religious, spiritual matters and had never opposed it. Our association committee members are accountable to R.O.S. and can be legally prosecuted for not abiding to the regulations but not the priests. Is this behaviour according to the missionary philosophy of their founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre? His main aim was to give the Traditional Latin Mass and the Sacraments to faithful who want them; not to own and run the Mass centres. The 29 years of loyalty did not account for anything to them, there was no consideration of any compromise but their insistence for absolute control; therefore we parted ways. Having cut-off ties with us, they have set-up another Mass centre in another township and used our chapel’s name and prohibited the committee and some members from attending Mass there. What does such actions say about them? They tarnish the traditional priesthood and their founder’s name. Well by their fruits you shall know them. May God enlighten them in their errors and have mercy on them. |
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AuthorAn artist, entrepreneur, a loving family man, 30 years a Catholic traditionalist upholding traditions for the love of God. Shop for Catholic giftsArchives
January 2024
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