2-28-2011
WINONA, MN

The USA District's annual Priests' Meeting was held at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, MN from February 21 to 25. Despite the prevailing snow storms that made travel difficult, the meeting was well-attended by nearly 70 priests from throughout the United States as well as Canada.

Joining the 85 seminarians, the priests were happy to take a break from their usual routine by settling in for a week's worth of study and the seminary's common life of the Divine Office, meals, and recreational activities.

An edifying and inspirational liturgical highlight of this year's meeting was the celebration of a Solemn Mass with the priests acting also as the servers and schola.

Recreational activities included of course the traditional and highly-competitive hockey game of the red-jersey SSPX Seminarians versus the black-jersey Flying Fathers; the priests though lost this year. Another annual competitive event was the mixed priests-seminarians basketball game. On the intellectual side of relaxation, an instrumental concert of professional quality was given by seminarians.

The conference studies this year included a talk by Fr. Pfluger (First Assistant to Superior General) on the crisis of the Church and its challenge today, an informative instruction by Fr. Iscara (seminary professor) on Anglicanism and the current conversions coming from it, a joint-talk by Dr. Andrew Childs (college professor at St. Mary's College) and Dr. Matthew Childs (professor at same college) on social networking technology and the dangers of Facebook, and finally a review of the district's status and its ongoing apostolates by Fr. Rostand (District Superior).

The Priests' Meeting was much appreciated by the priests, who also had the time to catch up with their confreres, and for many (if not most), spend some rejuvenating time in the halls of their alma matter, St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary.