Interview of Fr. Couture (Part I); Asia District Superior

Father, thank you for agreeing to give this interview. You are here in Winona for the ordinations to the priesthood. This morning [June 17] five priests were ordained, one of whom is an Indian, who will go to India. What are your thoughts during these ordinations?

Fr. Couture: It is always a great joy to see the priesthood perpetuated, to see that the Society of St. Pius X is truly serving the Church by ordaining these young priests, who come from every corner of the world. Here, we can see that grace continues to take root in the souls of young people, who wish to work for the Church, for the reign of our Lord. I came here to the United States to assist at the ordination of one of our Indians, who is in fact the son of our translator in Palayamkottai, in southern India. His father is the one who translates our sermons and catechism lessons every Sunday. It is a great joy for us and for the entire District of Asia.

You are District Superior of Asia, now in the middle of your third term. Asia is an immense district, containing many different countries and peoples. An enormous amount of work has already been done. Can you summarize the work in your district?

Fr. Couture: Asia represents half of the world's population. Starting from the west, it extends from the Middle East, where we have opened or taken charge of a few Mass centers this year in the United Arab Emirates and in Oman, where we have some French, Indian, Sri-Lankan, and Filipino traditional Catholic families, and encompasses everything as far east as Japan, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands as well. It is immense. It is the adventure of the missionary, just as we read in the lives of the great missionaries such as St. Theophane Venard, the martyrs from the Seminary for the Foreign Missions in Paris, etc.

It fills us with enthusiasm and it is very encouraging to see, as Archbishop Lefebvre would say, the Holy Ghost everywhere. In whatever country we may be, we find precious pearls that the Good God chooses for Himself.

And for us missionaries, this is missionary work that is not quite the same as in the past, when missionaries settled somewhere and built villages, schools, etc. We work a little more superficially, but we save what can be saved. But it is encouraging to find everywhere pure and generous souls that thirst for the truth. That encourages us; it is like the fuel that keeps us going in the missions.

The chapel in the St. Pius X Priory,
the Asia District headquarters

You operate out of the District Headquarters in Singapore. How many priories and permanently-established religious houses do you have? From these priories, how many chapels and Mass centers do you visit regularly?

Fr. Couture: For the 18 countries that we cover in Asia, we have six priories. I say six, because we are now in the process of opening the sixth one; in the coming weeks, we will be purchasing a property in the southern Philippines. We have one priory in southern India, one in Singapore, three in the Philippines, and one in New Zealand. They house 22 priests, including the young priest who was just ordained. As for the chapels, I do not know their exact number, but it's close to 40 or 50. In India itself, we have at least twenty or so. In some areas of the Philippines, there is one chapel per region. As Fr. Schmidberger always said, the Society plays its role by its presence. It exercises its apostolate “by its presence”, by being a point of reference. There are confused Catholics in these various countries: Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. They do not know who is going to guide them, they search and search, and finally they come across the Society. There they find the Faith, the truth, the liturgy, and the catechism, all of which satisfies them since they come from God. It is encouraging.

Fr. Couture (center) with the priests stationed
at the SSPX's priory in Palayamkottai, India

Just as they do everywhere else, the priests of the Society bring the Faith and the sacraments to those who thirst for them. Of course, like every priest of the Society, you of course keep close to heart the priesthood, since it is the first end of our congregation. Are priests or even bishops today more attentive to or interested in the Society? Has the impact of the Motu Proprio led to results that are truly beneficial for Tradition?

The Roman Missal:
"Teach us the Mass!"

Fr. Couture: Here and there, yes, it has. We have more and more contacts with priests. I will give an example: in one country, the bishop sent two of his priests to a week-long Una Voce session in England to learn to say the traditional Mass. But, for whatever reason―I think there were probably too many priests, and they did not have enough personal attention―after having gone through that week-long session in England to learn the traditional Mass, they came to see us, to start again from scratch: “Teach us the Mass. May we do a session just to be able to read the Latin of the missal?”

So there are priests, and there are also bishops in several countries. I am thinking especially of the Philippines. There, it is not quite the effect of the Motu Proprio, although it is certainly related. In the Philippines, we are organizing a pro-life campaign, under the direction of Fr. Onoda, who is leading it. He launched a Rosary Crusade and the bishops were impressed. There are also some bishops who have come to lunch at the priory and who even agreed to provide letters of recommendation to obtain visas for our Filipinos who are leaving to enter the convents or seminaries. So it is very positive.

In another diocese―at the end of May 2010, during the year the Pope dedicated to the priesthood—a bishop allowed one of our priests to give a conference to 45 diocesan priests on the priesthood. This conference will certainly bear fruit, because they really appreciated it. This archbishop clearly sees that the Society has something to offer on the one hand, and on the other, among his priests there is an absence, there is a lack of spiritual life.

This archbishop said to me recently, “Speak to my priests about the breviary, speak to them about the importance of the breviary, about the importance of the Holy Hour.” There is a terrible lack of prayer. An old priest of the diocese said to me, “The priests in our diocese do not say the breviary, nor the Rosary, neither do they do meditation. Imagine the priesthood without these foundations of the spiritual life: what is left? What is left? We are not surprised to see a decline in vocations, if there is no spiritual life supporting them!”

The Breviary: the Church's official
prayers for sanctifying
the hours of the day

So it is very interesting that this archbishop turns to us: “Teach my priests how to say the breviary” or “Speak to them of the importance of the breviary.” And that is when we have this joy to be part of the Society, and to work for the Church, which was Archbishop Lefebvre’s intuition. We are at the Church’s service and therefore―here and there, it is starting already and it will certainly grow—we are also at the service of bishops who do not know where to turn to help their priests. They see there is a problem but they do not have the solution, and they see that, after all, the Society has kept something, a treasure which they need.

The Mass of All Time

As for the problem with the traditional Mass, there are several priests who are interested, but since they do not know Latin, and do not have the books containing the rubrics, etc., there is a great weakness there. I know one bishop in Vietnam who said―and I even have it in writing―that “all priests who wish to say the traditional Mass in my diocese may do so.” That comes from the bishop, so there is no objection. However, they lack the means necessary to return to the traditional Mass. They also have a certain fear. In Vietnam, I once heard a priest say to me, “But we do not know Latin, and without Latin, we cannot return to the traditional Mass.” So the lack of Latin is a hurdle we must jump.

I once taught some priests to say the traditional Mass in Chinese. They were Chinese priests who did not know Latin. We justified this by what Archbishop Lefebvre taught: “We are not fighting firstly for Latin; we are fighting for the Faith.” And we have explained to priests that it is better to say the traditional Mass in the vernacular tongue than to say the New Mass in Latin. It is not firstly a question of language; it is a question of Faith. And we have had a few Masses like this with certain priests. So, there is a desire, but there are obstacles to overcome that are serious and difficult. Nevertheless, it is possible with a little good will.

Father, to return to the subject of China, we have many visitors and readers who are interested in what is happening there. Recently the media has been covering the elections, nominations, and consecrations of Chinese bishops, with, without, or against the Vatican’s authorization. Could you go over the difficulty of the situation in China, including the struggle between the Catholic Church and the Patriotic National Church, and the Vatican’s policy during these last few years?

The illicitly-ordained Bishop Guo
of the schismatic Chinese
Patriotic Church

Fr. Couture: China is very complicated. The French have a saying: C’est du chinois (“It's all Chinese”), which is a colloquialism for something that is difficult to understand. It's not just the Chinese language, which is very elaborate. For us who come from the West, it is difficult to understand them, but its religious situation is also very delicate and difficult.

To be continued...

read part 2 >