Bishop to visit North End church

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This article was published 16/10/2019 (2413 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Catholic church in the North End will open its doors this week to welcome a special guest visiting from afar.

On Wed., Oct. 16 at 5:30 p.m., Swiss bishop Bernard Fellay of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X will visit Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, located at 478 McKenzie St., for the sacrament of confirmation.

Then on Thurs., Oct. 17, he will deliver a free public lecture at the church starting at 7 p.m.
Fr. Loren Gerspacher said that about 10 people will be confirmed, including several guests coming from Saskatchewan.

“It will be a traditional confirmation and mass in Latin,” he said. “He’ll give his talk in English, but all of our ceremonies are in Latin because that’s part of the traditional rite of the church.”
Confirmation is one of the seven sacraments, he explained, adding that they only get a visit from a bishop about once every two years.

“This sacrament helps young Catholics grow into mature Catholics. They can take on their responsibilities as Catholics more seriously. A typical explanation of the catechism is that we become soldiers of Christ, so that’s to be able to defend yourself to a certain degree in your beliefs and in your following of Christ as a Catholic. This is like a shot in the arm of the Holy Spirit to give a little more of an interior strength and resolve,” he said.

“So it will be quite a nice experience for a lot of the faithful children to meet Bishop Fillay, and for the faithful to meet him again. Many have seen him before, but quite a few haven’t.”
Last year, Bishop Fillay finished serving two terms as superior general, Gerspacher added.

“He was not only a bishop but he was a superior general for our Society of Saint Pius X. As the superior general, he had the added responsibility of looking after the whole society and all the priests and brothers and sisters and so on,” he said.

“He did 24 years as superior general, which is quite a long time. Now he finally gets to take it a little bit easier and just be a bishop and not have to look after the whole working of the society.”
Anyone who would like to attend the lecture on Thursday can look forward to hearing Bishop Fellay speak about the importance of tradition in the Catholic Church.

“He will talk about news of the society’s work at the moment and on the current situation in the church,” Gerspacher said.

“It’s open to anybody that’s interested.”