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by Jim Holman.
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We'll Fail Rather Than Compromise

NEW SOCIETY OF PRIESTS ATTRACTS AQUINAS GRADUATES

By James McCoy

If Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre's leading the Society of St. Pius X (while preserving the traditional Latin Mass) into ecclesiastical exile was a tragedy, then the welcome home received by ten former members of the Society is an unexpected happy ending. Last May Bishop James Timlin of Scranton, Pennsylvania, officially established them in his diocese as the Society of St. John with full permission to offer the Mass and other sacraments according to the Tridentine rite.

These former members of Lefebvre's society, steeped in the traditional liturgy, wanted to think with the Church. The tale turns into a romantic comedy of sorts when you discover that a group of men, graduates from Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula-- who were used to thinking with the Church-- were searching for a priestly society devoted to the traditional liturgy! Eventually, all impediments having been removed one by one (as they always are in comedy), the two groups of seekers met. Last September, the Society of St. John gained five new novices, all of whom were Thomas Aquinas Collegegraduates. They were Brendan Kelly (class of 1985), Joseph Levine (1989), Joseph Orlowski (1993), Anthony Myers (1994) and John Nieto (1989). Gary Selin (1989), who entered as a postulant, and John Nieto, a tutor at Thomas Aquinas College, have since left. One founding member of the Society of St. John, Rhone Lillard, is currently a senior at Thomas Aquinas College, and another, Chris Manuele, graduated in 1992. All told, the Society of St. John has 16 members, eight of whom are graduates of Thomas Aquinas College.

Father Carlos Urrutigoity, the superior of the Society of St. John, had originally envisioned it as working under the aegis of the Society of St. Pius X. After Monsignor Lefebvre consecrated four bishops in June 1988 without the pope's permission (thus incurring automatic excommunication for himself and them), the Society of St. Pius X has become increasingly centrifugal, with a Society of St. Pius V (which claims the papal seat is vacant) as one of its spinoffs. Father Urrutigoity was gathering enthusiastic priests and seminarians together for discussions, and that alone cast him under suspicion. In the spring of 1997 Father Urrutigoity was given an ultimatum: report to Econe, Switzerland (the society's world headquarters) immediately, or leave. He left. Two priests, several seminarians and two deacons left with him.

Among the seminarians was Chris Manuele. Manuele suggested that they contact Ron McArthur, Ph.D., the founding president of Thomas Aquinas College. In January 1998 McArthur flew from Sacramento to visit them at St. Gregory's Academy in Elmhurst, Pennsylvania. The society had been given shelter there by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, an order directly under the pope and founded by priests who had left the Lefebvre after the illegal consecrations. The Mission interviewed McArthur (and the others) last summer.

Why have so many graduates of Thomas Aquinas College joined the Society of St. John?

I don't know all the causes. The only thing I can tell you is that I went back to visit these people last January and I met Brendan Kelly there. As I talked to these people, I told them that I knew a bunch of graduates from TAC who were interested in becoming priests and I thought they would be interested in this group. Then some of [the graduates] phoned me, and I told them what I thought of the Society of St. John group, and I thought very highly of them... for two reasons. One, because they want to learn, and learn from the original texts, and not from textbooks; they want to study the liberal arts very, very seriously; they want to learn the languages, Greek and Latin; they want to study and be disciples of St. Thomas [Aquinas]; and finally they have permission [to], and want to, restore the traditional Latin liturgy. I've met many good priests in my life, but I've never met a whole group of priests who have such single minded devotion to genuine Catholic liberal education.

Not even in "the good old days"?

I don't believe in the good old days. The days I knew were the days when the real stuff was crumbling.

Thomas Aquinas College and the Society of St. John are generically similar in studying the Great Books and St. Thomas Aquinas. What's their specific difference?

I don't know that there's a specific difference. TAC has a four-year program for American students who went through American high schools and who would profit by some serious education for four years. What [the society wants] to do is finally establish programs where you begin with young kids and where you have an education that spans from the first grad e through college and graduate work. What these people want to do is far more enterprising than we at the college wanted to do.

Thomas Aquinas College is pretty unique in that its daily Masses are in Latin, albeit according to the rite promulgated by Pope Paul VI. The Society of St. John, however, will say only the Tridentine Latin Mass. Is there an important difference here?

The celebration of the Mass is very integral to any genuine liberal Catholic education, and therefore the traditional liturgy that they will maintain is very, very important. The college was not able to do that. I think the character of the liturgy is tremendously important, and if the liturgy is solemn, it has a supernatural flavor, then it leads people more surely to live the supernatural life. And that's what forms lay people. The core of the formation lies in the Mass, in the liturgy.

Secondly, if the liturgy is seen in conjunction with the whole flowering of the intellectual life, in that sense the priest-- who is both the celebrant in the Mass and the espouser of the intellectual life-- can lead in a way that no layman can lead.

Speaking of leading, would do you think about what seems the ultimate goal of the Society of St. John-- to lead Catholics towards the restoration of Christendom?

Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But who knows? What these people really want to do is the restoration of Christendom. What they really want to do is restore the prerogatives of the Catholic Church as a superior society and recognized as such by a whole civilization. And that, as a matter of fact, is and must be the aim of the mystical Body of Christ.

The founders of the Society of St. John have some pretty lofty ideals, including the building of lay Catholic communities. Can they live up to them?

I definitely think they can. My own experience shows that. The people who founded this order are young; therefore, they lack one thing-- they lack experience. But they don't lack any concern for the laity. They are priests, reverent priests. They say Mass reverently, they know the liturgy and they can give leadership in the Church. No matter how active the laity are in the Church, it's the character of the priest that will determine the practice of faith among young people. That's always been true, and it always will be true. In that sense, the Society of St. John can have a greater effect than TAC can have-- because they are priests.

McArthur told John Nieto about the Society of St. John. Having obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy, Nieto was in his sixth year teaching at his alma mater, Thomas Aquinas College. When he finished reading the society's founding document, Nieto, 38, was interested in looking into the society.

Although he wanted to teach at the college for at least a couple more years, he told the Mission, "I just thought it was not right to wait." When the spring 1998 semester was over, he left Thomas Aquinas to join the Society of St. John. Nieto has since left the Society of St. John to return to Thomas Aquinas College.

Why have so many Thomas Aquinas College graduates joined the Society of St. John?

First of all, because the society understands well the nature of the priesthood and desires not only its existence but its well being. It desires its integrity, the priesthood's integrity. That's the first and main reason. Second of all, because [the society] has a very clear and complete understanding of the intellectual life, and its role in the service of sacred doctrine.

Insofar as a man is a priest, he's not just a magician, (having) the power over the gods, that kind of thing. But rather his faculties, his natural and supernatural powers, are at the service of Christ, and through this he is Christ, participates in Christ. Therefore he has to be Christ in the fullness of his life, and not merely in the sacramental personification of Christ through the liturgy and confession and things like that.

The priesthood's integrity, therefore, not only involves a full understanding of the sacramental life-- [it] gets beyond merely just the statement of the right words. [The priesthood's integrity] also implies that it is ordered to the truth, that [the priest] has as full a participation as is possible in Christ's truth.

So more integral vision means becoming a better human being?

No. Because everybody can be a better human being. That's demanded of everybody... In a way, that's demanded of every Christian: he has to live the life of Christ. [The Christian] really is living the divine life, doing divine things, things which he has no natural power to do. Furthermore, he has to do them in a divine way. But the priest has to do more than that: he's actually an active participant in the communication of grace.

Why did you leave the Society?

"I still think not only that they're a great group of men but that what they're doing really needs to be done. [However], I've been on my own so long, I'm kind of too old to change my way of life. It was clear that my vocation was to continue to teach at TAC."

Would you recommend that a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College test his vocation with the Society of St. John?

"Oh, certainly."

Having talked it over with McArthur, Nieto next spoke with Brendan Kelly. Like Nieto, Kelly went to Notre Dame to get a doctorate in philosophy. He was working on his dissertation in summer 1993 when Pope John Paul II came to Denver, Colorado for World Youth Day. As Kelly recalls, the Holy Father said, "I've been here telling you all these things-- but now it's up to you to carry them out." "And that one," Kelly said, "really kind of struck me right to the heart."

Kelly was a popular teacher at the University of San Francisco; in fact, the kids kept coming to him with their problems. "And I thought to myself," he recalls, "here I am hearing confessions without being able to do anything about it. Maybe I need to be able to do something about it."

Kelly entered the Fraternity of St. Peter, and was sent to their seminary in Wiegratzbad, Germany. But though he loved the traditional liturgy and priestly formation provided by the fraternity, he felt called to the Dominicans, because, while fraternity priests usually become parish priests, Kelly thought he should become a teaching priest. "I knew that would be the case because my whole teaching vocation had been basically been given to me by God," he said. Kelly entered the Dominican novitiate in Providence, Rhode Island-- but now he began to miss the traditional liturgy. Unable to pray, he was not able to draw strength for community life. He left the Dominicans in June 1997.

After leaving the Dominicans, Kelly, 35, was searching for something that combined liturgical traditionalism with the perennial philosophy which the Church has made her own. During this period, Kelly bumped into other Aquinas graduates in the same straits. Among them were Joe Levine and Gary Selin, both of whom had been with the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross in Brazil for seven and five years respectively. "We kind of started an informal, mutual prayer association," Kelly said. Today, Levine and Kelly are members of the society.

Before entering the Society of Saint John, Kelly lived with his parents in northern Virginia and worked at a construction job. In December 1997, tired from long hours, Kelly was making a Christmas present with an electric saw when suddenly, he caught his fingers in the saw. He was rushed to hospital, and a top-notch surgeon treated him, but he lost the top joints of the last three fingers of his left hand. All that remained was the thumb and the forefinger-- the "canonical fingers," so called because with them the priest holds the Host at Mass. Had he lost one more finger, Kelly could not have become a priest.

What did you think when you lost your fingers?

The first reaction was, wow, that was real close. I saw how close it was to taking off all four. What that leaves is the fingers with which the priest handles the Body of Christ. And that did occur to me very quickly-- that God is very merciful here. It also reminded me that I really needed to get back on track. I got word of a meeting for TACers up here at St. Gregory's [Academy in Scranton] ... the Society of St. John had invited a bunch of TACers there, and had invited Dr. McArthur out to talk to them for a week. They gave me a copy of the founding document [saying], "Pray about it. Think about it."

When I came back [to Scranton] for Holy Week I thought almost right away, this feels like coming home. Father Urrutigoity's sermon on Holy Thursday was essentially, "we'll fail rather than compromise. Not only is this the thing to be done, but this is the time to do it."

Why have so many Aquinas graduates joined the Society of St. John?

Thomas Aquinas is not the normal kind of college. You have to think seriously about things. Those [serious people] tend to be the same kind of people that go into religious life, and also the same kind of people who form heroic Catholic families. [In the Society there's] the consistency-- the tradition of learning and the tradition of liturgy as well. There's a natural draw from the college to the traditional rite. To put it bluntly, what brought me here is only secondarily the traditional Mass, the traditional liturgy; it's (primarily) the complete vision... It's not that I'm committed to the traditional liturgy and therefore I come to this -- it's, if anything, the other way around.

What is this complete vision?

It's a matter of facing up openly and straightforwardly to God's revealed truth. Revealed truth now in the broader sense of (not only) what normally gets called "revelation" but also what's revealed through nature. I think there's a real sense of confidence we draw from [Thomas Aquinas] college. It's because we've come to learn that we can know things, and that we in fact do know them. They may be small things, but they're things. and they're real. The great confidence that gives you is the confidence in the consistency between the things you do know and the things you don't yet know. There are a lot of things I don't know... But I do know this: I know that the things I don't know yet are going to fit with the things I do know. I may not be able to make them fit, but they are interconnected. The source of that is that God is the author of both nature and of revelation.

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