Note : This Newsletter was first published on the Canada Fidèle website on 29 november 2019.

On the feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of October 2019, we renewed for the second time the solemn consecration of our missions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. This consecration was preceded by a novena of preparation which the faithful were eager to recite in order to prepare themselves properly for this great day.

Heaven’s support for our small missions seems quite obvious and, despite the difficult times we live in, small groups grow not only in number, but also in fervour – at least, that is what we ask and hope for with trust.

Lakeville – Our Lady of Joy Mission

On 12 September, the little Our Lady of Joy Mission blew out its six birthday candles. 12 September, 2013 is the day that True Mass returned to Moncton after several years of absence. Since August 2015 we rent a former Protestant church. There are about fifty faithful in Lakeville.

Small improvements have been made in the chapel in recent months.

• First of all, we have received a beautiful baptistery, which will be very useful in the coming months: a dozen adults are currently preparing to join Tradition, five or six of whom must be baptised. This baptistery comes from a church in the area that has closed. Many other objects have been recovered, including the linen altar clothes, saved in extremis from the trash where they were found.

• We also bought two white pews to replace the sanctuary chairs, blending very well with the altar and the credence table. These pews were bought from a funeral home in Lévis. The benches had to be slightly modified to suit the dimensions of the sanctuary.

• Beautiful statues of the Sacred Heart, Our Lady and Saint Joseph have replaced the too-small statues we had until then. The statues of the Sacred Heart and of the Blessed Virgin Mary were saved from the Convent of the Sisters of Charity in Halifax, decades ago, by the Ahern family. The statue of St Joseph is from a church that closed in Nova Scotia.

• We were also given antique sacristy furniture from an abandoned church in Nova Scotia. To remove this piece of furniture from its location was not easy, since it did not fit through the doors. It had to be dismantled, restored, then re-assembled in the basement of the church.

• The church parking lot has also undergone some work. More and more, puddles were formed with each rain shower, especially in the spring – and mud made its way into the church. The owner therefore, at our request, agreed to have some work done, which consisted in digging up the parking lot, putting rock two feet below ground, and covering it by compacted gravel. We should have dry feet now.

• A warehouse has been set up with faithful of the Lakeville Mission in order to receive items from churches that are closing throughout the East of the country and which deserve to be saved. We hope to contribute to the preservation of part of the Catholic heritage of our country: Stations of the Cross, statues, altar stones, etc., everything is cleaned and stored in order to one day be used to establish Mass centres.

• There is also significant work restoring the vestments of the Maritimes and Quebec missions. A black vestment was made for St. Athanasius Mission in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Another solemn black vestment has been completely restored for Our Lady of Joy Mission in Lakeville. The green and white vestments of Saint John the Baptist Mission in Quebec have been restored. Finally, a red vestment was made from an antique cope and a rose vestment was made from silk fabric purchased in England for Our Lady of Joy Mission in Lakeville. That means six vestments now in good condition for the greater glory of God. A lot of work is still going on and we are blessed to have a young girl from the Moncton area who gives of her time for this good work. To enable her to come to work at the church, Our Lady of Joy Mission has made a small car (Honda Fit) available to this volunteer. It will also serve as a back-up for Father Roy when his Volkswagen, which now counts 280 thousand kilometres, must stay at the mechanic’s.

Sewing, bookstore, making candles, restoring statues, gardening, crafts – work is not lacking, and every good effort is put to good use.

Saint Michael’s rectory is now fully paid for. We are very grateful to Providence for the generosity of the faithful of our missions who paid for this place in exactly two years. This house is a haven of peace to allow the priest to rest between his travels, and also to do some physical work that is important to the health of both body and mind. Now it’s time to set aside funds for places of worship in Moncton, Charlottetown, and Dartmouth, where the largest groups of faithful are. All donations made towards these projects are of course welcome.

Dartmouth – Our Lady of the Assumption Mission

Our Lady of the Assumption Mission in Dartmouth has made a lot of progress this year-and-a-half, especially with the choir and Mass service. We have the grace to have a choir master who is working very hard to form a small Gregorian choir. Some beautiful voices have revealed themselves and, on the feast of Christ the King, we had a complete Sung Mass. The rest of the time, we sing everything, but several parts of the Mass are psalm-toned.

An organist from the United States who is studying music in Halifax has also been with us for almost a year. She accompanies the singing, allowing for rapid progress in the Dartmouth congregation.

The altar boys are not left out. They are learning their roles and serving better and better. We also thank them for their efforts.

The Mission has forty faithful who are holding out despite the storm that is currently shaking our Holy Mother the Church. We still meet in the chapel of a funeral home. Nova Scotia will have its glory in these times of the catacombs.

Charlottetown – Star of the Sea Mission

In Prince Edward Island (formerly Ile-Saint-Jean), progress was made mainly in the learning of the catechism. Most Mondays after the monthly or fortnightly visit, we meet at the home of faithful in Orwell to study one or two lessons of the catechism. These adult lessons are also given in Lakeville, where they are recorded and sent to all the faithful, so as to allow those who cannot attend to enjoy them as well.

The Charlottetown faithful group is stable. Forty souls – that is all that remains of the Catholics who maintain true worship in a province formerly 40% Catholic.

We recently celebrated All Saints’ Day in Orwell. The children explained the lives of the saints they represented, after having prepared their costumes, as well as cupcakes and various decorations in honour of all the saints.

Tracadie-Sheila – Queen of Angels Mission

Northern New Brunswick is on the watch and wants to keep its monthly Mass. Campbellton, Dundee, Bathurst, Tracadie, etc., many localities are represented, and the Faith survives. The mission is French-speaking. This is the only mission of the Atlantic Provinces that is almost exclusively French-speaking. It is made up of about twenty faithful. Mass is held on weekdays. It is hard to do any better for the time being.

St. John’s – Saint Athanasius Mission

Newfoundland’s mission remains modest, but every two months, the ten or so faithful of St. John’s are visited by the priest, whom they await patiently. They have, moreover, begun to meet every Sunday to sanctify the Lord’s Day together. The fewer the priest’s visits, the more the faithful can understand and experience the seriousness of the situation in which the Mystical Body of Christ finds itself. Confessions, Mass, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, catechism – everything must be done in a few days – to be filled with the strength needed to hold tight until the next Mass.

Quebec – Saint John the Baptist Mission

Saint John the Baptist Mission consists of two groups: St-Charles-de-Bellechasse and Montreal. All and all, about eighty souls. We are blessed every year to receive the help of Father Nicolas Pinaud: once in the spring and once in the autumn.

The last two years, retreats have been preached in Nominingue, north of Montreal. In 2018, eight men came to follow the Exercises in the very favourable setting of Lake Nominingue. In 2019, ten ladies came to listen to the preaching. We thought we were not going to preach any retreats in 2020, but seven men have already given their names and we will have to revise our program.

In Saint-Charles-de-Bellechasse, things were organised for weekday Masses. While building their new house, the faithful who receive us have planned a room where it would be possible to celebrate Mass. Everything needed was installed soberly but with dignity, and we can celebrate weekday Masses in this well-lit and well set-up basement. For Sunday Masses, the number of faithful is greater, and we must rent a larger room.

Brinston – Ontario

The small Ottawa mission moved to Brinston, near Cornwall, as the family that welcomed us in Ottawa moved further into Ontario. However, the small group remains at about ten members, since a family from St. Catharines has recently taken up residence near Brinston.

As for the St. Catharines mission, it has therefore had to close its doors – most of the faithful having moved closer to other missions. In general, it can be said that during the last three years the larger groups have grown and smaller groups have tended to disappear, making the priest’s ministry easier.

Doctrinal Position

The question of the exact position of Our Lady of Joy Mission has sometimes been the topic of some conversation. The Mission did not position itself clearly in the sedevacantist camp. Some might want it, others fear it.

Be that as it may, we can only note the more and more appalling drift of the Conciliar Church. How can one still declare oneself in communion with Francis after the recent Amazon Synod? How can the name of Francis be counted among those who “profess the Catholic and Apostolic Faith”? Our Lady of Joy Mission cannot take the path of rallying to the apostate authorities of Rome; there is no doubt.

It seems that the best attitude is to ask oneself, before anything else, the question of the profession and the teaching of the Catholic Faith. Do the Vatican authorities now profess and teach the faith of our fathers? Do the authorities of our dioceses profess and teach the faith of our fathers? If they do, then there is no need to resist them. If not, then is the question of their legitimacy not superfluous?

Still, we are all tormented, and two principles must guide our action: first, to remain faithful to the Catholic Faith and to the Traditions of the Church; secondly, to stay away from false prophets and to wait in fidelity for God’s time.

If the priests of Tradition were invested with the authority and jurisdiction of the Church, they could probably impose a point of view that could give an explanation to the crisis we are going through. But since this is not the case, it seems that their role is above all to maintain in peace a flock already well dispersed. How can we be sure that there are not things we do not know yet in the present crisis of the Church? Therefore, how could we draw definitive conclusions from those only elements which we know?

It is in this mind-set that the Mission has thus avoided issuing a doctrinal statement or anything of that kind. What should bring us together is the Catholic Faith as expressed in the catechisms of the traditional Church and the will to stay away from false prophets. For the rest, the Church will one day draw all the conclusions that we will need.

A Final Word

Dear friends of Our Lady of Joy Mission, this last word will be to thank you for your prayers and your generosity. Many things have been accomplished in recent years that could not have been accomplished without your help.

Every day, we receive accounts of sympathy and support. These marks of friendship come to put a balm on the antipathies which are also lavished faithfully upon us. How could we not arouse these two opposite reactions if we follow in the line of what seems to us to be the truth?

We would also like to thank the members of the Mission for all the material assistance provided: Mass service, choir, flowers, food, help with the preparation of the premises for Masses, the accommodation of priests, etc. It is touching to see how much everyone wants to give their own to see things moving forward. Be blessed for your fervour.

To all the young people of our Missions, a little piece of advice: seek God with all your heart. He is the source of our joy. “The joy of the Lord is our strength!” (Nehemias 8:10) Set aside the illusions of this world, and seek the Lord. The flesh, the riches, and the honours of this world will never bring you the joy that your heart seeks. Walk willingly in the path of salvation! Do not waste precious time. “For the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Cor 7: 31)

A final word for all those who are so isolated that they rarely have access to the Mass and the sacraments. Hold on tight! Be faithful! The grace of God will never fail you if you are faithful. There is no test beyond our strength when we have God with us. “If God be for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8: 31)

To God be glory – and to us, mercy!

The Lord be with you!

Father Pierre Roy