Fœderatio Internationalis Juventutem

 

For the first time in its rather brief history, the International Juventutem Federation was able to gather delegates from various groups in the world. This took place in Bern, Switzerland, where the Federation had been founded 21 months earlier (on May 24, 2006).

 

To the surprise of the organizers, we found ourselves nearly 30 people gathered together on this week-end, originating from ten different countries: Italy, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Hungary, France, Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland and even Hong Kong. Considering that one Spanish delegate represented our group from Argentina (a country where he had spent several years), it can be said that this first international meeting did not give an exclusively European outlook on Juventutem, but really represented our groups from various continents. Of course we missed our other friends from Australia, from Kenya and from Chile, Brazil, Columbia and Scotland. Several groups had sent messages assuring us that they were united with us through prayer.

 

And pray we did, during these but 24 hours or so in Bern! We started on Saturday 9 February with Holy Mass at 3pm. The Sisters Oblates of St Francis de Sales had welcomed us in their private chapel, filled to utter capacity with our youths as well as with a few parishioners (Bernardo and Rosina Cadoni) and Sisters. With their kind permission, the normally rather barren altar had been arranged for traditional Mass with the specific red velvet step, altar stone, special long cloths, 6 golden candlesticks with long thin candles, wooden tabernacle with marqueterie and golden crucifix all brought from the nearby Juventutem oratory. Hanging behind the altar as a sort of raredo, a beautiful banner framed in gold represented Patron Saint of the Youths St Aloysius Gonzaga in an immaculate surplice. This banner used to be among those carried at the famous Corpus Christi procession in Catholic Fribourg and had been saved from destruction. It was particularly appropriate to have the picture of this virtuous young prince, who had renounced dynastic succession over the principality of Mantua in Italy in order to better serve God and embrace the divine will.

 

The gospel of the Mass on this Saturday after Ash Wednesday referred to the apostles spurring efforts on their little ship tossed by the tempest at night, while Our Lord was walking towards them over the water, finally bringing them all safely to the shore where all the sick were brought to Him and healed. Fr de Malleray preached in French and English (the two languages understood by one half or the other of our group), insisting on the fact we were all gathered from various countries in the name of the Lord to pray together and get to know each other so as to be better supported in our faith. Father pointed out that naturally we did not need travel such a distance to pray, since thanks be to God we could find the Real Presence in a church near our home. He added that the reason why we had come however was our specific attachment to the Roman traditions of the Church, as a means we had found most helpful for our sanctification. As young people, we were glad to be part of an international network bringing together Catholic youths with very different backgrounds and with a common interest for the Church’s traditions. The Mass was followed with devotion and one should say, with some emotion while praying for these other youths next to each of us on their knees. Very few among us had already met some other members, but our partaking in the Sacrifice of the Lord and receiving his sacred Body, precious Blood, adorable Soul and Divinity laid the deepest foundation for our common friendship.

 

 

After Holy Mass and thanksgiving, we gathered at 4pm in the adjacent refectory where the good Sisters had insisted on preparing coffee and cakes for us. For the first time we were able to talk with each other and meet Juventutem representatives from various countries. President Gregory Flash gave a few words of introduction and called each delegate to whom he gave a badge with the Juventutem emblem and his or her name, surname and country, to be carried upon his or her clothes. Sheets of paper with the Juventutem emblem were hanging over the walls and tables.

 

After a while, we started with the formal meeting (at 4:30pm) with a prayer, sitting at the tables set in a V-shape. Gregory started to describe the goal of Juventutem and the purpose of this first encounter. Sitting at his right and left were Juventutem Secretary David Oostveen and Juventutem Treasurer Cosimo Marti. Ecclesiastical Assistant Fr de Malleray was sitting at the side, next to the various delegates. Each delegate stood up one after the other and introduced himself or herself.

 

Father de Malleray then detailed the spiritual goal of Juventutem, i.e. the sanctification of the youths through the Roman traditions of the Church. He reminded us that Juventutem was essentially to help our personal sanctification through prayer, doctrine and friendship, manifesting also in charitable initiatives. He added that our desire to bear witness to the beauty and depth of these Roman traditions as Juventutem members would be fulfilled to the extent these traditions would help us grow in holiness. We would be poor apostles if we were not humble and obedient as well as trustworthy and zealous. Fr concluded by stressing the importance of the Juventutem three spiritual commitments: 1) to pray every day for the sanctification of other Juventutem youths and of all youths, preferably reciting psalm 42 “Judica me”; 2) to visit a church once a week to pray God really present in the tabernacle; 3) once a year at least, to go to confession, to attend Holy Mass in the extraordinary form and partake in some faith activities on behalf of Juventutem.

 

Gregory then pointed out the current situation of Juventutem. We are a young international network. Our assets are the Roman traditions of the Church and our enthusiasm. We are not aware of any other international youth organisation promoting them. We live in different countries, which brings more variety and makes our interest for these traditions more universal and therefore more significant and eloquent, as Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos wrote in his letter of support last month. But our very assets might also turn into drawbacks if we are not careful. Being young and without much experience can lead some into not very prudent declarations or initiatives. Being international (different places and different languages) makes contacts less easy and can be a source of misunderstanding and of delay in collective actions. Lastly, wanting to promote the Roman traditions of the Church can displease some laity and clergy who may frown upon us and be much less amenable to us as they are towards other groups not led by our thirst for orthodoxy and loyalty to the Holy See. As a consequence, we must be careful in what we say or write and focus on what is our raison d’être, i.e. our sanctification through the Roman traditions of the Church, in prudence and charity as befits loyal Catholics.

Regarding our statutes, Gregory said that we needed to ensure that our foundational documents were not too detailed or complex, so as not to impede our development at this still very early stage, which everybody agreed on.

 

Juventutem Treasurer Cosimo Marti said that as required by civil law, and in order to make our commitment within the Federation more concrete, and also to cover the administrative costs and help organise further events, it was necessary that each member should give a yearly contribution to the Federation. Some members said they had had the same idea. It was agreed by all that a 10 Euro contribution would be expected from each individual person member of Juventutem according to his or her abilities (those who cannot give this amount would give in conscience whatever they can). Each group will gather the contributions of its members and send it once a year to the Juventutem Bureau in Bern.

 

It was asked how to help communicate and know each other better. Juventutem Secretary David Oostveen would gather the updated contact details of every member in the world, so as to have a complete list to this purpose.

 

After some further points were discussed, Fr de Malleray said a prayer and we all went back to the chapel for benediction at 6:30pm. The altar cards had been removed and side candlesticks lit up, which gave a very peaceful and subdued light, as the night outside had darkened the windows. It was an extraordinary moment when the Lord was exposed in the beautiful monstrance, very similar in shape and design with our own Juventutem emblem. Really, this was like the heart of Juventutem! We prayed for and in union with all our fellow members in the world. We prayed also for the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. We prayed as well for those who did not share our love for the Roman traditions of the Church, that we may together praise God and serve his Church. We had the Litanies of the Sacred Heart and various prayers and hymns. At the end, Father gave the Blessing and everybody went to their hotels to later meet for supper at a restaurant at 8pm.

As we were leaving, some Oblates Sisters said it had been a profound joy to pray together with “so recollected and pious” a group of youths. We thanked them for their most kind welcome and departed.

 

After Holy Mass, reunion and adoration, supper at “Il Grissino” provided earthly food not to be despised! The long table booked for the 30 of us long ago seemed to have been used by some of the many unexpected customers on this Bernese carnival evening. But thanks to Mr Marti who knows the place well, we were able to sit comfortably around three other tables and enjoy the evening. Many people around us were in disguise, some with music instruments which they had played in the streets, crowded with Swiss people from all generations which the carnival had attracted in town. After Father had said Grace, we were helped with abundant and nice food (and drinks). We simply relaxed and discussed in small groups, changing places for dessert, so as to make the best out of this rare opportunity to get to know each other. Gregory, a well trained Master of Ceremony at the London Oratory’s liturgies in the forma extraordinaria, was to be MC at the Solemn High Mass the following morning. He gave each servant his function and all decided to meet one hour before Mass for rehearsal. Supper culminated with a much appreciated tiramisu!

After having given thanks, some of us went back to their hotels and had a cup of coffee, while others walked the streets and watched the carnival shows.

 

In the morning was the Solemn High Mass (8:15am). Not many of us had attended one in the past. The Crypt of the Basilica of the Holy Trinity (the largest Catholic church in Bern) is a nice and suitable place, in very good condition and well decorated. A prelate with a purple sash and surplice was there. We were told that he was the Secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Switzerland. He had been informed of our Juventutem meeting on this week-end and gladly decided he would attend our Mass, processing with the sacred ministers and servants and sitting in choir. We have been deeply touched by the honour brought by his presence and really felt supported by the most official among Church authorities. In his sermon in German, Fr de Malleray read the translated letter of support sent by Vatican official Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Ecclesia Dei Commission:

“Dear young members of the International Juventutem Federation, You are young Catholics, loyal to the hierarchy of the Church and attracted by the “forma extraordinaria” of the Roman liturgy, in particular by the Missal of Blessed John XXIII. I encourage you in your aim, that is to say your sanctification through the Roman traditions of the Church.

The presence of your little groups in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Oceania demonstrates the universal attraction of the most ancient forms of the Roman liturgy, whose particular transcendence serves to connect the most diverse cultures. From this liturgy, you will receive special help in coming better to know and love Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church, as the Holy Father wrote on 7th July 2007: “Immediately after the Second Vatican Council, it might have been imagined that the demand for the use of the 1962 Missal would have been limited to the older generation, which had grown up with it, but it has since become clear that young people were also discovering this liturgical form, feeling attracted to it and finding in it a type of contact with the Most Holy Eucharist which suited them particularly well” (Letter to the Bishops, accompanying the Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum“).

As a sign of your devotion to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, your Juventutem Federation has chosen as its emblem a monstrance. I also know that you will be present at the International Eucharistic Congress in Québec in June 2008.

I therefore wish to renew my encouragement of your progress in Christian piety and friendship via the Roman traditions of the Church. May you continue to obtain ever deeper sanctification, which will make you warm witnesses of the love of Christ in communion with His Church.

Signed: Dario Card. Castrillon Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei Vatican City, 17th January 2008”.

 

Father then thanked the local faithful and the staff of the “Saint Nicolas de Flües Society” (the local traditional association) for their presence and support. He said that it was also a great encouragement for all attending to see so many more youths than usual at Mass, particularly as each of them had come as a representative of his or her Juventutem group. Father later on quoted the encyclical Veritatis Splendor when Pope John Paul II meditates on the wealthy young man’s question to Jesus : « Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life? The question which the rich young man puts to Jesus of Nazareth is one which rises from the depths of his heart. It is an essential and unavoidable question for the life of every man, for it is about the moral good which must be done, and about eternal life » (§8). Finally, it was reminded that the sort of youth Juventutem cares for is not necessarily based on a small number of years, and is not secured by cosmetic manipulations either, but rather flows from filial familiarity between our souls and God’s saving grace. On this respect, every person of good will, whatever his or her age, was called to rejoice eternally saying with Psalm 42: “Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui lætificat juventutem meam”.

 

Officiating as deacon was Rev. Mr. Stefan Reiner, FSSP who had been with Juventutem in 2005 in Bavaria, and as subdeacon Mr. Bertrand Sigros, a seminarian from a French diocese. The functions of acolytes, thurifer, torch-bearers and cross-bearer were fulfilled by Juventutem members from various countries. Lent by a diocesan priest, a superb full set of purple vestments from the XVII^th century was used, bringing much glory to this Solemn High Mass on this first Sunday of Lent.

 

After Mass and thanksgiving, we all gathered (at 10am) in a conference room at the Hôtel National nearby for coffee and croissants. We then watched a slideshow on Juventutem, commented by Fr de Malleray. There were pictures from the very first gathering in Bavaria in August 2005 with many liturgical and doctrinal activities. There were also groups of Juventutem pilgrims walking either across Bavaria or from Paris to Chartres at the yearly “Our Lady of Christendom Pilgrimage”, possibly the largest all-walking Catholic pilgrimage on a week-end (about 8,000 pilgrims each year for Pentecost). It was very encouraging to see so many youths from different countries praying together and also learning their Catholic faith, eating, laughing and walking together.

 

Pictures from the solemn liturgies with bishops and cardinals officially supporting Juventutem were also very impressive. Most striking was the series depicting the pontifical vespers presided by Cardinal George Pell of Sydney for Juventutem in Düsseldorf in August 2005. More intimate was the recitation of the Holy Rosary led by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago for Juventutem youths. There were also various Masses offered by Archbishop Wolfgang Haas of Liechtenstein and Bishop Arêas Rifan of Campos in Brasil, and benediction presided by Bishop George Alencherry of Thuckalay in India; plus lectures given by various seminarians, friars, and priests from all the Ecclesia Dei communities and by some bishops like Bishop Aumonier of Versailles in France. It was also very moving to see pictures of the Papal Mass at Marienfeld in Germany, where non Juventutem youths around our group imitated us, receiving Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue. The Juventutem flags and various others banners with traditional Catholic emblems were floating high in the grey sky over our one thousand Juventutem youths gathered around the Holy Father on that morning. The slideshow concluded with pictures from smaller gathering and visits among Juventutem members and pictures from groups in different countries, including our Kenyan friends.

 

After this we had another session of discussion on Juventutem (starting at about 10:50am). The creation of local websites was encouraged, and it was agreed that each of them would advertise on their front page the emblem and website address of the Federation www.juventutem.org. Gregory Flash (by profession a lawyer in London) also said that we should not let ourselves be hindered by disproportionate institutional procedures since at this stage we had very little staff and time to get things running. On the other hand he added, for the sake of common good, we want to follow certain elementary rules such as 1) respecting the leadership of the Juventutem Bureau in loyal fairness; 2) forwarding news to the Bureau and groups (pictures, activities and planned travels); 3) answering important messages in particular; 4) locally archiving important messages or correspondence related to our group. He reminded us of the fact that the best and necessary basis for fruitful collaboration among the Juventutem Federation, particularly at such an early stage of development, was mutual trust and disinterested care for our common good.

 

At the end of this session, there was a most moving moment when for the first time we prayed together the Juventutem “official” prayer, that is Psalm 42 “Judica Me” in Latin, from where the name “Juventutem” is derived. We pronounced the words slowly, looking at the Juventutem flag spread on the wall, the same flag which had been with us in various important events, bearing the wide monstrance with the Host in the middle. We felt glad and proud to be members of this little Federation, asking God for his light and strength, that we may use Juventutem to know, love and serve Him better, as much as would please Him.

 

It was 11:30am by then and we walked the streets to the restaurant “Il Grissino” again, stopping on the way to listen to a description of the parliament building by Cosimo Marti. It is an impressive and high building, with gilded roof and a big cross at the top. Bern is indeed the capital city of the Swiss Confederation.

We started lunch at 12 noon in the ground floor room filled with sunlight, and enjoying an excellent pizza and red wine. With us were Fr Arnaud Evrat, the chaplain to Juventutem Switzerland, as well as Mr and Mrs Peter Eilinger, involved in the local traditional association, plus Mr Heinz Müller, the famous ebeniste who had made the beautiful tabernacle and other furniture for Juventutem. These lay supporters of Juventutem (aged over 36) had attended the morning Mass and conference. It is interesting to mention en passant that Mr Müller’s wife used to be the cook of Yehudi Menuhin, one of the signatories (with Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kenneth Clark, Colin Davis, Nancy Mitford and many others) of the 1971 petition to Pope Paul VI in support of the traditional Roman liturgy, which on the same year had resulted in an indult granting the use of this liturgical form in England and Wales. Before the end of lunch, some of our fellow Juventutem members had to leave and catch their flights at various airports. About twenty of us remained, most of whom were able to come to Fribourg, a small medieval Catholic city 30 kilometres westward.

 

We arrived in Fribourg on a sunny and cold afternoon and walked along the picturesque streets and across covered bridges. Once a place a refuge for Catholic congregations in Protestant Switzerland, Fribourg used to be called “the little Swiss Rome”. It is amazing indeed how numerous the convents and friaries of all famous orders are in such a small city. We peeped through the door of the St Michael’s church, to contemplate at the rear of the sanctuary, under the high altar, the huge silver reliquary with the body of St Peter Canisius, the famous Jesuit who had laboured so much to preserve Cologne and other Germanic dioceses from going astray during the Protestant crisis.

 

Most memorable were the solemn vespers at the cathedral at 6pm. “St Nicolas” must be the only cathedral in the world where vespers are offered (once a month) by the canons of the cathedral in the forma extraordinaria as part of the liturgical diocesan schedule. We were told that it was in no way a novelty following the recent motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. On the contrary, vespers have been celebrated this way for decades, possibly for centuries. After a very talented choir had sang polyphonic music by Palestrina, a procession of the Blessed Sacrament took place within the cathedral. As has been the tradition since early time, male representatives from the patrician families of Fribourg (the ancient city senate) in black suit and white gloves would accompany the Blessed Sacrament, each one of them carrying a lantern adorned with the arms of his family. We really felt as if brought back into a time (now long gone in most parts of the world), when civil authorities did not fear manifesting their dignified submission to the King of kings. However, we did not want to idealise this punctual glimpse of social harmony, knowing that the Church in this diocese like elsewhere had not been spared civil opposition, internal turbulences and dramatic drop in priestly vocations and religious practice.

 

After vespers we crossed the huge Zähringen bridge over the Sarine river and walked the steep alley up to the house where Fr de Malleray and Deacon Reiner live. There we enjoyed a delicious homemade lasagne. After supper we went to the house chapel and said a conclusive prayer in thanksgiving for this wonderful week-end and for the joy of having met so many friends sharing our love for Roman traditions, ad majorem Dei gloriam!

 

We were then driven back to Bern for the night. The day after, there remained only a few of us in Switzerland. We were able to visit some more places of interest, including the old Cistercian abbey of Hauterive. We eventually departed, hoping to be able to meet again soon, and feeling deeply strengthened by what we had seen and heard (and eaten!) and shared during these two days. Each of us was also conscious of the fact that such graces were not for him or her to enjoy privately, but rather as representatives of all our Juventutem fellow members (and future members), which either distance or lack of free time or of money had prevented from attending. In truth, this must have been the best beginning of Lent in our lives! With more conviction than ever we prayed to our Good God and Saviour Jesus Christ: “Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui lætificat juventutem meam - I will go in to the altar of God: to God Who giveth joy to my youth”.