A Pontifical Mass and a Parish Taking Root
The new FSSP apostolate in Guale received a particular honor this week: the Archbishop of Portoviejo came to celebrate Mass and formally mark the beginning of the foundation. What follows is Fr. Daniel Heenan’s report. Please keep Fr. Xavier Proust, Fr. Heenan, and the people of Guale in your prayers.
Monday evening brought a particular honor to our mission: the Archbishop came to Guale to celebrate Mass and formally mark the beginning of the new apostolate. We celebrated a Pontifical Low Mass, and even some of the young boys who had only just begun learning to serve were able to vest and assist at the altar. After Mass, His Excellency stayed for dinner with us, giving us the opportunity to discuss the needs of the new apostolate, some of the challenges we have encountered, and many of the practical matters involved in establishing a permanent Catholic presence here.
His visit also gave us an opportunity to show him some of the progress made by the missionaries.
One of the most visible projects has been the restoration of the high altar.
Restored high altar prepared for the Traditional Latin Mass in Guale, Ecuador
When we arrived, we found an old side altar with a striking image of the bust of Our Lord crowned with thorns. Rather than simply discard what was already there and replace it with something new, we restored what we could, extended the mensa sufficiently to celebrate Mass, and moved the altar into the center of the sanctuary to serve as the church’s high altar. It was not quite finished when the Archbishop arrived, but he was very pleased to see that we had made use of what the church already possessed and had succeeded in creating a dignified altar for the traditional liturgy. He also gave us permission to remove the freestanding altar that had previously occupied the sanctuary, to make more space for the celebration of Mass.
Meanwhile, work continued on the chapel of St. Vincent Ferrer in Roncador. Good progress has been made laying the new floor, and more and more people from the village have begun coming by to lend a hand — or at least to watch the work for a while and see what is going on.
Newly tiled floor in the Chapel of St. Vincent Ferrer, Roncador.
Back in Guale, walls continued to go up to make the sacristy a more suitable and sacred space. The seminarians did an outstanding job trying to bring some order to the treasure trove of liturgical goods that have been donated to the mission. We still have almost no sacristy furniture, so merely finding places to store everything while protecting it from the dust and dirt is something of an adventure. Nevertheless, little by little, things are beginning to take shape.
Tuesday morning brought a very different kind of missionary work. The two priests, one seminarian, and one of the lay missionaries spent the morning visiting the local public school. The principal is Catholic and formerly served as principal of the Catholic school, and he very generously opened the doors to us. We were allowed to visit every classroom and speak freely with the students.
Missionaries speaking with the students in a Guale classroom.
The experience was striking, especially compared with what would be possible in a public school in the United States, or even in many places in Mexico. We were able to speak openly about God, the Catholic Faith, the sacraments, and the necessity of practicing the Faith, while inviting the children to come to catechism at the church.
The younger children were delighted to see us. There were hugs, smiles, questions, and tremendous enthusiasm. At the same time, it was disheartening to discover how little many of them knew about the things of God.
FSSP priests visiting young students at the public school in Guale.
The situation became more sobering when we reached the older students. Many of the teenagers seemed apathetic, and a few were somewhat disrespectful. In one classroom of approximately sixteen-year-olds, we asked how many had received their First Communion. Only two or three hands went up.
We also began talking about the meaning and purpose of life. One student answered that the purpose of life was simply “to work.” His answer, although perhaps offered casually, expressed something of the spiritual poverty we are encountering. When the supernatural disappears, what remains? Later during their recess we spoke with some boys a little more about the Faith and their goals in life. They were really shocked when we told them that those of us in cassocks had renounced marriage to serve Christ.
Fortunately, we had complete freedom to respond. We could tell them plainly that man was created for God and for eternal life. We could explain why they need the sacraments and why they need Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. We could even tell them without ambiguity that Christ founded the Catholic Church, that the Protestant sects are not the true religion established by Him, and that they need to become practicing Catholics, receive the sacraments, and live according to the Faith if they wish to attain the eternal life for which God created them.
Priest instructing Altar servers at the sanctuary in Guale.
The children have, in fact, become one of the most encouraging parts of these days. Every morning some of them have been coming to Mass, and several more boys have become interested in serving. We held a training session for altar boys as well as one for a girls’ choir. More girls came than we expected, and after one rather intense first practice they managed to put together a small choir and even participate in the sung Mass that same evening.
Girls rehearsing for sung Mass in the church at Guale.
The boys have been equally enthusiastic. Those who have begun serving regularly appear in the sacristy asking whether they can serve — sometimes at both Masses on the same day. They still have plenty to learn, but their eagerness is encouraging.
On Wednesday, we traveled to two of the outlying communities to give sacramental preparation. Ordinarily, much of this instruction has been left to lay catechists, but it has become evident that much more serious formation is necessary.
In one community, we spent about an hour discussing salvation history, the purpose of the sacraments, and especially the importance of the Blessed Sacrament in preparation for First Communion. The people listened attentively and enthusiastically agreed with much of what we said.
And yet this reveals one of the strangest and most difficult aspects of the pastoral situation here. People can sincerely and enthusiastically affirm the truths of the Faith while at the same time living in ways radically opposed to them, apparently without perceiving much contradiction. Many couples live together without marriage. Consequently, many cannot presently receive absolution or Holy Communion because of their irregular situations, yet often they have very little understanding of why this is so or of the gravity of the situation. They seem content to keep living that way because, as they say, “that’s how we live here.”
After hearing First Confessions in one village, I traveled to another community where families were preparing children for Baptism. Many of the children presented for Baptism are no longer newborns, since there has not been a strong custom of baptizing infants soon after birth. But it is clear that very few people really understand what Baptism is. One big challenge is explaining to people why those who are living in mortal sin cannot be godparents.
We inherited these situations, and obviously they cannot all be corrected in a week. There will be much patient work ahead: teaching, preaching, regularizing marriages, hearing confessions, administering the sacraments, and above all helping people rediscover a genuinely supernatural understanding of human life.
It calls to mind the famous warning attributed to St. John Vianney: leave a parish for years without a priest, and eventually the people will begin to worship beasts. The expression is severe, but it seems close to the mark.
In a certain sense, man himself begins to descend toward the level of the beasts when he loses sight of the supernatural. His life becomes concerned almost exclusively with eating, working, pleasure, sex, entertainment, money, and survival. Marriage loses its sacred character. The sacraments become occasional social customs rather than encounters with divine grace. Baptism can be postponed for years. Confession becomes unnecessary because the very notion of sin begins to disappear. Heaven ceases to be the goal toward which life is directed.
Repairing the iron gate at the Guale mission house.
This is not because the people here are somehow worse than people elsewhere. It is what can happen anywhere when generations grow up without adequate formation, regular access to the sacraments, and a strong priestly presence. The Catholic Faith cannot simply be assumed to perpetuate itself. If it is not taught, practiced, preached, and handed down, eventually even baptized people can retain little more than a vague cultural memory of Christianity.
And that is perhaps one of the clearest lessons of these first days in Guale. The mission is truly unique because we are realizing how we need to build almost from scratch. There is an enormous work of evangelization to be done: rebuilding Catholic life almost from its foundations and helping souls rediscover why they exist in the first place. We cannot help but think about what the experience must have been like for the first missionaries who arrived on this continent.
As our missionaries’ time in Guale came to an end, we had a going-away celebration at the school. We shared a large plate of fruit, played games, and sang songs with the children, and afterward enjoyed another meal with the teachers.
On Thursday, we finished as many last-minute projects as possible, packed up, and made our way toward Guayaquil. From there we came to Quito for a little tourism and pilgrimage before the missionaries begin their journey home.
For them, the mission trip is coming to an end. For Fr. Proust and me, of course, the real work is only beginning. On our return we hope finally to pick up the apostolate’s new vehicle and then continue the less glamorous but essential work of establishing some kind of functioning order for the new apostolate.
The floors still need work. The sacristy still needs furniture. There are children to catechize, boys to train, marriages to regularize, villages to visit, Protestants to convert, and countless souls who need the sacraments.
En el Corazón Triunfante de Jesús,
Padre Daniel Heenan FSSP
Párroco, Cuasi-Parroquia de San Pedro en Cadenas
Fr. Heenan has asked for spiritual support for this new foundation. If you are able, please offer a decade of the Rosary for Fr. Proust, Fr. Heenan, and the people of Guale — that hearts may be made receptive to the Faith.
