An Australian of Samoan descent has been ordained in the first ordination ceremony conducted by the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer since the traditionalist group reconciled with Rome.
Father Magdala Maria and a fellow member of the group, Father Yousef Marie, were ordained in Rome alongside Father Massimo Botta of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter.
The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, also called the Transalpine Redemptorists, were formerly associated with the schismatic Society of St Pius X founded by Bishop Marcel Lefebvre, but are now in full communion with the Catholic Church.
Based on a tiny windswept island in the Orkney Isles, Scotland, the institute also has a New Zealand community in Christchurch.
Father Magdala, whose parents from Australia attended the ceremony, has said he wanted to be a priest from the time he was a young lad.
“My father is Luamanuvae, chief of the village of Sala’loga in Samoa. When I was a teenager, I thought of making a career as a professional rugby player. I was being considered for a $250,000 per year contract with a professional team in Australia.”
But then, he said, he attended a mission at the St Pius X church in Sydney and “I knew then that I had to give my life entirely to God, though in what form I did not know”.
Five days after the ordination, on the 25th anniversary of the illicit ordination of four bishops by Bishop Lefebre, the Society of St Pius X announced that its dialogue with the Vatican is over until “Rome returns to Tradition”.
Three of the four Pius X bishops — the fourth has been expelled from the society — issued a document criticising the Second Vatican Council and the Novus Ordo Mass promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969.
“This Mass is penetrated with an ecumenical and Protestant spirit, democratic and humanist, which empties out the sacrifice of the Cross,” they declared.
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Image: Catholic News Agency