11 Questions with Fr. Pagliarani (in English, 2019) - SSPX.

sspx.org/en - Fr. Davide Pagliarani visited the United States for the first time since becoming Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X. Although he was available only for canonical visits during the Prior’s Meeting in Winona - and additional meetings at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary - Angelus Press was able to ask him some questions for his first ever English-speaking interview.

00:56 – Question 1: You are relatively unknown in the English-speaking world beyond your recent election as Superior General. Can you introduce yourself?

Actually, I think this is not just a problem of the English-speaking countries. To give an example, a few weeks back in Paris, a priest asked me my name. So it's always a bit embarrassing to say I’m the new Superior General - so I was a bit embarrassed but he was embarrassed as well. Yes, actually I spent most of my time as a priest either in Italy or in the Far East in Singapore for three years and recently in the far south in Argentina for almost seven years – until last July.

01:55 – Question 2: You are the fourth Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X. What are the challenges and opportunities for Tradition in 2019?

I think our opportunity and our task as well, our duty, is to keep the treasure we have, to appreciate it as it merits – our Faith, the Holy Mass. I think it's important that this treasure is for us a living treasure, like the living water of the Samaritan woman. This is so important. We need more and more I think to appreciate this treasure with a prayerful life and a life were full of fervor - spiritual fervor. Yes. Maybe we need to rekindle once in a while, and this year can be the occasion to rekindle - we are preparing for the Jubilee of the Society [of St. Pius X] - to rekindle in our spiritual life this attachment this deep attachment to this treasure.

03:23 – Question 3: It has barely been six months since your election. Have you been traveling much?

Yes, actually I'm not traveling a lot because it is a wish of the Chapter, of all the superiors, that the Superior General remains at the General House as much as possible in order to be always available for the different needs of the Society – and joinable by the different priests or superiors who are wishing to talk to him. My duty is a duty of fidelity to the spirit of the Founder – Archbishop Lefebvre. My first duty is to do my best in order to keep (even if the situation is very different) to keep the spirit and teaching that the founder entrusted to the Society.

04:36 – Question 4: Are there signs of growth that you can share? For example: new priories or missions in the Society?

Right now there are everywhere signs of growth, not only in the States but everywhere! Which is on the one hand a sign of blessing, we're blessed by that. During the last few years more and more Catholics who are getting aware of the crisis of the Church, and little by little they are getting aware of as well of their causes. So this is a quite interesting point for us - we have to follow it. We have to help them. But at the same time we cannot go everywhere, we cannot go everywhere. We need to take care of our priests. And we still have vocations, but our priests they need time to settle, they need time to share the community life, which is a very important part of our statutes and of our duties. So, we will do our best to go where Providence is calling us but at the same time first of all we can't forget it we have to take care of our priests.

06:32 – Question 5: As a former Seminary Rector, can you speak about the importance of seminaries and vocations, especially in the modern world?

Our seminaries are the heart of the Society [of St. Pius X]. The Society is built on its seminaries, and it exists because of its seminaries. So the Church as well doesn't need anything else but holy priests. So it is impossible to find out a better way to serve the Church. Through our seminaries we are cooperating to the goal of the universal Church. That was the great intuition of the Council of Trent, the great intuition of Bishop Lefebvre. And the more this great ideal of the priesthood is going down, is losing, the more I think it's important our fidelity to this task – which is our mission as well.

07:54 – Question 6: For you, what are the main concerns for traditional Catholic families today?

The main concern, the main concern of Catholic family today is the same we have as priests - the soul of their children. The world is doing its best in order to deceive them. So all the parents are concerned about that, as we are concerned as well. I think we have to teach the children together with the parents. And the parents have to teach their children together with the priests. Teach them all the virtues that the children cannot learn elsewhere...

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