Remarks for 12th Anniversary of the Death of Fr. De Pauw.

Fr. John, Members of the Board of Directors, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is appropriate that on Good Shepherd Sunday we observe this 12^th anniversary of death by remembering our spiritual shepherd, Fr De Pauw.

Ladies and gentlemen, ...this past April 12th, ...we observed the 75th anniversary of the ordination of Fr. De Pauw. And while it was largely overshadowed by the most holy and solemn week of the litrugical year, it was not overlooked by us. This morning, I would like to recall some of his words about the Good Shepherd spoken by Fr. De Pauw on the occasion of his 50th anniversary of ordination, in order to remind us just what kind of spiritual shepherd he was to us.

Jesus Christ, and He alone, is the perfect Good Shepherd. And it is no exaggerated poetry when, in the Gloria of the Mass, we address Him with the praising phrase; " Tu solus sanctus...Thou alone art holy!"

In the seminaries, Good Shepherd Sunday was always a big feast day. The rectors or deans would use the Gospel as the basis of their sermons to inculcate into the young heads of the candidates to the priesthood, that they would only be successful as priests, if they would turnout to be good shepherds like those men on the hillsides of the Holy Land of Our Lord's time. Men who knew their sheep, leading them to the right fields, feeding them only healthy food and protecting them against attacking wolves.

Except for those rare saints, no priest can realistically ever hope to attain that ideal of becoming a perfect spiritual shepherd. And yet, it is Our Lord, as the perfect spiritual Shepherd, that priests, allowing for their human limitations, are supposed to imitate.

Priests are supposed to be spiritual shepherds following in the footsteps of the Eternal Priest, the only One Who could unqualifiedly say of Himself, " Ego sum Pastor bonus... I am the Good Shepherd, and I know mine and mine know Me,...and I lay down My life for My sheep."

So too, the priest as spiritual shepherd should know his people, not just as a number on a collection envelope, but as an individual child of God. The priest should lead his people, not in protest marches or political demonstrations, but lead his people in the right direction, to Heaven.

He should feed his people with nothing but wholesome spirirtual food, that is, the unchanged doctrine of the One True Church founded by Jesus Christ and with the equally unchanged sources of the Divine Shepherd's grace, His Sacrifice of the Cross, the true Mass, and His sacraments.

And as spiritual shepherd, the priest should protect his people against their enemies, Satan and the other evil spirits and their human agents " who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls.

The priest, a spiritual shepherd, knowing, leading, feeding, and protecting his people, and doing this even to the point, if ever required, of laying down his life for his people, just as the Divine Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep on that Good Friday we recently commemorated.

The ideal of becoming a perfect spiritual shepherd, of indeed becoming another Christ...which every validly ordained priest only experiences in those few minutes when he pronounces the words of Consecration at Mass, is a beautiful ideal, which except for those few minutes, every priest prays for, but except for those rare saints, ever attains.

My fellow traditionalist Roman Catholics, with this image of the Catholic priesthood in front of us, the thought immediately comes to mind in the form of a question, borrowing from the words of a popular song many years ago, any thinking Roman Catholic must ask themselves, where have all the shepherds gone?

But there is another thought which should come to the minds of us, the loyal members of this Ave Maria Chapel. And that is how blessed we have been to have had the kind of spiritual shepherd you just heard described in Fr. De Pauw here in this chapel for 37 years. He saw each one of us as his spiritual flock and he led us in the right direction. He fed us the wholesome spiritual food of the unchanged doctrine of the Church and of the its very heart the true Mass and the true sacraments. And he protected us from Satan and his human agents for 40 years through his leadership of the Catholic Traditionalist Movement and as spiritual shepherd here in this chapel for 37 of those years.

But, Fr. De Pauw as spiritual shepherd knowing, leading, feeding and protecting us, did not end on May 6th, 2005, because he continues, and no one knows better then me, who feels the strength and comfort of his hand on my shoulder each and every day of the last 12 years , he continues through the foresight he had for the future and through his intercession on our behalf, in the present, to protect this chapel. It would not still be here 12 years after his death if that was not the case.

He told us, that if we remained worthy, we would never be without a real priest. And except for three years when the weakest among us needed to be weeded out, we were able to find a real spiritual shepherd once again in Fr. John.

When we look around at our fellow Catholic relatives and friends and see the confusion that reigns in their souls and hearts, people not knowing where they are going and what their ultimate goal is, we can only realize and appreciate how blessed we have been in the past, and still are today.

Ladies and gentlemen, your place this coming Saturday, May 6^th, which is the First Saturday of the month, your place, is right here in this chapel attending the real Sacrifice of the Mass. If today's world situation does not make you realize this, a situation which is coming closer and closer to fulfilling those predictions made 100 years ago by Our Lady at Fatima, in which she made it very clear that in order to save this planet from total destruction by atheistic Communism, still very much alive, in Pyongyang, Moscow and Peking, 3 things were irreplaceably necessary PRAYER, PENANCE, and DEVOTION to her Immaculate Heart, if that does not bring you to the chapel this Saturday, then realizing how blessed we have been in this chapel should make you realize that the only place you should be is here, on the anniversary day of the death of Fr. De Pauw, to show your gratitude to God for His blessings and to show your gratitude to Fr. De Pauw for all he did and still does for this chapel and for all of us.

We will now go in procession to the Memorial next door, asking God for the strength to continue to be worthy of His blessings, worthy of His Blessed Mother's intercession, Our Mother, and worthy of the continued protection of St. Michael... and to place the wreath in memory and gratitude to Fr. De Pauw.