Bishop Warfel Invites New Religious Congregation to the Diocese

By Darren Eultgen, Chancellor

On October 7, 2020, the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Bishop Warfel signed an agreement with Fr. Michael Mary F.SS R. the Rector Major of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer to allow them to establish a house within the territory of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings in rural Rosebud County. The house will begin with four members of the order.

The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (the F.SS.R. Latin: Filii Sanctissimi Redemptoris) has as its vocation to live the mixed monastic and apostolic life. They share in the Redemptorist charism which was given by God to St Alphonsus in 1732. Traditionally, the Redemptorists are a blend of the monastic and active life, neither completely contemplative nor active. The greater part of the year is given to the monastic life and nearly half of the year is consecrated to the apostolate. They are to be “Carthusian at home and Apostle abroad” – Great lovers of solitude and of prayer, they are called to live their monastic vocation in the wilderness. Their missionary apostolate is to preach the love of Jesus and Mary; the eternal Truths and Salvation. They do this through Missions, Retreats and the Internet.

The F.SS.R. was founded in 1988 and erected as a Clerical Institute of Diocesan Right in 2012 in the diocese of Aberdeen in Scotland, UK, after the 2007 Motu proprio of Pope Benedict XVI which permitted entire religious communities to celebrate the Mass and sacraments as they were in 1962. The Sons asked permission of Bishop Warfel to establish their first house in the United States in the Montana wilderness. The Order has two other monasteries, one on the island of Papa Stronsay, in Scotland in the diocese of Aberdeen. The other is in the diocese of Christchurch, New Zealand.