12 PRAY FOR VOCATIONS
Catholic Voice
16th July 2021
The Harvest Indeed Is Great, But The Labourers Are Few. Pray Ye Therefore The Lord Of The Harvest, That He Send Forth Labourers Into His Harvest. Matthew 9:37-38 John Lacken In this article I would like to take a break from the bad news and focus on some good news, a light shining in the darkness, if you will. But let us begin by praying an Ave for our bishops. Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. Sometime in either 2009 or 2010, my family and I were attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the parish church of St John the Baptist in Knock. The Mass was a Latin Mass and was celebrated by Canon Wulfran Lebocq, Prior of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, in Ireland. Afterwards, a lady we know informed us that the Canon and two seminarians that were with him, had nowhere to stay for the night. We offered to put them up in our house as we were living in Knock at the time and had a room to spare. We ended up having a wonderful musical evening at the house as some of my children and our visitors played musical instruments. Thus began our friendship and relationship with the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest. In September, 2011, four members of the Institute stayed with us in Knock as Cardinal Burke was visiting the Shrine and would celebrate a pontifical High Mass in the parish church. On that occasion five of my sons assisted with serving at Holy Mass.
Most of the Lacken Family meet with Cardinal Brandmuller, Monsignor Wach, and other members of the Institute of Christ the King. Gricigliano 21/03/2012
In late 2011, I approached Canon Lebocq and asked him if it was possible to have one of my sons confirmed using the traditional Latin formula for the sacrament. I wasn’t aware of exactly what this would entail as my return to the Latin Mass was relatively recent and only on Sundays. I had served the Latin Mass as a boy but the changes had come in before I finished my time. Canon Lebocq informed me that it would not be possible to have my son confirmed in Ireland using the Latin any time soon but, if I was able to visit their seminary in Gricigliano, in Florence, Italy, there were many occasions where bishops visited the seminary and confirmation could be arranged. My reply was, if we go to Italy, I want two for the price of one, as my youngest son would also be approaching confirmation age. The
Canon enquired after his age and if he was properly prepared for confirmation. Raphael was eleven at this time and home schooled so he knew his catechism. The following year the Canon informed me that there would be a bishop visiting the seminary in March of 2012 and asked if that would suit us. I checked for flights on Ryanair and I was able to get return flights for eight of us relatively cheaply and so we made arrangements to visit Italy for ten days where we would stay at the Institute’s seminary. One of the priests of the Institute contacted me some weeks before to say that he would be in Knock and could he come for a visit. After tea, this priest examined my two sons, Oscar and Raphael, on their catechism to make sure that they were prepared for confirmation and had a proper understanding of the
