'Romanity'

   The Institute of Christ the King has never been only a national institution. From its beginning it was meant to reflect the truly universal spirit of the Roman Catholic Church, which is spread all over the world according to the word of the Lord: "Go and teach all people." Our founder and co-founder, Monsignor Gilles Wach, S.T.D and Father Phillipe Mora, S.T.D, though they were born in France, have passed most of the time of their priestly formation in Italy and especially in the seminary of Genova under the famous Archbishop and Cardinal Giuseppe Siri and in Rome at the papal university "Angelicum" and in the Pontifical Irish College.

Holy Mass at the Grotto at Lourdes, France

As very young men and still in their early days as priests, both of them have experienced the "Romanity" and universality of Holy Mother Church. The love for ones own country is certainly justified and important, but for a Catholic it is of greater meaning to belong to the only true Church, who is Mother of all people and all nations.

Around the world
   
 Small wonder that the Institute, founded by two French priests formed in Italy and canonically erected in the African Diocese of Mouila, opened its doors very wide for vocations coming from many countries throughout the world. Even if the French in the first years were a small majority, Americans, Germans, Austrians, Spaniards, Italians, English, and many others belonged immediately to the group of seminarians formed in our seminary in Gricigliano near Florence.

Holy Mass at the Grotto at Lourdes, France

By and by, most of these seminarians were ordained, and this spiritual progress made it possible to fulfill the requests of faithful of the nations they belonged to who had asked right from the start to open apostolates in their countries. From Africa and Italy the Institute spread one after the other to France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, United States, Spain, and other countries. We even had to slow down the quick process of our continuous growth to consolidate the single places of our apostolates because we wanted and still want to have at every single place of our presence a genuinely spiritual community life.

School of the Institute in Lille, France

America

All our apostolates in the different countries are growing, and in many places we already serve several hundred faithful with the beautiful Traditional Latin Liturgy. Also, the United States is fruitful ground for our Latin Mass Apostolate. In Chicago, Rockford (Illinois), Green Bay, Wausau, Cashton (Wisconsin), Oakland (California), St. Louis, Kansas City (Missouri) and West Orange (New Jersey) very vivid communities are attracting more and more faithful.

Mass at St Mary's Cashton, Wisconsin

    The following pages will give you an idea of our world wide work, and they may encourage you in your own endeavor to remain faithful to Catholic Tradition because they show how universal the positive response to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is all over the world...