Help a few sons visit their Mother!

Non fecit taliter omni nationi.

Dear friends and supporters,

My name is Toan Cao, and I am a 5th-year seminarian of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP). We (myself and seven other seminarians) are planning a pilgrimage to Mexico City, different Cristero sites, and Guadalajara over our Christmas Break (January 7-16, 2023)

(More on who we are and our charism)

(Pope Francis’s clarification and affirmation regarding our identity)

Although our Christmas Break is short, we want to make an effort to visit Our Blessed Mother and Patroness of our International English speaking seminary in Denton, NE. We have a special devotion to her under this title and to many of the Mexican Cristero Martyrs’ relics are inside our altars.

Fr. Daniel Heenan, FSSP has generously offered to be our translator and chaplain so that we may have daily Mass and some leadership.

The reason for this pilgrimage is that often a seminarian of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary will go through seven years of formation and never have the opportunity to visit Our Lady and the other martyrs that the seminary is dedicated to. Moreover, one often needs to know Spanish to understand and travel around safely.

This pilgrimage is a means for seminarians who don’t know Spanish and would probably never have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe to petition her and the other martyrs to strengthen us in our vocation to the holy priesthood. We hope you can assist us in this holy desire!

We plan to fly to Mexico City to spend some time there and then drive down (15 - passenger van) to Guadalajara to visit different, famous Cristeros who gave up their lives, shouting “Viva Cristo Rey y La Virgen!” (Long live Christ the King and the Virgin!).

We each need to raise around $1,500-$1,700 (depending on where we fly out) and $600 for our chaplain.

Unfortunately, we personally cannot afford such a trip. Moreover, we have personal donors already giving and supporting us in our vocation as we are asked to raise $7,000 yearly for our priestly formation. For this reason, we are reaching out on a crowdfunding platform.

Left with a desire that we believe God has placed within us and the obstacle of money, we turn to people of goodwill, Catholics, and our supporters. We pray, for love of Jesus and Mary, that you will support us with your prayers, generous donations, and by sharing! We know that God would not have placed the desire in us without giving us the means to accomplish His will, provided we trust Him.

The cost breakdown includes flights to Mexico City (CMDX) (ranging from $150-500+), $400-600 for flights from Guadalajara (GDL) to Omaha, and then lastly, ~$650 for the trip itself.

The trip itself includes ~$250 for food ($10 per meal, 3x a day for ~9 days), daily lodging $400 ($50 for ~8 days), and about $100 from each of us for our driver/gas. So outside of flights, we need ~$750. To be safe, it would be in total, $1,650 per person. This multiplied by 9, along with our chaplain, is around $14,500. GoFundMe also takes a portion (~3%), so this is why the number we placed is $15,000 (we put $5,000 as the goal per month - we can increase the GoFundME incrementally when we hit milestones).

Unfortunately, all this planning took a lot of time to plan, garner interest, and ask for the necessary permissions. With that, we have less than 3 months to fundraise all this. With trust in God and in the generosity of God’s good people, we humbly pray and ask that you consider donating either personally to us (so there isn’t a “cut” taken) or directly on this site.

Any amount would be greatly appreciated, even small donations! If you are not in a position to donate, we humbly ask you to say a prayer for us that some souls might be ignited to a great act of generosity! We also ask, regardless if you can or cannot donate, to PLEASE SHARE this and help us get the word around. The sooner we receive donations, the sooner we can purchase flights and save more money for emergencies!

We have other means of receiving donations (PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and Checks). If you would rather donate in the ways mentioned above than GoFundMe, please CONTACT me through the GoFundMe website. If you need to speak to me personally (to answer doubts/hesitations before donating), I am open, but I am still studying at the same time in seminary, so we would have to work something out time-wise.

We know that not everyone gets this chance, and so, in one sense, we would like to “take you along” with us. We are happy to receive prayer intentions for those who donate and those who support us through prayer. If God grants us the tremendous privilege to make this pilgrimage, how can we refuse to pray for those souls in need? We simply ask that you send an email to the email above, and as I receive them, I will copy and paste them into a document, and we will bring it before Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Martyrs. We will offer all our prayers, works, sacrifices, joys, sufferings, Masses, Rosaries, and Communions for these intentions.

I am unsure if we will do this yet, but we might write a newsletter with pictures and reflections to thank our donors and supporters. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us through the website if you want to be included.

Disclaimer:

1) Although we are members of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, we are asking for your support (with the knowledge and approval of our immediate Superiors) for a PERSONAL pilgrimage. Please note that this GoFundMe is NOT on behalf of the FSSP North American Province, Mission Tradition, the Seminary, or Mexico. Nor is it tax-deductible.

2) We are not sure if this will happen, but please know any money raised beyond the amount will pay for unexpected problems (should they arise, e.g., a flat tire), go towards a future trip (say this goes well enough to be repeated next year), or at the least donated to the missions of the FSSP in Mexico.

3) All donations here go toward the pilgrimage; any personal souvenirs/religious items we will buy for ourselves, they will not be drawn from these donations but from our own pockets. We look forward to hearing from you! Please pray this endeavor that God has begun in us may be carried to completion!

Countless faithful and priests were martyred for offering and attending the same Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we now offer; may they intercede for us now!

Viva Cristo Rey!

Humbly yours in Jesus and Mary,

Toan Cao, FSSP