A group of faithful Catholics in the Detroit area, known as Concerned Catholics of Michigan, begged the help of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in the early 1970s. These conservative-minded Catholics wanted to preserve the teaching of the Catholic Faith from the attack of liberalism which was invading the Church since Vatican II. In the Fall of 1972, Archbishop LeFebvre took this group under his wing and, in July of 1973, sent Fr. Anthony Ward to serve as pastor. In November of the same year, the Society of St. Pius X established its first American seminary and, in the summer of 1974, purchased a brick farmhouse on 3 acres of land in Armada, Michigan to house it.