On Friday, July 26, at 7 PM, the Society of St Hugh of Cluny and Immaculate Conception parish will be sponsoring a Solemn High Mass for the feast of St Ann. The music will be directed by James Wetzel; refreshments will follow. the parish is located at 414 East 14th Street, New York.

Immaculate Conception is a historic church which was formerly an affiliate of Grace church prior to its purchase by the archdiocese of New York. The old parish of St. Ann was absorbed into Immaculate Conception after it was so tragically closed. In its last years it was the Armenian Catholic cathedral. It also was a national shrine of St Ann – as visitors may recall being proudly displayed on a lamp over an elaborate metal railing. (New York City still has a second shrine to St. Ann(e) at the church of St Jean Baptiste)

It also was the scene of the first officially approved Traditional Mass celebrated in the Archdiocese of New York since the Vatican Council. The time of the mass was maliciously set in the early afternoon on Saturday; that first Mass was cancelled by the Archdiocese on the day it was to be celebrated. But the Latin Mass did indeed resume at St Ann’s shortly thereafter and continued for many years. We know of priests and laymen involved in the Traditional Mass movement today who had their first experience of the Traditional Mass there.

We hope all of you can make it!

Two years ago, this blog featured pictures from the first Mass of Fr. Timothy Iannacone (see link), which was in the Extraordinary Form. We check in again with Fr. Tim, now parochial vicar of St. Pius X Church, in Fairfield, CT. The following is a letter that appears in this week’s bulletin of St. Pius X (reprinted by permission of Fr. Tim).

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Fr. Sam is away with our youth group this week for the annual mission trip, and he’s asked me to take on the weekly bulletin column. I’d like to share with you a bit about the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the Traditional Latin Mass. Typically, the Latin Mass is offered here on Holy Days of Obligation and certain feast days throughout the year. As this form of the Mass is not commonly celebrated, I want to explain some of the reasons behind its use in our parish.
One of the primary reasons for my affi

nity for the Mass is deeply personal: I grew up with it! I get a good chuckle when older parishioners tell me that they served the Latin Mass when they were children and try to explain to me what it was like. What is more humorous is the look of shock on their faces when I tell them that I too served that Mass as a youngster. Invariably, they question how I could have served a Mass that went out of vogue nearly sixty years ago. The story is as simple as it is profound. My grandparents, one of whom was baptized there, returned to St. Mary’s Parish in Norwalk after it was announced the parish would be offering the Mass in Latin. They invited me to attend this Mass with them one day, and my first interaction with it might not be what you would expect. I found the ceremonial, the language, and the music bizarre at best, detestable at worst. I totally dismissed it as something that was not spiritually good for me. Time would show me just how wrong I was! Just because I didn’t understand something initially didn’t mean it was not good for me.

As I continued to attend this Mass each week, I noticed two things that stood out: beauty and youth. I began to hear the music as absolutely gorgeous, and understand the ornate vestments as befitting a God who created all things. Furthermore, the priests and deacons exuded reverence and awe, truly understanding the love of God poured out on the cross for you and me without reservation. Additionally, never in my life had I attended Mass where young people outnumbered any other age demographic. What was even more shocking was that many of my friends from school were serving this Mass. They invited me to serve with them. You will see quite a few of these “misfits” hanging around Pius from time to time. Some of them perform the music or serve with great compassion and diligence at our Masses. These friendships continue to blossom because of the Mass we love so much. I have never looked back after discovering the beauty of the Extraordinary Form. The Roman Catholic Church underwent a series of changes in the mid-1960s after the Second Vatican Council. For the ordinary individual, the most noticeable aspects were the changes in the celebration of the Mass. However, Pope Benedict XVI, through his Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum (2007), recognized the desire of many people to attend and celebrate the Mass in the traditional Latin form, and so has made it possible for the laity to attend the celebration of the Roman Rite according to the Missal of 1962 without restriction. It is our right as Catholics to have a well-prayed Mass, and it is the duty of priests to offer Mass worthily and well. We must never forget, the Mass is an invaluable gift given by Christ to His Church.

Through the Extraordinary Form, Catholics can come to see the beauty and love of Christ in the Holy Mass, which has organically developed over centuries. If more Catholics come to understand the Church, and more importantly the Traditional Mass, we will undoubtedly see the laity and clergy become champions of Truth; a Truth that ultimately is Jesus Christ. No longer ought we be discouraged by statistics showing decline in the practice of the faith, but instead we can be encouraged by this solid liturgical grounding to further conform our lives to Christ, Who offers Himself without reserve in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Fr. Sam has begun learning how to offer the Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Fr. Sam, like myself, has experienced the beauty of this Mass and realizes that this Form is not a detriment to the priest or the faithful, but another Form that mutually enriches our lives as Roman Catholics. History proves this point well; most of the Church’s Saints attended this Form of the Mass daily. I will never forget the look on Fr. Sam’s face when he attended my first Mass as a priest. The awe that he exhibited at this Mass could only mean one thing for me, that he didn’t quite understand what was going on, but that he loved it. The master of ceremonies leaned over to me after my first Mass and whispered, your pastor has been awakened. I am blessed that Fr. Sam has asked me to offer this Mass here at St. Pius and to share with you my story, because this Mass is a part of who I am.

I would like to invite and encourage you to attend a Mass in the Extraordinary Form if you see that one is on the schedule. It would be my joy to have you experience the beauty and love of God the way I have experienced it throughout my life because of this Mass.  To quote C.S. Lewis, “You never know what you can do until you try, and very few try unless they have to.”  Together, we can revive and promote the sense of the sacred in the Holy Mass through the aid of tradition and understand the Catholic faith in all its richness, diversity, and spiritual fruitfulness.  Finally, persevere and pray earnestly for the faithful to embrace the liturgical traditions of our Church, as they ultimately offer us a freedom the world cannot give.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Tim

• The churches of Chicago – a different world for the connoisseur of Catholic church architecture in the US! All is on a grander scale than in New York – there was so much more room to spread out on the plains of the Midwest. If in Manhattan only certain parishes, mainly connected with religious orders, are monumental in size – St Jean Baptiste, St Vincent Ferrer, St Paul the Apostle – in Chicago outsize dimensions are fairly routine. The parish populations tended to be bigger too – we read of Polish parishes in the era of 1900-1940 having 25,000 or more parishioners. Of course in Chicago Poles and other Central and Eastern European peoples played a much more prominent role in the Catholic Church than in New York City.

Let’s start with one of the more subdued examples – St Thomas the Apostle of Hyde Park. Built in the 1920’s, its exterior resembles the architecture of medieval Sicily or Portugal. Inside, we encounter an incipient modernism – the ceiling does resemble so much that of Holy Family, New York, Cardinal Spellman’s 1960’s timid foray into the “moderne.”

• Once upon a time this parish obviously disposed of considerable income – the fine details reflect a unified decorative program contemporary withe construction of the church. Later, those financial resources seem to have dwindled away – with the fortunate consequence that many of the original features, such as the beautiful communion rail, remain intact.

St John Cantius, dear to Traditionalists, is one of a series of “Polish Cathedrals” – the most spectacular churches of Chicago. Erected in a style reminiscent of the Roman renaissance and baroque, they are extravagantly decorated with statues, paintings and stained glass. St. John Cantius was begun in 1893 and completed in 1898 – the decoration went on for a few decades more. By the 1970’s St. John Cantius was threatened with closure. A revival began in the 1980’s as St. John Cantius became a center of renewed Catholic liturgical life. Since 1999 the parish has been directed by the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius.

St Mary of the Angels with is dome and rooftop statues of angels is visible from afar as one approaches Chicago from O’Hare airport. When I first encountered this monumental church in 1988 it was a near ruin – the upper church was closed and the then pastor grudgingly allowed that “some people” thought the church was beautiful. Shortly thereafter this church was taken over by Opus Dei. In the last three decades St. Mary of the Angels has been magnificently restored. At this moment the facade and towers are being returned to their original glory.

St. Mary of the Angles church was built between 1911 and 1920. Work on the decoration continued into the 1940’s. The dominant color here is white – as opposed to the gold of St. John Cantius or St. Hedwig.

And the struggle between potential destruction and restoration of the great churches of Chicago continues to this very day. The church of St. Clare had been completed in 1923. In the 1970’s it had been devastated by a fire; later it was threatened with demolition. But in 2004 it was leased to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. After years of restoration work the church was destroyed again by fire in 2016. Once more the Archdiocese determined to tear the structurer down. But the Institute organized another restoration campaign and the Archdiocese decided to deed the church over to them. So now a new shrine, where the Traditional liturgy is celebrated, is rising from the ashes.

By Father Richard Cipolla

The following is an exclusive translation into English of a section of the Instrumentum Laboris of the Synod of Brittania that will follow the Amazon Synod at some date not yet determined but not that far off.  Sources in Rome say that there are plans for at least ten such Synods in the next few years, whose purpose is to determine how the Church should address the mandate for inculturation in each particular part of the world in which Christianity was imposed but is now shaking off the yoke of the imposition.  The translation is based on a document that is still undergoing changes, but it would seem that the main points and the thrust of the Instrumentum will not change very much.  

15.  And so we turn to that part of the world that we will call Brittania. The choice of what to call this part of the world is fraught with difficulties, for the history of these Isles is indeed complex. But what is meant for the sake of theInstrumentumis the two islands that compose England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.  Despite the convoluted history of Brittania, we must note the presence in this region that presence of indigenous people that we can roughly call the Fairy Kingdom.  These indigenous peoples are called by various names within each of the parts of Brittannia. Although the most common name is “fairy”, in Wales they are called Tylweth Teg, Brownies in Scotland, in Ireland, Leprechauns and Wee Folk, in England Fairies, Goblins, Banshees, Elves and Gnomes. 

16.  These people of the Fairy World predate Christianity and were resistant to the advent of the Christian faith brought to their shores by St. Augustine of Canterbury. They remained as what we would derogatorily call “pagan”. They retreated into their natural surroundings.  They remained close to Nature, and they continued to inhabit the forests, the moors, the bogs, the hillocks, the glens, the marshes, the heaths, the pools, and the woodlands.  They never lost that vital link with Nature that the advent of Christianity discouraged.  They continued to be in synch with the deities of Nature, of Nature that had nothing to do with the Fall of Man, Nature pure and unadulterated. They continued to honor the Primal Deities with which they were in union, and as their reward they possessed truly natural sensitivities and knowledge that would have been destroyed by the imposition of Christianity.

17. These indigenous people, which we call, for lack of a better term, Fairies, went into hiding when the Christians conquerors arrive in their lands.  That is why they are associated with “tales” and “legends” and why they are associated with strange appearances.  It is the hope of the Synod that these indigenous beings of Brittania will come out of hiding and enrich us with their knowledge of the glory of the ecological beauty of the Creation. We hope that they will show us how to return to the ultimate Beauty of Nature, in all of its purity and innocence, and participate in the return of the Divinity of ecology and a final abandonment of all that Christianity has imposed on Western culture:  the desecration of Nature, the development of personal greed, the rigidity of Christian dogma that acts as chains that prevent us from moving forward to true freedom to be whomever we want to be without the shackles of tradition or imposed religion. And lest we think that this Natural Kingdom ever disappeared from the Brittanic consciousness, the great poet, Edmund Spenser, wrote of these beings( although disguised in Elizabethan dress) in his epic poem, The Faerie Queen.  Even in the twentieth century the Anglican writer C.S. Lewis wonderfully depicted the wonder and reality of the kingdom of Lions and Witches and Wardrobes. 

18. We must find a way to encourage the Fairy Kingdom to come out of hiding and teach us how to live lives that are Natural, free from the deadly additives of dogma and tradition.  We have established a Commission for the Fairy Kingdomthat will meet before the Synod opens, which will offer concrete suggestions about how to meet with Fairies and Elves and Leprechauns and all free spirits of the woods and glens to assist us in our goal of a return to that ecological symbiosis that is the salvation of mankind. We must, with caution of course, consider the possibility of ordination to Holy Orders of members of the Fairy World who are mature and are known to have only one partner.  We presume that they do not have our rigid conceptions of sexuality.  All we would insist upon for ordination is some evidence of loyalty to their partner. The Commission is entrusted to investigate the sexuality of Fairies and make a report before the Synod begins.

Fr. Damian Breen will offer the traditional Mass at Corpus Christi Church, 100 James St., South River, NJ, beginning this Friday, June 28 at 7 pm for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Here is the traditional Mass schedule:

1. Every Wednesday, Low Mass at 6:15pm.  Confessions will be heard from 5-5:30pm.  Novena to Holy Spirit at 5:45pm.  (The Last Wednesday of the month will offer Communal anointing of the Sick at 5:45pm prior to Mass).  
2. Every First Friday (barring a national holiday), Low Mass at 7pm, Exposition at 3pm until 6:45pm for Benediction.  Confessions heard from 6pm to 6:30pm
3. Every First Saturday, Low Mass, 12noon.  Confessions heard from 11-11:30am.

This newly scheduled location for the traditional Mass is a grassroots lay initiative. Earlier this year, via word of mouth and forwarded emails, various donors funded Fr. Breens’s trip to Nebraska to learn the Latin Mass at the FSSP seminary, as well as to purchase vestments and liturgical books. 

Joseph Falciano, one of the main organizers of the successful Lepanto conference series of the Society St. Hugh of Cluny, will begin seminary formation with the Priest Fraternity of St. Peter this fall at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska. The priests of the FSSP are dedicated to preserving, protecting, and promoting the liturgical and doctrinal traditions of the Holy Catholic Church.

Joseph is a familiar face at St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, CT, where he has been serving as an acolyte at the solemn traditional Mass.

Joseph is in need of financial assistance and prayers to begin his studies in the seminary. In your charity, please consider a contributing to fund his formation. A Go-fund-me page has been set up: https://www.gofundme.com/help-a-catholic-seminarian-pay-tuition

You may also send a check directly to the seminary. Please indicate that you are donating to the seminary “in honor of Joseph Falciano” via mail.

The address is “Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, 7880 W. Denton Rd., Denton, NE 68339

All donations will be applied solely to the necessary expenditures of seminary life (tuition, personal items, and regular airfare).

Finally Joseph asks for your prayers: “This is an arduous task, and I ask for your prayers that I may be able to persevere with them in emulating Christ in the Eucharist: broken and consumed by men for the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven. Rest assured that I will remember all my supporters in my daily Rosary and prayers.”