The Purpose of the Society

The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny was formed shortly after Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum was promulgated on 7 July 2007. The Society chose as its patron saint Hugh of Cluny (1024-1109), the great abbot of Cluny. It was St. Hugh who understood so deeply the centrality of the liturgy both in the Church and in the culture. His zeal for the reform of the Church was always centered in his love for the liturgy. His attention to the beauty and splendor of the liturgy at Cluny that spread throughout the Church in Europe, became a beacon and a real force in the reform of the Church and society.

We believe that Summorum Pontificum is the magna carta for the return to beauty, splendor, reverence, mystery and deep participation in the Holy Mass. We believe that Pope Benedict has given the Church, especially the Catholic laity, this means and summons to recapture the Tradition, not in some nostalgic or reactionary sense, but rather to rediscover the organic and living organism of the Roman rite and thereby reform and enrich both the Church and the surrounding culture.

The Society is open to all Catholics who wish to support the recovery of Catholic liturgy and the reform of Church and society. The Society will support practical means of meeting this goal: training of priests to celebrate the 1962 use; supporting conferences on traditional liturgy and music, and the role of the arts in liturgy; sponsoring lectures and colloquia on topics relevant to the goals of the Society.

Intercessio nos, quaesumus, Domine, beati Hugonis Abbatis commendat: ut, quod nostris meritis non valemus, eius patrocinio assequamur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, filium tuum, qui vivit et regnat in unitate Spirius Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Father Richard Cipolla, Chaplain