Archbishop Francois Gayot, Archbishop emeritus of Cap-Haitien, Haiti, celebrated a magnificent solemn Pontifical Mass for the feast of the Sacred Heart yesterday, June 11th, at St Jean Baptiste Church in Manhattan. The Confraternity of the Sacred Heart, which sponsored the mass as well as a conference today, did its usual very professional job regarding ceremony, vestments and music. The musicians, under the the direction of Kyler Brown, seemed particularly happy in the organ music and in the more recent pieces such as Lauridsen’s Ubi Caritas. The congregation was not quite as large as last year; the announcement of the mass came out rather late.
It is entirely appropriate that a Haitian archbishop comes to New York to lead a Traditional liturgy and, in effect, participate in the process of rechristianizing this region. An US evangelist notoriously has claimed the recent Haitian earthquake as being God’s judgement on Haiti for 18th century voodoo: what then will be the fate of New York, from which a poisonous stream in economics, entertainment, fashion, advertising and journalism pours out over the whole world? Local Catholics, both clergy and laity seem to stand by, stupefied. By helping to return Catholics to the roots of their faith, Archbishop Gayot has made a not insignificent contribution to eventually reawakening the Church from its paralysis.
The “cappa magna” worn in proecesssion to the sanctuary prior to the liturgy.
The set of vestments for the solemn liturgy are of unusual magnificence. Subject to correction, they appear to date from the year of the beatification of St Peter Julian Eymard (1925). He was the founder of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers who administer this church.
During the reading of the gospel.
Archbishop Gayot gave a succinct, memorable sermon – in French. He spoke of the immeasurable love of God, taking up a theme of the epistle. But he also praised Gregorian chant and how it so effectively conveys truth aside from whether the Latin is “understood.”
Related Articles
1 user responded in this post