On Saturday, October 25 in Rome:

3:00 p.m.: Pontifical Mass celebrated by Cardinal Burke at the altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica

Source: PIlgrimage Summorum Pontificum

Cardinal Cupich has graced us with his thoughts on the reception of communion – an article that has been enthusaistically received by the publicity arm of the German Catholic Church. 1) The cardinal’s statements are indeed extraordinary in many respects.

It seems Cardinal Cupich wants everyone to receive communion standing:

Our ritual for receiving of Holy Communion has special significance in this regard. It reminds us that receiving the Eucharist is not a private action but rather a communal one, as the very word “communion” implies. For that reason, the norm established by Holy See for the universal church and approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is for the faithful to process together as an expression of their coming forward as the Body of Christ and to receive Holy Communion standing.

In fact, the “norms” published by the USSCB and currently found on its website do not state that:

The General Instruction asks each country’s Conference of Bishops to determine the posture to be used for the reception of Communion and the act of reverence to be made by each person as he or she receives Communion

In the United States, the body of Bishops has determined that “[t]he norm… is that Holy Communion is to be received standing, unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling” and that a bow is the act of reverence made by those receiving (no. 160).

Therefore, it is not licit to deny Holy Communion to any of Christ’s faithful solely on the grounds, for example, that the person wishes to receive the Eucharist kneeling or standing” (Redemptionis Sacramentum, no. 91). 2)

What other authority does Cardinal Cupich adduce?

It is important to recall that processions have been part of the liturgy from the earliest days of Christian practice. … This is why we process into the church, process up to bring the gifts, process to receive Holy Communion and process out at the end of Mass to carry the Lord into the world. … Nothing should be done to impede any of these processions, particularly the one that takes place during the sacred Communion ritual. 3)

In part, of course, this is nonsense. The congregation does not process in or out of the church. In the Novus Ordo only a few individuals “process” with the gifts. But in part it is also pathological. For the cardinal views communion as a group or communal event. This is consistent with current liturgical practice, where everyone receives communion, regardless of his spiritual state or, often, even his religion. In Cupich’s mind, however, the key problem is not to “disrupt” the “flow” of the action.

Cardinal Cupich further draws for support on the principle of:

(The “Council Fathers” – SC) took seriously the ancient maxim “lex orandi, lex credenda,” a phrase often associated with Prosper of Aquitaine, a fifth-century Christian writer. It simply means that the law of praying establishes the law of believing. 4)

Now, as an erudite friend of mine points out, the actual expression is lex orandi, lex credendi. “Lex orandi, lex credenda” means the law of praying must be believed. Is it simply a gross mistake? That’s very likely, since Cardinal Cupich goes on to write:

The law of praying establishes the law of believing is our tradition. (sic) 5)

But perhaps unwittingly the cardinal may indeed be asserting that the law of praying (meaning the Novus Ordo) must be believed (= unconditionally accepted?). That would be consistent with Traditiones Custodes and how it has been forcefully applied in the archdiocese of Chicago. And Cardinal Cupich commences his article by claiming:

We all have benefited from the renewal of the church ushered in by the Second Vatican Council. 6)

Yet all objectively verifiable indicia testify to the drastic decline in religious practice since Vatican II, and the growing ignorance of basic Catholic and Christian doctrine – including the nature of the Eucharist – among those who still remain in the Church. Yes, the law of praying does indeed determine the law of believing, but in the case of the Novus Ordo the result has been calamitous.

Isn’t the real problem here that the institution of receiving communion standing (and in the hand) is even today such a breach with Catholic tradition and practice that a minority, while remaining within the Novus Ordo, cannot accept it. And Cardinal Cupich’s “solution,” as well as his theory of the communion ritual as a communal act, illustrates nicely the totalitarian aspects of the Novus Ordo – the drive to create a block-like unity in the congregation through the mandatory performance by all of external acts under the supervision of the “presider.” Finally, our Conservative Catholic friends would do well to take note that Cardinal Cupich’s article confirms that, under the current pontificate, not just Catholic Traditionalism but all aspects of continuity with prior Catholic liturgical practice remain potential targets of the friends of Francis.

1. Cardinal Blaise Cupich, “As we pray…”, Chicagocatholic.com (12/11/2024). For the German semi-official reaction see: “Kardinal: Kommunionempfang nicht zur frommen Show machen,” Katholisch.de (12/13/2024). The introduction to the katholisch.de article states: “In receiving communion the community is what matters, not the servile pose of individuals.” The contempt of the Catholic establishment in Europe (and the United States) for the faithful, their dignity and rights, couldn’t be better expressed. (both accessed 12/13/2024)
2. USCCB, “The Reception of Holy Communion at Mass,” usccb.org (accessed 12/13/2024)
3. “As we pray… .” supra note 1.
4. Id.
5. Id.
6. Id.

Nov. 26, 2024 Update: Bishop Caggiano has informed us that this Traditional Mass will continue!

The weekly Saturday 8 AM Missa Cantata at St. Mary Church, Greenwich will be discontinued at the end of January 2025 at the direction of Bishop Caggiano.  As we understand it, the celebrant, Fr. Carl McIntosh, was only given permission to celebrate this traditional Mass until his time of retirement, which now will be the end of January.  

Fr. McIntosh began celebrating a Saturday morning Missa Cantata in early 2021 at his parish, St. Roch Church, also in Greenwich.  In 2023, in the wake of Traditionis Custodes, he was ordered to move the Mass out of the church,   into a room in the school building next door.  Later, the pastor of St. Mary church on Greenwich Ave. welcomed the Mass to his basement chapel.

Few of the locals know about this gem of Mass, as it was not mentioned in the church bulletin.   Early rising joggers and dog walkers pass the door to the chapel, which has been propped open, unaware of the beautiful, chanted liturgy that is unfolding within.  Regulars at this Mass found out about it by word of mouth or from notices in this blog.    

The 8 AM Mass is, on a very small scale, a remarkable achievement, evidencing the power of the traditional liturgy. This Mass is a Missa Cantata  – at a very unusual time for such a liturgy! In particular, the music was performed at a very high level – equaling or exceeding what would have been heard at the Sunday Masses of a major parish in 1962! On at least one occasion, a solemn Mass was even celebrated.

And attendance at the Saturday Mass always recovered from the changes of location – it was a minor miracle of dedication, persistence, and devotion. Despite these “spiritual benefits,”  it was more important to the diocese that this Mass first be exiled and then suppressed.  

Do I need to mention that, to the best of my knowledge, Bishop Caggiano has at no time seen fit to communicate with any of the congregation regarding his decisions throughout these four years? The entire discussion has been among the clergy. 

We urge you, if you care about this Mass, to write to Bishop Caggiano asking him to allow Fr. McIntosh to continue celebrating this Mass.  Fr. McIntosh is in fact very interested and available.  You might mention that there are no close Traditional Mass options nearby at that time.  Sts. Cyril and Methodius, which has an 8:30 AM Mass, is 45 minutes away.  Indeed,  there are few Saturday morning Novus Ordo Masses in the area.  

Dimes Square is back in the news! This emerging outpost of bohemianism – yet with a traditionalist Catholic  flavor –  is the subject of a recent article in The Christian Science Monitor. 1) “Dimes Square” is a downtown area bordering Chinatown and the Lower East Side. The author of this piece, Leonardo Bevilacqua, describes this scene and some of its main personalities:

The Dimes Square scene began to include a number of artists with more conservative and religious visions. Writers, filmmakers, and fashion designers have been dabbling in pre-Vatican II Catholicism. They play the church organ rather than DJ at nightclubs. Instead of free love and polyamory, they espouse commitment and monogamy. And the flip phone is a favorite accessory – a statement against the herd and its iPhones. 2)

The nonconformists of Dimes Square are distancing themselves not just from the “establishment” but from the “official” counterculture, symbolized by “Brooklyn”: 

“I certainly don’t need to tell you that this place is also, emphatically, not in Brooklyn,” wrote the leftist Substack blogger Mike Crumplar in 2022, with a bit of snark. “You already know how Brooklyn is too political, too woke, too soft, too soy, too consumed by cancel culture…. 3)

And one focus of this movement is the traditional Mass:

“Leftists see greatness, and they see beauty, and they’re threatened by it, and they want to destroy it,” says Salomé, who says the Tridentine Mass is “the greatest work of art” for its superior musical composition. 4)

But is this link between “bohemianism” and Catholic tradition all that strange? Hadn’t Joris-Karl Huysmans established the connection as long ago as the 1880’s? A link that was maintained by a long succession of writers and thinkers in France and elsewhere.  

Inevitably, the renewed interest in Catholicism among the downtown bohemians is decidedly for traditional Catholicism. For is not the present Catholic Church establishment itself the incarnation of “bourgeois” conformism and philistinism? Didn’t Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose countercultural and anti-establishment credentials are impeccable, describe the mission of the Catholic Church, confronted (and subjugated)by the “modern world” and its ideology, in the following stark terms? 

Maybe the end of the Church has already been sealed by the “treason” of millions and millions of the faithful (particularly the peasants who have converted to secularism and consumerist hedonism). Maybe the end has been sealed by the “decision” of the rulers who are meanwhile certain of getting in their clutches the ex-believers – given the affluent conditions and an ideology that has been imposed on the masses. An ideology, moreover, that does not even feel it to be necessary any more to act as such. That may be. But one thing is sure: the Church has certainly committed many awful mistakes in the long history of its regime, but she would commit the worst of all if she passively stood by while she was liquidated by a power that mocks the Gospel. In the context of a radical, possibly utopian or – here one really has to say it- eschatological perspective, it’s clear what the Church has to do to avoid an inglorious end. She has to go into opposition. 5)

Now Salomé, quoted above in the Christian Science Monitor article, plays the organ at Most Holy Redeemer Church, the grand building that until 2019 was the center of the Redemptorist Order in New York City.  The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny was instrumental in returning Catholic tradition to Most Holy Redeemer after many decades. Such as by sponsoring Solemn vespers with Bishop Athanasius Schneider in 2013. Or subsequently,  Solemn Masses on St. Nicholas’s feast day (2019) (with a visit from Krampus!) and Epiphany (2020) 6)

I wrote the following in 2023 on the occasion of a splendid concert of the music of William Byrd:

Since 2011 we at St. Hugh of Cluny have often covered events at the grand Church of Most Holy Redeemer, formerly Redemptorist, formerly German. Indeed, this Society has sponsored some of them. Today a young priest of the archdiocese leads this parish in the midst of what some might consider one of the city’s more inhospitable surroundings – half party land, half “underprivileged” neighborhood. Yet, under Fr. Sean Connolly, the church looks better than ever before, and the parish is sponsoring an ambitious program of musical performances. 7)

For within the limits of Traditionis Custodes, Most Holy Redeemer parish after 2020 celebrated the TLM on a regular basis. A brief search of this site will demonstrate that.  And repairs were made on the building itself after decades of neglect – most recently the tower was restored. The tower now has a functioning clock, carillon and lights (the color of which can be changed for the liturgical season). 8) Thus, this parish had entered a period of restoration – in the liturgy, in the restored splendor of the building, in the attention paid to musical excellence. 

Now the young pastor of Most Holy Redeemer has been transferred to bigger, if not better, things in the Bronx.  The pastor of Immaculate Conception parish has been appointed the administrator of Most Holy Redeemer and St. Brigid. He is also now the administrator of Most Precious Blood shrine/church in Little Italy. And this territory includes that of three other parishes that have been completely erased since 2010: St. Emeric, Nativity and Mary Help of Christians. That is a lot to cover! 9)

Will the renewed stirrings of the traditional faith at Most Holy Redeemer and ”Dimes Square” continue to develop? Some are wondering:

However, it’s unclear whether (the pastor of Immaculate Conception – SC)will continue traditional Latin Masses at Holy Redeemer…  10)

But I certainly hope and believe the religious and cultural momentum can be sustained. After all, shouldn’t an essential characteristic of tradition be its independence from the personalities of those who preserve and celebrate it?  In the recent past, moreover, the St. Hugh of Cluny Society has also repeatedly sponsored traditional masses at Immaculate Conception parish (and at Most Precious Blood as well). 11)  As in the past, the St. Hugh of Cluny Society is ready to offer whatever help we can give. 

(Above and below) the interior of Most Holy Redeemer church one recent afternoon. (Photo 8/22/2024). Surrounding the church are still, for the time being at least, the buildings of the former Redemptorist center.

1. Bevilacqua, Leonardo, “Rebels with a religious cause: Meet New York’s avant-garde conservatives,” The Christian Science Monitor ( 6/24/2024) (accessed 8/27/2024). I have to confess I had no idea The Christian Science Monitor was still in existence – if nowadays primarily online.
2. Id.
3. Id. 
4. Id.
5. Quoted in Lorenzer, Alfred, Das Konzil der Buchhalter at 180 (Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt am Main, 1981). Lorenzer’s work is a vehement attack on the liturgy and culture of the Second Vatican Council from a non-religious perspective. See my review “The Council of the Bookkeepers”(1/26/2017)
6.  The Society of St. Hugh Of Cluny,   Vespers at the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, New York (1/13/2013); Solemn Mass of St Nicholas at Most Holy Redeemer Church,  (12/6/2019);  Epiphany Solemn Mass at Most Holy Redeemer Church (1/7/2020).
7.  The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny,  Byrd Fest,  (9/17/2023)
8.  Joy, Stacie, “Purple reign: Marking Holy Week at Most Holy Redeemer, ” East Village Grieve (3/24/2024) (accessed 8/29/2024) (with links to earlier posts describing and illustrating the restoration process)
9.  Joy, Stacie, “Father Seán is leaving the East Village,” East Village Grieve(6/17/2024) (accesssed 8/29/2024)
10. Reinholz, Mary, “Rev. Sean Connolly’s transfer from Most Holy Redeemer leaves ‘a void,’” The Village Sun (8/5/2024) ( This piece, while enthusiastic, contains a number of factual errors) (accessed 8/29/2024)
11. E.g., The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny,  “High Mass at the new Chapel of Immaculate Conception parish,”  (2/1/2015)

For complete details and information: National Latin Mass Pilgrimage (TLMPILGRIMAGE.COM)

Direct from Orwell’s 1984.

From Christian Marquandt, President of the Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum

THE APPEAL FOR THE TOTAL FREEDOM OF THE TRADITIONAL LITURGY: AN INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED BY JEAN-PIERRE MAUGENDRE GENERAL DIRECTOR OF RENAISSANCE CATHOLIQUE

Jean-Pierre Maugendre, General Director of Renaissance Catholique, has just launched an appeal, which follows hereafter, setting in motion a campaign throughout the world for the complete freedom of the traditional liturgy. The Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum gratefully welcomes this initiative and joins it forthwith, putting all its resources and possibilities at the disposal of this campaign.

In the decisive moment in which the Church finds itself, anxiously questioning what the continuation of this pontificate will be, it is essential that the liturgical question be brought to the forefront. We have said it, and repeated, and hammered it, the traditional liturgy, directly, celebrated “live” so to speak, or while influencing, “enriching”, the ordinary liturgies of priests, communities, and soon, we hope, dioceses – as they once again turn themselves to traditional things – is the only living and beating heart capable of enacting a recovery of the Church in the midst of our extremely secularized world.

We fully adhere to what Jean-Pierre Maugendre says: “among all the things that can contribute to the internal revival of the Church and to the renewal of her missionary zeal, there is, above all, the worthy and reverent celebration of her liturgy, which can be greatly fostered thanks to the example and the presence of the traditional Roman liturgy.”

The purest lex orandi of the Roman Church is always followed, certainly at the cost of significant efforts, by the dissemination of the lex credendi of which it is a reflection. It is therefore natural for the mass to be accompanied by the Catholic catechism.

Time is getting short, as Saint Paul says (1 Corinthians 7, 29). There is no longer time to always beg for permissions and tolerances, granted and given one day, and cancelled and taken back the day after, which has been constantly happening again and again. Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum recalled the principle of the freedom of the traditional mass. What we demand now is simply that we be assured of the reality of this freedom, and that is actually the single thing we wish to hear, nothing else.

To all the considerations one may make about the current situation of the Church (the dramatic collapse of Western Catholicism, now also in Italy; the mortiferous scent of the end of the pontificate), which indicate that we must speak and act with force, we would wish to add yet another element, minor, but  symptomatic nonetheless. It is no secret that the SSPX prepares its faithful for the consecration of new bishops. The event will not produce the same shock as in 1988. Today it will be an element which will increase the ferment of what remains of a weakened and divided Catholicism. In chaos, life can be found, if at least we know how to look for it and direct it. Let us not forget the following: the main point of Mgr Lefebvre’s “revolt” was the maintenance of the traditional liturgy. Now, the full restitution – and not to a third or a quarter as up to now – of the freedom of the Mass will be a means of allowing for the liturgical periphery, i.e. the SSPX, not to have to be back at the centre of things, but instead, to be able simply to be back in the centre, once the traditional liturgy will itself be finally reinstated there again.

Rome today buzzes with nothing but talk of a conclave. And as a result, with talk of the informal “programs” that cardinals are already setting out. Well, the appeal of Jean-Pierre Maugendre contributes to this. Or rather, it reminds us that the liturgical stone that the demolitionists of the Church rejected will once again become the cornerstone.

Christian Marquant

President of the CISP

International Campaign for the Total Freedom of the Traditional Liturgy

Being a Catholic in 2024 is no easy endeavor. The West is undergoing a massive de-Christianization, so much so that Catholicism appears to be vanishing from the public sphere. Elsewhere, the number of Christians being persecuted for their faith is on the rise. What’s more,the Church has been struck by an internal crisis that manifests itself in a decline in religiouspractice, a downswing in priestly and religious vocations, a decrease in sacramental practice, and even a growing dissension between priests, bishops and cardinals which, until very recently, was utterly unthinkable. Yet, among all the things that can contribute to the internalrevival of the Church and to the renewal of her missionary zeal, there is, above all, the worthy and reverent celebration of her liturgy, which can be greatly fostered thanks to the example and the presence of the traditional Roman liturgy.

Despite all the attempts that have been made to suppress it, especially during the present pontificate, it lives on, continuing to spread and to sanctify the Christian people who are blessed to be able to benefit from it. It bears abundant fruits of piety, as well as an increase of vocations and of conversions. It attracts young people and is the fount of many flourishing works, especially in schools, and is accompanied by a solid catechesis. No one can deny that it is a vector for the preservation and transmission of the faith and religious practice in the midst of a waning of religious belief and a dwindling number of believers. This Mass, due to its venerable antiquity, can boast of having sanctified countless souls over the centuries. Among other vital forces still active in the Church, this form of liturgical life stands out because of the stability given to it by an uninterrupted lex orandi.

Certainly, some places of worship have been granted, or rather tolerated, where this liturgy can be celebrated, but too often what has been given by one hand is taken back by the other, without, however, ever managing to make it vanish.

Since the massive decline during the period immediately following the Second Vatican Council, every attempt has been made on numerous occasions to revive religious practice, to increase the number of priestly and religious vocations, and to preserve the faith of the Christian people. Everything, except letting the people experience the traditional liturgy, by giving the Tridentine liturgy a fair chance. Today, however, common sense urgently demands that all the vital forces in the Church be allowed to live and prosper, and in particular the one which enjoys a right dating back to over a millennium.

Let there be no mistake: the present appeal is not a petition to obtain a new tolerance as in 1984 and 1988, nor even a restoration of the status granted in 2007 by the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which, recognizing in principle a right, has in fact been reduced to a regime of meagerly granted permissions.

As lay people, it is not for us to pass judgment on the Second Vatican Council, its continuity or discontinuity with the previous teaching of the Church, the merits, or not, of the reforms that resulted from it, and so on. On the other hand, it is necessary to defend and transmit the means that Providence has employed to enable a growing number of Catholics to preserve the faith, to grow in it, or to discover it. Thetraditional liturgy plays an essential role in this process, thanks to its transcendence, its beauty, its timelessness and its doctrinal certainty.

For this reason, we simply ask, for the sake of the true freedom of the children of God in the Church, that the full freedom of the traditional liturgy, with the free use of all its liturgical books, be granted, so that, without hindrance, in the Latin rite, all the faithful may benefit from it andall clerics may celebrate it.

Jean-Pierre Maugendre, Managing Director of Renaissance Catholique, Paris, France

(Ce texte a été traduit et diffusé en allemand, anglais, espagnol, français, italien, néerlandais et portugais.)

This appeal is not a petition to be signed, but a message to be disseminated, possibly to be taken up again in any form that may seem appropriate, and to be brought and explained to the cardinals, bishops and prelates of the universal Church.

Si Renaissance catholique a l’initiative de cette campagne, c’est uniquement pour se faire l’interprète d’un large désir en ce sens qui se manifeste dans l’ensemble du monde catholique. Cette campagne n’est pas la sienne, mais celle de tous ceux qui y participeront, la relayeront, l’amplifieront, chacun à leur manière.

On Sunday, January 14, I attended what may well be the last traditional mass of the Saint Gregory Society in New Haven. A large congregation was present in the beautiful Saint Stanislaus church. I saw old timers active in traditionalism or music from all over the state and people I had not seen for many years. But I also noticed newcomers, many families with small children and students(presumably from Yale?). The mood, despite the festive liturgy, was of course somber. But the Society said farewell to the city literally on a high note: the music and the ceremony of this mass could rarely be equaled elsewhere. 1)

We are fortunate to have the short history of the St. Gregory Society written by William Riccio, the inimitable master of ceremonies who has been associated with the Society from the beginning. I myself had regularly attended the masses of the Society up to about 1999.  I will not try to duplicate Bill Riccio’s work – but to supplement it with my own reminiscences and observations. 2)

Actually,  the administration of St. Stanislaus had first announced that January 14th would be the final Latin mass minutes before the Traditional Mass on Sunday, December 31, began. The leaders of the St. Gregory Society state they had no advance notice. 3)  Witnesses have reported that on that day there was talk of a “decree“ from the Archbishop Leonard Blair – later, the explanation was given that the “moderator” of the consolidated New Haven parish (“Blessed McGivney Parish”) and the priest in charge of St. Stanislaus had recommended the action themselves and the archbishop had only endorsed it.  As far as I can determine, no document has ever been issued nor any official mention even been made of this action (in, for example, the bulletin of the consolidated parish, the websites for Blessed McGivney parish that of “New Haven Catholic” etc.) It seems that, other than their mass disappearing from the schedule, traditionalists are not to be accorded even the courtesy or the dignity of a public statement, let alone a coherent explanation, of the actions taken against them. 

The recent history of the Hartford Archdiocese (which includes New Haven) is unfortunate. Since the 1950’s, the old manufacturing economy of the Connecticut mill towns has been in irreversible decline. Yet, on paper,  the number of Catholics has not diminished all that much –  from 766,000 in 1966 to 734,000 in 2021.  I doubt, however, whether even 20% of these nominal Catholics practice their faith. Archbishop John Francis Whealon (1968-1991), a darling of the progressives in his day, left the archdiocese wrecked from end to end. His three successors only succeeded in managing decline.  The fall in the number of priests, religious parishes and schools has been disastrous. 4) Vocations verge on the nonexistent: 2021:2; 2022: 0; 2023:2. 5) At no time has the Church analyzed whether the policies and culture established by the Archdiocese may have played a decisive role in these developments. On the contrary,  the incoming archbishop, Christopher Coyne,  has indicted the laity for the archdiocese’s problems and signaled more down-sizing as the appropriate response to a ( still largely unacknowledged) crisis. 

Blessed McGivney parish is the result of a consolidation, decreed in 2021, of the seven remaining parishes in New Haven ( in 1994 there were still 17!). 6) Added to the seven is the chaplaincy of Yale University which, having its own endowment,  cannot totally participate in the consolidation. However, the leader of the combined parish is the chaplain of Yale University. The chaplaincy’s website makes clear the ideological direction he (and the new combined parish)favors. 7)  There is no friendship for Catholic traditionalists in these quarters. 

Indeed, New Haven seems to be a test case of a “Franciscan” model of the Church: monolithic uniformity, bureaucratic leadership, top-down direction, openness to the theological left (America magazine has reported favorably on developments here),  and rapidly declining numbers of faithful. The parish reports that in 2022 the average Sunday attendance at all the New Haven Catholic churches was approximately 3100 people – down from 3800 in 2016! 8) The combined parish has been named “Blessed McGivney parish” although there is no devotion or cult of Blessed McGivney.  Needless to say, the transparency claimed for this operation has been lacking. The elaborate websites and a consolidated parish bulletin of 20-plus pages do not communicate anything of significance. 

The Society of St. Gregory was founded after the first indult in favor of the traditional Mass in 1984.  From the beginning it was led by laymen, specifically, musicians. Thus, its governance was unique. The Society was permitted to celebrate the traditional mass in the church of Sacred Heart, a moribund New Haven parish.  The time, 2 on Sunday afternoons, was intended to discourage attendance. But the St. Gregory Society was able to turn this disadvantage into a positive factor. The 2 PM mass time allowed many church musicians who had commitments in the morning to participate in the schola. 

For the St. Gregory Society from its inception pursued the union of the traditional mass, celebrated in as complete a form as resources permitted,  and the music which was created specifically for this mass. In other words, the spiritual and aesthetic forces were united. This contrasted starkly with the performance of polyphony as a  concert or as an incongruous insertion in a Novus Ordo liturgy. But it also diverged from the practice of most of the other traditional masses springing up in the  1980s:  low masses, sometimes accompanied by an attempted recreation of the dimly remembered musical performance style of 1962. Thus, the St. Gregory’s Society marked the departure of post 1980s traditionalism from pre-conciliar practices– a “return to the sources” of Catholic liturgy and music. The Society’s musical achievements were memorialized in a series of CDs that received critical acclaim. 

The Society had to deal with the limitations forced upon it. The mass was usually a missa cantata. It was a challenge to find priests willing to celebrate the traditional mass and to train them to do so. The dilapidated church left much to be desired. – for example,  during one mass I attended a stained-glass window collapsed and shattered. A volunteer guard had to be posted outside the church to  watch over the parked cars. 

Yet in spite of the disadvantageous time and place and the disdain of the official Church many people were willing to make the sacrifice to attend this mass. And the St. Gregory Society quickly attracted national attention. Bill Riccio has chronicled its “outreach” –  to use a formerly popular ecclesiastical buzzword  – to all kinds of other churches and  organizations. Over the years, many bishops participated in the Society’s Masses. The St. Gregory Society  became the new gold standard for the celebration of the traditional mass. Many of those involved in the traditional movement today, whether as celebrants, ministers, or musicians,  received their training or inspiration at masses of the St. Gregory Society. Such was the Society’s reputation, that, in 1998 when the first traditional mass in decades was celebrated at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York,  Michael Davies wrote approvingly of the musical contribution of the Society  – although I don’t believe they had much to do with that mass!

Then came the liberating effect of Summorum Pontificum. Perhaps the high point of the Society’s career was a Solemn High Mass celebrated in 2008 in the holy of holies of Catholic New Haven: the Dominican parish of St. Mary’s. 9) In the following year, after Sacred Heart parish was shut down, the  Society had the opportunity to move to a much grander and more richly decorated church,  the Polish Vincentian parish of Saint Stanislaus. The Society celebrated its new home with a splendid liturgy. 10) Both these festive masses were extremely well attended.

Yet as time went on a certain routine set in. In the wake of Summorum Pontificum other communities and other parishes sponsored liturgies that matched or even exceeded those of the Saint Gregory’s Society in the quality of music, the splendor of the vestments, the completeness of ritual and, above all, in the commitment to the fostering of a growing parish life. The 2 PM mass time had never been ideal for families. Indeed, at least in the now remote past, certain associates of the St. Gregory Society – not the leadership or the clergy! 11) – took a dim view of presence of children. That’s an attitude that contradicted the whole purpose of celebrating the Traditional mass in the first place.  I noted, however, at the final mass of January 14 numerous families with young children in attendance. 

Nor did the Society establish a firm bond with clerical institutions.  For whatever reason, the most obvious next step in the development of New Haven traditionalism, to move the Society’s mass to St. Mary’s at an earlier time, never materialized. Attempts over the years to develop a relationship with the FSSP or the ICRSS eventually went nowhere. Bill Riccio tells us that overtures to the leadership of St. Stanislaus parish were firmly rebuffed. Obviously, the events of this year demonstrate that there was no communication channel with the archdiocese or Blessed McGivney parish.

So, the St. Gregory Society continued on its established course.  I hear that the average Sunday attendance, although not insignificant,  may not have differed that much from that of the 1990s. In recent years it undoubtedly became even harder to find celebrants. 

The representative of the New Haven Catholic Church present on the day that the termination of the traditional mass was announced is reported to have attributed this determination to the difficulty of finding priests and the low attendance. But the same comments could have made in 1998! And, in all candor, would the result this year have been any different if the Society had been able to move their masses to, let’s say, 12 noon at Saint Mary’s and build a young and growing congregation?  Has not Cardinal  Gregory in Washington recently stated as the justification for terminating the celebration of the traditional mass the success and expansion it was enjoying in the Washington area? And would an association with one of the Ecclesia Dei communities have helped with an archdiocese comfortable with the departure from New Haven of the eminently establishment orders of the Vincentians and Preachers?

Will January 14, 2024, be the end of the traditional mass in New Haven and of the achievements of the St. Gregory Society in establishing an exemplary celebration of the traditional Latin mass and serving as a role model for so many others? The Society’s bulletin recommends writing letters to express dismay at the “withdrawal of this pastoral solicitude to those devoted to the age-old liturgy.” But hasn’t Pope Francis himself clearly indicated that he not does not care about the impact of his decisions on those he has determined to “leave by the wayside?”  I also hear that the spiritual leadership in Hartford and New Haven does not welcome dialogue on this subject. Aside from letter writing, an article from a shocked observer has appeared in the secular press and a timid demonstration was being organized. The turnout on January 14 demonstrates that a lay constituency in the Hartford archdiocese exists. I would hope that, after further reflection and with some imagination, more effective responses can be devised to continue a legacy of almost 40 years.

1. “The Last Traditional Mass at St. Stanislaus, New Haven” The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny.
2. Riccio, William, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country”; The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny.
3. “Traditional Latin Mass in New Haven Canceled by Archdiocese at the Request of Local Pastor,” The St. Gregory Society, 1/5/2024.
4. For the above statistics and data see “Archdiocese of Hartford,” Catholic-hierarchy.org.
5. “Letter to the Faithful on Priestly Vocations,” Isidoreandmaria.org (11/19-20/2022;  see generally archdioceseofhartford.org.
6.  Duffy, Joseph W., Hartford’s Catholic Legacy: Parishes, at 273-307 (Archdiocese of Hartford, Hartford, 1994). The St. Gregory Society is conspicuously absent from the listed organizations at Sacred Heart parish –  in an official publication that was otherwise desperate to show any sign of activity in the New Haven parishes. Some 28 years later, traditionalists were officially invisible in the alleged “SWOT” process leading up to the  merger of the New Haven parishes formalized in 2023.
7.  See, e.g., STM: The Magazine of the Catholic Chapel at Yale University (Fall 2023); STM Spring 2024 Lecture Series, stm.yale.org
8. “New Haven Catholic Implementation Team Documentation-FAQs #10,” newhavencatholic.org.
9.  “Mass at St. Mary’s New Haven,” The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny (10/28/2008).
10. “The New Home of the St. Gregory Society: St. Stanislaus in New Haven,” The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny ( 9/13/2009)
11. I was present at a Mass at Sacred Heart when the late Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, speaking from the sanctuary, stopped a family (not mine!) leaving the church becuase of a noisy infant and invited them back!

A forceful article by Jim Zebora about the last Latin Mass in New Haven.

The news struck traditional Catholics in south central Connecticut like a dagger to the heart.

The Latin Mass said every Sunday, and many feast days and holidays, by the Saint Gregory Society of New Haven was being shut down. This Mass had been celebrated for 38 years, through the reigns of Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, who had both encouraged its use where there were Catholics who wanted it as their form of Sunday worship.

I frequently attended this Mass when I lived in Meriden (about 20- 30 minutes driving – SC), seeking what I felt was a more reverent and prayerful observance than the new Mass. The Society’s Masses were indeed beautiful and purposeful, giving honor to God and engaging worshipers in the sacred and soul-comforting rituals that live on in the Traditional Latin Mass. These Masses touched me in a way that the new Mass did not, and I felt spiritually richer for attending and receiving Communion at them. I still attended Mass in the vernacular when that was the only thing available, but the sense of reverence was missing.

You would think a sacred Mass that draws devout worshippers would be encouraged by Catholic leaders, but it is instead being suppressed. The Society’s final approved TLM in New Haven was celebrated Jan. 14 after the priest administrator of St. Stanislaus Church and the pastor of the Blessed Michael McGivney mega-parish petitioned Hartford Archbishop Leonard P. Blair to let them shut it down. No matter how it was positioned as a bottom-up request, the forced cessation of the Latin Mass in New Haven was a direct result of the pope’s hostility.

The last celebration was a Solemn High Mass with three priests (actually two – SC), a full complement of altar servers, and the highly regarded Schola Cantorum offering Gregorian chants.

In 2021, when Pope Francis reversed Pope Benedict’s policy of allowing the Latin Mass whenever and wherever it was requested, eminent Catholic writer and apologist George Weigel called Francis out on marginalizing traditional Catholics and their preferred mode of worship.

Weigel said the pope’s decree suppressing the Latin Mass, ironically named Traditionis Custodes, meaning “guardians of tradition,” “was theologically incoherent, pastorally divisive, unnecessary, cruel.”

Today, the actions of the Archdiocese in suppressing the Latin Mass and Saint Gregory Society are indeed the same.  

Zebora, Jim, “End of the Latin Mass in New Haven a Direct Result of the Pope’s Hostility,” Greenwich Time, 1/25/2024

Just one week after its 38th anniversary, the St. Gregory Society offered its last Traditional Mass in New Haven today, permission having been withdrawn abruptly by the Archibishop of Hartford. The Solemn Votive Mass of St. Gregory the Great, patron of the Society, was assisted by a large choir which included the St. Gregory Society choir and the choirs of the Oratories of St. Patrick and Sts. Cyril and Methodius. The church was filled with friends and well-wishers. In his sermon, whose tone combined sadness with muted optimism, Fr. Cipolla expressed confidence that this last Mass only represented a hiatus.

“So now after this barrage of words that always fade into nothing, we proceed to the heart of the matter, where words do not merely change water into wine, but words effect an infinitely greater miracle, but not merely words or mere words or random words but the words of Him through whom the universe was created:  Hoc est corpus meum.And there is nothing else  to say. But much more to sing.  And we will sing again.”

Father Cipolla’s full sermon here.