Support the Feast of St. Rocco at the Church of St. Rocco in Glen Cove, Long Island. Solemn Traditional Mass will be celebrated this Saturday, July 31 at 4 pm. Low traditional Mass will be celebrated on Sundy, Aug. 1 at 7:30 am.

From the organizers: “Many other religious events, including a big procession of St Rocco, patron against plagues and contagious diseases,  and the most amazing food and great rides and games. The Canons Regular of St Augustine have done so much for the Latin Mass community, homeschoolers, and all the Catholics in the Glen Cove area and beyond.

“The feast is a huge piece of St Rocco’s financial survival. It had to be canceled last year because of covid so the parish took a huge economic hit. There are many great food booths but the high point is in the church hall, where the dedicated and highly gifted Italian nonnas (grandmas) have been cooking homemade Italian foods of many sorts for weeks, freezing them to be ready for the great feast. There is indoor seating for meals or take out. Unbelievably well worth the trip alone. Please share this widely and encourage friends, family and neighbors to go. “

If you are in the New Jersey area on the First Tuesday of August, August 3rd, consider attending the Holy Mass of Reparation which will be celebrated by a newly ordained priest, Father Gregory Zannetti. 

St. Mary of Mount Virgin Catholic Church 190 Sandford StreetNew Brunswick NJ 08901 

Corner of Sandford St. & Remsen Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08901
(732) 545-5090

Solemn Mass will be celebrated on Thursday, August 5 at 7:30 pm at the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford, CT, for the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

His Excellencey, Bishop Frank Caggiano issued a letter today with interim guidance today concerning the Motu Proprio Traditiones Custodes. We reproduce the letter below.

 From: Most Reverend Frank J. Caggiano 

Re: Interim Guidance regarding Traditionis Custodes 

Date: Monday, July 19, 2021 

On July 16th, 2021, the Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, our Holy Father Pope Francis issued a motu proprio addressing the practice of celebrating Mass according to the Roman Missal edited by Pope Saint John XXIII in 1962. It is a liturgical practice that has steadily grown throughout certain parts of the Universal Church and in our Diocese. For my part, I believe that it is important that we retain the celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of 1962 in our Diocese, provided that our future practice is in conformity with the norms of Traditionis Custodes. 

As you know, the norms contained in the new motu proprio significantly restrict the use of the Roman Missal of 1962. I will need time to consult, draft and promulgate permanent diocesan norms that will address both the pastoral needs of those who have received spiritual nourishment from attending such celebrations of the Mass, while at the same time remaining obedient to the requirements of the law and the wishes of our Holy Father. 

The purpose of this memo is to provide you interim guidance regarding the first steps by which our Diocese will begin implementation of Traditionis Custodes. 

More specifically, the procedure outlined at the end of this memo to request permission for the celebration of Mass according to the Roman Missal of 1962 applies to all such celebrations scheduled from Wednesday, July 21, 2021 until the Feast of the Archangels, September 29, 2021. It is my expectation that permanent norms will be ready for diocesan-wide implementation by the end of September 2021. 

As we reflect upon how best to implement the motu proprio, it is important to consider key principles that are articulated in the document and must serve as guideposts for discerning an authentic manner by which its norms can be implemented. More specifically: 

1. We remain committed to offer genuine pastoral service to the people entrusted to our care, allowing them a variety of legitimate liturgical expressions from which they can grow in their love of the Lord through right worship of Him. 

2. We must try to implement the provisions of the new motu proprio in ways that will avoid exacerbating divisions that may already exist in our diocesan Church, all the while remaining obedient to what the document requires. 

3. While the vast majority of those who attend the celebration of Mass according to the Missal of 1962 are committed to the Church and are faithful to all its teachings, there are 

very few strident voices, both inside and outside of our Diocese, that have called into question the legitimacy of the Second Vatican Council, the legitimacy of the liturgical reform promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI and the universal ecclesial authority of Pope Francis. Such positions must be refuted and corrected on every level of our ecclesial life. 

During this interim period towards the permanent implementation of Traditionis Custodes, the following procedure will allow you to seek permission for the celebration of Mass according to the Missal of 1962 in the Diocese of Bridgeport: 

1. All pastors, whose parishes already sponsor the celebration of Mass according to the 1962 Missal, whether on a weekly or periodic basis, are asked to write to me directly, asking permission for such celebrations to continue. The same is required for all priests who serve as chaplains or celebrate Mass according to the Missal of 1962 in a venue other than a parish Church. These requests can be sent as an email or by a formal letter. I will respond to each request individually in writing. 

2. Any priest who wishes to celebrate Mass according to the Missal of 1962 privately, that is, a low Mass without the presence of a server or the faithful, should submit a letter requesting permission to do so directly to me. I will grant him faculty to do so through September 29, 2021, at which time the process to request a more permanent faculty will be in place. 

3. Please include in your request the following information: 

a. Date and time for the celebration(s). If done on a weekly basis, please indicate the day and time for the weekly celebration. 

b. The celebrant of the Mass 

c. The approximate number of those who will (or ordinarily) attend 

d. If the Mass is a weekly celebration, please indicate when it began. 

e. An explanation of the pastoral need that prompted you to offer the Mass 

This information is needed to compile an accurate picture of the presence and pastoral need for the celebration of Mass according to the Missal of 1962 throughout our Diocese. 

4. If your request is granted, the necessary faculty will also be granted to the priest celebrant. This is stipulated by the motu proprio. However, please be aware of the following: 

a. Any faculty to celebrate the Mass of 1962 during the interim period does not extend beyond September 29, 2021. Rather a separate process will be created to seek permanent faculty to celebrate the Mass of 1962 that must be in conformity with Article 3.4 of Traditionis Custodes. This process will accompany the permanent norms. 

b. If permission is not granted for the celebration of Mass according to the Missal of 1962, the priest will lack the faculty to celebrate that Mass. 

Given the importance of this issue in the life of our parishioners, I wish to meet in person with those priests who have been celebrating the Mass using the Missal of 1962. I wish to hear your thoughts, suggestions and concerns as a first step in drafting permanent norms.

Let us continue to pray for one another as we move forward with this important pastoral and spiritual project. 

Today the Pope issued his Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes (“TC”) (with an accompanying letter) on the Traditional liturgy. I think I owe you an initial reaction. After all, in 2007 this Society sponsored the first Mass in the New York Archdiocese pursuant to Summorum Pontificum (as opposed to the indult regime). I want to address general principles and leave up to others more qualified the discussion of the legalities (to the extent Canon Law can be said to exist anymore) or even the validity of aspects of this Motu Proprio.

 The Motu Proprio TC abrogates Summorum Pontificum both in its theory and operative provisions.  Insofar as diocesan clergy are concerned, it resurrects a regime similar to the 1984 Indult Quattor Adhinc Annos in its most restrictive interpretation. So, for example, the Traditional Mass is not supposed to be celebrated  (in the future?) in parochial churches;  new Traditionalist groups are not to be authorized and those that exist are to be examined whether they deny the “legitimacy” of the Novus Ordo, etc.

Noteworthy is the uniquely radical style of TC. Entirely absent is the nebulous and effusive verbiage that characterize Francis’s other documents (like Amoris Laetitia) with their endless talk of “accompaniment,” “mercy”  and, of course, “tenderness.” In TC,  the language is succinct, harsh and adversarial. The reasoning is often transparently dishonest. What are we to say,  for example, of the passage in the Motu Proprio quoting St Augustine for the proposition that remaining in the Church “with the heart” is a “condition of salvation” – after the unrestricted ecumenism of the last 60 years? Or of Francis’s insistence on “unity” and “communion” as almost exclusive criteria of Catholicism, when every day the fundamental tenets of Catholic theology and morality are challenged – often with the express or implicit support of the Pope (e.g.,  the prohibitions of divorce, abortion,  homosexual behavior)? 

Clearly, Francis and his episcopal allies want a war in the Church. Considerations of the past  – reintegrating the FSSPX, accommodating the just desires of certain of the faithful –  don’t apply anymore. Traditionalists, as such, are declared to be enemies of the Church, who:

 exploited (the indults and Summorum Pontificum) to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.

The ultimate goal is their annihilation:

It is up to you to proceed in such a way as to return to a unitary form of celebration, and to determine case by case the reality of the groups which celebrate with this Missale Romanum. ….

Indications about how to proceed in your dioceses are chiefly dictated by two principles: on the one hand, to provide for the good of those who are rooted in the previous form of celebration and need to return in due time to the Roman Rite promulgated by Saints Paul VI and John Paul II… 

I could be mistaken, but I know of no recent instance where a whole, worldwide class of Catholics – including by 2021 Cardinals, bishops, priests, laity and religious orders  – has been similarly publicly denounced and anathematized. The specific contempt for Pope Benedict is palpable – his motivation for promulgating  Summorum Pontificum is misleadingly described in a way directly contradicting the previous pontiff’s repeated statements. Is this document in part personal revenge for the derailing of the “Amazonian” synod – and for the “Pope Emeritus“ and his allies acting as a brake for the last nine years?

Why is the Pope doing this? After all, Francis and his allies control the Vatican, the mainstream religious orders, the Catholic press and educational system worldwide and certainly the majority of most hierarchies? How could these nefarious “trads,” whatever they may be advocating, undermine this structure? How, given these disproportionate resources, can Traditionalists  be jeopardizing the “unity” so desired by Francis?

I think the answer has nothing to do with supposed “divisive”  activities and positions.  The real problem is not traditionalism, but the manifest, catastrophic failures of the Vatican Council, the Novus Ordo and the ultramontanist organization of the Catholic Church.  The sin of the Traditionalists is that, by their very existence and even more so by their success, they bear witness to the fact that (a)the current “Conciliar” regime is in discontinuity with its pre-Conciliar predecessor; and (b) this regime is in rapid disintegration.

The response of Francis is not to make the case once more for the Council and the Novus Ordo, but to declare them identical with the will of God. He does not attempt to convince the critics of their errors but uses coercive measures against them. In so doing he carries ultramontanist  centralization to a new extreme: external unity is the absolute value, “groups” (of the laity) need to be supervised and vetted by bishops, priests need, indirectly, permission from the Vatican to celebrate the Traditional Mass…

I think the strong-arm measures of TC will only increase the focus on Traditionalists, while exposing even more the intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy the so-called Conciliar Church.  As I have written before, there is, humanly speaking, a great benefit of these experiences: the truth. For I doubt anyone who reads TC and its accompanying letter can deny that a radical crisis has engulfed the Catholic Church.

I am truly sad for the overwhelming majority of Traditionalists – the families who over the years have found a sense of beauty in the liturgy and an environment conducive to raising their families,  handing  down the faith and even evangelizing those outside of the Church.  If the reader examines our posts and our photographs over the last 14 years, he can get a sense of this vast new activity. These people know nothing of the alleged offenses of priests and agitators denounced by the Pope.  It is indeed a great cross for these faithful Catholics to be subject to such reprehensible calumny by the leadership of the Church.

My advice to all Traditionalists would be to carry on as before. Pope Francis may have declared war, but there are many different ways to fight.  After all, did not Archbishop Bergoglio and most of his episcopal colleagues, in their complete disregard of Summorum Pontificum over the last 14 years, give us the best example?  If the Francis and his bishops want to create martyrs, close parishes and even excommunicate – let them take the initiative. At the St Hugh of Cluny Society we intend to continue and even redouble our support of the Traditionalist movement. Maybe it will take different forms – maybe we will have to shift once more to an underground form of organization. But the fight for the whole of Catholic Tradition  – in Liturgy, theology and morality – will go on! 

St. Mary’s has a proud tradition of chant camp for children stretching back to 2008. After two years’ hiatus, we are very glad to be able to offer it again to young people in our parish and beyond.

For more information and to register: https://www.stmarynorwalk.net/chantcamp/

Today’s Traditional Mass at St. Emery Church in Fairfield, CT. Traditional Mass will be offered there every Sunday at 12:30 pm and every Wednesday at 6 pm. Deo gratias. Photos by Sean Kulacz posted on Facebook.

Great news! A new weekly Sunday traditional Mass is being inaugurated this weekend in Fairfield, CT at St. Emery Church at 12:30 pm. There will also be a Wednesday evening Mass at 6 pm. Deo Gratias!

More details will follow. If you are interested in reserving a spot, please contact Cezary at cpawelec@optonline.net