The latest Catechism class conducted by Fr. Perricone at St. Vincent Ferrer Church last week is available via YouTube: link

Stained glass window, part of a series on the life of St. Patrick, in St. Patrick’s Parish and Oratory in Waterbury, CT

With the cancellation of public Masses in many dioceses in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, we suggest this  traditional Mass for the Feast of St. Patrick, which will be live-streamed from Paris today at 2 pm Eastern Daylight Time (7 pm in Paris).   Go to Youtube.

We will try to post announcements about live-streamed traditional Masses here.  We need help from our readers.  Please send us information.

We also have news from the Jersey City Latin Mass community that the St. Patrick’s Day Mass there is still on. You may want to check about it before going.  email contact:  latinmassjc@gmail.com

Here is the announcement posted yesterday:

5:30 PM, Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Assumption Church, Jersey City, NJ
Fr. John Perricone, Celebrant

We regret the confusion surrounding this liturgy. The recommended statewide curfew has prevented the New Jersey Catholic Chorale from singing at the Mass. As a result, this may be a Low Mass. This will depend on who is available to make the Mass. Given the uncertainty these days, this may be the Last Latin Rite Mass said in Jersey City for an extended period. In addition to the Memorial for St. Patrick, the collects for the Votive Mass in time of Pestilence will be prayed and special prayers for deliverance from the Coronavirus will be said after Holy Mass. 

Let us invoke the intercession of St. Patrick today!

(Above) St Charles Borromeo leading a procession in time of plague (window in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York). The inscription reads: “Bonus pastor dat vitam pro ovibus.”

Times of epidemics and plagues are often associated with the heroic deeds and miraculous interventions of bishops, priests and saints, commemorated down the ages in liturgy, art and tradition. Does not the angel atop the Castel Sant Angelo in Rome derive its origin from a procession organized by Pope St. Gregory the Great which culminated in a miraculous appearance of St Michael? In 16th century Milan, the archbishop, St Charles Borromeo, led the city both in spiritual and temporal matters when a plague threatened to overwhelm society. In Palermo, in the 17th century. St Rosalia miraculously intervened to bring an end to a plague and ever after has been the chief patron of that city. In the 18th century, Tiepolo painted one of his greatest masterpieces,  depicting the early Christian martyr St Thecla interceding for the liberation of the city of Este from the great plague of 1630(the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a preliminary oil sketch).

The angel  atop the Castel Sant Angelo in Rome, sheathing his sword.

(Above) St. Rosalia, carried in procession, saving Palermo from the plague (18th century Mexico); (below) St Rosalia (image in the saint’s grotto, Palermo)

(Above)  “Saint Thecla interceding with the Eternal Father for the Liberation of the city of Este from the Plague of 1630” by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. (Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

In our days the reaction of the clergy has been entirely different. In
Italy and specifically in Rome, the pope, the bishops and the priests have taken to their heels, suspending all masses and even closing all churches (I read today, however, that they may be having second thoughts about the latter step). This bishops of the rest of Western Europe – especially Austria – are beginning to fall in line with these actions. And we are seeing the first repercussions on these shores. 55 years of the Council have left an entirely secular episcopate, incapable of offering any kind of spiritual leadership but ready only to take direction from the secular authorities. The legacy of these days in the minds of the faithful will be a disastrous one for the Church.

Beginning this Wednesday, March 4, there will be a Missa Cantata followed by Vespers at St. Mary in Stamford, CT. The Viri Gallilaei, a men’s chant choir, will be singing. Fr Michael Clarke will be the first priest to offer this scheduled  Mass, followed by other priests in the area.

Early readers of our blog will remember that there was a weekly Sunday Missa Cantata at St. Mary’s Stamford  about 13 -15 years ago.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone celebrated a Solemn Mass at St. Mary’s Stamford on Feb. 25, 2007.  To his right is Father Richard Cipolla acting as deacon.