I was just informed of the death of the notable classical architect Thomas Gordon Smith. Some excerpts from his obituary:

He was a loving father to … Rev. Innocent Smith, O.P. …. .

(Thomas)Smith led an independent architectural practice through 2015; major projects included Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey (Hulbert, OK), the Classical Galleries in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary (Denton, NE)….

May he rest in peace!

OBITUARY

Two generations have reached maturity since the end of the Second Vatican Council and the introduction of the Novus Ordo Missae, and yet the Mass of the Ages has not died. Young people raised exclusively in the sacraments of the Old Rite are now marrying and having children of their own. Traditional orders of priests and nuns are overwhelmed with vocations. A growing number of believers—including seminarians and priests—are turning to the traditional liturgy to satisfy their thirst for an authentic and unequivocal expression of the Faith. But for many, even among those raised in the Old Rite (especially the young), there are big gaps in our knowledge of the Traditionalist movement, its history, its characters, its full implications for our lives and the life of the Church.
Join us for for an 8-day conference to learn about:

• The history of the Traditionalist movement
• The sacrifices of its first leaders in their heroic struggles to defend the Faith
• The players in the movement today
• Traditionalism and its implications for theology, philosophy, political, social, and cultural life
• Challenges to Traditionalism­: What are they and how do we meet them?

The conference will take place at the Immaculate Conception Seminary, a beautiful complex set in a stunning 216-acre park in Lloyd Harbor off the Long Island Sound. 
 We will have daily Mass and Vespers.

Stay overnight or come for the day.

For information, a schedule and to register: link

from the president of the association Notre-Dame de Chrétienté (Our Lady of Christendom) – the organizers of the Paris/Chartres pilgrimage. This year attendance at the opening and closing masses was drastically limited by the French Coronavirus restrictions. Nor could a unified pilgrimage take place. Nevertheless, more than 11,000 pilgrims joined in smaller events dispersed all over France and beyond (as far away as Egypt and Armenia!). Jean de Tauries takes the opportunity to forthrightly address the issue most on the minds of Traditionalists today.

On the Way Home from Chartres

By Jean de Tauries, President

The 39th pilgrimage has just ended. We hear that the rumors of a new motu proprio, limiting the one signed by Benedict XVI in 2007,  have allegedly been turned into a text ready to be signed by Pope Francis. 

What a contradiction between these new restrictions and the exceptional number of pilgrims this year (more than 15,000 pilgrims including the “Guardian Angel” pilgrims)! 1) What a paradox, in contrast to the missionary spirit of our chapters in France and in so many countries! What a profound lack of knowledge of our Traditional Catholic world!

Let’s take a step back. Among the innumerable rebukes which we have received ( the “summary note” of the Conference of French Bishops, the Dijon Affair etc.) 2) I read : “The instruction that is given, the liturgy that is celebrated,  date from before Vatican II and cannot be representative of the present age.”

I’d like to invite our clerical critics (often in their 70s) to come and talk with our pilgrims in their 20’s. They might be surprised to find an approach that is radically different from the subjects with which they are obsessed. Our pilgrims are not living in 1965  – in the midst of the “springtime of the Church”  – but in 2021,  the post-Vatican II era. Our clerical critics should clearly understand that they have before them a representative sample of the last practicing Catholics in France.

The first preoccupation of all these families is to give their children a Catholic education in a world that hates Christianity. Our pilgrims are youth engaged in evangelical movements (at times in contact with Islam), professionals inquiring about the application of the social doctrine of the Church,  fighters for the defense of life. They may not know, perhaps, the essence of the conciliar documents,  but they know very well the Church that has emerged from the Council.  They see every day her eradication from society, the persecutions she endures, her suffering,  the break in catechetical instruction….

Our pilgrims never say “it was better back then” because they know nothing of that “back then”;  moreover, even their parents had not yet been born at the time of the Council! On the contrary,  they explain very clearly their well-considered choice for traditional religious practice: the sacramental life, the liturgy,  the religious instruction, the pastoral leadership assured by priests who know and love this apostolate.  Our pilgrims do not think themselves outside of the Church.  On the contrary, above all they want to be capable of remaining faithful to her.

As Bishop Rey 3) told us on the Monday of Pentecost before 700 pilgrims in the cathedral of Chartres (not including those following the Mass on our website):

The world doesn’t need a “soft underbelly,” “Christianity light,”  but  professing and confessing Christians who take up fully their baptismal identity and undertake to sanctify the world  –  beginning by sanctifying themselves. These Christians are not isolated and withdrawn into themselves but take up and unfold their heritage in their surroundings by their personal, evangelical influence and by their courageous witness to the truth, which for us has the face of Christ. Christ will demand an accounting from us of our compromises,  of our hollow words and of our cowardly silence. 

I thank from the bottom of my heart Bishop Rey for having accepted our invitation despite some very complex circumstances. His visit and his remarks were a great encouragement for the “Pilgrims of Christendom,” spread out over all of France. Also, my great thanks to Father Laurent for his invigorating words which we needed so much in the morning of the  Saturday of Pentecost at Saint Sulpice.4) I would like to reiterate once again my thanks to all the clerics, the religious, sisters,  priests, deacons and seminarians of our allied communities and of the dioceses who accompanied us for three days. I remember all our pilgrim friends of Our Lady of Christendom who’ve demonstrated that they know how to make a pilgrimage under any circumstances. We will be working during the summer vacation on analyzing the feedback from this pilgrimage. In the expectation of meeting you again after the return from the summer holidays, I’d like to remind you of the main dates of the second half of the year 2021: the retreat at Fontgombault on October 2^nd-3rd and the day of Christian Friendship on the 20th of November. 

Saint Joseph, protect the Church,

 Our Lady of Chartres, protect us,

 Our Lady of Holy Hope, convert us!

Source: Appel de Chartres #249 (My translation). For a description of the 2021 pilgrimage (in French) see HERE.

1. “Guardian Angels” are supporters who do not (physically) take part in the pilgrimage.
2. The “summary note” is a document prepared earlier this year by the French episcopate which puportedly summarizes responses to a Vatican questionnaire and is extremely hostile to Traditionalism; the Dijon affair refers to the recent expusion of the FSSP from that diocese.
3. Dominique Rey, bishop of Frejus-Toulouse.
4. After the fire in the cathedral of Notre Dame, St. Sulpice functions as the main church of Paris; the pilgrimage began here.

I think I recognize a figure familiar to New York area Traditionalists….

Photo provided by the Institute.

This Friday, June 11, is the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The following churches will offer Traditional Masses.

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, 8 am Low Mass

Basilica of the St. John the Evangelist, Stamford, CT, 7:30 pm, Missa Cantata.

Sacred Heart Church, Georgetown, CT, Patronal Feast Mass, 6 pm.  There will be confessions available during Holy Mass, which will be celebrated by Father Peter Lenox. The Viri Galilei, under the direction of David Hughes, will provide the chant and music.  After Mass there will be a procession and Benediction and a festive reception will follow.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, New York, NY, 7 pm, Missa Cantata.

St. Josaphat Church, Bayside, Queens, NY, 7:30 pm, Solemn Mass in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament with procession. Fr Saffron, Fr. Frantisek and Mr. Joseph Falciano as subdeacon.

St. Paul the Apostle, Yonkers, NY, 12 noon.

St. Mary Church, Washingtonville, NY , 7 pm, Solemn Mass.

St. Anthony of Padua Oratory, West Orange, NJ, 9 am, 7 pm.

St. Stephen Church, Kearny, NJ, 7:00 pm Missa Cantata,

Katholisch.de (the voice of the German Catholic establishment) affixed the above image as an introduction to Pope Francis’s latest statements:

“‘Superman’ priests always end badly”… “The fragile priest, who knows his weaknesses, will do well”… The head of the Church also warned against preconceived ideas and plans….

“Supermann” Priester

St. Mary Church celebrated the external solemnity of Corpus Christ with an a Solemn Mass, procession with 2 altars of reserve, Benediction and a convivium organized by the Indian and Hispanic communities.