Last Thursday, October 19, St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, hosted a conference and Solemn Pontifical Mass commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

The first speaker was His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneder, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan.

The second speaker was Father Innocent Smith, OP of St. Vincent Ferrer, New York.

After the talks, preparations were made for a Solemn Pontifical Mass of the Blessed Sacrament.

Bishop Schneider ceremonially arrived at the door of the church (accompanied by master of ceremonies John Pia)  and was greeted by pastor Fr. Richard Cipolla. He was given a crucifix to venerate.

Bishop Schneider knelt before the Blessed Sacrament at a side altar before approaching the high altar.

The Bishop is vested for Mass and sits at a faldstool before the altar.

The Bishop blesses the Deacon, Steven Genovese, in preparation for the proclamation of the Gospel.

The Bishop with Fr. Richard Cipolla,  as assistant priest.

Proclamation of the Gospel

The Sermon, delivered from the faldstool.

The offertory

After Mass, Bishop Schneider, greeted many of the congregation at an reception in the church hall.

The next morning, Bishop Schneider celebrated the 7:30 am low Mass.

His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, arrived in the United States last night. This morning he visited Regina Pacis Academy in Norwalk, CT. He will be speaking in a conference tomorrow night at 5:30 pm at St. Mary Church, Norwalk and offering a Solemn Pontifical Mass. information

The annual parish Forty Hours Eucharistic Devotion will take place at Church of the Holy Innocents on October 27-29. Traditionally, the Eucharistic Adoration is not interrupted during this time but should go all night Friday and all night Saturday. To ensure that this devotion is carried out properly, volunteers are needed to cover all the hours of adoration, especially the night/early morning hours.

Before the schedule for the 40 Hours is finalized, those slots during the night need to be covered. If no one signs up to cover the night hours then the adoration will be interrupted Friday night and Saturday night and resume in the morning. Please commit to a specific time of adoration by signing the sign-up sheet located on the bulletin board in the vestibule.

This beautiful devotion is very rare these days, especially in its traditional form. The devotion was permanently established by Pope Clement VIII “in order that day and night the faithful might appease their Lord by prayer before the Blessed Sacrament solemnly exposed, imploring there His divine mercy.”

Dear Friends,

On behalf of the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny I would like to extend our gratitude to you, our supporters. Your contributions have made it possible for our Society to achieve so much in 2017.

What has the Society of Saint Hugh of Cluny been doing in the midst of all the turmoil of the present–day Church?

We continue to exercise two basic roles:

First, we run a website that keeps track of the burgeoning Traditional scene in the New York area.

Second, we sponsor and organize Traditional masses and presentations by noted speakers on issues directly relevant to the traditional cause. Almost all the budget of the Society goes to this aspect of our operations.

This year has been one of the most active in our history.

We are sponsoring the following:

• In June: a conference featuring noted liturgical scholars Peter Kwasniewski and John Lamont, in Norwalk
• In September: Solemn High Mass in Little Italy for the feast of San Gennaro, at the church of the Most Precious Blood featuring a Mozart mass.    It was heartening to see so many in the congregation who had come for the festival and had stayed for this mass!
• This week: Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Fr. Innocent Smith, OP in a conference in Norwalk on Thursday, October 19, The conference will be followed by a Solemn Pontifical Mass.
• In November, a Solemn Requiem Mass in New York featuring Mozart’s Requiem, an annual event that we co-sponsor with the Catholic Artists Society and the New York Purgatorial Society, at St. Vincent Ferrer Church.
• In December, we will be sponsoring for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Solemn Mass at Immaculate Conception parish in New York featuring, among other music, an orchestral mass of 18^th century Mexico.
• And more yet to be confirmed! (All these events are or will be covered in detail on the website of the Society)

In each case, given our limited resources, we try to bring the Traditional liturgy to new churches and to the wider public.

The music performed at these liturgies has also been unique. It has been gratifying to us to see the public response to all these events.

These kinds of things do, however, involve the expenditure of money. We spend it overwhelmingly on the music involved in the liturgies and for travel expenses of the speakers.

We depend on the services of many people who receive no monetary compensation for the great work they do. And we always partner with another group or parish to share the costs.

You can readily see looking at our Archive how, compared to earlier years, the pace of Traditionalist activity has picked up. 

We would like to continue this development and do much more next year!

This is the tenth anniversary of Summorum Pontificum and of this Society. We already have several very interesting events in planning. But we need your help!

Please consider making a tax-deductible gift to the Society of St Hugh of Cluny today!

Checks made out to the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny may be sent to the following address:

Mr. Stuart Chessman
2 Tamarack Place
Greenwich CT 06831

Donations can also be made by Paypal. Go to the Paypal icon on our website www.sthughofcluny.org.

Thank you for your generosity and may God bless you,

Stuart Chessman
President

(Above) The concluding mass of the 2017 pilgrimage for the restoration at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. (This photo courtesy of the Extraordinary Form in the Albany Diocese Facebook page)

This year,  we could only visit the shrine the day before the pilgrimage mass. As always, these parts of upstate New York exhibit a melancholy magic around this time of year. In a way, the Shrine is best seen when visitors are few – that is most of the time nowadays. Above, the silent ravine is a sacred and meditative spot.

(Above) The coliseum seen from a nearby overlook. Below, the interior of the architecturally uninspiring and virtually empty coliseum.

It has not always been so. (Above) a “full house” in 1959 with Cardinal Cushing. (Below) More recently, on October 21, 2012, 5500 of the 6500 seats were filled for a mass commemorating the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha. She was born in the Indian village here.

Wandering around the grounds, the pilgrim encounters a host of other shrines and devotions accumulated since the 1880’s. Some have been recently restored. (Below) The tiny original chapel prepared for the Traditional mass.

(Above and below) the first martyrdom – that of Rene Goupil – occurred here.

One recent positive development is the departure of the Jesuit order which had managed the Shrine from its beginning. In the last years of its control, the grounds and buildings had deteriorated in many spots. Reversing years of practice, Traditionalist pilgrimages were either excluded from the coliseum or banned from the shrine entirely (like the FSSPX). Indeed, at the end of 2015 the Shrine was at the brink of closing – after Kateri Tekakwitha had just been canonized and after millions had been raised that year  for urgent restorations! But now a separate not-for-profit corporation – with the support of the Albany diocese – has taken over most of the Shrine. They are working hard to make  the Shrine once again a nationally known center of pilgrimage. Improvements are visible in many areas. And, as you can see from the first photograph of this post, already a more welcoming reception is being given to Traditionalist Catholics. The only fly in the ointment seems to be the threatened installation of a grotesque sculpture by a “modern master.”

(Below) The Jesuit cemetery. The Jesuits have retained control of this and the Ravine. Cardinal Avery Dulles is buried here.

One legacy of the Jesuits was the sale of the Jesuit residence/retreat house to a Chinese religious group –  the “World Peace & Health  Organization” (WPHO).  Indeed, they aim to transform this corner of New York State into a center of their activities – among other things, they have acquired two former Catholic churches in nearby Amsterdam (St. Michael’s and St. Casimir’s) and have converted them into  Buddhist temples.

WPHO have transformed the former Jesuit building with towers,  gables and gates in the traditional Chinese style. Their “great wall” now overlooks the graves of the Jesuits and the grounds of the Shrine of the Catholics.

Is this our future – the ever increasing number of graves of the priests of one of the main Catholic religious orders contrasted with the growing complex of a Buddhist sect? Or will the new managers of the Shrine succeed in reversing the developments of the last decades?

Additional note: We recommend a posting by “Florentius” in the blog Gloria Romanorum which fills in the history of the purchase of the shrine lands from the Jesuits. http://gloriaromanorum.blogspot.com/2010/09/buddhist-temple-at-auriesville.html

Traditional Mass was offered today at the Convent of St. Birgitta in Darien, CT for a day-long retreat organized by St. Mary Church, Norwalk. The celebrant and speaker was Fr. Anthony Mastroeni. The Bridgetttine Sisters run a guest house here in this picturesque mansion filled overlooking Long Island Sound.

One of the many antique statues in the convent.

The convent is a peaceful spot with beautiful views.

Statue of Our Lady of Fatima formerly (?) in Our Lady of Peace Church, Manhattan