July 1-4, 2025

St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park, California

Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit gathers together Catholics who love Christ, the Church, and the Church’s sacred liturgical tradition for

• the solemn celebration of the Mass (Novus Ordo) and Vespers ;  
• insightful talks on the sacred liturgy, liturgical formation, and the sacred liturgical arts; 
• and fellowship to build fraternal bonds through which the clergy, religious, and lay faithful can support the Church and one another in their promotion of the sacred liturgy. 

Fons et Culmen

At the heart of the Summit is the solemn pontifical celebration of the sacred liturgy, both Mass (Novus Ordo) and Vespers .

The conference liturgies feature a special emphasis on excellence in ars celebrandi, superb preaching, beautiful sacred music rendered from the Church’s treasury throughout the ages by a professional choir, and the opportunity to sing Vespers in common. 

Clergy attendees, supported by letters of good standing, are welcome and encouraged to assist at conference liturgies. 

Lectures

Featuring lectures from prominent prelates, clergy, and laity from around the world, the talks of the Summit will offer timely insight into the nature of the sacred liturgy, its ars celebrandi, liturgical formation, the sacred liturgical arts (music, art, and architecture), and the role of the sacred liturgy in the lives of the Church’s clergy and faithful.

Speakers and celebrants include: Robert Cardinal Sarah, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Dom Benedict Nivakoff, Dr. Jennifer Donelson Nowicka, Dr. Michael Foley, and DIno Marcantonio

Fellowship

Designed to foster conversation amongst attendees and speakers, the Summit schedule features time for shared meals and conversational fora.

The fora, moderated by conference hosts, will engage participants, prelates and clergy in attendance, and Summit speakers in discussion about the practicalities of the promotion of the sacred liturgy and liturgical formation in their parishes and schools.

For further information and to register: link

Thursday, May 29 -Ascension of the Lord, Holy Day of Obligation

6:00 PM – Sung Holy Mass (1962)

Saturday, May 31- Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

8:30 AM – Sung Holy Mass (1962)

Friday, June 6 – First Friday

8:30 AM – Holy Mass (1962)

9:00 AM – 8:00 PM – Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament7:00 PM – Sung Holy Mass (1962) Coram Sanctissimo (in the presence of the exposed Sacrament) concluding with the Litany of the Most Sacred Heart and Benediction

Latin Mass Group 

The first meeting for the discussion group on the Latin Mass will take place this Wednesday, May 28 at 7:30 PM in Pryor-Hubbard Hall at the Georgetown Oratory of the Sacred Heart in Redding, CT.  Fr. Novajosky will offer a brief presentation on what he hopes to accomplish and will share thoughts and some proposals.  He will ask those in attendance for ideas on topics.   While the preference is for the meetings to be done in person, there will also be a zoom meeting option for those who are unable to come to the oratory campus.  Here is a link to set up for the Zoom meeting: Link

St Joan of Arc. A past victim of episcopal malfeasance(Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais ). Later, the decision of Cauchon’s court was overturned and much later Joan was canonized.

What have we learned about Pope Leo so far  – at this very early stage of his papacy? What have his initial actions  – or his inaction – revealed about the potential direction of his pontificate? Let us remember that many of the steps being taken at this moment were agreed and decided before the election of Leo. Their disclosure at this time is nevertheless significant.

As to his appointments, on May 25 we read:

The Holy Father has appointed His Eminence Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, as his special envoy to preside over the liturgical celebrations to be held on 25 and 26 July 2025 at the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-d’Auray, diocese of Vannes, France….1) 

A ceremonial position, yes – but a mark of a certain favor. Much more important, however, was this announcement on May 22:

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Sister Tiziana Merletti, former Superior General of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, as Secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. 2) 

There she joins Sister Simona Brambilla in the leadership of the dicastery. I think that at the very minimum this appointment is a vote for the status quo. Let us remember that the “status quo” in this dicastery means that conservative or traditionalist orders (from the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate to the FSSP)are subject to visitations or even takeovers while the progressive and mainstream religious orders and institutes continue on their disastrous downward course in numbers and activities without the slightest interference from Rome. In that regard, I note that, as of 2023, Sister Merletti’s order (which she led 2004-2013) has a total of 106 members. I cannot find information on prior years. 3) The (at least nominal) prefect of the Dicastery, Sr. Simona Brambilla, led her order,  the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata, between 2011 and 2023.  In 2008 they numbered 762 in 128 centers, in 2022, they had 532 members in 73 centers. 4)

As to Traditionalism, we must start our review with the “interregnum” – with the critical illness of Pope Francis. Since then, we have received news of new traditionalist apostolates and initiatives. At least one prelate has made a public statement in favor of at least toning down Traditionis Custodes. The Pentecost pilgrimage to Chartres  has achieved yet another record in participation – subscription is now closed except for children. 

However, all these favorable signs have been offset by other official, specific measures of the Catholic hierarchy and the Vatican:

The drastic restrictions imposed on the celebration of the TLM in the Detroit Archdiocese( announced 4/16/2025);

The expulsion of the institute of Christ the King from Oakland(effective 4/20/2025);

The procedural roadblocks imposed on the Chartres pilgrimage ( issued 5/6/2025, only weeks before the pilgrimage is scheduled to begin);

The expulsion of the FSSP from Valence in France(announced 5/15/2025);

The restrictions on (almost the abolition of) the TLM in the Charlotte diocese( announced 5/23/2025; effective 7/8/2025).

Now Cardinal Roche explicitly participated in drafting the measures against the Chartres pilgrimage; I would be very surprised if other actions listed above (particularly those in Detroit and Charlotte)did not involve at least the relevant nuncio and perhaps the Vatican as well. 

The form of these decrees is as important as the substance. The message is conveyed in curt, authoritarian, bureaucratic language. The texts,  when they do refer to the traditionalists, seems to me to be outright sarcastic or contemptuous. The nebulous, verbose, emotional passages often found in official Catholic documents are not to be found here. Likewise, there is no “dialogue,”  ”accompaniment,” “tenderness,” or “mercy.” These allegedly sacrosanct principles fall by the wayside when dealing when someone perceived as an actual enemy. 

The earlier actions seem to me like opportunistic moves on the part of the establishment to take advantage of the last days of the rule of Francis or to create a fait accompli in advance of whatever new regime might come. The later actions, after the election of Leo – particularly that in Charlotte – seem more like a demonstration of strength, even a challenge, to the new pope. For I think those in the Vatican and locally involved in such decisions expect that the pope will take no action against them. 

For even assuming Pope Leo disagrees in part or totally with the anti-traditionalist campaign of Francis (which is not at all clear!) these actions put him in a difficult spot. For if it is his intent to disengage from the Bergoglian course,  I would assume he would want to do so only gradually. Now, however, he will have to overrule bishops or one of his own officials in the earliest days of his papacy. This would bring down on his head the wrath of the dominant progressive forces in the Church and the secular media which stand behind them. But by doing nothing on these matters he will be giving the progressives carte blanche to do whatever they want. Their agenda, let us remember, is by no means limited to exterminating traditionalism. There is the unfinished grand project of the synodal path in Germany and elsewhere (married priests, women priests and elimination of the remaining restraints of Catholic sexual morality). A less obvious conflict between progressives (and the Vatican) and Opus Dei continues in Spain and elsewhere. Bishops in the United States and Italy call for the abolition of kneeling when receiving communion – repudiating a decades-old compromise.

So, for the time being at least, the Church’s war of annihilation against traditionalism – and really against the totality of its own heritage – continues. Whether this conflict can be sustained long-term is another matter. Will the acolytes of Francis be able to persevere in the war against the traditionalists, absent the fanatic will of their late master? Financial and personnel realities will likely soon catch up with the Vatican and the local churches. I can’t exclude the possibility that even more unsavory details of Francis and his entourage will emerge, putting the establishment under pressure.  Whatever may happen, it is regrettably unlikely that peace will return to the Catholic Church anytime soon. 

1. Resignations and Appointments, 24.05.2025, Press.Vatican.va.
2. Vatican News, 5/22/2025’
3. “Franciscan Sisters of the Poor,” Catholic-Hierarchy.org.
4. “Suore Missionarie della Consolata,” Catholic Hierachy.org; “Suore Missionarie della Consolata, it.wikipedia.org.

This coming Thursday, May 29 is the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, a holy day of obligation. The following churches will offer Traditional Masses. If you know of a Mass that is not on our schedule, please let us know so that we can add it.

Connecticut

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, 8 am Low Mass; 7 pm High Mass

Georgetown Oratory of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Redding, 6 pm Missa Cantata. There will also be a Missa Cantata for the Vigil of the Ascension at 6 pm on Wednesday, followed by chanted Vespers.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius Oratory, Bridgeport, 7:45 am Low Mass; 6 pm High Mass

St. Patrick Oratory, Waterbury, Low Mass 8 am; HIgh Mass 6 pm, preceded by Benediction

St. Martha Church, Enfield, 7 pm

New York

Holy Innocents Church, Manhattan, 8 am, 6 pm

Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Manhattan, 7am and 7:45am Low Masses, 9:30 to 12 Noon Eucharistic Adoration, 6:00 PM Confessions, 7:00 PM Missa Cantata 

St. Josaphat Church, Queens, Missa Cantata 7 pm

St. Rocco Church, Glenn Cove, Long Island, Missa Cantata 7pm

St. Matthew Church, Dix Hills, Long Island, 10:30 am

St. Paul the Apostle, Yonkers, 12 noon.

Annunciation Church, Crestwood, 7 pm Missa Cantata

Immaculate Conception, Sleepy Hollow, Low Mass, 7 pm

Sacred Heart, Esopus, 11:30 am

St. Mary and St. Andrew, Ellenville, 7 pm

Holy Trinity, Poughkeepsie, 7 pm

New Jersey

Our Lady of Sorrows, Jersey City, 7 pm Missa Cantata

Our Lady of Fatima, Pequannock, 7 am, 9 am, 12 noon, 7 pm

St Anthony of Padua, West Orange, 9 am Low Mass; 7 pm High Mass

Corpus Christi Church, South River, Missa Cantata, 7 pm

Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, Raritan, 7 pm

St. John the Baptist, Allentown, 7 pm Solemn Mass

We have a new pope in Leo XIV. What can traditionalists expect from his papacy? The first impressions have been favorable. The new pope’s choice of name, his vestments, his demeanor, and several early addresses have found favor among traditionalists. These matters of form all indicate a break with the culture of his predecessor.

On the other hand, Pope Leo is reliably described as a candidate of the circle of Pope Francis, promoted by them when, for one reason or another, the “Bergoglian” papal candidates with the greatest media support could not advance. It was then that Prevost’s name moved to the front of the list. Indeed, Leo seems to be in several respects a compromise candidate. We see this reflected in the fact that representatives of contradictory factions in Catholicism are vying to claim him as their own. Moreover,  there still remains a dearth of information on what his real views are. 

Some conservatives and traditionalists remain disappointed because a pope explicitly friendly to traditionalism and orthodoxy was not elected. However, is it surprising that the new pope would emerge from the “Bergoglian” camp, given that the vast majority of the Cardinals were appointed by Francis?  And after Francis had de facto eliminated the college of cardinals as some kind of cohesive, deliberative body? As we shall see, however,  the prior history of a new pope, as well as the expectations of those who achieved his election, are by no means determinative of what his actual papacy will be like.  

Let me set forth some historical parallels to illustrate these points. Now I recognize it is a perilous thing to draw on historical precedents to understand the present. In this very year there appeared in the pages of Commonweal magazine a fatuous comparison, intended to be insulting, of the Catholic traditionalist movement to the Jansenists of the 17th century. (I myself thought traditionalists should be flattered by this comparison, especially since under Francis there was talk of canonizing Blaise Pascal.) Yet, if used cautiously in a general, non-pedantic way,  the past does offer real insights into the current age and, if we recognize this culture to be problematic, examples of how to get out of it.

I would analogize the “Conciliar” era, commencing in 1958, to three other great periods of crisis, decadence and collapse which enveloped the papacy and much of the rest of the Church as well: 

First,  the Pornocracy or Saeculum Obscurum, which lasted roughly from 880 to 1040. 

Second,  the Renaissance papacy between 1470 and 1534. 

Third, the late 18th century crisis between 1758 and 1800, culminating in the French Revolution.

Characteristic of each of these periods of decline is an almost exclusive focus of the papacy on a limited range of secular political issues. The popes withdraw from the great religious concerns of the Church that had previously governed their actions. The growing lack of awareness of spiritual issues goes hand in hand with the institutionalization of an all-engulfing fantasy world into which the leadership of the Church retreats.

In such ages we see the gradual acceptance as normal of what once had been considered unimaginable, perverted or even criminal. For example, in 882 the first pope was assassinated – in the following hundred years it became a fairly regular event.  After 1470, the popes and higher clergy routinely promoted and extravagantly enriched their nephews – and soon their sons and daughters as well – at the expense of the Church. In 1773 the Jesuit order was disowned and suppressed by its principal patron and beneficiary, the pope himself. In our own day, we have seen a never-ending series of financial scandals at the Vatican, a sexual abuse crisis continuing to rock the Church,  the trial, deposition, and laicization of Cardinals,  and papal promotion of change in what had been considered immutable rules of Catholic morality.

This indifference to scandal is not confined to the papacy.  The Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, discussing the disreputable conduct of Pope John XII (955-964) – who was at most 20 years old – is said to have philosophically remarked “he’s only a young pope.”  Leo X (1513-1522), under whom the Protestant Reformation got underway, was lauded by the humanist writers – the equivalent of today’s media.  If we look at our own day, the official Catholic Church – the Vatican, the mainstream religious orders, the hierarchy, the educational and media apparatus, and a great part of the laity – does not acknowledge that there’s anything amiss in the Church – at least nothing attributable to the Pope, the clergy or Vatican II.  

Now, in each of these cases, the papacy was completely immersed in the decadence and indeed led the way downward. And at no time did change for the better happen because a newly elected pope suddenly came to his senses, recognized the perilous situation and then systematically confronted the issues. Rather, the beginnings of recovery first required either outside political intervention (impossible today) or total disasters for the Church like the French Revolution. For it’s exceedingly difficult for the papacy to work its way out of bad situations all by its own,  because all the likely candidates for the papacy are themselves participants in the crisis. 

What can happen, however, is popes or bishops have a surprising change of heart, and members of the establishment begin a gradual and tentative transformation of a corrupt culture. A famous example is the election in 1534 of Alessandro Farnese as Pope Paul III. Pope Paul’s predecessor, Clement VII, when faced with the Protestant Reformation, the separation of England from the Catholic Church,  Turkish advances and local political disasters, such as the sack of Rome,  had no response other than to continue the Renaissance papacy’s focus on secular political maneuvering. His successor, Alessandro Farnese, embodied the best and worst features of the college of cardinals of that period:  an extravagant patron of the arts,  the proprietor of the most splendid palace in Rome, a skilled political leader – and the father of a number of children. Moreover, his rise to such prominence was in large part attributable to the status of his sister Giulia as mistress of Pope Alexander VI. He would seem to have been an unlikely candidate for a reformer. Indeed, Pope Paul III continued some of the worst abuses of the past (extreme nepotism, a focus on secular politics).  Yet this man, definitely not a saint,  also launched the Catholic Reformation – patronizing new orders, promoting spiritually minded clerics and calling the Council of Trent. By the death of Paul III in 1549, the Catholic Reformation was well underway. In the next decades setbacks and regressions occurred, but by 1564 changes for the better had become irreversible. Going forward, the Church, now under the leadership of the reformed papacy,  was able to hold fast against her enemies and create the baroque Catholic culture that flourished all over Europe. 

Of course, by that date, one third of Europe had been permanently lost to the faith.

I am in not at all suggesting that Leo XIV resembles in character Paul III!  However, the Farnese pope’s story does illustrate that the prior conduct and utterances of a cardinal are not necessarily an indicator of what he does as pope. And that, amid an age of decadence, often the most that one can hope for from a conclave is a pope who perceives at least in part the need for change and begins to initiate it – even if the reversal of culture is not total or complete. 

The indications Leo XIV has given us so far have been favorable. It is far too early to adopt an air of optimism, but let’s not be caught up in deterministic scenarios of disaster either.   We will learn about Leo XIV not so much by what he says but from the issues he addresses (or does not address), from the men he promotes (or leaves in place). We already have a welcome sign in the reduction of the responsibilities of archbishop Paglia. And it is likely that the Bergoglian and progressive forces will try to force the pope’s hand early on. Consider the insulting and restrictive actions just taken by Cardinal Roche and the French bishops against the Chartres pilgrimage ( measures decided before the election of Leo).  It is only from how Leo handles such sensitive matters that we will be able to gauge better the true meaning of his papacy. 

There will be a Sung Requiem Mass (Missa Cantata)for Pope Francis on Tuesday, May 20 at 6 PM at the Georgetown Oratory in Redding, CT.   Come join in prayer on the 30th Day of the passing of Pope Francis.  

Other upcoming Traditional Masses at the Oratory:

Thursday, May 29, 6 pm: Ascension Thursday

Saturday, May 31, 8:30 am, Queenship of Mary

Friday, June 6, First Friday, 8:30 am Mass; 9 am-8 pm Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; 7:50 pm Litany of the Most Sacred Heart and Benediction.

The Oratory also offers a weekly Sunday Traditional Mass at 12 noon and a weekly Traditional Mass on Wednesdays at 6 pm.

The Georgetown Oratory now sends out a Flocknote by email, listing upcoming Masses and events. If you would like to receive the Flocknote please message Fr. Novajosky at frnovajosky@diobpt.org.

At St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT:

On May 19 at 1:25pm in the Lower Chapel, Regina Pacis Academy is excited to host a special talk on the Shroud of Turin for our middle school students and invite all families and friends to join us!

The presentation, by Shroud expert, Patrick Riley, is entitled “The Shroud of Turin: Medieval Forgery or the Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ?” The Shroud of Turin is a relic, an 8-foot strip of linen with the imprint of a man’s body on it, is said to be the cloth Jesus’s burial garment. It is not a painting, nor made with any type of pigment. The image is burned into the fabric itself, creating a photographic negative.

Attendees to the talk will also get to see life-sized replicas of the Shroud. All are welcome to attend. Please feel free to share the flyer below.

To RSVP, please contact office@reginapacisacademy.org