Mass at Immaculate Conception church on September 14 – courtesy of Una Voce Westchester.

From the 2012 Pilgrimage

On Saturday, September 20 at 10 AM, our Society will sponsor a Solemn Mass at the Shrine of St. Frances Cabrini, 701 Fort Washington Avenue, New York. Fr. Richard Cipolla will be the celebrant; Mr. David Hughes will lead the schola. There is a room in which lunch may be taken after mass. For those who have the time, the nearby Cloisters Museum can be visited. It is a unique treasure house of Christian and Catholic art.

To get to the Cabrini shrine by subway take the “A” train to 190th street; the shrine is one or two minutes walk away. There is limited parking near the Shrine; there is more ample parking in Fort Tryon park near the Cloisters.

Last year was indeed eventful for this Society and for the Traditionalist movement in the New York Region. We ourselves were fortunate to be able to sponsor some extraordinarily successful events: masses, vesper liturgies and conferences. Yet elsewhere the celebration of the “extraordinary form” was endangered – or eliminated – at several churches that had “traditionally” welcomed it. At the same time, however, interest in the Traditional liturgy grew and deepened, attracting more and more participation from clergy and laity alike. More Traditional liturgies were celebrated at new locations with full support of the ecclesiastical authorities; indeed, nowadays it is hard keeping track of all positive developments just in our area of coverage! In these times of both promise and uncertainty, let us pray for the intercession of the great saint, Frances Xavier Cabrini. For just as the italian immigrants of her days faced an uncertain and challenging future after the great move to the Americas, so do Catholic Traditionalists see a future of great promise, but also great challenges and opposition. Let us pray that we may share the trust in God that St. Frances Xavier Cabrini possessed and which enabled her to overcome so many obstacles!

The unusual saga of The “Fulton Sheen Center” continues to draw media interest.

NY Times

First Things

Commonweal

There is the unusual fact of the New York Archdiocese entering into the for-profit theatrical business for the first time in 200 years. Some observers question shutting down a charitable institution for the poor and a curious parish as well in order to free up space – renovated at considerable expense – for the new venture. Expenses, incurred in the context of parishes and schools being closed for lack of funds, in support of a venture whose connections with Catholicism appear tenuous, to put it mildly. And then we have the unexplained disappearance from the scene of the original guiding light and executive director of the enterprise, Msgr Hull.

Stay tuned – it looks to be an appropriately theatrical story!

For the first time in decades the Traditional Mass returned to the “upper church” of St. Mary’s parish, Greenwich. (The Traditional Mass had already been recently celebrated in the “lower church” and in 2007-2008 as well – in fact this Society assisted at the latter liturgies). A not insignificant congregation was present Friday evening for a Solemn High Mass commemorating the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary – indeed, one reason for the move upstairs was to accomodate those who had expressed interest. As is evident from the above photograph, the sanctuary of St. Mary’s – a combination of circa-1970 “Conciliar renewal” and “Connecticut Yankee” Calvinism, with the tabernacle safely hidden away from view on the side – is not the most accommodating environment for the Traditional Mass. But yesterday evening the Extraordinary Form nevertheless triumphed. Fr. Cyprian La Pastina, the pastor Of St Mary’s, was the celebrant. The priest serving as Deacon was Fr. Stephen Giulietti from the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette; Diocese of Brooklyn. It would be nice to receive information on the other clergy, ministers and musicians (and music).

(Above: from Our Lady of Pompeii)

On Saturday, September 20, our Society will sponsor its third annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Frances Cabrini in Washington Heights, New York. Mass will be celebrated at 10 AM. The celebrant will be Fr. Richard Cipolla of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, CT. The St. Mary’s Schola Cantorum (the St. Cecilia Society)under the direction of David Hughes will provide the music.

For more on the Shrine see HERE.

Our Society takes its name – a bit presumptuously, I admit, from the abbey of Cluny, in its day the largest church in the West. It was the focal point of a grand spiritual revival in the 11th and 12the centuries centered on the celebration of the liturgy. After the French Revolution almost all of this monumental church was demolished. Now there is a virtual recreation of the abbey:

(In French; there is at times interference in the sound of this clip)

It seems that others, though, have the ambition of recreating Cluny in stone:

New Seminary for the FSSPX

“The architecture, drawing much of its inspiration from great Romanesque churches, provides a structure that is simple and yet austere and stable.”

Thanks to Le Forum Catholique.

(above) Mother Angelica’s Blessed Sacrament Shrine.

An interesting article. See also HERE from Crisis magazine.

(For someone like myself, unfamiliar with EWTN and the Blessed Sacrament Shrine, it seems odd to have what appears to be a beautiful and elaborate rood screen – with the “Vatican II” altar before it. But I don’t mean to be overly critical of some encouraging developments!)

From our own Fairfield County Catholic:

“Fr. John B. Giuliani, a major American artist and priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, will be featured next week in an exhibit at the Gallery of Contemporary Sacred Art in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome.”

Fr. Giuliani was ordained in 1960. “In 1977, with the permission of the Most Rev. Walter, W. Curtis, Second Bishop of Bridgeport, Father Giuliani embarked on a new pursuit, founding the Benedictine Grange, a small monastic community in West Redding, Connecticut.”

Now what is the spirituality of the Benedictine Grange? Fr.Giuliani was certainly no friend of Pope Benedict:

“In the meanwhile the Pope has succeeded in offending the world of Islam, he has reintroduced into the Good Friday Liturgy a prayer identifying the Jewish people as culpable in the death of Jesus, he has insulted the Anglican communion with an invitation to the disaffected to join the Roman Church, and he has demoralized the Catholic community in his divisive attempts to undermine the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council—despite Grafton’s adulatory comment on Benedict’s beautifully performed Mass, as if performance were the intent of liturgical worship!”

“As if performance were the intent of liturgical worship!” – well, we have this recent report on “liturgical worship” at the Grange:

“Tonight, the Barn was pure magic. 

I had the most incredible sense of beauty – the blood red roses in front of the altar so vibrant, 
the music so sublime, the oil so sweet, the love so palpable, the bread and the wine so nourishing; 
this indescribably beauty, in the face of the human reality of betrayal and treachery and suffering; 
this inescapable paradox, placing us directly in the center of the cross, the center where love wins out.
John and Harry and Ed marched out solemnly to “Come, now, let us be on our way…” 
and most people left.
The musicians remained, and began singing one of our very favorite songs, 
one that I already can’t remember, and they just couldn’t stop.
The barn emptied except for about eight of us and the music ministers just kept improvising 
for maybe forty verses or more, each musician offering her or his own gifts; 
Marian on the drum, Greta’s angelic voice, Beth’s fantastic guitar playing.
This most sacred concert went on and on for at least fifteen minutes and it was absolutely sublime. 
The small group of us left in the barn became our own little community, and we were mesmerized.
We then wafted outside in complete silence into the mysterious, mild and gentle evening, misty and wet, 
but not raining. The lights of the property created an incredible old and mystical feeling, 
creating starshapes in the fog throughout the Land of the Grange.
The dark outlines of the trees silhouetted against the mist seemed as warm, embracing friends 
rather than ominous apparitions, and the treefrogs were singing up a storm, reminding us 
that the world was alive and throbbing with the promise of our long-awaited springtime, 
and the fruits of our deepest spiritual longings.
We tiptoed into the cottage to sit awhile in the garden of daffodils, tulips, and candles, 
a place to center ourselves and to remind ourselves to stay awake; awake to the beauty, 
to the suffering, to it all.
This night is always so awesome to me. I cannot take it in; it is too big. 
I can relate to the bread and to the wine, to the beauty, and even to the paradox.
My political self can image the drama and the intrigue and the high state of anxiety 
and arousal about what is to come. I can see it in pieces, but the meaning of the whole thing,
the sacrificial aspect, the enormity of the unfolding of this supreme act of love, still eludes me.
Perhaps it because, as John says, you cannot look fully into the face of a God that is too brilliant, 
too terrible to behold. And yet, this beautiful night brings me as close as I have ever come…”

Now consider that, since 1977, the Grange has continued a tolerated, if not widely publicized, existence within the diocese. (Not widely publicized, that is, if one ignores an adulatory New York Times article) During this entire period, upholders of Catholic morality, supporters of the Traditional mass and organizers of orthodox Catholic Education were anxiously supervised, marginalized and even persecuted. Fortunately, the latter situation is in the course of changing under the new management of the diocese.

What are the works of the master?

There is a long series of “Indian” holy images – here, a Peruvian Joseph and the Christ child(?)

Fr. Guiliani will also paint your pet:

Those wishing to see more works of Fr. Guiliani – or even acquire some for themselves – are directed to HERE.

A “masterpiece” of new Catholic figurative art – the official “iconic image” for the 2015 World Meeting of Families blessed by Archbishop Chaput on September 7. I very much doubt this kind of art will raise the image of the “Conciliar Church” as a patron of art or attract anyone outside the ranks of the true believers (for whom aesthetic concerns are irrelevant anyway). But despite the ineptitude, is there not a weird quality about this painting? Is it because these very sad, immobile and unhappy figures don’t seem to be interacting or even looking at each other? Or is it because the adults, at least, are literal reproductions of some wildly incongruous models? This disconcerting, almost “surrealistic” atmosphere is found in other works by the master, Neilson Carlin – for example, the altarpieces at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse,Wisconsin.

From Holy Innocents Church, Manhattan:

Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014 will be the Feast of Pope St. Pius X. At Holy Innocents, we will have a Sung Mass (Missa cantata) at 6pm.

As a special feature, there will be a reporter from CBS interactive to film the Mass and the sermon. This reporter would like to focus on the two vigils we have had for the persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria. It would be a good thing if as many people as possible attend Mass tomorrow to show how dedicated the community at Holy Innocents is to the traditional Mass and the support our community has shown to the persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria.

Some of the parishioners may also be interviewed, especially if they have attended the prior two vigils we have already had.

If you are able to attend Mass (which you should), please consider wearing the buttons that were made to show solidarity with the persecuted Christians. If you do not have one yet, some will be distributed (for free!) at the entrance of the church tomorrow. The reporter would like to film people wearing the buttons if at all possible.

Please, show your support for and your solidarity with the persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria, as well as with the persecuted ones in NYC.