Courtesy of Regina magazine.

http://reginamag.com/update-latin-mass-america-today/

http://reginamag.com/can-make-can-make-anywhere/

On Saturday, October 19, our Society will sponsor its second annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Frances Cabrini in Washington Heights, New York. A Solemn High 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 under the direction of David Hughes will provide the music.

This year we return once more to the shrine of St. Frances Cabrini, to implore her intercession in these troubled times. She is a great saint of the Italian people – but also the first saint who was an American citizen. She is a great patron of immigrants for whom she labored for so many years. And she is one of the Saints and Blessed of this city – where she first arrived in the United States and where her body now rests. But most of all, we supporters of the Traditional mass have special reason to ask her assistance as we enter an uncertain era. Times such as ours make us aware – if we had ever forgotten it – of the need of absolute trust in God’s providence and the intercession of the saints. I would hope that as many of you as possible can make it to the shrine on this Saturday!

Bus transportation from Norwalk, CT:  For those of you who will be travelling from Connecticut,  there will be a bus leaving from St. Mary Church, Norwalk at 8:00 am and returning at 2:00 pm.  The cost is $25.  Bring a bag lunch; the bus group will be eating lunch at the shrine.  To take the bus, you must reserve ahead of time by calling St. Mary’s rectory at 203-866-5546.

First View.

For more details.

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, Solemn Mass, 9:30 am
Music:
At the procession: Michael et Angeli ejus (Benedictine processional chant for Michaelmas)
Missa L’homme armé sexti toni (Josquin des Prez, c.1450-1521)
Gregorian Mass of Michaelmas: Benedicite Dominum
Motet at the Offertory: Concussum est mare (Jacobus Clemens non Papa, c.1510-1556)
Motet at the Communion: Tibi Christe, splendor Patris (Orlando di Lasso, c.1532-1594)
At the retiring procession: Christe sanctorum decus Angelorum (Paris Antiphoner, 1681).

St. Stanislaus Church,, New Haven, CT, Missa Cantata, 2 pm

Immaculate Conception Church, Sleepy Hollow, NY, Missa Cantata, 3 pm

UPDATE: Traffic alert for Immaculate Conception Church. Nice weather, lots of tourists on Rt 9 but parking is always available on the street, across the street at the Sleepy Hollow High School and in Patriot Park. Come early and join us for the 2:30PM rosary and confessions (From Ann Whelan)

There will be a 9 a.m. Extraordinary Form Mass at St. Sebastian in Middletown on Friday October 4th.

From the parish website: “We are happy to welcome you to this wonderful community with a beautiful baroque church, the only one in Connecticut.”

UPDATE: This mass will be continued for  all subsequent First Fridays (Courtesy of Fr. James Thaikoottathil, pastor)

A Traditional High Mass is celebrated every Sunday at 7:30 AM at St. Peter’s in Hartford. It is sung entirely in chant. The propers, including graduals, tracts, and alleluias, are sung in the full gregorian chant and are never abbreviated.

(A picture of the blue velvet covered table at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This was the traditional blessing of first fruits, herbs and flowers for the feast of the Assumption.)

Two upcoming items of interest:

First, on Wednesday evenings at 6 PM during the month of October there will be a candlelight rosary procession through the streets of Hartford, lasting about 30 minutes. The Fatima Ave will be sung between the decades as well as the Gloria Patris. The simple Salve Regina will also be sung at the end. The candlelight procession will begin and end at the grotto shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the parking lot behind the church. A gregorian chant class of one hour will follow the procession for those interested.

Second, there will be a Requiem high mass on All Souls Day at 2pm with absolution at the catafalque.

( Courtesy of Stanley Swetz )

All Masses are Traditional Latin Masses unless otherwise indicated.

(The crown of the Austrian Empire)

(Mourning figure from the Habsburg crypt, Vienna. Charles, however, is not buried there but where he died in exile, Madeira)

On the Chartres Pilgrimage, 2012. The French point out: Charles of Habsburg-Lorraine)

On the Interview.

I don’t think any of our readers can have missed the Bishop of Rome’s interview of last week – the making and publication of which was elaborately coordinated with his Jesuit friends. That in and of itself was important news. Obviously the statements of Pope Francis regarding “life issues” and sexual morality made the biggest immediate impact. For the entire prolife movement – insofar as it is Catholic – was at once thrown into crisis. It was amusing to see conservative Catholic paladins – for example, Donohue, Lawler and “Father Z” – attempting to prove that Pope Francis didn’t say what he did.

We of course are more interested in his “views” on the Traditional liturgy:

“Vatican II was a re-reading of the Gospel in light of contemporary culture,” says the pope. “Vatican II produced a renewal movement that simply comes from the same Gospel. Its fruits are enormous. Just recall the liturgy. The work of liturgical reform has been a service to the people as a re-reading of the Gospel from a concrete historical situation. Yes, there are hermeneutics of continuity and discontinuity, but one thing is clear: the dynamic of reading the Gospel, actualizing its message for today—which was typical of Vatican II—is absolutely irreversible. Then there are particular issues, like the liturgy according to the Vetus Ordo. I think the decision of Pope Benedict [his decision of July 7, 2007, to allow a wider use of the Tridentine Mass] was prudent and motivated by the desire to help people whohave this sensitivity. What is worrying, though, is the risk of the ideologization of the Vetus Ordo, its exploitation.”

Note that the above statements are in response to a general question about Vatican II. Francis obviously views liturgical reform as its most significant legacy. The Bishop of Rome sees absolutely no liturgical problems arising from the Council. Rather, its effects – again, especially in the liturgy – are entirely beneficial. Thus, the positions of either the “reform of the reform” or Traditionalist perspectives are summarily dismissed. Now this is not all different from the liturgical views of John Paul II at least as described by George Weigel.

Pope Francis does not reject Summorum Pontificum. Rather, he redefines it as an indult (or in the words of a certain pastor in New York City, a “privilege”). It is a measure of “prudence” to “help” people who have “sensitivity” (for the old liturgy). So we – the followers of the old liturgy – are defective in some way that requires special assistance. But the pope’s patronizing tone quickly becomes threatening; the use of the traditional mass is nevertheless “worrying” because of the risk of “ideologization” ( making comments critical of Vatican II?) It is all a far cry from the previous pontiff’s vision: where of SP was a measure furthering general liturgical renewal and enrichment.

Now, all of this is less startling than statements in this interview on other fronts. For the Bishop of Rome’s position on the traditional liturgy and traditionalists already was abundantly clear from his words and his actions, both as pope and as archbishop of Buenos Aires. And I don’t think his position is all that different from that of the majority of Catholic hierarchs – both today and for the last 45 years. Do Mahoney and Vingt-Trois, Schoenborn and Wuerl teach anything different? Outside of a few rare places, isn’t SP in fact administered as a continuation of the prior indult regime? One final remarkable thing about this interview is what it confirms regarding the personality of the interviewee: no facts and no arguments will shake this pope’s convictions and confidence.

The eighteenth ”Pilgrimage for the Restoration” concluded Sunday at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville. It was a chilly early autumn day in upstate New York – the overcast sky gray and somber.  Only now and then did patches of sunlight provide relief from the prevailing bleakness. This weather must have been challenging for those pilgrims who had made the three-day march.

Compared to its beginnings this pilgrimage has assumed an altogether smaller scale. Back in those earlier days most of the pilgrims – representing a broad spectrum of Catholic life, attached themselves on the final day to a small core group who had completed a lengthy trek through the upstate country. Several thousand people would assemble in the circular pilgrimage church. The ceremony, music and preaching were of a very high order. Whatever the weather, a warm and festive atmosphere prevailed.  That spirit continued after the final liturgy when the pilgrims joined together to picnic on the shrine grounds or in the shrine’s dining hall.

All that has changed. Thanks to a number of recent changes to the day of the week, timing and organization of the pilgrimage, a much reduced  – if more focused  – group now makes up the pilgrimage march. I would guess only 200 – 250 participated. The program of the concluding day of the pilgrimage has also been drastically simplified. There is no longer the initial assembly at the Kateri shrine in Fonda (even though she was recently canonized!). The pilgrimage is no longer concluded by a solemn high mass but by a Missa Cantata (advertised as ”solemn holy mass” in the program). That mass no longer takes place in the great pilgrimage church but in the old 1894 Martyrs shrine – and even there many more could have been squeezed in. Since the pilgrimage now ends on Sunday, there is no longer a final, beautiful and quiet low mass the day after. The homily this year focused on personal and Marian piety in contrast to the former wide-ranging sermons, dealing not just with the piety of the faithful Christian but also with the great issues of the day in the life of the Church and of the country – the social and liturgical dimension of Catholicism.  On September 22 of this year, due in part to the weather, the time of day (late in the afternoon) and the undoubted weariness of the pilgrims a more restrained mood prevailed.  I myself could not stay, but I doubt that given the lateness of the day (the mass concluded after 5:30) and the growing darkness that the announced “agape” of the pilgrims recreated the festive spirit of prior days. Looking at this year’s pilgrimage, an outside observer would get the impression of a small, perhaps exclusive devotional group  – not of a broad movement seeking the restoration of Church and society (as the Pilgrimage’s website still proclaims). Finally, apart from the pilgrimage, even the shrine itself seems to be a little worse for the wear – despite having a new saint.

The concluding mass of the pilgrimage no longer takes place in the huge main church of the shrine but in the 1894 martyr’s chapel (below). Of course the Victorian chapel has immensely greater “character” and appropriateness for the landscape compared to the circa 1930 circular monstrosity. It is, however, open to the elements.

And yet… the landscape surrounding the shrine is as magnificent as ever  – especially under the glowering Autumn sky. The sight of several hundred pilgrims who have undertaken such an arduous journey and have completed it in prayer and good order is heartening. The ceremony of the liturgy, if abbreviated, was complete and dignified. Especially the music was of a very high order ( I do not have the details of the two groups of performers; a group of nuns and novices sang the propers while a second mixed choir sang very impressively settings of the mass, hymns and motets.)

(above) Schola of nuns rehearsing.

(Above and below) A priest of the Institute of Christ, Sovereign King celebrated the mass. (Perhaps a reader can supply his name and that of the preacher of the homily).

A handful gathered in the face of the growing darkness and cold of Autumn – was this year’s pilgrimage perhaps a metaphor for the situation of the Traditionalist movement in the Church today? Has the earlier elan that prevailed even in the reign of John Paul II dissipated? But does not the continuing sacrifice of the few witness to the indestructible hope of restoration – regardless of the prevailing headwinds? Whatever the weather, to speak with Shelley: “if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

UPDATE:

— The celebrant of holy Mass Sunday was First-Chaplain, Canon Andreas Hellmann, of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.
— The priest who gave the sermon was Father James Doran, OMV, who is the Chaplain of the Company of St. René Goupil, an apostolate founded in 1998 to care for the needs of the pilgrims.
— The sisters who comprised one of the choirs Sunday are Franciscans of the Immaculata, from Bedford, Mass.
— The schola that sang polyphonic Sunday is the parish choir of St. Michael the Archangel in Scranton, directed by Mrs. Eileen Marie Hanisch.

(From the Pilgrimage Director, Mr. Greg Lloyd.)