The Traditional Mass will be celebrated at St. Peter Church, Hartford this Friday at 6:30 pm.  The address of the church is 160 Main St. in Hartford.

There will be a Missa Cantata tomorrow evening, October 7 at 7:30 pm at St. Mary Church, Norwalk, to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

St. Mary will also offer a Solemn Mass on October 10 at 9:30 am in honor of Christopher Columbus.  The Mass willbe followed by an outdoor procession with the Our Lady of Guadalupe statue on West Avenue.   The winner of the annual 8th grade essay contest will then read his or her essay answering, “How did Christopher Columbus’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary inspire him in his missionary efforts?”

 A very complete guide to the application of Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae to the Dominican Rite by Fr. Pius Pietrzyk,  OP:

http://www.op-stjoseph.org/blog/universae_ecclesiae_and_the_dominican_rite

Tomorrow, first Saturday of the month, October 1st,  there will be a traditional Sung Mass at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan at 1PM.
 
The Celebrant of the Mass will be the Rev. Fr. James Miara. The Mass will be the votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
 
The Offertory motet will be “Maria, Mater Gratiæ,” and the Communion motet will be “Inviolata.” At the end, the “Salve Regina” will be sung in the solemn tone.

Vespers on Friday Evening.

“For the whole Church…” This weekend we enjoyed a special opportunity to get to know the extraordinary variety  of the Traditionalist movement across the world. We  in America  encountered leading intellectuals who have become, each in a different capacity, spokesmen for Tradition. For the visitors from Europe, it was a chance to experience the flourishing  life of a post-Summorum Pontificum community in a diocesan parish.  The liturgical aspects of the weekend were also ” extraordinary” in a number of respects. We at the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny seem to be forming our own tradition of scheduling “events”  on days with (a) unfavorable weather and (b) unusually demanding liturgical requirements. For who could forget the Friday Evening Vespers and then the Solemn Mass for Ember Saturday with the chanting of the five lessons from the Old Testament, culminating in the song of the three youths in the fire? Our thanks to the clergy (Fr. Greg Markey, pastor; Deacon Steve Genovese and Fr. Richard Cipolla) and the masters of ceremony and servers of St Marys’ parish,   and also to the schola of the parish under the direction of Mr. David Hughes.  Our thanks also to  women of the parish who labored devotedly for long hours over the weekend to assure the uniformly high quality of the parish hall facilities, the food and the refreshments throughout the conference. 

Fr. Cipolla, in the conference’s first presentation Friday evening, spoke of what is happening at St Mary’s parish as a result of Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae. The profound effects are felt on both the spiritual and physical planes. A major repainting and restoration of the interior of the church, for example, is continuing subsequent to the restoration of the extraordinary form liturgy.

The chanting of the lessons on Ember Saturday.

Flectamus Genua….levate.

Prof. Luc Perrin (left) gave us a whirlwind tour of the history of French Traditionalism, its status and future. His report on the current state of ‘Frenchchurch” is understandably bleak. Objectively speaking, the number of Traditionalists is small and the hostility of the episcopate overwhelming.  But I think that the nation which upheld the cause of Tradition for so many years still has many sprititual gifts to offer to the world.  Dr. Lorenz Jaeger (right) offered a series of philosophical and scriptural reflections on liturgy, faith and modernity.  The liturgy of the morning, in which the readings reached back to the detailed provisons of Leviticus served as an (unintentionally) appropriate background for Dr. Jaeger’s presention.  For the exacting liturgical requirements of the Old Testament and the heavenly liturgy set forth in book of Revelation in the New lead us to a philosophy of the liturgy in which Traditomnalism is a natural consequence.

Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro provided a detailed legal analysis of Universae Ecclesiae and its significance for the Traditonalist movement. First, he situated this document – and Summorum Pontificum as well – in the context of the writings of Pope Benedict- both as cardinal and supreme pontiff – on the liturgy. Then, Monsignor Barreiro demonstrated how the new Instruction confirms the liberating effect of Summorum Pontificum against those who wanted to redefine it as merely another variant of an “indult.”

The conference concluded with a lively dialogue among the speakers and with the audience. I should add that there was opportunity during and after the conference for all of us to get to know each other better. That, after all, was one of the Society’s main aims in organizing this event. In his presentation, Prof. Perrin spoke of the preexisting “networks” in France that enabled the survival of the Traditional liturgy in that country. Going forward, we at the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny hope to facilitate the establishment of such networks in this part of the country through further events as time and resources permit.

There is still time to register for our conference next week at St. Mary Church, Norwalk.

“For the Whole Church: Looking Forward with Summorum Pontificum“
Perspectives on the Traditional Liturgy and Catholic Culture in the wake of the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae and the fourth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum

Sponsored by the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny


Friday, 23 September
Solemn Vespers at 7:30 P.M. — Presentation at 8:30 P.M.
Saturday, 24 September
Solemn Mass at 9:00 A.M. — Presentations at 11:00 A.M., 1:15 P.M., 2:15 P.M.
Registration fee: $20 per person, payable at the conference (includes lunch)
St. Mary Church, 669 West Avenue, Norwalk, CT

Please register ahead.  Send an email to contact@sthughofcluny.org 

Parking available.  Rail access:  South Norwalk MetroNorth Station plus a short cab ride.

Speakers include Fr. Richard Cipolla, D.Phil., parochial vicar of St. Mary Church; Dr. Luc Perrin, Professor at the
Univ. of Strasbourg, France; Dr. Lorenz Jaeger, editor of the FAZ, Germany, and Visiting Lecturer at Stanford
University; and Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro Carámbula, S.T.D., Acting President of Human Life International.

The four years that have elapsed since the effective date of Summorum Pontificum have witnessed an amazing flowering of the Traditional liturgy in this country.  While still encountering many obstacles, the Traditional Liturgy continues to acquire new supporters and new homes – often in what previously were thought to be the most inhospitable places.  And every Catholic must ask: what does  this liturgical ferment mean for the Christian life in the contemporary world?  The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny is organizing this conference to take stock of  these developments and to provide a broader context for what we have experienced. We will hear extraordinary speakers who, each in a very different way, will provide insights on the political, legal and spiritual dimensions of  living Traditional Catholicism today.  We also hope that this will be an opportunity for us to get to know each other better and to lay the foundations for continued fruitful cooperation in the work of restoring Christendom. 

More detailed information

I suspect many of you are following the reports of the meeting in Rome today between Bishop Fellay, the superior of the FSSPX, and Cardinal William Levada. In the meeting,  a document was presented reflecting the theological discussions of the preceding months. It contains a “doctrinal preamble” setting forth some kind of “Statement of Faith” adherence to which is a condition for the regularization of the FSSPX. The text of the “preamble” is secret and has not yet been disclosed (if past experience of the Vatican is any guide, it will be shortly). Furthermore, in the event discussions proceed to the next stage,  the Vatican raised the possibility of  a legal structure similar to  a personal prelature for the FSSPX.   Here is the Vatican announcement  (only in French and Italian) and an interview with Msgr. Fellay.

Obviously I do not know whether agreement can be reached on the basis of the (undisclosed) “preamble.”  Yet there is a very preliminary sense in many quarters that progress has been made, in  that the the Vatican has acknowledged that formulations and aspects of the Vatican Council can be the subject of legitimate discussion. This would seen to be stating the obvious based on the entire history of Catholic theology and historical science. Yet it is  a radical rupture with the demand of  various episcopates and their allies in the Catholic press and the  Internet  that the FSSPX (and by extension everyone) must in an  unqualified manner  “accept the Council”  – which the FSSPX has already said they will not do. Of course, the last thing these forces desire is the regularization of the FSSPX.

The best early commentary is an inteview with Fr. Claude Barthe in Summorum Pontificum Observatus. (only in French). He views today’s developments – wherever they may lead – as part of an unavoidable process of return to Tradition by which the Church is responding to the ever-growing crisis of the Faith. The motivating factor is the real possibility of extinction of the Church – not universally of course, but certainly in the West. In such a situation even the most radical means ( at least from the perspective of the post-Conciliar Church)have to be considered. Pope Benedict, although truly a transitional figure, has the great historical merit of acknowledging the existence of the crisis (unlike his immediate predecessors and most of his brother bishops) and of initiating steps to confront it. Fr. Barthe emphasizes that will inevitably lead at some point (to state the matter most clearly and radically) to a confrontation within the Church between those who believe that to be a Catholic one must accept the divinity of Christ and those who believe that a Catholic can either accept or reject the divinity of Christ.

“For the Whole Church: Looking Forward with Summorum Pontificum“
Perspectives on the Traditional Liturgy and Catholic Culture in the wake of the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae and the fourth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum

Sponsored by the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny


Friday, 23 September
Solemn Vespers at 7:30 P.M. — Presentation at 8:30 P.M.
Saturday, 24 September
Solemn Mass at 9:00 A.M. — Presentations at 11:00 A.M., 1:15 P.M., 2:15 P.M.
Registration fee: $20 per person, payable at the conference (includes lunch)
St. Mary Church, 669 West Avenue, Norwalk, CT

Please register ahead.  Send an email by September 18 to contact@sthughofcluny.org 

Speakers include Fr. Richard Cipolla, D.Phil., parochial vicar of St. Mary Church; Dr. Luc Perrin, Professor at the
Univ. of Strasbourg, France; Dr. Lorenz Jaeger, editor of the FAZ, Germany, and Visiting Lecturer at Stanford
University; and Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro Carámbula, S.T.D., Acting President of Human Life International.

More detailed information

Fr. Richard Cipolla, the chaplain of our Society,  will give an evening of recollection at the Convent of Saint Birgitta in Darien, CT on Tuesday, September 27 from 6-9 PM.  The program will include several meditations, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and time for  Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at this beautiful site at 4 Runkenhage Road, Darien on Long Island Sound.   Invite a friend! All are welcome!

A $15 contribution to the Sisters is requested, payable to Convent of Saint Birgitta.  There is also the option to have dinner at the convent, cooked by the Sisters,  at 5:15.  The cost is $20 extra. 

The Evening of Recollection is limited to 45 people and the dinner is limited to 15 people.  To attend you must  RSVP by Sept 23, contacting  Jacqueline Juhasz :  jacquelinejuh@gmail.com or 203-866-7429.

The Catholic Artists Society cordially invites you to an Evening of Recollection for Women in the Arts and Media, Wednesday, September 28th, 6:45 PM, Feast of St. Wenceslaus.
The program includes Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction, with a meditation offered by a priest of Opus Dei on themes related to the work of the artist and the spiritual life. Refreshments and conversation afterwards.
RSVP by Tuesday, September 27th. Coordinators: Vivian Choi (vivian@vivian-choi.com) and Maui Mier (aldertonhouse@yahoo.com)
Alderton House is located at 117 East 70th Street New York, New York 10021 between Park and Lexington Avenues. By Subway: 6 Train to 68th Street/Hunter College.
For more information, visit catholicartistssociety.posterous.com.