Solemn vespers as celebrated yesterday at the “Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral.” (Fr. Enrique Salvo, Rector). Fr. Armando G. Alejandro, Jr. of the Ordinariate was the officiant. There were some very familiar names among the ministers and servers….

The music was an extraordinary selection of what might have been heard on a Marian feast in Mexico City in the 18th century. Mr. Jared Lamenzo led the schola and orchestra.

Once again last October, the Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum assembled in Rome for its annual pilgrimage to Saint Peter’s Basilica. I want to add a few observations to what has already been reported. Our own photographic record can be found on this site. 1) The number of participants, primarily of the laity, happily continues to increase. Furthermore, a considerable number of clergy participate.  In this respect, it is nothing like the American “National Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage” in Washington on October 8 of this year, where no clergy were present. This year the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage proceeded with relatively few glitches (aside from the unanticipated closure for restoration of the church of Santi Celso and Giuliano in front of which the pilgrims assemble on Saturday before setting out for St Peter’s.) 

As far as I could tell, the serving clerical bureaucracy of the Catholic Church in Rome remained totally absent  – except for one scowling ecclesiastic who stared at the procession as it passed him the street. In this very week, of course, the Synod on Synodality, the face of the official Catholic Church,  was reaching its (preliminary) end. Its recommendations would open the door to a whole world of potential further change.

 Paix Liturgique organized its customary conference prior to the start of the pilgrimage. Despite all the distressing developments,  the atmosphere was positive and enthusiastic, free from polemics and apocalyptic emotions,  Speakers from Spain, the UK and Nigeria told of their encounters with Catholic tradition. Indeed, in the first  two cases their acquaintanceship dates only from the last several years! In contrast,  John Rao,  well known to us here in New York,  took us back to the 1970s and the first stirrings of the traditionalist movement in the United States. Cardinal Gerhard Müller gave a most moving and impressive presentation. In conclusion, Christian Marquant, President of Paix Liturgique, spoke enthusiastically and eloquently of the present dramatic situation of traditionalists in the Church: “They have lost, but we have not yet won.”  Traditionalism remains alive and well, yet it remains the target of continuing official disdain and relentless persecution.

At the Paix Liturgique conference: Cardinal Gerhard Müller (above); Prof. John Rao (below).

As always, the Saturday procession to Saint Peter’s attracts great interest from bystanders  – some of whom even give signs of approval. Like last year, at the direction of Pope Francis,  the final act of the pilgrimage has been limited to a solemn procession to the main altar followed by benediction before the altar of St. Peter’s chair.  The ceremony and music were splendid; Cardinal Müller preached eloquently on the significance of the city of Rome, of the Christianized Greco-Roman culture it exemplifies and of the historic role of Saints Peter and Paul who are buried in this city:

If ancient Rome was the idea of peace among peoples under the rule of law, Christian Rome embodies the hope of universal unity of all peoples in the love of Christ

…

Do not, therefore, build the house of your life upon ideologies devised by men. But upon the rock of personal friendship with Christ in the divine virtues – faith hope and love – so that you may then be able to say with St. Paul: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself for me.” (Gal 2:2))

The concluding service of the pilgrimage – a Solemn Mass for the Feast of Christ the KIng – was held in the FSSP church of Santa Trinità. Its dimensions are grossly inadequate for a congregation of this magnitude – to secure a seat one has to arrive an hour or more earlier. That’s a trial especially for families with young children. Of course, at the same time in Rome other, far larger, churches stand virtually empty. That one of these could be made available to this pilgrimage – as opposed to the Anglicans or Copts –  is, at this moment, perhaps a fantasy under the current papal regime.  Despite the discomfort, the solemn mass, celebrated by bishop Eleganti, was exemplary.

So this year’s Roman pilgrimage makes one very clear statement to traditionalists: you are not alone. An increasing number of individuals and countries are joining this pilgrimage. And the pilgrims’ attitude is not embittered, but relaxed, confident, enthusiastic – and also composed and prayerful. Inspired by this commitment, I am “cautiously optimistic” for the fututre.

1. “Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage, Solemn Procession to St. Peter’s,” The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny (10/31/2024); “Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage in Rome: Solemn Vespers in the Pantheon,” The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny (10/29/2024)

On Saturday October 26, pilgrims to the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Rome processed to St. Peter’s Basilica led by his Excellency Marian Eleganti, bishop emeritus of Chur, Switzerland.

Last weekend for the Feast of Christ the King, Catholics from around the world gathered in Rome for the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to demonstrate their devotion to the Traditional Liturgy of the Church.

On Friday Evening, October 25, Solemn Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary were celebrated in the Pantheon, Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs, in Rome. The celebrant was Bishop Marian Eleganti O.S.B., auxiliary bishop emeritus of Chur, Switzerland.

We recently attended Saturday afternoon mass at the Priory of the Annunciation in Charles Town, West Virginia together with some other pilgrims who had participated in the National Latin Mass Pilgrimage in Washington. This was the (only?) opportunity to attend a traditional mass that afternoon in the greater Washington area. (Charles Town is more than an hour’s drive from Arlington, Virginia, where the pilgrimage commenced.)

Mass was celebrated by a priest of the Augustinian Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem. Since our last visit in 2014, the canons have accomplished remarkable things in restoration of their priory. The sumptuously decorated chancel (sanctuary ) and side altars are reminiscent now of medieval England, now of a Byzantine church. This is Catholic art as it should be: overflowing and superabundant.

(Above) The priory today; (below) in 2014.

Website of the Priory.

On Saturday morning , the National Latin Mass Pilgrimage took place, with a 7-mile procession from St. Thomas More Cathedral, Arlington to St. Matthew Cathedral in Washington DC.

This past Sunday, St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT held its annual Corpus Christi Mass and procession.

Today Regina Pacis Academy, the Catholic classical preK through 8 school in Norwalk, Connecticut celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi with a Solemn Mass, Procession and triple Benediction at the church of St. Mary.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend services several times at the Church of Saint-Eugène, Paris. This is a diocesan parish. Here the Traditional Mass is celebrated and a splendid musical culture is cultivated led by several noteworthy musicians. The Traditional Sunday Mass (the main Mass of the day) was thronged by an overflowing congregation of all ages – a rarity in France! The music, although in a style somewhat unfamilar to me, was of course most impressive. The Novus Ordo is also celebrated but in a manner extremely traditional. Even the parish bulletin grappled fearlessly with major issues of the day.

It was here that the late Nicholas Krasno – a long-standing member of this Society – sang in the schola. Indeed, it was the opportunity, after Summorum Pontificum, to attend and sing in such a church that inspired him to join the Roman Catholic Church. For it was after Summorum Pontificum that a Catholic could, at least in some places, regularly experience the fullness of the traditional liturgy in ceremony and music.

And perhaps for Nicholas Krasno there were additional factors that explained his attachment to this church. For does not Saint-Eugène in several respects resemble Krasno’s former beloved Anglican parish of Saint Mary the Virgin in New York City? Both are 19th century recreations of the style of the high French Gothic. Both used innovative construction methods, the earlier Saint-Eugène was built around an iron framework, while Saint Mary the Virgin was the first steel-framed church.

(St. Mary the Virgin) is in fact the earliest ecclesiastical use of constructional steel – a technique that had been first tried for office buildings in Chicago only 4 years previous. 1)

Both churches feature beautiful windows and decoration. In both the musical culture was fostered:

The musical program of St. Mary’s expressed an unabashed preference for works of the great musicians of the Roman Church: favorite composers included Beethoven,Haydn and Weber, and most of the French romantic school – Gounod, Franck. Faure and Guilmant. 2)

And both were despised by modernist taste – only to experience a reassessment in more recent years.

1. Krasno, Nicholas, A Guide to the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, New York City at 17( 2nd edition revised, New York, 1999). The architects, Napoleon and Pierre Le Brun, were Roman Catholic. For Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile#History.

2. Krasno, op. cit. at 63- 65. Of course, in the Roman Catholic Church these works later fell victim (in the US) to the strictures of Pius X.