Tridentine Community News

Tridentine Community News (April 25, 2010):

Congratulations Fr. Patrick Beneteau

Many readers of the column have known Patrick Beneteau for a long time. As a young man at St. Joseph Parish in River Canard, west of Windsor, Patrick sensed an attraction to the priesthood, in part because of the artistic beauty of the historic church. As he studied at London’s St. Peter Seminary, Patrick grew in appreciation for traditional liturgy, and has become a familiar sight at Assumption Church. Like Pope Benedict XVI, Fr. Beneteau sees merit in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Mass, which is in fact the logical view of a priest in today’s Church. His bilingual skills will make him an asset to the Diocese of London, which has several parishes where Holy Mass is celebrated in both French and English.

As of the date of writing this column, (transitional) Deacon Patrick was scheduled to be ordained to the holy priesthood by Diocese of London Bishop Ronald Fabbro on Saturday, April 24 at 11:00 AM.

Fr. Beneteau will celebrate his first Holy Mass according to the Ordinary Form today, Sunday, April 25 at 3:00 PM at his home parish of St. Joseph – River Canard. Portions of the music for this Mass will be provided by the Tridentine Mass Choir from Windsor’s Assumption Church, under the direction of Wassim Sarweh.

Fr. Beneteau will celebrate his first Extraordinary Form Mass this coming Thursday, April 29 at 7:00 PM at Windsor’s St. Theresa Church. It will be a sung Mass (Missa Cantata), with music again under the direction of Mr. Sarweh. A reception will follow the Mass in the downstairs Social Hall.

On Sunday, May 9, Fr. Beneteau will celebrate his first Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form at 2:00 PM at Assumption Church in Windsor. Deacon Richard Bloomfield will be deacon for the Mass, and Fr. Peter Hrytsyk will serve as subdeacon. A reception will follow this Mass as well in the basement Social Hall. All are invited to these three special Masses.

We hope and pray that Fr. Beneteau will become an even more familiar face to the Latin Mass communities in Windsor and Detroit in the coming months and years.

New Pastor Appointed for St. Josaphat Cluster

St. Josaphat and St. Joseph parishioners owe a debt of gratitude to Archbishop Allen Vigneron. His Excellency has appointed one of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s best-known advocates of the Extraordinary Form Mass, Fr. Paul Czarnota, as the new pastor of the St. Josaphat – St. Joseph – Sweetest Heart of Mary cluster. In fact, this column wrote about Fr. Czarnota on April 27, 2008. As many of our readers on both sides of the border know, a high standard of administrative skill as well as support of the Tridentine Mass was set by previous pastor Fr. Mark Borkowski; these are big shoes to fill. As it turns out, it is hard to imagine a better choice that could have been made.

Fr. Czarnota is presently the pastor of a cluster of three churches near Port Huron, Michigan: Sacred Heart Church in Yale, Sacred Heart Mission in Brown City, and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Emmett. This experience, plus his prior background as an attorney, will surely help him with the administrative challenges of running our three historic parishes.

Since his ordination in 2003, Fr. Czarnota has quietly advanced the traditional liturgy, helping out the Flint Tridentine Community at All Saints Church and initiating a weekly Extraordinary Form Mass in his present cluster at Sacred Heart – Yale. A quick peek at his parish bulletins posted on-line indicates that he recently saved, relocated, and restored an historic altar from the closed St. Helena Church in Wyandotte, thus historic church preservation matters are not unknown to him.
Fr. Czarnota’s assignment to the cluster begins on July 1, a short two weeks before the Latin Liturgy Association National Convention. He deserves our prayers in anticipation of his arrival.

Pope Benedict Celebrates Mass Ad Oriéntem Again

On Thursday, April 15, our Holy Father celebrated Mass ad oriéntem according to the Ordinary Form in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace in Rome. As our readers may recall, His Holiness celebrates an annual Mass ad oriéntem in the Sistine Chapel as well. The Pauline Chapel was recently restored, so it is doubly significant that Holy Mass was celebrated in this manner at a “new” altar.

While some of us would like to see tighter legislation on the liturgy, a picture is worth a thousand words and has its own persuasiveness. If you want to advocate the ad oriéntem posture to a priest or parishioners, you now have a variety of photos of the fine example Pope Benedict is setting for others to follow.

So You Think You Have It Tough?

Think you’ve had a rough week? Consider the following: The organizers of yesterday’s Pontifical Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC had to scramble to find another celebrant this past Wednesday. Though they had been planning this Mass for three years, prudence dictated that in light of a threatened protest, Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos not be celebrant as originally scheduled. As of this writing, another bishop had not yet been found to substitute.
With an EWTN broadcast scheduled and a packed church expected, there was no time to waste. A bishop celebrant was promised and expected. Travel plans had been made for a variety of sacred ministers required solely for a Pontifical Mass. Bishops from Europe were not likely to be an option, in light of the sold-out flights expected post-volcano. How many bishops in North America know how to celebrate a Pontifical Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form? Bruskewitz, Perry, and…? Can they clear their schedules at a few days’ notice? The mind reels at the pressure these volunteers were under. They have our prayers.

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for April 25, 2010. Hat tip to A.B.]