Tridentine Community News - Young Carmelites Nuns Move to Philadelphia; FSSP Given Baltimore’s St. Alphonsus Church; FSSP Requiem CD Becomes Classical Best-Seller; FSSP Apostolate Growth; Welcome Old St. Mary’s Readers; Local TLM schedule

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (September 3, 2017):

September 3, 2017 – Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Young Carmelites Nuns Move to Philadelphia

One of the biggest women’s religious vocations success stories in modern times revolves around the Carmelite nuns of Valparaiso, Nebraska, near Lincoln. This monastery of cloistered nuns has attracted so many vocations that it has spawned a daughter convent in Oakland, California. What is its secret? A full embrace of the traditional Latin liturgical life. Their enthusiasm is catching: the chaplain of the Valparaiso monastery – a priest who celebrates exclusively the Extraordinary Form for them – is the Vicar General of the Lincoln diocese, a diocesan priest, not a priest from the nearby seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), as one might expect.

A reader brought to our attention that this same convent has come to the rescue of a Carmelite convent in Philadelphia that was suffering from lack of vocations. Six young nuns from Valparaiso, along with four nuns from the Carmelite monastery in Elysburg, Pennsylvania, have relocated to the Philadelphia convent, and Archbishop Charles Chaput has appointed them a full-time chaplain from the FSSP, a likely recipe for continued growth.

FSSP Given Baltimore’s St. Alphonsus Church


The Fraternity of St. Peter has been in the news recently for other reasons. Most notably, one of North America’s most important and ornate historic churches has been been assigned to their care, the National Shrine of St. Alphonsus Liguori in Baltimore, Maryland. St. Alphonsus has hosted the Tridentine Mass since 1992 and is known for being perhaps the only church in North America to have been pastored by one saint, St. John Neumann, and one blessed, Bl. Francis Seelos, C.SS.R. The parish will continue to offer Sunday Ordinary Form Masses in English and Lithuanian as well as the EF, but daily Masses will all be Tridentine. More information is on the parish web site: www.stalphonsusbalt.org. [Photo by Neal J. Conway]

FSSP Requiem CD Becomes Classical Best-Seller

It has been a few years since we last heard of a Gregorian Chant CD topping the charts, but it has happened once again: The Fraternity of St. Peter’s recently-issued Requiem CD has reached the top of the classical music sales charts. This recording of FSSP priests chanting the Traditional Requiem Mass was produced by AimHigher Recordings/De Montfort Music, an organization with ties to Sony Classical Recordings and thus able to draw upon powerful marketing resources. De Montfort has also produced recordings of some of the other leading Catholic Latin choral groups, including Boston’s St. Paul Choir School, the London Oratory Junior Choir, the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles, and the Monks of Norcia. More information and ordering details are available at: https://fssp.com/requiem-the-fraternity/

FSSP Apostolate Growth


The Fraternity continues to top the charts in another way: growth in number of apostolates. The August, 2017 edition of the FSSP’s Meménto newsletter included the above graph depicting their continued steady climb, now with 47 “parish-type apostolates” in North America, in only their 25th year of operation here.

Welcome Old St. Mary’s Readers

We extend a special welcome to the new readers of the Tridentine Community News at its newest distribution site, Old St. Mary’s Church. The Tridentine News is also distributed at the St. Benedict Tridentine Community Masses at St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches in Windsor, at the Oakland County Latin Mass Association Masses at the Academy of the Sacred Heart Chapel in Bloomfield Hills, and at the Tridentine Masses held occasionally at St. Hyacinth and Holy Redeemer Churches. It is also available from the ushers at St. Joseph Oratory and on-line at www.windsorlatinmass.org.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Mon. 09/04 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Feria)

Tue. 09/05 7:00 PM: High Requiem Mass at Holy Name of Mary, Windsor (Daily Mass for the Dead)

Sat. 09/09 8:30 AM: Low Mass at Miles Christi (St. Peter Claver, Confessor)

Sun. 09/10: No Mass at OCLMA/Academy of the Sacred Heart

Sun. 09/10 12:30 PM: High Mass at Old St. Patrick, Ann Arbor (Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost) – First Tridentine Mass of recently ordained Fr. Joe Campbell

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for September 3, 2017. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]