Tridentine Community News - How a layman can serve as subdeacon in the EF; Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (November 11, 2018):

November 11, 2018 – Resumed Fifth Sunday After Epiphany

How a Layman Can Serve as Subdeacon in the EF

One of the most frequent questions this writer has heard over the past year has been whether it is permissible for a layman to serve as Subdeacon for a Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Some Latin Mass communities have been using laymen in this capacity; the question is whether this is actually permitted. The answer is yes, under specific circumstances.

It is worth mentioning that the laws governing this matter are not all that easy to find. One really has to be a scholar of Tridentine Mass rubrics to find the answer. The entity governing such matters, the Pontifical Commission Ecclésia Dei in Rome, does a poor job of publicizing its rulings. Ideally they would post their various decisions on a web site, but alas that has not yet happened.

The 2009 edition of Fortescue’s Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described states that originally, the only men who could serve as Subdeacon were those who had been ordained to any of the minor orders and those who had received tonsure, the ceremonial cutting of hair at the commitment to religious life.


Pope Paul VI’s 1972 Apostolic Letter Ministéria Quædam abolished the minor orders (porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte) and eliminated the major order of subdeacon, leaving only deacon and priest. (Note the labeling of steps to the priesthood at Chicago’s Mundelein Seminary Chapel: minor orders on the front sanctuary steps, major orders on the back High Altar steps. [photo by Fr. Bryan Jerabek]) The document replaced them with “ministries”, of which Acolyte is one. The PCED’s ruling clarifies the matter and establishes that the Ordinary Form “installation” (as opposed to ordination) to the ministry of Acolyte is the pertinent modern day equivalent to the former minor orders. Note that the minor orders continue to be provided to members of the religious communities which follow the Extraordinary Form ordination track, including the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and the Institute of Christ the King.

In 1993, the PCED issued Protocol 24/92, a ruling stating the following: “In celebrating the Solemn High Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal it is necessary to follow the rubrics of that missal. In the past the employment of a person who had received the ministry of acolyte acting as subdeacon was tolerated. In that case the acolyte acting as subdeacon did not wear the maniple. Thus usage may continue to be tolerated.”

In response to the PCED’s ruling, a few dioceses began to install laymen as Acolytes. The Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska and the U.S. [Anglican] Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter stand out: both install large numbers of men as Acolytes, the latter specifically to assist at Solemn High Masses.

The challenge nowadays is that many if not most bishops do not understand the PCED’s rulings and have little if any interest in taking what they see as unusual steps to assist Latin Mass communities. Archbishop Allen Vigneron in Detroit and Bishop Earl Boyea in Lansing, Michigan, for example, have not installed any laypeople to the Ministry of Acolyte, despite having been made aware of the PCED’s stance on the matter.

Over the years, a few laymen who serve at metro Detroit and Windsor Tridentine Mass sites have expressed an interest in being installed as Acolytes, in large part because of the difficulty of securing priests and deacons on Sundays. The frequency of Solemn High Masses has in large part been limited by the availability of suitably ordained clergy.


Today we have some good news to report: Over the last few months, one of those laymen, James Murphy, one of our roving altar servers based at Windsor’s St. Benedict Tridentine Community, successfully petitioned Diocese of London, Ontario Bishop Ronald Fabbro to be installed as an Acolyte. His Excellency granted permission for this to take place and delegated the ceremony to his Auxiliary Bishop, Joseph Dabrowski. On Thursday, November 8, 2018 Bishop Dabrowski installed James to the Ministry of Acolyte at the chancery chapel in London.

As a result, James becomes the first layman in metro Detroit and Windsor to be authorized to serve as Subdeacon. As a layman, he will not wear maniple or biretta. Our congratulations to him, especially for patiently and persistently going through the steps Rome has decreed are necessary to undertake this ministry.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Tue. 11/13 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary, Windsor (St. Didacus, Confessor)
• Sat. 11/17 8:30 AM: Low Mass at Miles Christi (St. Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop & Confessor)

[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 November 11, 2018. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

Tridentine Community News - Old St. Mary's and All Souls Day Mass Report; Dom John Tonkin Ordination Report; TLM Mass times

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (November 8, 2015):

November 8, 2015 – Fifth Resumed Sunday After Epiphany

Old St. Mary’s and All Souls Day Mass Report


Two significant and visually compelling events were held recently: On Friday, October 30, the first Tridentine Mass in over 45 years was held at Detroit’s Old St. Mary’s Church. [Fr. Joseph W. Tuskiewicz, the celebrant, and Fr. David Bechill, the decon, were both former students at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.] Located in Greektown, Old St. Mary’s is downtown’s tourist church, well-preserved and known for reverent Ordinary Form liturgies. Around 200 people attended the Mass; more would have come, but parking was in short supply due to other downtown events, and many people returned home. Several parishioners remarked afterwards at the beauty of the liturgy and particularly the music provided by Windsor’s St. Benedict Choir. Old St. Mary’s had a million dollar pipe organ installed several years ago, and it sounded like ... a million bucks. Discussions are currently underway to arrange for future Tridentine Masses at the parish.

On All Souls Day, the Side Altars at Windsor’s St. Alphonsus Church were put to use for Holy Mass for the first time in 45 years. Fr. Danny Santos celebrated his first Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form on the Sacred Heart altar [pictured], under which are the relics of St. Tegulus, a third century Roman martyr.


Dom John Tonkin Ordination Report

On Saturday, October 17, Dom John Tonkin was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood according to the Extraordinary Form for the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem. The ceremony took place at St. James Church in Charles Town, West Virginia. The ordaining prelate was Bishop Athanasius Schneider; diocesan ordinary Bishop Michael Bransfield was in attendance at the throne. A number of Latin Mass luminaries were present, including Master of Ceremonies Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth [founder of the Washington, DC Oratory of St. Philip Neri in formation and head of ICEL, the committee responsible for the new English translation of the Ordinary Form], Deacon Fr. James Bradley of the UK’s Anglican Ordinariate; Abbot Eugene Hayes of California’s St. Michael’s Abbey; and Dominican Fr. Lawrence Lew. A complete set of photos is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/36185987@N03/albums/72157660046529962



Dom John intends to return to our area before too long and celebrate homecoming Mass(es).

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 11/09 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Dedication of the Archbasilica of Our Savior)
• Tue. 11/10 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary (St. Andrew Avellino, Confessor)
• Sun. 11/15 2:00 PM: Solemn High Mass with Deacon and Subdeacon at St. Alphonsus, Windsor (Sixth Resumed Sunday After Pentecost) - Celebrant: Fr. Patrick Beneteau, Director of Vocations and Seminarians for the Diocese of London, Ontario

[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 November 8, 2015. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

Congratulations to newly ordained Fr. Tim Ferguson

We offer our congratulations to Fr. Tim, as well as to all the other new priests of the Diocese of Marquette, Michigan, along with the Archdiocese of Detroit, Lansing, and our many beloved out-of-state brethren. I had wanted to hitch a ride with a colleague up to Marquette myself, but family events conspired to prevent me.

Fr. Tim's case somewhat special to many of us who have come to know and love him over the years, not only the several of us who have had him as a colleague in recent years in Detroit, but those who have known him as a fellow parishioner at St. Josaphat, and as one who frequently helped serve Tridentine Masses in various local venues. But as I have come to realize on Facebook, his "constituency" of friends extends so far beyond these circles that I sometimes wonder if there is a Catholic who doesn't know him!

Fr. Tim's road to the priesthood was a long and somewhat circuitous one; and one of the best accounts of his ordination and summaries of his personality I've seen of late is that just posted by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf ("Fr. Z"), who was in Marquette, MI, for the occasion, as I had hoped to be. Fr. Z includes several good photos, along with a sampling of Fr. Tim's skill as a lyricist (a bit of an inside joke): 

For those of you newcomers here, Fr. Ferguson wrote the now oldie, but cherished “O Come, O Come Liturgical Blue” and many others, including the hit single that prompted legendary urban rapper Zuhlio to come out of retirement, “Lady Tambourine Priest“ [This one's my fave -PP].  Oddly, in that one, he sounds rather like Dylan from back in 1965. And don’t forget “Where Have All The Sisters Gone?”

Fr. Z also included a note sent to him about the photos and Fr. Tim's First Mass that reveals something of the character of the newly ordained priest:

I preached myself – briefly, and rather emotionally, but I think the gratitude got across. A few rubrical blips, but Matthew Hill was a great MC. It’s a lot different practicing and actually offering the Sacrifice. The profundity of it hit me during the offertory – and I think Bishop Doerfler’s line from the ordination homily about looking into the chalice at the time of consecration and seeing ourselves immersed in and reflected in the Blood of Christ is something I will carry with me always.

The "Question" of Lutheran Orders

Rorate Caeli posted a wonderfully provocative article, "The 'Question' of Lutheran Orders" (Rorate Caeli, June 26, 2008) yesterday, which speaks to a heartfelt concern of many of my erstwhile colleagues at Lenoir-Rhyne College in North Carolina and its circle of "Germano-Catholic" Lutherans associated -- either closely or loosely -- with the Center for Theology, its monthly colloquia, and its annual Aquinas-Luther Conference, founded by the late ELCA Bishop Michael C.D. McDaniel. Rorate Caeli's article begins thus:

One of the bugaboos of advanced Catholic ecumenists is the widespread "misperception," as they might put it, that the Council of Trent declared Lutheran orders to be invalid. Their ultimate goal is for the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation to officially declare themselves to be in full communion, without any reordinations of Lutheran ministers by Catholic bishops. They lament that too many Catholics still automatically assume the absence of true holy orders in the Lutheran church. So they are at pains to point out, and in fact correctly, that Trent did not declare Protestant orders to be invalid. It only said that those who were not "rightly" (rite ) ordained and not sent by canonical authority, are not lawful ministers of the Word and sacraments. Notice that the end of the passage does not conclude saying these men are not valid ministers. Rite in this passage does not have to refer to the sacramental validity of an ordination, but can signify its having been conferred in accord with the canons or with the authorization of a legitimate superior. Our modern enthusiasts for the validity of Lutheran orders conclude therefore that the ordinations conferred by early Lutheran leaders were at most illicit, without prejudice to their possible validity.

You really must read the rest of this very good article, as well as the spirited and sometimes quite substantive discussion that follows in the comment box. The position articulated in Rorate Caeli's article comes in for some heated if predictable criticism from some non-Catholics, as well as some solid defense, before those backed into their corners revert to a bit of ad hominem muck-slinging in good, 16th-century Lutheran tradition.