Chicago Church Tour to Break New Ground: First Public Tridentine Mass at St. Mary of the Angels

Tridentine Community News (December 25, 2011):

King of the bus tours Michael Semaan has outdone himself this time. Not only has he put together a riveting two-day tour of ten of Chicago’s most famous historic churches on Thursday and Friday, December 29-30, he has also secured permission for Extraordinary Form Masses to be celebrated in two of them.

One of North America’s best-renowned churches for reverent celebrations of Holy Mass in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms, St. John Cantius Church is known as a source of Latin Mass tutorial materials. The ubiquitous Red Missals were originally designed for this parish. More recently, they published Michel Ozorak’s book of Chant Sheets. Mass [was] celebrated there on Thursday, December 29 at 1:15 PM.

On Friday, December 30 at 10:00 AM, the first public Tridentine Mass in over 40 years [was] celebrated at the stunning St. Mary of the Angels Church, currently administered by priests of Opus Dei [below photo © 2009, Jeremy Atherton]. Originally threatened with demolition, St. Mary enjoyed a renaissance in the 1990s and has been restored to its original opulent appearance.


Both Masses [were] celebrated by Detroit’s own Fr. Titus Kieninger, ORC. Music [was] provided by Detroit’s St. Joseph Cappella. St. Josaphat and Windsor’s Assumption Churches [provided] the altar servers. It [was] a great privilege for our Detroit Latin Mass team to be a part of this memorable event.

[Two tour buses were taken from Metro Detroit. Both Masses were open to the public.]

A Hidden Gem: The Rosary Chapel at Windsor’s Assumption Church

It’s not all that unusual for a parish to have a secondary chapel for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Few parishes, however, have a chapel as distinctive as the historic Rosary Chapel at Assumption Church.


Seating approximately 70 people, the Rosary Chapel is used for Morning Prayer, weekday Mass in the Ordinary Form, and Eucharistic Adoration. Built in 1907 and restored a decade ago, it sports a High Altar, a Communion Rail, magnificent stained glass, and that rarest of features in an historic church, air conditioning. Despite its small size, it contains three confessionals. Though it lacks an organ, its live and reverberant acoustics make an excellent setting for a cappella music. Because of two recent events in the main church, the Tridentine Mass has been held in the Rosary Chapel twice over the past month, a different but inspiring experience. Visitors to Assumption should make a point to stop in to the chapel to see another one of our region’s architectural marvels.

Tridentine Masses This Week

Mon. 12/26 7:00 PM: High Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Stephen, Deacon & Protomartyr)

Tue. 12/27 7:00 PM: High Mass at both Assumption-Windsor and St. Josaphat (St. John, Apostle & Evangelist)

Wed. 12/28 7:00 PM: High Mass at St. Josaphat (Holy Innocents)

[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 December 25, 2011. Hat tip to A.B.]

AOD: Michael Voris not "authorized" to use "Catholic"

Archdiocese of Detroit says Michael Voris and RealCatholicTV.com are not “authorized” to use “Catholic” (WDTPRS, December 23, 2011).

Fr. John Zuhlsdorff writes:

For your opportune knowledge.

This comes from the website of the Archdiocese of Detroit. You can decide for yourselves what you want to do with this information.

Statement regarding Real Catholic TV and its name Issued: Dec. 15, 2011Contact: Joe Kohn, infodesk@aod.org / (313) 237-5943 Print this statement (Español)

The Church encourages the Christian faithful to promote or sustain a variety of apostolic undertakings but, nevertheless, prohibits any such undertaking from claiming the name Catholic without the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority (see canon 216 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law). For some time, the Archdiocese of Detroit has been in communication with Mr. Michael Voris and his media partner at Real Catholic TV regarding their prominent use of the word “Catholic” in identifying and promoting their public activities disseminated from the enterprise’s production facility in Ferndale, Michigan. The Archdiocese has informed Mr. Voris and Real Catholic TV, RealCatholicTV.com, that it does not regard them as being authorized to use the word “Catholic” to identify or promote their public activities. Questions about this matter may be directed to the Archdiocese of Detroit, Department of Communications.

Fr. Z. adds: "You may also like - APNews: "Catholic bloggers aim to purse dissenters"

9 months later, we remember . . .

As always, I continue to be moved not only by the great resiliency of the Japanese people, but by their great courtesy in always remembering to thank those who have showed them kindness. Very moving. Please join me in remembering them in your prayers.

"By now, pay later" gone to seed

Drudge Report ran a banner beginning yesterday, which reads:

"Happy Holidays: USA DEBT NOW $15,123,841,000,000!"

So shop till you drop, eh? He who dies with the most debt wins? Out of sight, out of mind? Does anyone imagine that we shall be able to continue thus indefinitely without eventually running smack into the brick wall of reality?

Congress Banned from Saying 'Merry Christmas'

The Franking Commission has banned House of Representative members from saying "Merry Christmas" in emails or tweets. The Commission statement put Congressmen (yes, that's inclusive for those of you who live in Pelosiland) on notice for possible House ethics violation should they disregard the ban. The statement reads: "Currently, incidental use of the phrase Happy Holidays is permissible, but Merry Christmas is not."

Merry Christmas everyone -- all TWELVE days!

Some Catholics still fast before Christmas

Believe-it-or-not! And it's apparently still the custom in some European countries to fast and have fish on Christmas Eve.

Hobbit trailer

For those of us who loved the cinematic version of Lord of the Rings, it looks like Peter Jackson has done it again! Coming December 2012 ...



[Hat tip to C.B.]

Plantinga against materialistic naturalism

I'm not sure there couldn't be a non-materialistic form of naturalism, but Plantinga's argument against the materialistic variety, presupposed by most proponents of Darwinian Evolutionary Theory, is an interesting one: he argues (as posted yesterday at Philosophia Perennis) that it's incoherent.

The video is misleadingly entitled "Prof Alvin Plantinga on Reasons for God," because he doesn't really give any reasons, let alone argument. I think it's perfectly true, as he often avers, that the theist is within his epistemic rights to believe in God even in the absence of rational arguments, just as we often find ourselves reasonably believing all sorts of things we cannot prove, such as the reliability of our memories, sense experience, self-perception, being awake rather than dreaming, and even such curious things as the falseness of Bertrand Russell's hypothetical proposition that the world popped into existence five minutes ago with all the appearance it has had since then of great antiquity. But it's not a demonstrative argument, as much as it is a reasonable testament to common epistemic experience.



St. Thomas Aquinas himself says in his Summa Theologiae, Q. II, Art. 2, ad 1:

The existence of God and other like truths about God, which can be known by natural reason, are not articles of faith, but are preambles to the articles; for faith presupposes natural knowledge, even as grace presupposes nature, and perfection supposes something that can be perfected. Nevertheless, there is nothing to prevent a man, who cannot grasp a proof, accepting, as a matter of faith, something which in itself is capable of being scientifically known and demonstrated.

Nope, nothing wrong with simply believing in God because one finds himself believing in God; and this needn't be seen as a form of fideism or "blind believe-ism" provided one does not close the door to reasoning about it.

Related:

• Here's a related clip with a more extensive development of Plantinga's argument against materialistic naturalism: "ATHEIST DOGMA™ DEBUNKS ITSELF."
  
  
• See also Plantinga's Evolutionary argument against naturalism (Wikipedia)

Latina reviviscunt!

Charlotte Hays, "Latin Makes a Comeback" (National Catholic Register, December 21, 2011):

While Patrick Owens, a Latin instructor at Wyoming Catholic College, climbed to the summit of East Temple Peak last fall with a group of his students, not a word of English was spoken. The hike was sponsored as part of the college’s Latin-immersion program.

Standing near the summit, Owens recalled, “It suddenly hit me that we were surveying the grandeur of God and speaking Latin.”

This emphasis on Latin at the six-year-old Wyoming Catholic, where students read and discuss classical and Christian authors entirely in Latin, appears to be one indication of an emerging trend: an upswing of interest in Latin among Catholics. But it is far from being the only sign.

Read more>>

21 December – O Oriens and Solstice day

We are all desperately in need of light, the Light of the World.

The Magnificat antiophons used at Vespers of the last seven days of Advent in the Catholic tradition each refer to an attribute of Christ mentioned in Scripture:

• December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
• December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
• December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
• December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
• December 21: O Oriens (O Dayspring)
• December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
• December 23: O Emmanuel (O With Us is God)

These are commonly known as the "O antiphons."

The O antiphon for today is "O Oriens," which is variously translated "O dayspring," "O morning star," or "O dawn of the east." Fr. Zuhlsdorf writes:

LATIN: O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol iustitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis.

ENGLISH: O dawn of the east, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Scripture Reference:

Luke 1:78, 79
Malachi 4:2

Relevant verse of Veni, Veni Emmanuel:

O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer,
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

What is the reasoning behind this O antiphon? Fr. Z observes:

We are all desperately in need of a Savior, a Redeemer who is capable of ransoming from the darkness of our sins and from the blinding and numbing wound of ignorance from which we all suffer. In their terrible Fall, our First Parents inflicted grave wounds in the souls of every person who would live after them, except of course – by an act of singular grace – the Mother of God. Our wills are damaged. Our intellect is clouded. In Christ we have the Truth, the sure foundation of what is lasting. All else, apart from Him fails and fades into dark obscurity. He brings clarity and light back to our souls when we are baptized or when we return to Him through the sacrament of penance.

At Holy Mass of the ancient Church, Christians would face “East”, at least symbolically, so that they could greet the Coming of the Savior, both in the consecration of the bread and wine and in the expectation of the glorious return of the King of Glory. They turned to the rising sun who is Justice Itself, whose light will lay bare the truth of our every word, thought and deed in the Final Day.

This is the Solstice day, for the Northern Hemisphere the day which provides us with the least daylight of the year. From this point onward in the globe’s majestic arc about the sun, we of the north, benefit from increasing warmth and illumination. It is as if God in His Wisdom, provided within the framework of the cosmos object lessons by which we might come to grasp something of His good plan for our salvation.

Let us turn to the LIGHT, repent our evil ways and habits, and grasp onto Christ in His Holy Church, for as we read in Scripture:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.”

SSPX updates

• "Response to Doctrinal Preamble delivered" (Rorate Caeli, December 20, 2011):

  The response of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX) to the Doctrinal Preamble presented by Cardinal Levada on September 14 was officially delivered on December 10. This information was recently made known to the District Superiors of that fraternity.
  
  The Doctrinal Preamble was a "temporary" proposal; the Superior General of the SSPX made known in his interview of late November and in his sermon of December 8 his views on the Preamble.
  
  (Source: Fecit Forum.)

• "Really, Tornielli?..." (Rorate Caeli, December 21, 2011):

  La Stampa's vaticanist Andrea Tornielli writes today that the SSPX response to the Doctrinal Preamble of the Holy See (which we mentioned yesterday) has surprised some in the Vatican:

  A document has now arrived, but it was not what it was expected in the Vatican, because it consists in - the sources explain - "documentation", not a response. In short, Bp. Fellay seems to wish to take his time, postpone the decision, avoiding to speak in one sense or another, or to ask for clarifications and eventual modifications of the text proposed by the Holy See.

  This is what Tornielli's Vatican sources say, and it seems plausible....

4th week of Advent: "ineffable Word"

Today's collect:

Deus, aeterna maiestas, cuius ineffabile Verbum,
Angelo nuntiante, Virgo immaculata suscepit,
et, domus divinitatis effecta, Santi Spiritus luce repletur,
quaesumus, ut nos, eius exemplo,
voluntati tuae humiliter adhaerere valeamus.

Literal version (courtesy of Fr. Z.)

O God, eternal majesty, whose ineffable Word,
received by the Immaculate Virgin as the angel was announcing,
and, having been made the house of divinity, was filled with the light of the Holy Spirit,
we implore, that we, by her example,
may be able to cleave humbly to Your will.

"Last Days of Advent: 20 December – 'ineffable Word'" (WDTPRS, December 20, 2011)

Unbelievable rot in the Dutch Church that led the V-II "Rhine reforms"

"Now we know in great detail just what much of the hierarchy of the Dutch Church - one of the national Churches that led the Universal Church in the run-up to Vatican II and in the implementation of the Conciliar reforms - was up to in the decades following World War II, before the Council, and after it: systematic abuse, cover-up in an almost unbelievable scale, spiritual death," writes Rorate Caeli in "The Church that led the Vatican II "Rhine reforms" was rotten" (December 16, 2011).

Citing reports from the Deetman Commission and Radio Netherlands (12/16/2011), Rorate Caeli summarizes: "This was the Church of 'The Dutch Catechism', the 'Church of the future', the Church that introduced Communion in the hand, wild liturgies, the newly-invented 'Eucharistic prayers' that were not the Canon that the Roman Rite had always known: it was the avant-garde Church that led the Council Fathers to the glorious springtime that would follow."

The Quandary of Personal Parishes – Part 3 of 3 Ghetto or Paradise? Personal Parish Compromises and Their Repercussions

Tridentine Community News (December 18, 2011):

In a number of dioceses, the Personal Parish is one of few, if not the sole location for traditional liturgy. That doesn’t mean it’s liturgical paradise. For every St. Francis de Sales Oratory, St. Louis’ grand, Gothic Personal Parish, there is a Christ the King Church, Sarasota, Florida’s new Personal Parish housed in a small edifice that would disappoint readers of this column who are accustomed to our stunning historic churches (see www.livemass.net). The element of the vertical may be lacking; there might be no bell tower or pipe organ; the sanctuary might be cramped. If the edifice is lacking, its appeal will be limited to some extent. How can a world-class music program be established in a small church with poor acoustics? The same choir that sounds impressive and has gained renown at Windsor’s Assumption Church sounds dead in Flint’s non-reverberant All Saints Church.

Is it better to be the sole occupants of a smaller, compromised Personal Parish church, or the shared occupants of a grand edifice? This writer’s opinion is the latter. Is a thriving Personal Parish in a compromised building better or worse than having the Extraordinary Form spread throughout a diocese, as it is here? Are we striving to create a liturgical paradise for ourselves, or to expose the maximum number of people in a region to the Traditional Liturgy?

To show how widespread the concept is, below we present a list of the Personal Parishes and sole-church-occupant Extraordinary Form Communities in North America of which we are aware:

1. Mater Misericórdiæ, Phoenix, AZ (FSSP)
2. St. Gianna, Tucson, AZ (ICRSP)
3. Holy Family, Vancouver, BC (FSSP)
4. St. Stephen the First Martyr, Sacramento, CA (FSSP)
5. St. Anne, San Diego, CA (FSSP)
6. Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Santa Clara, CA (ICRSP)
7. Immaculate Conception, Colorado Springs, CO (FSSP)
8. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Littleton, CO (FSSP)
9. Christ the King, Sarasota, FL (FSSP)
10. St. Francis de Sales, Mableton, GA (FSSP)
11. St. Joan of Arc, Coeur d’Alene, ID (FSSP)
12. Shrine of Christ the King, Chicago, IL (ICRSP)
13. St. Rose of Lima, Quincy, IL (FSSP)
14. St. Mary, Rockford, IL (ICRSP)
15. St. Philippine Duchesne, Kansas City, KS (FSSP)
16. St. John Vianney, Maple Hill, KS (FSSP)
17. Blessed John XXIII, Lansing, MI (Diocesan, in formation)
18. Ss. Gregory & Augustine, Creve Coeur, MO (Benedictines)
19. Old St. Patrick, Kansas City, MO (ICRSP)
20. St. Francis de Sales, St. Louis, MO (ICRSP)
21. St. Francis of Assisi, Lincoln, NE (FSSP)
22. Immaculate Conception, Omaha, NE (FSSP)
23. Mater Ecclésiæ, Berlin, NJ (Diocesan)
24. St. Anthony of Padua, West Orange, NJ (ICRSP)
25. Holy Family, Dayton, OH (FSSP)
26. Queen of the Holy Rosary, Vienna, OH (FSSP)
27. St. Clement, Ottawa, ON (FSSP)
28. Queen of Angels Oratory, St. Catharine’s, ON (FSSP)
29. St. Damien, Edmond, OK (FSSP)
30. St. Peter, Tulsa, OK (FSSP)
31. St. Michael, Scranton, PA (FSSP) [the only inverse Personal Parish – it hosts an Ordinary Form Mass on Saturday only!]
32. Mater Dei, Irving, TX (FSSP)
33. St. Joseph the Worker, Tyler, TX (FSSP)
34. St. Benedict, Chesapeake, VA (FSSP)
35. St. Joseph, Richmond, VA (FSSP)
36. North American Martyrs, Seattle, WA (FSSP)
37. St. Joseph, Green Bay, WI (ICRSP)
38. St. Stanislaus, Milwaukee, WI (ICRSP)
39. St. Mary, Wausau, WI (ICRSP)

The FSSP and ICRSP are remarkable groups, without a doubt. Their selectiveness allows them to admit and train the best of the best candidates for the sacred priesthood. They bring a certain cachet to a parish: for instance, St. Margaret Mary Parish in Oakland, California had long offered a Sunday Tridentine Mass celebrated by diocesan clergy. When the ICRSP arrived – it was a shared-parish arrangement, not a Personal Parish – their “celebrity value” and implementation of weekday Masses caused Sunday attendance to increase from approximately 130 to 300. That would not necessarily happen in our area, however, as Oakland had no other Tridentine Mass sites in close proximity. The FSSP is also known for starting and administering parish schools. If a school is a long-term goal, St. Hyacinth and even St. Albertus are candidates, though the latter’s needs major restoration work. St. Josaphat’s property cannot accommodate a school.

It is this writer’s belief that a Personal Parish would not be economically sustainable in the Archdiocese of Detroit under present conditions. If sharing a parish continued to be the goal, the ICRSP would have to be excluded; they do not want that kind of arrangement any longer. Even the FSSP is not as willing to enter into those sorts of arrangements as they used to be, though their arm might be twistable in a large Archdiocese like Detroit. A shared apostolate for an FSSP priest, serving multiple regional Tridentine Communities, is almost certainly viable. Discussions over the advantages of diocesan vs. FSSP clergy aside, considering the FSSP might be unavoidable should availability of celebrants decline. In other dioceses, the FSSP has offered a trial arrangement over a few months to determine what the actual demand would be. We also have a handful of diocesan clergy who might be interested in a full-time, multi-site Tridentine apostolate.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Mon. 12/19 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Greater Feria of Advent)

Tue. 12/20 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Rosary Chapel at Assumption-Windsor (Greater Feria of Advent)

Wed. 12/21 7:00 PM: High Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Thomas, Apostle)

Sun. 12/25 Midnight: High Mass at St. Joseph

Sun. 12/25 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Josaphat

Sun. 12/25 2:00 PM: High Mass at Assumption-Windsor

[Comments? Please e-mail info@windsorlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.windsorlatinmass.org/latin/tnews.htm. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the Windsor Assumption Catholic Church bulletin insert for December 18, 2011. Hat tip to A.B.]

New Pentecost or dying of the light?

It has been a while, perhaps, since we've heard those odious windbags of optimism yodeling those hopeful, ebullient exclamations about the "new springtime" and "new Pentecost" of the Church, although I think we should not be surprised to hear a return to such language in the soon-to-be-celebrated 50th anniversary of Vatican II.

What I sometimes feel is missing in the Catholic pew-sitter's experience is a sense of robust realism. No, scratch that. Replace with: "sense of any reality at all." Across the Atlantic, the Catholic Church is practically dead, except for a few fringe pockets here or there. Certainly it is no longer a culture-formative force, or perhaps even a notable "influence."

In the United States, the current administration has utterly no compunctions about ignoring statements by the Catholic hierarchy. The "Camelot" of the Kennedy and post-Kennedy years is long gone. And archdiocese after archdiocese is busy closing down churches and schools, because there are simply not enough Catholics any longer to support them. (Link: "Lean but not mean")