Free Republic

A reader sent me a link to a reaction from a priest of the Archdiocese of Seattle to the Pontifical Mass in Washington DC for the anniversary of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. The writer in question is one… well… here is his blurb from his blog: Jan Larson, a senior priest of the Archdiocese of Seattle, was ordained in 1968. He received a M.A. in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame, and a D.Min. in pastoral liturgy from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He has served as director of the Archbishop’s Office of Worship...

EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS IN HONOR OF THE 5TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INAUGURATION OF POPE BENEDICT XVI (LIVE) 12:30 pm Eastern From PontificalMass.orgPontifical Solemn Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington DC, April 24, 2010, at 1 p.m. His Excellency, Edward Slattery, the bishop of Tula, Oklahoma will celebrate the mass from the throne according to the rubrics of the Extraordinary Form. The Mass will be offered in the Extraordinary Form (Traditional Latin Mass), as encouraged by Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict. It will be the first such Mass said at the High Altar of...

For the first time in 40 years, the old Latin Mass will be celebrated in the largest Catholic Church in America, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Time: 1 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, April 24, commemorating the 5th anniversary of the installation in 2005 of Pope Benedict XVI as Pope    By Robert Moynihan, reporting from America [resources: Inside the Vatican] =====================================   The old Mass   In a way, I find the use of the term "extraordinary form" to describe the "old Mass" a bit unfortunate.   Because, after all, it was so ordinary, that old...

The Traditional Latin Mass planned for April 24th honoring Pope Benedict on his five-year anniversary was scheduled to have Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos as the celebrant. Not any more. As you probably know, a significant controversy has erupted over a letter sent by the Cardinal expressing gratitude to a Bishop for not turning over a sexually offending priest to civil authorities. The hue and cry that has erupted from this revelation is significant. As a result, the Cardinal is out as the celebrant at the planned Traditional Latin Mass for the 24th of April. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In consultation with His...

Latin Mass at the National Shrine in April First such Mass at the shrine in nearly 45 years If you haven't yet settled on a way to mark the fifth anniversary of the pontificate Benedict XVI, and if you're in the Washington, D.C., area, you may want to check this out. The Paulus Institute, whose raison d'être is "for the propagation of sacred liturgy," announced today "the fifth anniversary of inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI will be commemorated in the Great Upper Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington D.C. by a Pontifical Solemn...

Good news from Rome: the Vatican has further underlined the freedom of priests to celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form whenever they choose. Two important points have been clarified by Ecclesia Dei, which will make it more difficult for the English, Welsh and above all Scottish bishops to stall the implementation of Summorum Pontificum: 1. A priest does NOT have to be approached by a “stable group” of the faithful in order to schedule a PUBLIC celebration of the Extraordinary Form – he may choose to do so, for example, in order to introduce his parishioners to this ancient form...

ROME — Top officials from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments will be principal celebrants at Tridentine liturgies during a conference in Rome this week. The Tridentine rite, in use before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, is also called the extraordinary form of the liturgy.U.S. Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, secretary of the Vatican congregation, will celebrate solemn pontifical vespers and benediction in the extraordinary form at the Church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians, located inside the Vatican walls, Jan. 6.On Jan. 7, Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the worship congregation, will celebrate...

The official Vatican guide to the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass has arrived on YouTube, where you can find long sections of Ecclesia Dei’s DVD about the Extraordinary Form. The clip below shows a priest saying the canon of the Mass. Coming soon to a church near you? Not if certain bishops can help it.

Following their exchange in July, author Moyra Doorly and Aidan Nichols discuss the merits of post-Vatican II liturgical reform Dear Fr Aidan, In your kind reply to my first letter you made the point that I was drawing "unnecessarily sharp" contrasts between a theology of "propitiation and supplication" on one hand, and teachings on the "fruits of Communion" on the other. But what I was trying to demonstrate is that the pre-Conciliar sources give ample teaching on both, whereas the documents of Vatican II ignore the theology of propitiation and supplication. Now, to me this represents a doctrinal discontinuity of...

... the High Mass according to the old rite will be celebrated tomorrow in St. Peter's Basilica. The celebrant, reports Robert Moynihan of Inside the Vatican, will be Archbishop Raymond Burke: When I returned home, I found an email from Alberto waiting for me. Here it is: "Normally conferences and symposiums are relevant for the message their organisers intend to convey to the public through the speeches and lectures of their speakers, but in the case of the 2nd Conference on the Motu prorio Summorum Pontificum (16-18 October 2009), entitled The Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum by Benedict XVI: A Great Gift...

Rome, Italy, Aug 12, 2009 / 04:03 pm (CNA).- The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which was recently incorporated into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has announced the publication of two DVDs to help “priests and the community” celebrate Mass according to the extraordinary form of the Latin Rite.The two DVDs include an entire Mass celebrated by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos—until recently the president of the Commission—at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in 2003.The discs also feature segments explaining in detail the “gestures and rubrics, from the preparatio ad missam (preparation before Mass) to the act of...

An ultraconservative group plans to ordain 13 Roman Catholic priests in Minnesota — even though their elevations likely won't be recognized by the Vatican. The St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, part of the Society of St. Pius X, will host the ordinations of 12 U.S.-based priests and another from France in Winona on Friday. The Vatican says ordinations by the society aren't legitimate, even though Pope Benedict XVI recently lifted the excommunications of its leaders. The society was founded by those opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council and especially its outreach to Jews and other religions. The...

An English priest with an affinity for the extraordinary form of the Mass has been named the general secretary of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). The appointment highlights the transformation of an agency that was once the bane of conservative Catholics in the English-speaking world. Father Andrew Wadsworth, a priest of the Westminster archdiocese, will begin his work with ICEL in September. An accomplished linguist, he will guide the process of completing ICEL's new translation of the Roman Missal. His appointment, announced March 30, came with the approval of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship. ICEL...

...Many Catholic families whose faith and lives I greatly admire have started attending Latin or Byzantine liturgies....I had some initial reluctance over attending these “throw back” liturgies with them, but I eventually accepted their invitations. What I experienced at these parishes was truly life changing to me! After participating in the liturgies I walked away with the same reaction from both. I was filled with a sort of holy awe and struggled to come to grips with what I was feeling. I had just worshipped the Almighty Triune God. I realized that up until participating in those liturgies, I had...

The Society of St. Pius X and Vatican II: Where's the Beef? Christopher A. Ferrara REMNANT COLUMNIST, New Jersey Doctrinal Council?(Posted 03/05/09 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) The letter of February 3, 2009 from the four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X to Pope Benedict XVI contains a commendable expression of gratitude to the Pope for his “paternal  kindness and for the apostolic courage” he displayed in lifting the excommunications of 1988. It did indeed require apostolic courage for the Pope to make a gesture so clearly opposed to the one thing the world demands of the Pope these days: conformity...

Here, now, is the full text of the Pope's letter regarding the lifting of the SSPX excommunications itself, which has already been published in the most prestigious and reliable German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in an NLM translation: Dear brethren in the Episcopal ministry! The lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 without a mandate of the Holy See has led, both within and outside the Catholic Church, for a variety of reasons, to a discussion of such vehemence as we had not experienced for a long time. Many bishops felt at...

His Eminence Roger Card. Mahony of Los Angeles shares his view of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and, consequently, of the decision two Popes made to emancipate the older, pre-Conciliar form of Holy Mass. The setting: On Friday, February 27, 2009, at 11:15 a.m. PST, ChurchWerks.com hosted an online chat session with Cardinal Mahony, live from the main Exhibit Hall at the Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, Calif. Ann Scolari: What are your thoughts on the Trindentine mass? CardinalMahony: Ann: The Tridentine Mass was meant for those who could not make the transition from Latin to English [or...

Msgr. Moises Andrade loved the Traditional Latin Mass. Even the Philippines' most-watched evening news show, in reporting his passing, mentioned that he was an expert in the "Latin Mass" and opined that his death was a great loss for the Catholic Church in the Philippines. (The fact that his death was reported on national television was a testament to his stature.) How fitting, then, that a Requiem Mass according to the 1962 Missal had been scheduled for the evening of February 23, in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, the parish that he had last served. Except that,...

This weekend the celebrant will be Fr.David Taurasi. This Mass is at 11:00am in the Lower Church. The weekly Sunday TLM community was tranferred to Cathedral at the closing of Holy Trinity German Church, also in the South End, on June 30, 2008. Both Holy Trinity communities were warmly welcomed by the Cathedral Rector, Fr Kevin O'Leary, and are overjoyed by Fr Taurasi's return. Cathedral of the Holy Cross 75 Union Park Street 1400 Washington Street Boston, MA 02118 for information on the Tridentine Mass in New England, please visit www.uvboston.org

Just under 4 years ago, I started this blog after meeting several devout Christendom College students after a Sunday Traditional Latin Mass at St. Mary, Mother of God Catholic Church in Washington, DC. The previous month, I had traveled to England and visited several Catholic sites, including the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, and had seen Catholic art in the National Gallery in London. I was inspired, by the events of that time and by those students, to blog about Catholic subjects, especially Catholic art, feast days, and devotions; and also, write about Traditional Latin Masses in the Washington,...