Philadelphia Chapter

First Friday, July 5, A.D. 2013, Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be offered by Fr. Harold B. Mc Kale, of Nativity B.V.M. Parish at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish, 212 Welsh Road, Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, PA 19006, (T) 215-947-3500 at 7 p.m., preceded by Confessions at 6:30 p.m. The Rectory, also known as the Parish Center, is behind the Church. Fr. Mc Kale will be offering the Mass of Saint Antony Mary Zaccaria, in Reparation to The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

First Saturday, July 6, A.D. 2013, Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be offered by Fr. Dominick Finn, O.S.F.S., at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish, 212 Welsh Road, Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, PA 19006, (T) 215-947-3500 at 9:15 a.m., preceded by Confessions at 8:45 a.m. The Rectory, also known as the Parish Center, is behind the Church. Fr. Finn will be offering a Votive Mass of Our Lady in Reparation to Her Immaculate Heart.

Thank you for publicizing these First Friday and First Saturday Traditional Latin Masses.

Mark Matthews

This year’s Solemn High Mass of Thanksgiving sponsored by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Latin Liturgy Association will be celebrated on the Feast of the Most Precious Blood, Monday, July 1, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 63rd Street and Lancaster Avenue, Overbrook (Philadelphia), 19151.

The celebrant will be Rev. Ronald Check, and Mercedarian friars will serve as deacon and subdeacon. The Gregorian chant propers and the Missa Rex Genitor by Kevin Allen will be sung by a men’s schola.

As a result of unforeseen changes, contrary to the original announcement, there will not be refreshments following the Mass.

The Noon TLM that has been said at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, South Philadelphia, for the last several years will be transferred to Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Sixth & Spruce Streets, Center City Philadelphia effective July 7th, 2013. The TLM will remain at the same time, as it was at St. Paul’s, i.e., Sundays at Noon.

We are grateful to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for its pastoral generosity and sensitivity towards those Catholics making up the Latin Mass Community at St. Paul’s. We look forward to being at Holy Trinity and are particularly encouraged by the fact that Fr. Gill, head of the Office of Liturgy for the Archdiocese, expressed his desire that the Latin Mass Community flourish and grow at its new location.

The official Coordinator for the TLM and the Latin Mass Community at its new location will be Father Ronald Check, who will also be the celebrant for the LLA’s Annual Solemn High Mass to be held at Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church on July 1st at 7:00 p.m., the Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

There will be an Extraordinary Form TLM at the Carmelite Monastery of Philadelphia (66th Avenue and Old York Road) on Sunday, July 14th at 7:30 PM. This is a part of their annual novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, (running from July 8th through July 16th).

By Kathleen Gilbert

SIOUX CITY, Iowa, October 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholics must learn to “exorcise” the so-called “spirit of Vatican II” to end the secularization that has “wreaked havoc” on the Church since the Council, says Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City, Iowa.

In a pastoral letter issued Thursday to the lay and religious of his diocese, Nickless wrote that he has “no other desire” than to see the reforms of Vatican II implemented properly. However, he said, “It is crucial that we all grasp that the hermeneutic or interpretation of discontinuity or rupture, which many think is the settled and even official position, is not the true meaning of the Council.”

The “hermeneutic of discontinuity,” under the guise of the “spirit of Vatican II,” sees “the Second Vatican Council as a radical break with the past,” explained the bishop. However, “There can be no split … between the Church and her faith before and after the Council.”

“We must stop speaking of the ‘Pre-Vatican II’ and ‘Post Vatican II’ Church,” continued Nickless, who agreed with Pope Benedict XVI that the Council’s meaning “must be found only in the letter of the documents themselves.” “The so-called ‘spirit’ of the Council has no authoritative interpretation,” Nickless said.

“It is a ghost or demon that must be exorcised if we are to proceed with the Lord’s work.”

The bishop said the cultural upheaval of the 1960s and 70s precipitated a shift in perspective about the Church, and it began to seem that “nothing was certain or solid” in its teaching or liturgy. “Sometimes,” he said, “we set out to convert the world, but were instead converted by it. We have sometimes lost sight of who we are and what we believe, and therefore have little to offer the world that so desperately needs the Gospel.”

This “hermeneutic of discontinuity,” said Nickless, “emphasizes the ‘engagement with the world’ to the exclusion of the deposit of faith.”

“This has wreaked havoc on the Church, systematically dismantling the Catholic Faith to please the world, watering down what is distinctively Catholic, and ironically becoming completely irrelevant and impotent for the mission of the Church in the world,” he said. “The Church that seeks simply what works or is ‘useful’ in the end becomes useless.”

Nickless devoted a portion of the letter to defending the family against this relativistic mentality, re-emphasizing the nature of the family as the union between man and woman, established by God for the good of the spouses and the procreation of children…

“Our urgent need at this time,” wrote Nickless, “is to reclaim and strengthen our understanding of the deposit of faith.

“We must have a distinctive identity and culture as Catholics, if we would effectively communicate the Gospel to the people of this day and Diocese. This is our mission.”

This year’s Solemn High Mass of Thanksgiving sponsored by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Latin Liturgy Association will be celebrated on the Feast of the Most Precious Blood, Monday, July 1, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 63rd Street and Lancaster Avenue, Overbrook (Philadelphia), 19151.

The celebrant will be Rev. Ronald Check, and Mercedarian friars will serve as deacon and subdeacon. The Gregorian chant propers and the Missa Rex Genitor by Kevin Allen will be sung by a men’s schola.

As a result of unforeseen changes, contrary to the original announcement, there will not be refreshments following the Mass.

Recently there was a news item about some Italian bishops griping (that’s not news) to Pope Francis (ditto) about Summorum Pontificum (as before). They think it should be extirpated (more of the same). Francis shot them down. That’s news.

I am having days filled with museums at the moment, and therefore living on my computer is low on my list. However, my friend Fr. Tim Finigan, His Hermeneuticalness, has the low down. Let’s see what clever analysis he offers (my emphases and comments):

The Bishops of the region of Tavoliere met recently with Pope Francis on an ad limina visit. On their return home, one has given a fascinating glimpse of the attitude of Pope Francis to those who are seeking to use the opportunity of his papacy to attack the traditional Mass. This is reported in the Italian paper Il Foglio, in the article: La messa antica non si tocca, il Papa gesuita spiazza ancora tutti (“The old mass is not to be touched, the Jesuit Pope wrong-foots everyone” [spiazza… floors, shocks])

Here is [Fr Finigan’s] translation of the relevant part of the article which tells of other bishops raising concerns with the Holy Father and goes on to speak of the intervention concerning the old Mass:

Then it was the turn of the bishop of Conversano and Monopoli, Domenico Padovano, who recounted to the clergy of his diocese how the priority [what a sad group of men] of the bishops of the region of Tavoliere had been that of explaining to the Pope that the mass in the old rite was creating great divisions within the Church. The underlying message: Summorum Pontificum should be cancelled, or at least strongly limited. But Francis said no.

Mgr Padovano explained that Francis replied to them saying that they should be vigilant over the extremism of certain traditionalist groups but also suggesting that they should treasure tradition and create the necessary conditions so that tradition might be able to live alongside innovation. [Right. And we could even have a document that says that! It could be called… how ’bout… Ecclesia Dei adflicta? In it the Pope could command by his Apostolic authority that bishops do that.]
This is not really a surprise (did anyone expect that Pope Francis would somehow “repeal” Summorum Pontificum? [Apparently those bishops did.]) but it is a welcome confirmation of what we would all expect.

One thing that jumps out of the story is that the bishops of this region judged that their main pastoral priority – to be communicated to the Pope on a five-yearly visit – was to attack Summorum Pontificum. [“priority”] Forget abortion, embryo experimentation, the push for same-sex marriage throughout Europe, the loss of faith of many Catholics and our failure in catechesis and evangelisation. No, the really big problem is a small number of priests legitimately saying the old Mass. [small but growing, especially as the Biological Solution kicks into gear] Given what Pope Francis has said about the danger of being a self-referential Church, I can well imagine he gave them short shrift. [Good insight.]

Those bishops fell into the trap of pitting Pope Francis against Pope Benedict.

Francis himself gave us an example of READING FRANCIS THROUGH BENEDICT.

Here is some great news.

I was sent a translation of a sermon given by the new Archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio, His Excellency Most Rev. Luigi Negri, on Pentecost at the Marian Shrine of Poggetto. The occasion was a celebration of Holy Mass with the 1962 Missale Romanum.

I share here the last part of the sermon (my emphases):

This grace which the Church gives, you are living it at the spring of the Faith: the celebration of Holy Mass. You are able to drink these waters thanks to the great mercy of Benedict XVI. You can drink from this fresh stream, using one of the Church’s great treasures: the traditional liturgy. This is not an alternative to the reformed liturgy brought in after Vatican II, but is a fuller, freer, and more responsible form to be lived alongside the other one. Benedict XVI said as much in his wonderful Motu Proprio.

He wanted to widen the richness of the Liturgy to the whole Church, and so he asked the Church – starting with the Bishops – to be more respectful of his desire to widen these riches to anyone who legitimately wanted so they could fully live the truth of the Faith for the mission of today through this “older” form. The Pope thus overcame that spurious distinction between “old” and “new” which is made by the followers of the hermeneutic of discontinuity between what happened before the Council and what happened after it, and what we see in today’s world which has caused so much fatigue.

There is only ONE Church, and She has lived through history thanks to the Holy Spirit. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council was an extremely important moment in time, although that moment was one of great challenges for the Church.

You may use this liturgy, and I am extremely happy that you do so in this Archdiocese where I arrived only a few months ago. You do not do so to attack anyone, or to push any opinion, but rather to live the mystery of the Church in accordance with the depth and truth of your right to live this way. The Church has made all this possible. Benedict XVI – I am not someone who uses words because he likes the sound they make – Benedict XVI showed his pastoral mercy by allowing this for individual Catholics or small groups who need not have a precise legal size. These are the “small groups” of the faithful who have the right and the duty to be able to come to this Mass. [small and now growing]

Now you have it all in your hands, and the Church allows you to spread it freely.

[NB] There can be no-one, no Diocese in Italy or anywhere in the world, who can stop you doing this. If any Bishop ever dares to say “no” to you, he must be brought before an ecclesiastical tribunal immediately. [!!!!] But before anything like that happens, there must be dialogue among the faithful who want the older Liturgy, and between the faithful and any priest who wants to help you take part in this beautiful Mass. To do so requires a certain level of preparation, but I am sure you have this already! I think that for it to become an experience for all those who want it a period of training and preparation will be needed. I tried to implement the Motu Proprio in a small Diocese, in San Marino-Montefeltro, where reactions were generally not extreme. I wrote to our Holy Father to tell him about the situation, mostly because the Instruction on how to apply the Motu Proprio was to take another two years. I received a short letter from Benedict XVI, who spoke very positively about how the Traditional Latin Mass had been brought back to my Diocese without any tension.

Try this older Liturgy for yourselves! Try out the truths of your faith! Try out the truths of your charity! Give impetus to your mission! Be like those who try out the same truths with the reformed Liturgy in the truth of their Faith and charity: they are two treasures for the same people. [NB]People can be said to be grown-up Catholics if they understand these freedoms the Church gives them. Liturgical freedom is not something the Church merely gives: She guarantees it!

Do not hold on to any opinions you think you need to “defend” against others. The Archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio is neither the keeper nor the propagator of any opinions. The Archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio has only one opinion, the eternal truth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the tradition of the Church, the teachings of the Holy Father, and the things he himself says when they are in line with the Pope. This is the space Benedict XVI has allowed us. I am one of the few bishops (I am afraid to say we are very few) to have gained from all this a deeper sense of our identity in our dealings with God. [The Italian bishops are not, as a body, on board with anything traditional. Odd, but that’s the way it goes.] It is truly a great thing; and not just for those who practise it, but for the whole Church.

[Watch this!] Let me sum up by saying that this is why you must try to get as many people as possible to walk down this path of yours. [Get that?] It will not take you away from the life of the Church, nor will it lighten the heavy burden of being in communion with them, although this is a wonderful thing.

[… He speaks then about recovering from the devastating earthquake….]

I shall always be close to you. I shall always encourage you. All I ask of you is that same humility which Pope Francis shows to the world in his words and actions, before he asks it of any of us. Have no other preoccupation than to live in the depths of your souls what the Church has given you for your own good and for the good of all. Remember that my support and help will never fail you. I offer you my correction too, as I do to every community that feels it needs such a thing, but I am sure I will never need to give you any!

First Saturday, June 1, A.D. 2013, Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be offered by Fr. Dominick Finn, O.S.F.S., at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish, 212 Welsh Road, Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, PA 19006, (T) 215-947-3500 at 9:15 a.m., preceded by Confessions at 8:45 a.m.

Fr. Finn will be offering the Mass of Saint Angela Merici, Virgin and Foundress of the Ursulines, in Reparation to The Immaculate Heart of Mary.

First Friday, June 7, A.D. 2013, Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be offered by Fr. Harold B. Mc Kale, of St. Bede The Venerable Catholic Church, of Holland, Bucks County, at the Rectory Chapel of St. Albert The Great Parish, 212 Welsh Road, Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, PA 19006, (T) 215-947-3500 at 7 p.m., preceded by Confessions at 6:30 p.m. The Rectory, also known as the Parish Center, is behind the Church.

As First Friday, June 7, A.D. 2013 is also THE FEAST OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS, Fr. Mc Kale will be offering that Mass in Reparation to Our Lord and His Most Sacred Heart.

Thank you for publicizing these First Friday and First Saturday TLM’s.

Mark Matthews

This year’s Solemn High Mass of Thanksgiving sponsored by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Latin Liturgy Association will be celebrated on the Feast of the Most Precious Blood, Monday, July 1, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 63rd Street and Lancaster Avenue, Overbrook (Philadelphia), 19151.

The celebrant will be Rev. Ronald Check, and Mercedarian friars will serve as deacon and subdeacon. The Gregorian chant propers and the Missa Rex Genitor by Kevin Allen will be sung by a men’s schola.

Following the Mass light refreshments will be served in Nolasco Hall (church basement).