Events: 1.Traditional Confirmation in Chicago 2. Requiem Conference in Boston & Mass in Cambridge, Mass.

1. A reader in Illinois informs of the following:

On Sunday, November 17 at 10am, there will be Confirmations in the Traditional Rite followed immediately by Solemn Pontifical Mass offered by Bp. Joseph Perry, Auxilary of Chicago, at the Shrine of Christ the King in Chicago, IL; followed by a reception in Bp. Perry's honor.

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2. Juventutem Boston sends us the following event notices:

A) An Evening on the Requiem with Juventutem Boston:

This Friday, Fr. Kevin O'Leary, Rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, is graciously hosting the young people of Juventutem Boston for an evening of recollection on the requiem.

Friday, November 15, Juventutem Boston is hosting a spiritual conference and a Solemn High Requiem Mass. The evening will begin with a talk by Fr. Joseph Zwosta of the Diocese of Brooklyn about the theology of the Requiem. A Solemn High Requiem Mass be celebrated after the talk, and then all young men and women and clergy are invited to join us for dinner.

Schedule:

5:30 PM Conference on the theology of the Requiem Mass

6:00 PM Q & A with a panel of priests

6:30 PM Confessions

7:00 PM Solemn Requiem Mass with Absolution over the Catafalque

8:15 PM (following Mass) dinner at a local restaurant

More info here.

Directions to the Cathedral (1400 Washington St., Boston) here.

B) Fr. Kwang Lee, longtime friend of Juventutem Boston, will be celebrating his first ever Missa Cantata on  Sunday, November 24, at 7:00 PM, in St. Paul's Church (29 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge) 

This is also the first time Juventutem will be able to hold Mass on Sunday (and we're grateful to the Harvard Catholic Center and Fr. Michael Drea for sponsoring this Mass with us). All are warmly encouraged to bring friends. Deo gratias!

UPDATE: Priest denied traditional Latin Requiem Mass: Maybe his Church tax was delinquent?

After a thunderous response from our readers, including priests (and most likely bishops), the ultra-leftist Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, Germany, has reversed his decision and will now allow Fr. Andre Hahn of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) to say a traditional Latin Requiem Mass for Father Adolf Mohr tomorrow.

The intrepid Catholic journalist Barbara Wenz (read her here) asked the Diocese of Trier on Twitter to confirm he banned the Latin Requiem Mass for the late Fr. Mohr. The diocese tweeted this back:

"Requiem and funeral will be celebrated in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite."

Traditional Catholics have a voice and it's more powerful than we often believe.

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Original post 11/11/15 12:47p.m. GMT:

We joke in the headline, but it's really not humorous. In fact, it's a grave scandal to rob anyone, especially a priest, of his last wishes and the sacraments owed to him. Please weigh in and spread the word: 

From Gloria.TV:

Please Protest: German Bishop Prohibits an Old Latin Requiem for a Dead Priest

Bishop Ackermann is blessed in 2012 by a protestant Priestess

Last Friday, Father Adolf Mohr (86) of Rheinböllen, Germany, died from cancer. After his retirement he returned to the Old Latin Rite of his youth. In his will he expressed the wish to be buried in this rite. His parish priest guaranteed him in writ that his wish would be respected.

Annual Requiem Mass in Westminster Cathedral cancelled

LMS Annual Requiem 2018, celebrated by
the retired Bishop Patrick Campbell, in Westminster Cathedral.

28^th September 2023

The Latin Mass Society has been informed that the Annual Requiem (sung, 1962 Missal) scheduled to take place at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 4th November at 2:30pm will not take place.

Mozart's Requiem where it is supposed to be heard, a Requiem Mass Also on November 6, in New York

In 2002, Fr. Bernward Deneke, FSSP, a gifted musician, celebrated a Requiem Mass in Poznań, Poland, for the soul of composer W. A. Mozart, and Mozart's own setting for the Mass - Requiem Mass in D minor (K. 626) - was played.

Gloria TV has a recording of the event, for your meditation this weekend:

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Unfortunately, this is not such a common occurrence: Mozart's Requiem being used for its real purpose, as musical setting for a Mass according to the Traditional Roman Missal. Fortunately for anyone who will be in or near New York next Wednesday, it will be possible to be present in a Holy Mass in which the piece will be in its intended place and occasion, a Church and during a Mass for the Dead. The Mass will be celebrated in the Church of St. Agnes, on November 6, at 6:30 PM.

The Mass is sponsored by the Catholic Artists Society, the New York Purgatorial Society, and the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny and it will be offered for the souls of deceased family members and friends of the three societies. Father Leonard Villa of the Archdiocese of New York will be celebrant; Father Richard Munkelt of the Diocese of Scranton will act as deacon.

(We have received news of other such Masses on All Souls' Day, at Holy Rosary, in Indianapolis; and at the Assumption Grotto, in Michigan.)

Calling former Oxford students

The Altar in the St Thomas More Chapel
set up for the EF Mass.

Any Oxford graduate, former visiting student, or current student, or current or former employee, who would like to support a petition for a Traditional Sung Requiem in the Catholic Chaplaincy for their decesaed predecessors and contemporaries, please email

info@lms.org.uk

with 'Oxford Chaplaincy' as the subject and your name, address, and the name of your current or former college or whatever.

All Souls' Day and its Monday rubrics Updated (PCED letter)

The feast of Christ the King was of course celebrated this past Sunday, 26 October, using the 1962 calendar for the traditional Latin Mass, moved to November at the novus ordo liturgy.  This coming Sunday, 2 November, will be another example of stark contrasts in calendars, colors and logic, when the novus ordo commemorates All Souls' Day on Sunday, while the 1962 calendar for the traditional Latin Mass retains the long-standing custom of separating feasting and mourning.

According to the Codex Rubricarum, as promulgated by the motu proprio "Rubricarum Instructum" (1960), under Part One, "General Rubrics", All Souls' Day may not be celebrated on a Sunday.  Therefore, if 2 November falls on a Sunday, such as this year, All Souls' Day is transferred to Monday 3 November.  Here are three references to that transfer:

St. Birinus Festival 2025 - Thursday 16 October to Sunday 19 October, 2025

Once again this year we will hold a full weekend of sung liturgy in the ancient Roman Rite, in the beautiful medieval Dorchester Abbey in Oxfordshire.

EVENT this Wednesday at 7 p.m.: Requiem for victims of Air Asia flight in London

From a news release of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, a traditional Requiem in London at 7 p.m. for the victims of the Air Asia flight. If you are in or near London, considering attending it, adding your prayers to the Most Blessed Sacrifice of the Mass:

Those who perished in the recent Air Asia disaster will be remembered at a sung Requiem Mass in London this week.

The Requiem, organised by the Latin Mass Society, will take place at 7 pm on Wednesday 4 February at St James’ Church, Spanish Place, where a regular Latin Mass parishioner lost two relatives in the tragedy.

St James’ acclaimed professional choir will provide the music at the mass, timed to coincide roughly with the one month anniversary of the crash in which 162 people died.

Concluding the Month of the Holy Souls and the Liturgical Year - The Jean Gilles Requiem (Audio Suggestion)

Jean-Philippe Rameau indicated that his Requiem Mass was to be celebrated with the setting composed by Jean Gilles in 1696, and to take place at the Oratory of the Louvre. The Mass was celebrated on September 27, 1764. (Jean Gilles' setting for the messe des morts would also be used at the main funeral mass for Louis XV, ten years later.)

Unfortunately, with the Revolution, like several French churches, the Oratoire du Louvre was confiscated and given to the Reformed - and, not long afterwards, many of Congregation's priests were murdered (15 priests of the Oratory were guillotined or died in prison) or expelled. It was never returned to the Church, and it remains a publicly-owned Protestant-run building to this day.

Event: All Souls with Victoria Requiem for 6 voices - National Shrine for the Poor Souls, Illinois

A reader sends us the following event notice:

On Saturday, November 2, there will be a Solemn High Requiem Mass (Extraordinary Form) at St. Odilo, National Shrine for the Poor Souls, in Berwyn, Illinois. The music includes the Requiem for Six Voices by Tomás Luis de Victoria and Gregorian Chant, sung by the Schola Cantorum of St. Odilo. This is the only parish in the United States dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Cardinal Mundelein granted special privileges to St. Odilo parish, giving a 200 day indulgence applicable to the souls in purgatory for each visit to this national shrine. In addition to this special Mass, there is a Mass offered each Sunday at 9:30 a.m. in the Extraordinary form and on all Holy Days of Obligation. For more information, go to www.saintodilo.org.

Solemn Requiem Mass for Cardinal Kung in D.C.

In the Archdiocese of Washington there has been a growing number of traditional Latin Masses in recent years, including seven (public) TLMs offered every Sunday. Near the Catholic University of America in Northeast is the parish of Saint Anthony of Padua, which has graciously accommodated dozens -- hundreds -- of CUA students who desire the old Mass on Sundays, holy days and occasional feasts.

Saint Anthony's, with guest clergy, will host a traditional Latin Requiem High Mass on Saturday, February 26th, at 11 a.m. for Ignatius Cardinal Kung. The celebrant of the Mass, a priest of the Diocese of Hong Kong, has shared the following for our readers:

There will be a Solemn High Requiem Mass for Ignatius Cardinal Kung, in solidarity with the persecuted Church in China on Saturday, February 26th at 11:00 AM at Saint Anthony of Padua Church in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Ignatius Cardinal Kung was consecrated Bishop of Shanghai in 1950 and in 1955 was imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party for 33 years as punishment for refusing to join the Patriotic Association. In 1986 he was named a cardinal in secret by St. John Paul II. In 1986 he was released from prison and settled in America. 

Requiem Mass and Litany for the Church in China, Monday, February 26, 2018, in New York City

This Monday, February 26, 2018, there will be a Solemn Requiem Mass and Absolution at the Catafalque to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Happy Valley Racecourse Fire in Hong Kong at which 670 people perished. The Mass is at the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in New York City at 7:30 PM.

Following Mass, the Sacred Ministers will change from black to violet vestments and lead the choir and people in a procession throughout the Church singing a Solemn Litany of the Saints to beseech our Lady of Mt. Carmel and the Communion of Saints to intercede for the persecuted Church in China and protect it against the attacks it faces today.

At the Requiem Mass, the choir will sing the Missa pro defunctis for six voices by Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650). The Mass is being sponsored by a family that lost five members in the tragedy.

Requiem High Mass funeral for Officer Talley

There is a large, secular memorial service today in Colorado for Boulder Officer Eric Talley, however yesterday was his traditional Latin High Requiem Mass funeral.

Officer Talley attended the traditional Latin Mass at the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter's parish in Littleton, Colorado -- Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Priests from that parish were given permission to use the cathedral basilica in Denver for the Requiem High Mass in the presence of a greater prelate, with Archbishop Samuel Aquila attending in choir and delivering remarks.

The Mass, stunning in its beauty and reverence, contained all of the funeral ceremonies from the 1962 books, complete with lovely Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony throughout. The cathedral basilica is not extremely large, but hosted family, friends and fellow police officers, livestreamed by the Archdiocese of Denver. We strongly recommend watching and listening to it if you can, including such well-chosen words to the congregation by Father James Jackson, FSSP.  And a reminder there is a way to donate to the Talley family here.

Prepare ye the way of your funeral

Last week a traditional Latin Requiem High Mass was offered for the funeral of an archdiocesan priest who enjoyed celebrating the TLM in his healthier years. It almost did not happen, as the local ordinary insisted on a novus ordo funeral.  Thankfully, the deceased priest made preparations for the day, and his attorney stepped in to amplify the late priest's desire, including having the funeral elsewhere if necessary.  The archbishop (known as one of the more conservative prelates in the U.S.) dropped his case and attended the TLM Requiem Mass, offered by another archdiocesan priest.

A traditional funeral at an FSSP parish in 2014.

This incident, along with sad examples that could be given (a traditional priest cremated, "On Eagles Wings" performed at white vestment novus ordo funerals for traditional-leaning Catholics, etc.) illustrate the importance of planning ahead for your funeral and burial. Sometimes one's family will opt for the quickest, cheapest and easiest funeral, and the local parish will likely oblige. So, as we enter the homestretch of this Advent season, it should be a time of preparation -- including for such matters as this.

Event: All Souls Requiem High Mass in Gas City, Indiana

Una Voce Lafayette will be hosting a Requiem Mass for All Souls' Day at Holy Family Parish in Gas City, Indiana (325 East North Street, 46933) on November 2, 2018, at 7:30 pm. Fr. Christopher Roberts will be our celebrant. 

In honor of the bicentennial of his birth, the Saint Dunstan Schola will be singing the Requiem in C Major by Charles Gounod. Joining the choir will be organist Jacob Minns of St. Charles Borromeo, Peru, students of the Ball State School of Music, and the Reen Family String Quartet.

Two cardinals at Nellie Gray's Requiem Mass

Miss Nellie Jane Gray, founder and president of the March For Life in the U.S., drew two American cardinals to her traditional Latin Requiem High Mass:  Sean Cardinal O'Malley of Boston and Donald Cardinal Wuerl of Washington, D.C.

This writer was privileged to attend and sing Gregorian chant pieces with other men from the parish in the choir loft.  A quartet of professional singers sang Father Tomás Luis de Victoria's Missa Pro Defunctis.  Men from the parish were servers and MC.  Other priests were in choir with the cardinals and distributed communion wearing black stoles.  All clergy (including guests) in the sanctuary wore birettas.

Cardinal O'Malley was expected ahead of time.  He was a longtime friend of Miss Gray's, recalling how together they planned the first March in 1974.

Cardinal Wuerl was a major surprise.  As far as I am aware (please correct me if I am wrong, Pittsburgh TLM'ers), this was quite possibly the first public traditional Latin Mass he has attended since his seminary days in the 1960s.  Thank you, Nellie!

Two Farewells in the Austrian Church

In recent days the Church in Austria has bade farewell to two of its bishops. On January 13th, the Very Reverend Bishop Andreas Laun, O.S.F.S., formerly auxiliary bishop of Salzburg, was laid to rest in that city. On January 18th a Mass was celebrated in Vienna to bid farewell to His Eminence Christoph Cardinal Schönborn. Cardinal Schönborn is still among the living, and celebrated his farewell Mass himself. His resignation had not yet been accepted on January 18th, but it was expected that his resignation would be accepted today, January 22nd, his 80th birthday (as has now indeed come to pass). The two farewells contrasted in a number of ways.

Requiem in Manhattan

This past Thursday, a Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in New York City. The Mass was celebrated for the repose of the soul of Alexander Klucik, tragically killed in an accident in 2010 at the age of 19. 

Reminder for November 2

From a reader in New York:

There will be Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass at the faldstool for All Souls' Day in New York City at the Church of the Holy Innocents (37th St. and Broadway) on Monday, November 2nd at 6:30 PM. The choir will sing Victoria's Requiem for six voices. After Mass, there will be the Rite of Absolution at the catafalque.

This Mass will be the first Pontifical Requiem Mass in New York City since the Council. We all thought that maybe Cardinal Spellman's funeral might have been the last. But, interestingly, Cardinal Spellman's 1967 funeral was already entirely in English, the con-celebrants wore purple and the Dies Iræ Sequence was omitted. It provoked some controversy at the time.

Tapers will be distributed during the Mass to those in the Sanctuary as well as to the congregation.

The Pontifical Mass will be offered by Bishop James C. Timlin, Bishop Emeritus of Scranton.

This Saturday: Requiem for Queen Elizabeth in London

A Traditional Latin Requiem Mass will be held in London this Saturday in memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to mark a month since the death of the monarch.

The Sung Mass organized by the Latin Mass Society will be held at 11am at St Mary Moorfields church in the City of London. It will feature music by Tomas Luis da Victoria sung by the Southwell Consort directed by Gareth Wilson with the unusual accompaniment of Sackbutts and Cornetts.

Church location: 4-5 Eldon St, London EC2M 7LS; click for a map.

Nearest tube stations Moorgate and Liverpool Street.