Continuing with our occasional look at traditional Latin Mass churches we have visited, here is an absolutely gorgeous parish in Cleveland, Ohio, in the U.S.: Saint Stephen on West 54th Street.
The German church, on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, has a Missa Cantata each Sunday at 9:30 a.m. The pastor, the Reverend Father S. Michael Franz, hears confessions and the Reverend Father Bede Kotlinski, OSB, offers the Mass (as he has done since the TLM was resurrected here in 2008). Mr. Nathan Marinchick directs the Gregorian chant schola, which for the Tenth Sunday After Pentecost consisted of four men singing Mass XI, Credo I and the propers, accompanied by pipe organ. The beautiful organ also filled the church before, during and after Mass. Ten acolytes processed into the sanctuary to assist with the solemn form of the Missa Cantata.
The photo below shows the high altar, which won first prize in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The second photo shows Mass this past Sunday. The third photo shows the celebrant delivering the sermon. After the Gospel, the custom here is for the priest to remove his chasuble and maniple, put on his biretta, and, flanked by two acolytes, walk to the pulpit located within the nave.
This church barely escaped being shut down by the Diocese of Cleveland in the most recent round of closures. Deo gratias!
