RORATE CÆLI: New York

Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts

Happy Thanksgiving: "Either you go to church because you’re nice or you go and it makes you nice but either way it’s good."

Traditional Mass at a side Rosary Altar, St. Vincent Ferrer* (New York City)

"Words of thanks to someone I knew well as a child:

"I had an old great-aunt. She was my grandfather’s sister. Her name was Mary Jane Byrne but we called her Jane Jane. When I first encountered her, in the 1950s, I was a little child and she was ancient—about 60.

"She lived in New York and went to a local parish, St. Vincent Ferrer. When I was little she told me it was the pennies of immigrants that made that great church. I asked why they did that. She said, 'To show love for God. And to show the Protestants we’re here, and we have real estate too.'

...

"If we were together on a Sunday, she [great-aunt Jane Jane] took me to Mass. I loved it. They had bells and candles and smoke and shadows and they sang. The church changed that a bit over the years, but we lost a lot when we lost the showbiz. Because, of course, it wasn’t only showbiz. To a child’s eyes, my eyes, it looked as if either you go to church because you’re nice or you go and it makes you nice but either way it’s good.

A Victory for the Liberty of the Church in the Courts -- But When You Need to Count on the Bishops, Don't (John Rao)

Snatching Defeat From Victory

by Dr. John C. Rao

[For background: Judge rules New York churches can reopen in line with businesses.]

Chris Ferrara’s victory in the case he represented against the City and State of New York was the first really happy moment I have experienced in these three and one half months of medico-media mayhem. I could not wait to enjoy that victory with my fellow traditionalists at mass the Sunday after the judge’s decision.

But once again I was, as a friend frequently chastises me, “surprised by the obvious”. Why, in heaven’s name should I have thought that the bishops of the State of New York would be thrilled by Chris’s victory and make proper use of it? Sure enough, they were not, and did not. Twenty-four hours had not gone by before the following announcement was published: "The New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the bishops of the state, told CNA on Friday that churches would probably continue to follow state health guidelines for reopening, even though they are no longer bound by law to do so." The only thing that seems not to have been accurate in that statement was the word “probably”. It was definitely true. Our noble prelates had snatched defeat from victory.

There seem to be only two reasons for this craven episcopal sell-out, both of them rooted in a fear that does no honor to their noble position. The first is fear of lawsuits on the part of unscrupulous fortune hunters claiming that the church authorities, allowing bigger crowds than the State deems suitable, created a situation where they fell ill with the Plague. The second is a deeper fear: that of offending the Zeitgeist and the Cuomos and Di Blasios that administer its ever more willful, ignorant, perilous, and anti-Catholic demands. Supermarkets do not seem to be terrified by the lawsuits in question; the Successors of the Apostles in the United States are. Quite frankly, there is not a single opportunity for secular bootlicking that the bishops seem capable of resisting and which the grotesquely materialist and legalist world in which we live can provide some “practical” explanation for justifying.

Events: Third Annual Lepanto Conference, New York City, February 15, with Cardinal Zen

This is major news indeed!

The third annual Lepanto Conference will take place in New York City on Saturday, February 15, 2020, beginning with a Pontifical Mass in the traditional rite at the great Dominican church of St Vincent Ferrer (869 Lexington Avenue).

The Mass will be celebrated by His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, beginning at 11 a.m., and followed by followed by lectures and a procession. Lectures will be given by Cardinal Zen, Dr. Michael P. Foley, and Rev. George Rutler. Confessions will be heard at the Church of St Vincent Ferrer beginning at 10:00 AM.

Last year’s conference was a massive success, boasting 700+ in attendance. For more information, see the event's Facebook page.

You Suggest: Epiphany Solemn High Mass in NYC

Ten-hut! First Solemn High Mass at West Point for cadets in six decades

We received a short report from a reader on one of the more unusual places to see a Solemn High Mass take place:

There was a Solemn High Mass at West Point Academy on Friday, January 11, 2019. Captain Randy Shed asked Fr. Donald Kloster if he could organize the first Solemn High Mass at Holy Trinity Chapel in at least 57 years. Captain Shed then asked his pastor about the possibility of a Solemn High Mass at West Point. Rev. Fr. Major Sean Magnuson was very gracious to us and gave us the needed permission.

About 120 faithful attended in the pews. About half were from West Point Academy and the other half were civilians from New York and Connecticut.

You Suggest: Traditional Requiem Mass in Brooklyn

Note: Rorate has been to this wonderful Church many times in years past. Please make it out for this. And yes, you Manhattanites can go, you won't get lost ...

Event: Mass of the Seven Sorrows of Mary in Brooklyn

This church does not have a regular TLM, so please consider attending Friday night, and show support:

Solemn High Mass for feast of Saint Agnes

Event: Rosary Pilgrimage and Solemn High Mass in NYC

Event: Traditional Solemn Mass in NYC

Events: Three traditional Latin Solemn High Masses in NYC this Thursday!

A reader pointed out that there will be three traditional Latin Solemn High Masses for the feast of Corpus Christi this Thursday in New York City -- almost certainly the first time this has happened since the smoke filled the sanctuary.

We already told you about the Mass at Holy Innocents.

There is also a Solemn High Mass Mass and procession at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

Last, see below for info on the third Solemn Mass of the night:

Catholic Traditionalist Cultural Organization Founded in New York

The current crisis in the Catholic Church is rooted in part in a general cultural malaise. A renewal of genuine Catholic culture is thus one of of the things that would be necessary to overcome the crisis. We are therefore pleased to report the founding of The Lumen Christi Association of New York: Pro Fide et Cultura (LCA). As the LCA’s Mission Statement puts it, the organization was formed,

to address the educational and cultural needs of persons, institutions, and societies in accordance with the sacred traditions and sacramental life of the Catholic Church, LCA seeks to promote cultural solidarity, a higher law of liberty, the salvation of souls, respect for the ecological and moral order of nature, literacy in theological and liturgical matters, a reintroduction of the classical principles of art and architecture into public and religious space, and harmony between science and religion... Through prayer, persuasion, and action, LCA holds out the possibility of redeeming a sense of Christendom. To that end, LCA’s mission will be realized through conferences, seminars, and lectures, and through collaborative efforts both to support existing institutions and to found new ones consonant with LCA’s ideals and core beliefs.

The LCA’s first public event will be “An Evening to Benefit the Benedictine Monks of Norcia.”

Stripping a city of its churches: the greater act of iconoclasm that is "Making All Things New"

In recent weeks much attention has been paid to the unexpected removal of most of the icons that had adorned Christ the Saviour Church in Manhattan since 2005. Our friends over at 1 Peter 5 have a good rundown of the situation (Naked in New York: The Unceremonious Stripping of Our Saviour), which has been denounced by many Catholics as an outburst of iconoclasm. What is certain is that whatever the current pastor of the parish is up to, it is not merely the integral restoration of the church to its pre-Conciliar or a more "Roman" look: otherwise he will also have to remove the "ad populum" table-altar. No one seriously expects the same man who squelched his own parish's Traditional Latin Mass to take that step.

What is happening in Christ the Saviour, however, seems to be a small but fitting symbol for what is arguably a greater act of iconoclasm, broadly understood: the closure of numerous churches in the "capital of the world" and its environs. Today (August 1) is the day when "Making All Things New" takes effect in the Archdiocese of New York -- the latest and largest wave so far of parish closures and mergers in that Archdiocese. Two decrees (November 2, 2014 and May 8, 2015) announced that a total of 141 parishes (originally 143) out of 368 were to be merged into 68 new parishes. While some of the churches deprived of parish status are to remain open for regular Masses, a total of 39 churches (thirteen of them in Manhattan, including the only two of the 39 whose parishioners are currently appealing their churches' closure before the Vatican) will be effectively closed -- or, as the Archdiocese euphemistically puts it, they will become "church(es) which may be used on special occasions, (but) Masses and sacraments will no longer be celebrated on a regular basis." Of course, few actually believe that they will be kept standing for long. More ominously, "Making All Things New" foresees "evaluations" of every parish in the Archdiocese every two years, which means that more parish closures can be expected before long.

From the purely artistic and architectural point of view many of the churches are not significant, but some are real gems of the city, such as St. Stephen / Our Lady of the Scapular which is not only one of the largest Catholic churches in New York City but is remarkable for its frescoes (by Constantine Brumidi) and its copious amounts of stained glass.

St. Stephen / Our Lady of the Scapular. Closed today. Source.

Martin Mosebach: The Liturgy as a Window to Another World

Our friends at the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny recently sponsored a Solemn Mass at the Church of the Holy Innocents in New York City which was followed by a talk on the liturgy by the celebrated German novelist and advocate for the Traditional Mass, Martin Mosebach. This is a translation of a talk that Mosebach was asked to give by the Bishop of Limburg/Lahn on Ash Wednesday 2013.

I know it will give great delight to our readers, not only because of its trenchant analysis of the liturgical situation in which we find ourselves, but also because of the beauty of his style, which, mirabile dictu, comes across in the excellent translation.

The Liturgy as a Window to another World (1)

Martin Mosebach

(Address Given at Holy Innocents Parish, New York, May 12, 2015)

When it became apparent in the early 1950s that television sets would soon be in many households, German bishops deliberated about whether it would be wise to allow or even promote television broadcasts of the Holy Mass. Indeed, people thought about such questions sixty years ago and they asked the great philosopher Josef Pieper for an expert opinion. In his opinion, Pieper rejected such television broadcasts on principle, saying they were irreconcilable with the nature of the Holy Mass. In its origins, the Holy Mass is a discipline of the arcane, a sacred celebration of mysteries by the christened. He mentioned the lowest level in the order of priests – done away with following the Second Vatican Council – the ostiary, or doorkeeper, who once had to ensure that the non-baptized and those temporarily excluded leave the church and move to the narthex following the liturgy of the Word. The Orthodox still do so in some places; the call of the deacon, “Guard the doors” is heard in every Orthodox liturgy before the Eucharist. While in Georgia I once experienced this demand, often merely a ceremony of a recollected past, being taken literally. A monk approached me, fell to his knees and apologetically asked me to leave the church since I, as a Roman Catholic, was not in full agreement with the Orthodox Church. I gladly acquiesced as I think not everyone has to be permitted everywhere all the time. Sacred places and holy acts are first declared quite plainly by the drawing of boundaries and such boundaries must somehow be visible and palpable. Still, anyone who has not given any thought to the dubiousness of filming the Mass has perhaps on occasion felt uncomfortably moved when they saw believers receiving communion on television or as the camera rested on the face of a celebrant chewing the host. Are such feelings truly only atavistic, produced by ancient magical fears? Other cultures are also acquainted with an aversion to photography. It is as if it would disturb a spiritual sphere.

May 12: Solemn Mass and Conferences with Martin Mosebach and Luc Perrin in Holy Innocents, NYC. Free Admission.

On Tuesday evening, May 12, at Holy Innocents Church in New York City, the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny will sponsor a Solemn Mass followed by lectures from two leading European Catholic intellectuals.

From Father Richard G. Cipolla: As one of the Co-ordinators, I am so pleased to announce the official press release for the Sacra Liturgia Conference 2015. I know that our many readers will be interested in attending this Conference and will support it with their prayers.

From June 1-4, 2015, an international conference on liturgical formation in light of the new evangelization will be held in New York, under the title:

SACRA LITURGIA USA 2015

CULMEN ET FONS VITÆ ET MISSIONIS ECCLESIÆ

Holy Innocents in 1905

Thanks to a lot of prayer, Holy Innocents church in New York City will remain open. In fact, it will not even be merged with another parish or put to part-time use -- which means it has overcome absolutely amazing odds. Holy Innocents is nowhere on now-official lists affecting 112 parishes.

From the Archdiocese of New York's news release, which contains PDF documents of all of the mergers and partial closures:

Based on the input the cardinal received from the 368 parishes and 75 parish clusters (groups of about 4-7 neighboring parishes); a 40 person advisory committee comprised of clergy, religious men and women, and the faithful from across the archdiocese; the priest council; other close advisors and key staff, he has decided that:

1. All parishes will work together more collaboratively within their clusters in providing services and ministries

2. 48 parishes will merge with a nearby parish, resulting in 24 new parishes, with Masses and sacraments celebrated at both churches. There will be an evaluation every two years of these newly merged parishes, and every parish throughout the archdiocese. To accomplish this, the archdiocese has established a parish planning office, to be directed by Eileen Mulcahy.

3. 64 parishes will merge with a nearby parish, resulting in 31 new parishes, and while this new parish will have two churches, Masses and sacraments will only be celebrated on a regular basis at one church as of August 1, 2015.

Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York - New York Post, January 11, 1993

[Companion-post: Text censored by the Archdiocese of Washington.]

John Cardinal O'Connor, the former archbishop of New York, must be rolling over in the crypt of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Having successfully kept Catholic values in the annual Saint Patrick's Day parade, at least on social issues, his sermon on 17 March 1993 contained the unforgettable response to his many, many critics:

"Neither respectability nor political correctness is worth one comma in the Apostles' Creed."

The current archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, has taken a very different approach to traditional family issues.

[For context: "The Saint Patrick Day's Massacre".]

First, criticizing Rahner and Von Balthasar made a text disappear, forcing us to provide the first installment of the Catholic Samizdat.

Now, a mere commonsensical post apparently (apparently) brought down the entire website of the Archdiocese of Washington. [Update: removal confirmed.] So, here is the text, dated September 3, 2014, once available here:

Time to End the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the Al Smith Dinner?

By: Msgr. Charles Pope