After reading a lot recently about Vatican II and the suppression of the old Latin Mass, I looked into attending one on Staten Island. I wasn't exactly surprised that, according to the Latin Mass NYC website, there are no regularly or even irregularly scheduled Latin Masses on Staten Island. Sacred Heart hosts one every so often, usually around 3:30 on Sunday afternoon. The most recent one took place in the Spring of 2010. I wasn't able to attend that one, but according to a commentator on this website, there was a good crowd at a 2007 Latin Mass there, although mostly older. I remember back in the late 90s, Holy Family would have a Latin Mass in the chapel (not in the main church!) once a month, but that seems to have fallen into desuetude. There seems to be a website for the Staten Island chapter of the New York Latin Liturgy Association, but there is no useful information on it.
Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 motu propio, Summorum Pontificum, ordered pastors to provide the Latin Mass if a stable group of parishioners requested it. Under the Novus Ordo regime, it has never been easier to have access to the Latin Mass. Yet Staten Islanders either have no desire for it, no knowledge of it, or are so passive, timid and lacking in initiative that they are unable to actually do anything to bring it about. Whatever the reason, it's a sad situation that the "Mass of the Ages" is nowhere to be found, or seemingly wanted, on our "Holy Island".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
11 comments:
Hi my name is Ryan and I feel exactly the same way.I have lived here all of my life and find most of the clergy and nuns are quite liberal with some exceptions.I think a facebook page would be a good way to get Catholics who want a Tridentine mass on weekdays and holydays to get together.We would need to send a letter to Archbishop Dolan.He is a friend to the old liturgy.There is no reason after the Popes recent Motu proprios in 07 and 11 that we should not have a regular Tridentine Mass here for Catholics who desire it.Thanks U can email me at Ryan10306@aol.com
I agree. Would you please start such a Facebook page? I'd certainly join and contribute, as well as promoting it here. It would be good for Traditional Catholics to share information and to see that they're not alone here on Staten Island. However, as far as actually getting a priest to say it, I believe that the motu proprio require a stable group in a parish to request the Latin Mass from their pastor. It can't be a disembodied cyberspace group. It has to be a stable group of registered parishioners, personally known to the pastor. So, if anyone is interested in starting the Latin Mass, he would do well to start working among the people who attend his church.
I am currently working on trying to get the TLM said on SI -- in more than one parish and on a permanent basis. How do I going about getting folks to sign up? I don't belong to any parish simply because, with the exception of St. Christopher's, they are too liberal.
Anonymous: see my previous comment. The Pope's motu proprio requires pastors to willingly have the Latin Mass said at the request of a "stable group" of faithful in a parish. What a "stable group" actually means is not specified, but it certainly doesn't mean 1 guy whom the pastor doesn't know from Adam. The only thing to do is get involved with a parish and convince like-minded parishioners to see things your way and make the request for the Latin Mass.
St. Christopher's is one church I have not yet visited on my Church Shopping travels. Can you tell us about it? What about it makes you say that it is not liberal?
You guys should talk to FrPerez at St Charles. He is super traditional I know he is working on learning the Latin and teaching himself how to say the mass. Last I spoke to him about it which was about 5 months ago he said he was really close to having it down. He likes to give the final blessing a lot and in youth group constantly incorporates Latin. When he says mass at the convent at the school he likes to have the sisters and anyone else there chant the salve Regina in Latin. Overall the guy is super trad and is working towards being able to say the mass properly in Latin so there is hope!
I have been reading your website for years and I am so glad I came back tonight to read through your archives. After another blood pressure raising mass experience this morning, I am at my wits end. I am full of anger and despair at the state of our churches on this island. The comment by Anonymous on May 2, 2016 gives me some hope. I attend St. Charles only because of Fr. Perez. I too believe he may be the one to give us a regular Latin mass here. Out of all the priests and parishes I have attended, he, along with Fr. John at St. Anthony/Our Lady of Pity appear to be the most traditional and most reverent. My husband even commented recently that he is using Latin during the NO masses he says. I have been praying about writing a letter to the pastor St. Charles as I read here he learned Latin to say the mass at Sacred Heart. Perhaps if more of us contact both Fr. Perez and Fr. Jerome we may be able to get a Latin mass here. If not, I will soon be traveling to either Brooklyn or NJ to attend a Latin mass.
Thank you for the information and thank you for visiting this blog. Please comment more. Sometimes it feels like I'm shouting into the void!
I haven't been to St. Charles yet except for confession. I will have to go some Sunday soon. Fr. Jerome is now the pastor at St. Charles, so it is interesting that the parish now has two priests who are sympathetic to the Latin Mass and sympathetic to it. What does that portend? I reported on going to Fr. Jerome's extremely well-attended Latin Masses at Sacred Heart. Despite the obvious interest and support, it went from being held at 3pm on Sunday (a difficult time to go) to being relegated to early afternoon on Saturday (an even worse time which, in addition, did not fulfill one's Sunday obligation) to not being held at all. What happened? I suspect that the higher-ups in the archdiocese are passionate enemies of the Latin Mass and all aspects of Tradition- dogmatic, devotional and liturgical- and brought intense pressure down upon Fr. Jerome. Would he be more able to resist that pressure now? I don't know. I would certainly go to St. Charles if he could. But to get it started requires the "stable group" of parishioners as specified by Pope Benedict's motu proprio. What say you, St. Charles parishioners?
Do you think you could suggest a good spiritual director on the island? No one that I ask can seem to think of anyone traditional enough. I'm discerning religious life and have been looking for a spiritual director for some time now. All the priests I know seem to be liberal while the sisters at the school fall into the modernist heresy that Belloc speaks . I can't get solid advice anywhere.
I'm sorry, but I couldn't suggest anyone. I really don't have any close relationships with local priests. There are several who I have heard give good sermons; there has even been one or two who I have heard say brave things from the pulpit. There are the two mentioned above who have some affection for the Traditional Mass. But I couldn't give any advice as to who would be a good spiritual director. I fear that I am unaware of any who would even take on that role if asked. A relative of mine, a drug addict, left the Catholic Church when a priest rebuffed his request to sit down one on one and give him counsel. Sorry. I wish I could help.
So what's going on here? There are pastors (pastors!) on the Island that are champing at the bit to institute a regular TLM,. Fr Jack Soler at St Clement/St Michaels stands out to me as most willing, but there are others. I'm also sure that there are other priests on the Island that are willing
There a Facebook group yet? Have we identified our community yet? Recruited priests/pastors? Started talking up the TLM with NO Catholics?
Well, that's interesting that you have personal knowledge of a priest who is motivated. Are any of the congregation? No, there's no FB group as far as I can tell. Will you start one?
As I said in my original post, so long ago, "...Staten Islanders either have no desire for it, no knowledge of it, or are so passive, timid and lacking in initiative that they are unable to actually do anything to bring it about." I think we must be suffering from some sort of fog of demonic oppression that has been choking our island for decades, which needs to be dispelled with much prayer and fasting. We've become zombies.
Post a Comment