I attended Mass today at a mid-island parish founded in 1914. The age of the church building was uncertain. It looked old from the outside, but the interior had some modern elements. Overall it was quite attractive, with beautiful stained glass windows and traditional Stations of the Cross. The mass was attended by about 200 people. About 65% seemed to be in their 60s and 70s, 25% in their middle age, with the rest a smattering of young families, which was surprising since this parish also has a school. The priest was American and quite young, perhaps no more than 35, so I was eager to hear him speak. Although it was obvious that he had faith, he really said nothing of any consequence. With tomorrow being the feast of the Immaculate Conception, he noted how Mary needed to be extremely holy in order to bear our Lord, and that we all need to let God into our hearts this Christmas season. That was it. It wasn't a stupid sermon; it wasn't heterodox; it was just extremely disappointing. The choice of music was uninspiring, rather than banal. The parish has a Bible study and some brief hours of Eucharistic adoration and novena which are, no doubt, attended solely by senior citizens, judging by the makeup of the congregation. Still, it seemed like the church was thriving, at least by the low standards of anemic modern American Catholicism. They paid off their debt and they were able to send over $8,000 to the Filipino typhoon victims. But when all the seniors die off, who will pick up the slack?
To me, this parish is at a place where a lot of failing parishes were 20 years ago. By the numbers it is successful. A stable neighborhood has resulted in a school with enough enrollment to pay for itself. The number of parishioners are enough to sustain the parish and throw a few nice parties a year. The people are cheerful rather than spiritually fervent in any way. Then the old folks start dying off. The young people go to high school and college, move away from home and fall away from the faith. If they marry at all, they marry late and artificially limit their families. Of the few that retain the faith, they will live somewhere else. A certain percentage of the retirees start moving to New Jersey or Florida. And then all it will take will be a city social service agency placed nearby, or a few dark faces moving in, and the neighborhood will quickly "change," and this model parish will then resemble St. Peter's or Immaculate Conception or St. Mary's. We've seen it all happen before.
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If only we had a church here like Our Lady of Fatima Chapel in Pequannock, NJ.
You know, I believe I met several people from that church when I did the pilgrimage to the shrine of the North American Martyrs in upstate NY. They are fervent and happy. I looked up their website (http://www.olfchapel.org/About/history.htm) to see how this chapel came about. It says that a group of lay people joined together, formed a civil corporation and purchased a Protestant church building. At first they were served by a SSPX priest, but they were also helped by other clergymen. An interesting Staten Island connection: one of those priests was the late Monsignor John J. Cleary, formerly of St. Mary's in Port Richmond. Monsignor Cleary wrote at least one hard hitting book, on the subject of sex education, and I recall older relatives talking about attending classes of his relating to anti-Communism. Coming back to the main point, it is that the people in NJ took action and joined forces. With Pope Benedict's decree, we don't have to go off and form our own chapel: a stable group in a parish is entitled to have their priest say the traditional Mass. However, the priest's attitude to that may still be negative. So unless we go off and buy our own church building and associate with a friendly priest, we're stuck with the priests we have. Nevertheless, we can be doing more than we're doing, eh?
You know, I believe I met several people from that church when I did the pilgrimage to the shrine of the North American Martyrs in upstate NY. They are fervent and happy. I looked up their website (http://www.olfchapel.org/About/history.htm) to see how this chapel came about. It says that a group of lay people joined together, formed a civil corporation and purchased a Protestant church building. At first they were served by a SSPX priest, but they were also helped by other clergymen. An interesting Staten Island connection: one of those priests was the late Monsignor John J. Cleary, formerly of St. Mary's in Port Richmond. Monsignor Cleary wrote at least one hard hitting book, on the subject of sex education, and I recall older relatives talking about attending classes of his relating to anti-Communism. Coming back to the main point, it is that the people in NJ took action and joined forces. With Pope Benedict's decree, we don't have to go off and form our own chapel: a stable group in a parish is entitled to have their priest say the traditional Mass. However, the priest's attitude to that may still be negative. So unless we go off and buy our own church building and associate with a friendly priest, we're stuck with the priests we have. Nevertheless, we can be doing more than we're doing, eh?
I looked at the website too; the parish does have a fascinating history, and as you pointed out, it seems to have had a uniquely organic development from pre-Novus Ordo to SSPX to FSSP, with uninterrupted celebration of exclusively TLM.
I've had no luck at Sacred Heart by email or phone; maybe it's just the holiday season. Perhaps, also, it's because I don't belong to that parish. Then again, I wonder--seeing the "spirit" of the new pontificate at work in the FFI affair--if there may be some trepidation about introducing a TLM for fear of consequences.
The parish to which I belong is in Richmondtown. Relative to other parishes on the island, I would say it is fairly traditional: no altar girls, communion under one species, usually only one (too many) emhc. It may even be that the emhc here is a carryover from a previous pastor. You may know more about the parish's history than I; I'm a revert to Catholicism (about 3 years ago) from evangelicalism so haven't been here long at all. From what I gather the previous pastor (early 1980's, I think) was quite radical: removed all statuary and buried them in the backyard of the rectory (current pastor dug them up) and even removed the tabernacle (current pastor, appropriately horrified by the act, restored it - unfortunately, through, not to the center).
One of the reasons I don't see much hope in lobbying for the TLM at my parish (at least now) is that the pastor (in his mid 80's now) has been informed of his coming retirement in August 2014. I have no idea who will replace him. The current pastor might be sympathetic - not sure - but I can't see him beginning to institute it now that he's about to leave. Maybe he remembers how to celebrate the mass, maybe not; I doubt he'll relearn it now, especially under the circumstances.
I would definitely attend any parish on the regularly were they to offer a regular TLM. If you find a priest who seems sympathetic, I will certainly join you in expressing interest etc.
I think I asked before, but do you know if it's necessary in Summorum Pontificum for a group of TLM advocates to work within their own parish? Or can they seek one out locally that seems more favorable and advocate there?
I'm going to open a blogging account soon so I don't have to post anonymously.
Anonymous- it would be of great interest to me and, I'm sure, to others, if you told us about how you came back to the Church, and maybe about what drove you away in the first place.
That's very disturbing to hear about how Sacred Heart is ignoring you. Fr. Jerome seemed enthusiastic about saying the Mass, and there was a great turnout. I wish I'd piped up and asked him directly when he planned to say the Mass again, but I was a stranger and he was busy talking with familiar parishioners.
I may have written about your parish before: http://statenislandcatholic.blogspot.com/2009/12/church-shopping-part-vi-sts-currier.html
You're probably right that the current pastor is unlikely to make any radical changes so close to retirement.
The Pope's Summorum Pontificum merely stated that the priest should say the Mass if a stable group of parishioners ask for it.
Not sure if this listing is correct, but according to Catholic New York, there will be a Latin Mass celebrated at Sacred Heart this Saturday 12/21 at 2PM. It seems kind of odd that the listing is from 10/3/2013 - before the last mass, which I think was on 10/13. There is no listing on this week's bulletin either. In any case, here's the link to the ad:
http://www.cny.org/stories/Latin-Mass-at-Sacred-Heart,10047
What a joke. 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon?? No mention in the bulletin? How can this be justified?
Strange indeed - and it wasn't a mistake after all: I called the parish office on fri. to confirm that mass would be celebrated: it's been postponed till January but no date/time has determined.
I can't figure out why it was advertised in a newspaper but not the bulletin.
Yes, unfortunately 2PM on Saturday seems to rule out satisfying the Sunday obligation.. even if it were celebrated weekly, there would be no way to attend TLM exclusively on the island.
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