I received this news. It is posted on Una Voce of Western Washington.
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter is Coming to Seattle!
A new parish will be formed, with permission from Archbishop BrunettOn September 28, 2008 Archbishop Alex J. Brunett announced his invitation to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter to form a personal quasi parish in the archdiocese of Seattle. The new parish will be named "the North American Martyrs." Fr. Gerard Saguto FSSP has been named priest administrator.
Fr. Saguto FSSP arrives in Seattle the week of October 1st and will begin offering Mass at St. Joseph Chapel (located in the Josephinum) until a more permanent location is found. His first Mass in Seattle will be on Sunday, October 5th and it will be a sung Mass. Sunday Masses will continue to be at 9:30 AM – confessions begin 45 minutes prior. Daily Mass will be at 7:00 AM – confessions 20 minutes prior, except for Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, during the next month and a half (through November 11th), Fr. Saguto will offer Mass at Holy Family Parish, 9622 – 20th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98106 at 7:30 PM.
The establishment of a personal parish has been our (Una Voce of Western Washington) organization’s prayerful goal for over twenty years and we offer our sincere thanks to Archbishop Brunett for his granting of permission to invite the FSSP into the archdiocese. We are also thankful for the support, leadership and generosity of FSSP Superior General Fr. John Berg, and the FSSP North American District Superior Fr. Eric Flood for bringing this apostolate to our area. We are blessed, and so very grateful.
Brick by brick.
I remind all pastors that, personal parish in the diocese notwithstanding, you all have the right to implement Summorum Pontificum in your parishes without special permissions.
Let no one forget this.
Now that Summorum Pontificum is a year old, we are seeing that the provisions of Ecclesia Dei adflicta are being implemented.
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I heard Fr Saguto preach once. Outstanding!
Dear Fr. Z,
I don’t think personal parishes are the Right Way.
EF guethos are not going to save the liturgy. EF has to be proposed along with OF
in order for the OF to get influenced by it.
Summorum Pontificum deals with mutual enrichment, doesn’t it? How does a personal
parish helps with this?
Let’s face it: in no way the EF is going to be the future OF. If any, the Reform
of the Reform will be based on the OF.
So the best way to help our Holy Mother Church is to help the Pope
reparing the OF. And the best way is certainly not running away from it!
Regards,
PS: not a native English speaker
I have to say, on hearing the various announcements of new apostolates or personal parishes being staffed by priests from FSSP and ICK, I am left wondering if they don’t have an endless supply of priests just waiting to be sent to new places! It seems like they have opened up so many new sites in the past year!
I think that a scattering of personal parishes will be necessary to model the whole liturgy for a long time – most parishes will offer only the occasional Extraordinary Form sacrament other than Sunday masses (a wedding here, perhaps more frequent funerals). So the EF personal parishes will be laboratories for diocesan priests to study.
I, too, hope the EF groups aren’t over extending themselves!
Father, can you spare a brick?
I have recently come across a statement in the diocesan policies of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph which states that public Masses (cum populo) may be celebrated within the diocese outside the oratory (of Old St. Patrick – ICKSP) with the EXPLICIT permission of the Bishop. While this does not strictly jibe with Summorum Pontificum, since no permission is necessary according to that document, I understand the ordinary’s reasoning in that His Excellency wants to strengthen the life of the newly-created oratory (which will be re-dedicated on October 25!)
I had also heard that the ordinary had signed an agreement, when His Excellency created the oratory (pre- SP), that no regularly-celebrated TLM would be permitted within 50 miles of the oratory.
Again, I understand the reasoning, but I wonder whether such regulations can be binding since Summorum Pontificum.
Being from a diocese which also has just recently (last week) announced the opening of an FSSP personal parish, I am happy about the news from Seattle. However, I also wonder if it is really a case of being generous, or of maneuvering to isolate the EF. In our case, given that the Bishop has also been very supportive of the other 4 parishes in the Diocese that have begun EF Masses so far, I see it as being generous in our case. If it were the case that the Bishop discourages other parishes from offering EF Masses “because there is already a personal parish for that”, then I would be suspicious. The situation mentioned above in Kansas City seems to be more of that case…
Why, Oh Why can’t Bishops just do what they’re supposed to do? Or rather, NOT DO what they’re supposed to NOT DO!!
Thank you Fr. Z for publishing this news. Here in Seattle, we are most grateful to Archbishop Alex J. Brunett for this personal parish permission and very much appreciate the FSSP (Superior General Fr. John Berg and North American District Superior Fr. Eric Flood) in providing us an absolutely excellent priest in Fr. Gerard Saguto. With the Grace of God this apostolate will grow and be successful with prayers and inspiration through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We hope that progress in our locale will encourage other places and situations where there has been little reason for past optimism. Deo gratias!
QuaerereDeum :
Your arguements look good on paper but the devil is in the details.
The advantages of a “personal parish” are many.
1) The TLM doesn’t get relegated to 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. The TLM is at 10 or 10:30 Sunday morning when it’s convenient for most people and one can fast from midnight if they desire.
2) The sacraments are done are according to the old method. No need to fight about methods.
3) No need for church alterations. No pushing tables around and carrying in prie duies before and after mass.
4) Everyone is on the same page. No one needs to feel inferior for their prefrences, from the chior to the alter servers to the priests.
5) Daily TLM
I’m sure there are other reasons also.
As for the “influence” arguement. Many people from nearby, and not so nearby, parishes not only come to mass at the “personal parish” I attend, but also take advantage of the other services and devotions. First Friday is well attended by people from other “parishes”. Father’s teaching classes are well attended by non parish members. Often family members that attend a baptism, first Communion, confirmation, Midnight Mass or other function are impressed and come back for more.
If you like frustration and beating your head against a wall then feel free to have a combined parish. I’ll pass.
BTW- We miss you Father Saguto and we have been, and will continue to, pray for you. Pray for us! I know you do.
Father Saguto stopped over for a few days at St. Stephen the First Martyr in Sacramento on his way to Seattle. He celebrated our sung Mass on Sept. 28 and gave the most wonderful sermon on marriage I’ve ever heard. Seattle will be blessed to have him. Re: personal parishes – Probably because St. Stephen’s, with a base of over ten years since inception before becoming a parish, has such a stable background, it is a training ground. It has been the one solid parish in the western states, with almost 1000 families now coming from 17 surrounding counties, and a jr. high-high school academy in the classic tradiion. It seems that we get “newly minted” priests for a year or so. They are well able to take off on their own then, having a full parish experience. Father Deprey, now in Vancouver, has his first full parish training at St. Stephen’s, and there are several more. I think that is one of the best reasons to have personal parishes, to fledge our “baby birds” and send them flying off to build their own nests.
Another advantage to the personal parish is building community. I know this sounds like a catch phrase, but in our parish it helps to have a whole community with common goals. It provides a safe place for our children to learn about the traditions of the church. As new people come to the parish they learn the traditions, latin, chant, etc. For most of us, raised novus ordo, we must learn much before we can teach others.
I know Fr. Saguto will do much good in Seattle, thanks be to God!
“Now that Summorum Pontificum is a year old, we are seeing that the provisions of Ecclesia Dei adflicta are being implemented.”
Not out here in the land of Kim Jong Mahony Il. For us , an “itinerant” priest going around the diocese saying the Tridentine Mass here and there does not implementation make. :(
Eric:
Speaking about the Devil, it\’s the one who divides people!
I guess such guethos makes him happy.
You\’re talking about your personal advantages, I\’m dealing with helping
the Church getting back to something better. We\’re not speaking the
same language.
Running away from OF parishes is the easy way, and leaving the
OF faithfuls alone is in no way helping the Church.
No matter I have to beat my head against the wall, it\’s the price I
have to pay as a catholic. Following the Christ is no the easy way.
Just returned from the Mass — crowded — I am old and crotchety and could not find a seat — too many twenty somethings and too many infants and children all of whom seemed to be teething at once. Chant was acceptable.
I don’t know what the personal parish means in this case. The extraordinary rite is offered weekly on Tuesday evenings in a large parish south of town — and last month at Blessed Sacrament — an old style inter-city block long church — the Dominican Rite solemn high was offered to standing room only crowd also with too many teens and twenty somethings and teething infants for me to find a seat — I was really crotchety.
Whatever it means in practice I trust the current Archbishop Brunett because he is known for his fidelity to Rome and the Pope and it shows. Since coming here he has re-stocked the seminaries with what appear to be good manly prayerful men; has created an endowment to preserve our Catholic schools; and is starting parishes when other diocese around the country are closing theirs. (We have also been scandal free for years and the secular media has learned to keep its Catholic bashing stories to themselves because this guy bashes back, Irish style…)
All in all the Mass today — except for the crowding and crying — it was a wonderful.
I went this morning to Fr. Saguto’s first Mass in Seattle. He is a holy priest and we are blessed to have him. The parish is filled with so many young families and I am 22, having just moved to Seattle a month ago.
Our focus now is to find a site for our parish because we are currently downtown in a chapel in a low-income housing high-rise apartment building that is owned by the diocese. Parking is hard to find and downtown Seattle is not really a family friendly place. Plus, weekday parking is terrible, and many people live about an hour away since this is the only TLM in the diocese so it is hard to have a parish life.
QuaerereDeum:
Sorry I’m late to the discussion.
I have experienced both ways. Influence doesn’t equal arguement. The best influence is by example.
You are right, we are not speaking the same language. BTW in English it’s Ghetto.
Ghettos imply seperation. On any given Sunday there are more visitors at the Latin Mass “personal parish” than any other parish in the deanery.
You do it your way, I’ll do it mine.
I have to agree with Eric, and not just because we were members of Fr. Saguto’s practically-personal parish near Brookville, IN, for two years before Fr. moved to Seattle. I had been to the TLM in Cincinnati and Dayton several times, and it was indeed everything you could want in the old Mass. Coming to the apostolate in Brookville, though, our family found the full complement of the Sacraments in the older form, not to mention a thriving, traditional parish, and all the extra helps to keep a parish centered on Christ, including married men’s and women’s solidarity groups, Sacramental preparation classes, evening catechetical lectures, and youth classes and groups. So much more than simply a once-a-week “permitted” Mass, it’s the model of what every parish should be at its heart, leaven among the flat and stale “faith communities” that too many of our diocesan parishes have sunken to.
Also, I heartily agree with all the kind words about Fr. Saguto—o bone pastor! He is a devout and holy priest and a dear friend, and he is sorely missed in Indiana. A great comfort—Deo gratias—is our new pastor, Fr. Pikus, whose first few sermons, filled with wry wit and rock-solid Catholic teaching, promise great things to come.
Yours in Christ,
Clayton
Gloria, we don’t have a thousand families at St. Stephen’s. A thousand parishioners maybe, but not a thousand families. We can only seat a little over 350 for each Mass.
Fr. Saguto is, indeed, a fine priest. We live exactly 120 miles each way to St. Alphonsus and the FSSP parish. The wife and I debated about becoming members and have finally decided to join. The distance is a real killer. But to off set the cost somewhat we have the Dominican Rite once a month near where we live.
As the Archdiocese of Seattle stretches from British Columbia to Oregon and from The Pacific Ocean to the Cascade Mountain crest, there is NO WAY that one parish will fulfill the needs of traditional Catholics. Its a 7 hour drive from one end to the other.
As this Thread is several months old, I suppose its safe to say that Fr. Saguto has performed a small miracle with his accomplishments. I haven’t seen such work ethic in years. Most race horses would get tired just watching him. a truely fine and holy priest.