The consecration begins

Posted on 29 June 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please pray for the consecrandus.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in SESSIUNCULA. Bookmark the permalink.

28 Responses to The consecration begins

  1. Quantitative Metathesis says:
    29 June 2009 at 2:56 pm

    Hey! I know that guy in the second picture! :-)

    Prayers, etc., for the new episcopus.

  2. Cathy_of_Alex says:
    29 June 2009 at 3:36 pm

    Wow! Looks like a lot of clergy were in attendance. QM must attend a lot of Masses ad orientem, she only recognizes priests from the back! LOL!

  3. Quantitative Metathesis says:
    29 June 2009 at 4:43 pm

    Cathy, that’s enough out of you. (Actually, I’m better at recognizing seminarian backs of heads…sed de hoc alias, as Cicero would say.) ;-)

  4. Larry says:
    29 June 2009 at 5:53 pm

    i may be stupid but where is this and what is this?

  6. David O'Rourke says:
    29 June 2009 at 6:19 pm

    That’s an impressive looking cathedral with a fine looking High Altar and an unfortunate array of cassock albs (calbs). I wonder if, during the Year for Priests we might see a revival of the cassock and surplice.

  7. prof. basto says:
    29 June 2009 at 6:42 pm

    Larry,

    It’s an episcopal consacration. Fr. Z commented on it in a previous post.

  8. Victor says:
    29 June 2009 at 7:08 pm

    Shoudn’t everybody stand during the conferring of a sacrament? I ask this out of interest.

  9. Nan says:
    29 June 2009 at 7:12 pm

    David, the priests were in charge of dressing themselves and had whatever they had. You actually don’t see the unfortunate things in the photos. Which is good. And if they did wear cassock & surplice there would be no way of differentiating them from the altar servers, MC’s and furniture movers.

    Larry, it took place at the Cathedral/Shrine of St. Paul. In St. Paul.

    I was seated somwhere to the left of the photos in which the Cathedra appears.

  10. AlwaysCatholic says:
    29 June 2009 at 7:43 pm

    “And if they did wear cassock & surplice there would be no way of differentiating them from the altar servers, MC’s and furniture movers.”

    Actually, Nan, at the EF the priests that “sit in choir” do wear cassock and surplice. How do you tell the difference between the priests and the minor clerics et al.? They are the guys with the black birettas on! :)

    Respectfully,

    Sophia

  11. Nan says:
    29 June 2009 at 8:01 pm

    Victor,

    We did as we were directed. A team of liturgists ran the show. Those priests know what they’re doing.

  12. Nan says:
    29 June 2009 at 8:16 pm

    Sophia, this wasn’t the EF so no birettas.

  13. problem says:
    29 June 2009 at 8:16 pm

    I was there today. It was a beautiful consecration.

  14. Animadversor says:
    29 June 2009 at 8:19 pm

    A team of liturgists ran the show. What unsettling words.

  15. Legisperitus says:
    29 June 2009 at 8:49 pm

    I’m happy we’re living in a time when the consecration of a new American bishop is an occasion for great hope. Not like in the days of Davros (a/k/a Jadot). Oremus pro consecrato.

  16. Agnes says:
    29 June 2009 at 9:33 pm

    Ah, but they were GOOD liturgists. I have to say, from my vantage point in the vestibule and the back steps, it was STUPENDOUS!!! (ok, that’s saying a lot, but I offered chasing a squirmy, noisy 17 month old for FOUR HOURS for the new bishop. At least I can say we were there.) Hooray for Piche!!!
    Nienstedt found some good help!

    And it was nice to run into you, Fr. Z.

  17. catholicman says:
    29 June 2009 at 10:12 pm

    I thought I spotted the infamous Fr. Z during the entrance procession! What a great celebration today, I especially enjoyed the Veni Sancte Spiritus and Ave Verum during communion. So happy for Bishop Piche and our Archdiocese with him and Archbishop Nienstedt leading us!

  18. Sue says:
    29 June 2009 at 11:28 pm

    Father, at 2:14 when these were posted you’d probably just been seated. Were you really blogging during Mass?

  19. Ray from MN says:
    30 June 2009 at 11:58 am

    Yesterday was the consecration of Father Lee Piché, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as Auxiliary Bishop of the archdiocese. Over 3,000 (S.R.O.) in attendances, perhaps 250 priests (who vested themselves in alb and stole), 100 Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus, perhaps an equal number of Knights of Malta and Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and their Dames, untold number of religious sisters and brothers, ecumenical guests, friends and family and parishioners of the archdiocese.

    “The Liturgists” in charge of major events at the Cathedral/Shrine of St. Paul are some of the brightest and most solid young priests in the archdiocese. Seminarians from our St. Paul Seminary served as acolytes.

    The music was provided by the St. Agnes High School Concert Chorale and Chamber Choir, their Schola Cantorum and members from the choirs at the three parishes where Bishop Piché had served as a priest. They even sang a Te Deum, the first time I had been present for one.

  20. Agnes says:
    30 June 2009 at 1:39 pm

    And it was a glorious day!

  21. Noel says:
    30 June 2009 at 5:02 pm

    The current rite is defined as ‘ordination’ of a bishop rather than consecration; as the priests gathered are concelebrating Holy Mass, they are correctly vested in alb and stole as a minimum. Not many places have resources to vest all concelebrating priests in such numbers in chasubles.
    I am mystified, however, why some have white stoles: I would have thought for this occasion, organisational instructions would have been sent out detailing vesting, gathering, seating, etc. details.

  22. Alex says:
    30 June 2009 at 6:19 pm

    The stole is that which makes priests and deacons stand “out” in OF “Choir Dress”. White stoles are an acceptable subsititue if there aren’t enough of the proper color or if one is ( which I don’t understand) unsure of what to wear. I am curious to know why they wear in red. At priestly ordinations the color is white.

  23. Noel says:
    1 July 2009 at 3:57 am

    Red for the Solemnity of SS Peter and Paul, where, presumably, the readings appointed for the day took precedence. Red is used also for the requiems of Cardinals and Popes, symbolic of the blood of the apostles spilled in martyrdom.

    In our Archdiocese, the dates for episcopal ordinations have usually been set for a suitably close apostle’s feast day, in fact, St Thomas for all the auxiliaries in my memory, as my Archbishop recently pointed out, highly significant as the apostle who doubted to remind the new bishop to turn around any failings he might have to an attitude of deep faith and belief.

  24. Ron Draganowski says:
    1 July 2009 at 11:30 am

    Fr. Z, I wish we would have known you where there. Though I’m quite certain that an “introduce the concelebrants” would have been outside the missal and would have added to the 2.5 hour long liturgy.

    What did you think of the Te Deum by Victoria? Sort of a debacle regarding coordination of planners and music folks. The MC came to the choir loft just was we were finishing and gave the “cut” signal. It was VERY long, granted. In the Archdiocese only St. Agnes folks are used to waiting 10+ minutes for a sacred choral piece to complete.

  25. Greg Smisek says:
    1 July 2009 at 2:23 pm

    Noel may wish to consult the Catechism regarding consecration as another name for ordination and the V2 Fathers on the matter of episcopal consecration. Also, while there was some confusion at the time of the death of Pope John Paul II of happy memory, red vestments are used only by the Pope and other celebrants, concelebrants, and deacons within the papal basilicas; elsewhere the vesture for any Mass of the Dead, even for a Pope or a cardinal, is restricted to the usual black, violet, or, where approved, white (see GIRM (IGMR 2002, GIRM-USA 2003), n. 436 and Ceremonial of Bishops, nn. 822 and 1162).

  26. Greg Smisek says:
    1 July 2009 at 2:26 pm

    Alex missed the fact that the priests in Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s photos are concelebrants, and, as such, they are not wearing choir dress, but sacred vestments (GIRM (IGMR 2002, GIRM-USA 2003), n. 209). As Noel suspected, a solemnity prevents a Ritual Mass (see Ceremonial of Bishops, GIRM, n. 372) and even a feast of an apostle prevents the Ritual Mass for Holy Orders (Ceremonial of Bishops, n. 494).

    I’m curious where the notion that “White stoles are an acceptable substitute if there aren’t enough of the proper color or if one is … unsure of what to wear” comes from, other than an aesthetic practicality.

  27. Alex says:
    1 July 2009 at 8:40 pm

    Greg,

    I put Choir dress in quotes because we rarely see priests in true choir dress.Also, the alb and stole is used for concelebration and adminstering other Sacraments. I agree with you Greg that is must be an aesthetic practicality which permits the use of white as a substitute. Most priests bring their own albs and stoles. Another logical guess is that Father wasn’t mindful of the fact the Ritual Mass couldn’t be said that day.

  28. Greg Smisek says:
    2 July 2009 at 1:19 am

    Actually, my point is that white is not an all-occasion “acceptable substitute” for the proper color. I’m pretty sure it’s an urban legend, born of sloppy liturgical praxis, with no basis in liturgical law (I’d be happy to see evidence to the contrary).

    On the other hand, “On more solemn days, sacred vestments may be used that are festive, that is, more precious, even if not of the color of the day” (GIRM, n. 346g). So in the case of Father Z’s photos above, the obvious problem is that the concelebrants are all oriented ad apsidem, with their backs to the camera, hiding from our view the lush gold and silver ornamentation on the front of each of these precious white stoles. That, or they missed the memo.