Brick by Brick with the US Marine Corps

A note from a reader about a friend of mine, Fr. Aidan Logan, chaplain for the Marine Corps Camp Lejeune, NC:

Great news in the Wilmington, NC area – another Mass in the Extraordinary Form!  Fr. Aidan Logan (a Trappist monk/Navy chaplain) is a very holy priest, and was the Catholic chaplain at the Naval Academy during my last two years there (2005-2006).  He and I became good friends, and I ran into him in the Charlotte, NC airport before my pilgrimage to Lourdes last Summer.  He is one of the very patient priests (along with Fr. Parkerson) who "set me straight" towards the seminary while I was in college.

Here is Fr. Aidan in action.  I hope many Catholics in that area of NC can take advantage of this weekly Mass:
Here is the notice from the Diocese of Raleigh’s website:
The Forma Extraordinaria of the Mass will be celebrated every Sunday at the Catholic Chapel at Camp Lejeune beginning October 4.  Father Aidan Logan, one of the Catholic Chaplains on the Marine Base will be the celebrant.  At this time the Mass will be at 12:30 PM.
The Catholic Chapel is located in the St. Francis Xavier Building 17.  To get on the base, a temporary pass is needed and can be obtained by stopping at the Visitor’s Center.  A valid driver’s license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance are needed to receive a pass.

At present, five churches in the Diocese of Raleigh have scheduled regular celebrations of the Forma Extraordinaria:

Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh at 4:30 PM, fourth Sunday of every month.
Sacred Heart Church in Dunn at 12:00 PM every Sunday.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Rocky Mount at 6:00 PM every Sunday.
Saint Mary Church in Wilmington at 7:00 PM, the last Sunday of every month.  

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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13 Comments

  1. Thomas G. says:

    Oh, this is wonderful! I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC (II Marine Expeditionary Force)when Fr. Logan was also there (this was about 2003), and at the time the local Bishop had prohibited the saying of Mass according to the 1962 Missal – though it was permitted as a private Mass.

    Fr. Logan, as I recall, was a very good and orthodox priest. Even his homilies at the Daily Mass were excellent: he mixed together theological material, with a dash of Church history, with another dash of meditative/devotional material and a sprinkle of biographical detail from a Saint or two. Really good homilies.

    I remember with fondness coming into the empty Chapel for 12:00 PM Mass and seeing him in his Benedictine habit praying his Divine Office.

    And he had a wonderful “centrifugal” effect on the other priests on Base who tended towards frivolous innovation in the Mass. Just by virtue of Fr. Logan’s presence, they all tended towards a greater reverence in the Mass and a decreased tendency to improvise.

  2. That’s Fr. Logan celebrating at Assumption Grotto around Christmas. He comes each year to stay with a friend who is now in the Marine reserves.

    I was blessed to have Fr. Logan say a Mass for my mother days after she passed away this June. He happened to be in and did a low Mass outside of posted Mass time. He had to do Mass anyway, but I was touched that he would offer that Mass for my mother.

    If you want to see Fr. Logan with hood in a ceremony on Memorial Day, scroll through these Memorial Day 2008 photos.

  3. I should add, so that there is no confusion, the pic was during an Ordinary Form Mass, not EF that day. All of our Masses are celebrated ad orientem.

  4. Andy Lucy says:

    Oohrah. Good news.

  5. There must be an NCIS plotline in this. :)

  6. Lori Ehrman says:

    That is just fantastic! My husband is/was a Marine, trained at Camp Lejeune! Semper Fi!

  7. Bos Mutissimus says:

    I, too, was at CLNC in ’93 on a TAD at LSSS / 2nd FSSG. Thanks, Fr. Z., for the update; I’ve often wondered what happened to Fr. Logan (though I thought he was a Cistercian, not a Trappist — memory fails me). I concur with Thomas G.’s assessment, with one addition: Fr. Logan’s homilies were notably succinct. Not short, not abrupt, but simply devoid of any fluff whatsoever. Yes, he included all the elements mentioned above, but with a singular ability to remove superfluities and render a powerful, evocative homily. Don’t know where he went to Seminary, but he clearly got an “A” in Homiletics. He also wore his clerical collar under his cammies — great reminder that he’s a priest first & Chaps second. He probably did have a gravitational effect, with an exception here or there (there was one very misguided priest who gave me VERY BAD GOUGE in the confessional one time — which was hastily jettisoned. He should have hung out with Fr. Logan more). I returned to CLNC in ’97, and there were other really great Chaplains there at that time — Byzantine priest named Fr. Ken Yossa (with faculties for the Latin Rite). Fr. Y got Fr. Peter Stravinskas to come speak on liturgical matters at SFX chapel & together they offered the Divine Liturgy. Fr. Kevin Cusick was also at CLNC at the time — he offered an OF Mass in Latin once — really peeved the Base Chaplain! It was awesome! Semper Fidelis,

  8. irishgirl says:

    A Trappist and a Marine-oohrah indeed!

    Semper Fi…and my late dad was a Navy vet [WW II] !

  9. irishgirl says:

    I had a feeling, Father Z, that it came from Philip Johnson!

    How’s he doing on his brain cancer treatment?

  10. usmcretired says:

    For photos of the TLM at Camp Lejeune, please visit Wilmington Traditional latin Mass blog — http://wilmingtontlm.blogspot.com/

  11. RR says:

    Excellent!

    The Mass at the Cathedral is the first Sunday of every month, not the fourth.

  12. Fr. Logan is, indeed, Cistercian.

  13. “Trappist” is the common name for the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Ordo Cisterciensium Strictioris Observantiae – OCSO). It is distinct from the Order of Cistercians of the Common Observance.

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