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Seminary TLM training? A shout to seminarians!
It has been over two years since Summorum Pontificum went into effect.
That is more than enough time for seminaries to get with the program and start providing both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form.
In the Brick by Brick department, this comes from our attentive friends at Rorate who are all over this great news from the Netherlands:
Dutch seminary to offer a course on the TLMThis leads me to wonder….
The website of the St. Willibrord seminary in the Tiltenberg, the Netherlands has announced that it is establishing a course for priests and seminarians on how to offer the Traditional Latin Mass. St. Willibrord’s is the major seminary of the Diocese of Haarlem.
The following is a translation of the announcement on the seminary website. Emphases mine. (H/t to There was a boy):
On 7 July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI published the Apostolic letter "Summorum Pontificum". In it the pope decides that the Roman Missal of Pope Saint Pius V, which was rereleased in 1962 by Blessed John XXIII, would now be the extraordinary expression of the same "legis orandi" of the Church and would be kept in suitable regard because of its respectable and ancient use (art. 1). The Saint Willibrord seminary at the Tiltenberg will therefore organise a course for priests and seminarians to learn this rite, to be announced on the day of continued formation for young priests on Monday 2 November.
In his motu proprio, Pope Benedict XVI emphasises that liturgy is an expression of faith, so that liturgy and prayer define faith (lex orandi, lex credendi). This is why the Church asks that liturgical texts, such as prayers and also the acclamations, be authorised by Church authorities, and why the Second Vatican Council emphasised that no one can change, remove or add liturgical texts on their own authority (Sacrosanctum Concilium 22, par. 3). The importance of this decision becomes immediately clear when one considers the close bond between the faith of the Church and its expression in the liturgy.
In the education of priests and deacons special attention is paid to students becoming thoroughly acquainted with the liturgical books and the practice of the several priestly and diaconal liturgical duties, including in the first place Holy Mass, but also the other Sacraments, Adoration, Vespers, blessings, funerals and so on. The appointments which are received in the course of their education, chiefly that of acolyte, must also be practised. The seminarians will receive this practice from the priest who is responsible for this in the seminary: drs. F.J. Bunschoten. In this, he’ll be assisted by Deacon J. Versteeg, who will be mostly working with the candidates for the permanent diaconate. The seminary’s MC, Rudy Kinds, will assist him in this. The priest has been mastering the Tridentine rite and gained the required knowledge and abilities to practice this rite with other priests and the candidates for Holy Orders.
For more on the seminary of St. Willibrord, please read this.
Some videos of the cantores of this seminary singing Gregorian chant are available on Youtube.
I want to ask seminarians out there to send me an e-mail about what is going on in this regard in their seminaries. Tell me about availability of Extraordinary Form Masses and training for same at your seminary. Tell me about the use of Latin in the Ordinary Form as well. Seminarians: be brief, and write what you write in such a way that I don’t have to "anonymize" it too much. I would like to name your seminary, but I of course will not identify you.
It has been over two years since Summorum Pontificum went into effect.
That is more than enough time for seminaries to get with the program and start providing both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form.
More than enough time.
If they are providing seminarians with training by now… there must be some problem.
More than enough time.
More than enough time.
Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis (www.kenrick.edu) began EF training two years ago under the guidance of the former Archbishop of St. Louis Raymond Leo Burke and the rector, Rev. Msgr. Ted Wojcicki. At that time it was the custom to have Holy Mass every other week in the EF with OF in Latin every other week, switching off. Likewise, there was the availability of private instruction in the EF. There was also Holy Mass in Spanish each week. One chapel in the seminary is a dedicated space for the EF. The seminary faculty (including the rector), as well as the students, spent time learning the EF with particular focus on the transitional deacons.
Comment by Father S. — 7 November 2009 @ 11:01 amI have received some good notes from seminarians. They will have to wait since I am out walking around in sunny crisp NYC.
Comment by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf — 7 November 2009 @ 12:49 pmIf this is happening in the Netherlands, St. Michael and Holy Mary are surely at work…brick by brick, as you say, Fr. Z. This is amazing and encouraging news.
Comment by nazareth priest — 8 November 2009 @ 12:06 amAs for seminaries in the US; it is all up to the powers that be. And hopefully, they are beginning to realize the importance of this very issue. I cannot comment candidly on my own experience, unfortunately, as a former teacher in a seminary.
Seems to me the simpelist thing was to instruct (and made sure was carried out) the Seminary’s to return to the training that was done prior to Vatican II and then the latin,liturgy,devotions,traditions, etc, etc, would have been learned. But I suppose that made to much sense, which we seem to have lost these last 40+ yrs.
Comment by ssoldie — 8 November 2009 @ 4:50 pm