ORIGINALLY POSTED 8 April
I am bumping this back to the top today: 12 April. Read the comments for how many signatures they have collected.
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At the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, where so many questionable things have happened, there is an effort being made to obtain celebrations of the older form of Holy Mass.
I was alerted to this:
Petition drive launched to have Latin Mass celebrated on campus
A petition drive has been started to ask that the traditional Latin Mass (called the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite) be celebrated at the University of St. Thomas.
The petition is located in Sitzmann Hall, home of the Center for Catholic Studies. The hall is located on the northeast corner of Summit and Cleveland avenues.
Students, staff and faculty are invited to sign the petition, which will be submitted to Campus Ministry.
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Dear Father,
Have you seen the commentary on St. Thomas at docsociety.org?
Happy Easter,
Andrew Favorite
Will wonders never cease? This is marvelous news, indeed. Thankyou Father Z for getting the word out. I am just so impressed by younger, lay
Catholics and priests, who seem to instinctively appreciate the beauty and sacredness of what was lost these past 40 years. Tom
Our diocese sends its few men half-way across the country to Minnesota.
It had a VERY bad reputation in past years and the formation I see
is just terrible. I see NO belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the
Eucharist in a number of our priests that were formed there for one
example. But I did hear that about 10 years ago, changes were occurring.
There is an excellend seminary in a nearby diocese but our diocese
refuses to send its few men to that ‘conservative’ place. It would
be deliciously ironic if the seminary they go to also becomes
‘conservative’ which is a bad word but its essence means FAITHFUL and with
the new Archbiship in MN, I expect it will be faithful.
We only have 31 diocesan priests left in our diocese at this time. There
is aid from priests from other countries and some orders to keep us
going.
Don’t jump the gun so quickly magdalen. I will agree that it was bad in the past. But now it is quite solid and VERY faithful, and has been so for a number of years now. Many “conservative” dioceses are sending their college seminarians to SJV, which is now the largest college seminary in the country. They have a holy hour every morning, with mass, and pray liturgy of the hours, rosary, and chances to pray the divine mercy chaplet together. You will also find Latin AND Gregorian Chant there. I know the St. Paul seminary under it’s new rector is very faithful and is producing solid Roman Catholic Priest. The young priests coming out of the seminary now, are the ones who are correcting and making their older fellow clergymen very nervous. To quote one priest i talked to “the young priests are coming out like raging bulls.” Please do a little more research next time. I understand your frustrations about it in the past, it was horrendous, but now it is fully faithful and Catholic, in the fullest sense of the word. Although I will admit a few teachers still need to go, but everyone is fully aware of that, and the seminarians know this as well.
I guess I can expect most of the SJV seminarians to sign the petition.
MN Seminarian, I have in fact witnessed the new priests coming out like “raging bulls”.
It is great to see the renewed faith of the new priests – there will be a continued
great revitalization of the faith in Minnesota – we just need to run out of town
some of the throwbacks to the 60s who don’t seem to stand for anything but
disrupting the Church.
May God Bless you in your vocation!
It’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out
But I did hear that about 10 years ago, changes were occurring.
with
the new Archbiship in MN, I expect it will be faithful.
The changes began occuring with Archbishop Flynn and he is responsible for bringing in the new rector, Msgr. Callahan. Archbishop Flynn must be given much credit for the turnaround in the seminary.
Not all SJV seminarians support the TLM. I do not expect many of them to sign it. Yes, there are very good, holy men there, but unfortunately, some of them are liberal when it comes to the Traditional Form of the Mass.
MN Resident
From what I imagine, SJV probably will not allow nor want their seminarians to get involved. They seem to always want to distant themselves from campus events, even in matters of faith.
The petition has been extended another week. There are already 45 signatures on it!
Does anybody know: what, if it exists, is the locus of Tradition on campus at UST? Are there particular people or groups, etc.? What, if any, faculty are known to be interested and friendly to Tradition?
I am not aware of any particular “locus” of “tradition” on the St. Thomas campus (if there is, it has sprung up very recently). This catagory does not really seem to fit the campus per se. I would say that this petition is more likely a fruit of the motu proprio itself. There is a Catholic Studies department that is known for being “orthodox” and has been doing quite well. There is also SJV. Additionally the philosophy department has a reputation for being level-headed. The campus has a notable group of what some might consider more “conservative Catholics” or what others are calling the “JPII generation.” They love the pope and they are interested in recovering Catholic identity. With the motu proprio, “JPII generation” Catholics are probably more comfortable approaching and asking for this aspect of the Faith. It is difficult to say what will happen with SJV. In a way it would be better if the signatures came primarily from non-seminary students, as the seminarians have Mass seperately from the rest of the campus (of course the more the better). I am interested to see how this turns out. Even if they get a good number of signatures, I wonder how campus ministry would respond. It would be an immense benefit to the St. Thomas campus to have this Mass. It is something every educated Catholic should be exposed to. The very fact that the petition is present on that campus is a sign that the motu proprio has already done a lot to change the attitudes of mainstream Catholics toward this form of worship.
Well the reason I ask is that I am joining the faculty of the philosophy dept next fall, so as of Fall 2008 there will be at least one Traditional Catholic faculty member there. I’d like to know of other Traditionalists around.
Well the reason I ask is that I am joining the faculty of the philosophy dept next fall, so as of Fall 2008 there will be at least one Traditional Catholic faculty member there. I’d like to know of other Traditionalists around.
Matthew Lu:
Contact ‘conversiaddominum@mailinator.com’ if you would
God Bless you Matthew Lu!! We need more like you on staff there!
Is there any talk of the TLM to be taught at the seminary soon?
What is the current count of signatures?
The total number on the petition is approximately 55 to 60 as of now. The philosophy department is unquestionably the most traditionally minded group of faculty on campus, at least in my experience. Sadly, faculty members of the Catholic Studies and Theology departments will not directly support for the petition for the Old Mass at St. Thomas.
Also, the petition in the Catholic Studies and Campus Ministry office is not the only petition being used. There are actually several petitions that will be combined at the end of the week. Other petitions are being circulated privately, but not within the seminaries. All I can say is that the number, as of now, stands at around 55 to 60 people.
Here is another good question for Fr. Z:
Can seminarians be counted as part of a stable community of the faithful for purposes of this petition?
Thank you for this post, Fr. Zuhlsdorf. From my experience with the statistics of the old Mass (which is considerable), I must say that I am troubled by the situation in Minnesota (and also for that in Michigan).
There are six sees in Minnesota, forming one ecclesistical province. Between fifteen and twenty years ago, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of St. Cloud gained every-Sunday Masses in the Traditional Rite (which is, of course, pace Benedict XVI, a separate Rite of Mass and not a form of the same Rite as that of the New Mass). Today, more than fifteen years later, there are still every-Sunday Traditional Latin Masses in those two sees AND IN NO OTHERS. There has been almost zero progress in at least fifteen years. To my knowledge, the Bishop of Winona has recently allowed some T.L.M.s but not on an every-Sunday basis. In most U.S. states, Summorum Pontificum has brought great improvements–but not in Minnesota.
Improvements in St. Paul & Minneapolis are certainly welcome, since this might prompt the other bishops in the state to encourage local priests to offer the Mass of Tradition. Something is needed in the Dioceses of Winona, New Ulm, Duluth, and even underpopulated Crookston. The same could be said for the Dioceses of Saginaw, Gaylord, and Marquette in nearby Michigan. Proximity to the Canadian border seems to dampen our prospects. On my side of that border, we have nothing for the very important Archdiocese of Winnipeg, which is not far from Minnesota.
P.K.T.P.
over 70 signatures!