From a reader:
There will be a high Christmas midnight mass (missa cantata) at Immaculate Conception Church, 59 Walnut St., Fitchburg, Massachusetts. A musical prelude will begin at 11:30, with the mass beginning at 12 midnight.
It is hoped that this will be the beginning of regularly scheduled EF masses at this church.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
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May God bless that parish, I know Fr. Withoos personally and hope to see him again soon on the west coast! He’s a wonderful priest!
May I take this lead to mention another?
Albuquerque, New Mexico, San Ignacio parish, Traditional Latin Christmas midnight Mass; also TLM every Sunday noon. 575-243-4287 parish office.
See you there.
God bless Fr. Withoos, he’s a great priest, confessor and a gentleman.
I hope that this will kick off the E.F. and its “gravitational pull and do for the diocese of Worcester, MA what Mary Immaculate of Lourdes has done for the Boston Archdiocese.
Latin Mass finds Home
Immaculate Conception in Fitchburg is slated to be closed. Let’s pray that the TLM brings a renaissance of worship to the Catholics in North Central MA.
While there’s no such thing as an “EF” Mass, I wonder if anyone could tell me in which Diocese this T.L.M. (Traditional Latin Mass) will be celebrated?
P.K.T.P.
I’m there.
I believe it is in the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts.
I just went to the diocesan website. I did not see the parish in the only directory I found there (in a very cursory search). I did see three other parishes listed for Fitchburg.
I believe I was looking at the list of parishes that have their own website (that are known to the diocese) – not the list of all parishes. I googled the parish name and found several references that agree with the address given above.
Great news!
The Worcester Diocese has not added a single TLM since SP, while in Greater Boston, we have gone from one, at Holy Trinity, to over a dozen. The longtime presence of Still River seems to be taken as an excuse not to do anything at the Parish level.
I am curious, though (it isn’t a good or bad wish) as to why Geo F. is so happy the Mass in Newton is “gravitationally” drawing people back over the Diocese line from Still River. I understand perfectly why it is Cardinal O’Malley’s priority to have a local TLM for the MetroWest, just am curious as to Geo’s.
“j”: in Greater Boston, we have gone from one, at Holy Trinity, to over a dozen.
Holy Trinity has been “suppressed”. The “dozen” are monthly, or infrequent events. Newton (“MetroWest”) is, how shall I phrase it?, a dolor podicalis to get to.
The only TLM in Boston is the one in the basement of the cathedral. Welcome back to the catacombs. But O’Malley is still flogging his créole skills while the language, literature and liturgy of Jerome and Augustine languish and the church is further balkanized into a pother of petty patois.
Fumus Statane vere intravit in templum Dei!
“I am curious, though (it isn’t a good or bad wish) as to why Geo F. is so happy the Mass in Newton is “gravitationally” drawing people back over the Diocese line from Still River. I understand perfectly why it is Cardinal O’Malley’s priority to have a local TLM for the MetroWest, just am curious as to Geo’s.”
Dear j :
Immaculate Conception Church is in Fitchburg, Massachusetts which is in the diocese of Worcester, MA. I am happy when the TLM flourishes anywhere and everywhere. The Bishop of Worcester (MA,USA) has sent a half dozen priests from the diocese to St. Benedict Center for training in the “E.F.” of the Mass.
24 April 2008
Lastly, Still River has been a mainstay for those of us in Central MA. –The “Indult Center” for the diocese of Worcester (MA, USA). We’ve been going there for over 25 years.
PKTP: What do you mean there’s no such thing as an EF Mass? This is the title which His Holiness Benedict XVI gave us to use for the TLM.
Roland de Chanson –
“But O’Malley is still flogging his créole skills while the language, literature and liturgy of Jerome and Augustine languish and the church is further balkanized into a pother of petty patois.”
From what I’ve seen, the Cardinal Archbishop speaks the languages he knows, appropriate to the occasion and the groups he is with. That doesn’t seem to qualify as ‘flogging’.
Cardinal Sean has restored an emphasis on Latin to the archdiocesan seminary. That would seem to be the opposite of ‘languish’.
It has been my experience that the use of ‘patois’ can all-too-easily slide from an objective description of a language (as being a regional dialect, possibly without literary tradition) to being a characterization of a people or culture (as being in some way substandard), so I generally don’t use the word, myself. In this context, I trust you were not singling-out our Creole-speaking brethren in such a manner, but were in fact referring to any language (including English) – other than Latin, Greek, Arimaic and Hebrew – as a patois.
Roland de Chanson
[Holy Trinity has been “suppressed”. The “dozen” are monthly, or infrequent events. Newton (“MetroWest”) is, how shall I phrase it?, a dolor podicalis to get to.]
I don’t know where you are getting your information. You seem to be stuck in the anguished state of the Boston TLM community of a year and a half ago. There are several weekly Masses, several stable monthly (First Friday, Saturday, 4th Sunday, etc) Masses and in NH, a series of “rotating weekly” Masses.
Yes, the closing of Holy Trinity (technically, it was “merged” with the Cathedral) is and was a travesty, and the MetroWest TLM is only convenient and large enough for the MetroWest TLM community, BUT the TLM has expanded and become more accessible elsewhere in the Archdiocese through the expansion of TLMs in other Churches.
Yes, none of the Churches will equal Holy Trinity in beauty or size, so the TLM is becoming more spread out, but that may or may not be a bad thing.
Right on, j. Several of the other TLMs are at least weekly. I think Roland may have been saying that inside Boston city limits, though, the only every-Sunday TLM appears to be the one at the Cathedral (that started after Holy Trinity closed).
So far as I know, Holy Trinity was in fact suppressed – the decree can be found by following the directory links from the RCAB site to a HT site.
I think that it is very important that the TLM is available in many more places (in this Archdiocese) than it was just a couple of years ago.
I have no concept of the size of Mary Immaculate in Newton as compared to Holy Trinity, but the few photos I have seen (of the interior) suggest it has beauty (moreso than the Cathedral basement, anyway). I am almost certain that St. Columbkille (one of the other TLM locations, in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood) is larger than HT, though I can’t say much about beauty, having only been in their lower church (which is nicer than the Cathedral lower church)
Closer to the original topic, I’m glad to hear of expansion of availability of the TLM in
Worcester (diocese), as I used to live there, too.
Charivari Rob: …. I trust you were not singling-out our Creole-speaking brethren in such a manner …
I disdain to respond to your imputed contumely nor do I care to instruct you in basic linguistics. Vade in pace.
j,
It is a disgrace that Cardinal Seán (to use his preferred post-V2 hackneyed, vulgar and ignoble style of presbyteral nuncupation), who was educated by the Germans, should have suppressed (and “suppressed” is the correct term) Heilige Dreifaltigkeitskirche. It is scandal to see such a beautiful historic shrine sold off to be razed for a parking lot, a fast-food escitorium or to be converted into cubicula and cenacula for the local upscale sodomites, merely to pay off the buggery bills.
The rotating mensual, semiannual, sesquiennial, biennial and why-don’t-we-toss-a-liturgical-bone-to-the-affluent-boomers-before-they-croak TLM’s are but a sop for the hard-of-thinking. What you have to understand is that this is liturgical three card Monty: hodie vetus ordo, cras novus ordo, hebdomade proxima ordo Buddhistus Assisiensis.
The archbishop of Boston might have mandated a TLM in every parish in consonance with the wishes of the Holy Father, were he so inclined. Yet he has not. It is not rocket science to learn to say the true Mass. It is much harder to learn the role of Hamlet. Even mediocre actors such as I have learned both. Were O’Malley to mandate that a TLM be celebrated in each parish of the archdiocese by St. Patrick’s day, the Catholic religion would flourish again in Boston by Opening Day for Red Sox Nation. ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Interim schisma, divisio, e)/ris, dixotomi/a.
That should have been: Interim schisma, divisio, ????, ?????????.
I have no idea why Greek does not post on this site. Fr. Zuhlsdorf? The preview showed the (polytonic) Greek correctly. But when the post appeared, there were just question marks. Something to do with UTF-8 perhaps?
Roland: Yah… It has something to do with the change of server. That screwed up everything. We used to be able to post just about anything.
Charivari;
The largest TLM Church is the Cathedral Upper Church (3,000) – which has been used
Next largest is St Patrick, Nashua – (1500 capacity – has had 700 at TLM)
Then Holy Trinity, St Columbkille, and St Peter (Dot) (1000-1100 – each has held 700, and St C’s Lower Church has more seats, though it doesn’t look it)
Cathedral Lower Church, Mary Star of the Sea (Beverly), St Adelaide (Peabody), St Barbara, Immaculate Conception, Sacred Heart, all have capacities in the 5-700 range
Holy Rosary, Mary Immaculate, Margaret Mary/Sacred Heart are all in the 400-500 range (ie 350 is packed, at 420 people have to watch from outside)
j,
Thanks for the rundown. I’ve only been to a few of those places, so it’s nice to get a little bit of a sense of what’s where.
Has St. Peter’s had a TLM anytime recently? I’ve been there on occasion, but haven’t see any notice that they offer a TLM.
Rob;
yes, St Peter’s has. There are no regularly scheduled TLMs, but the Pastor has learned the Mass and said it publicly, and for special request.
St Peter’s is the only one on the list that is even close to Holy Trinity in beauty or suitability for the TLM.
… and yet another regular TLM will begin in January in Bellingham.
Thank you, j. I’ll have to keep my eyes and ears open for word of another one (at St. Peter’s).
Back to Fitchburg… Does anyone know if they are still on schedule for tonight? Were they among the many in that area of the state that lost electric service from the ice storm 12 days ago (a few of whom were still without power as of yesterday)?
The Traditional Midnight Mass was sung at Immaculate Conception Parish in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The choir sang “the Mass of the Angels” under the expert direction and organ accompaniment of Mr. Paul Jernberg, the founder of the new Catherdral Choir School in Worcester, MA. It was a sublime and joyful evening, bringing together the chanted propers, wonderful catholic architecture, pure voices, a stirring homily.
Congratulation to Immaculate Conception – couldn’t make it, but have heard that Fr Withoos and servers and choir(s) did a lovely Mass, a great blessing for the Worcester (and, it turned out, Boston) area.