No Longer Hidden In The Catecombs
Last gasp of the Neo-Anglicans?
Great news from my hometown. And this from one of the more theologically liberal, anti-Traditional diocese in America. Here's some of the article from The California Catholic Daily;“Waiting for this for years”
San Diego bishop erects Latin Mass parish, anyone in diocese may join
After a 23-year-wait, the Latin Mass community of San Diego now has its own parish.
On Oct. 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, San Diego Bishop Robert Brom officially erected St. Anne Church at 621 Sicard St. as a “personal parish” for Catholics in the diocese who prefer the extraordinary form of the Mass in Latin. A “personal parish” has no geographical boundaries, which means any Catholic living in the diocese may join.
Bishop Brom turned over the parish to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), a society of apostolic life approved in 1988 by Pope John Paul II specifically dedicated to continued use of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite – also known as the Latin or Tridentine Mass.
“They’ve been waiting for this for years and years and years,” said Fr. Carl Gismondi, the new FSSP pastor at St. Anne. Before Bishop Brom elevated the Latin Mass community to parish status, it had been meeting since 1985 at the chapel of Holy Cross Cemetery as the only episcopally-authorized Tridentine Latin Mass congregation in San Diego.
The arrival of the Latin Mass parish to St. Anne brings new life to the parish, which had been merged with nearby Our Lady of Guadalupe parish and served only as a mission church until finally being closed altogether.
Fr. Gismondi, who resides in the parish’s four-bedroom rectory, says the old church “needs work.” For example, he said, a marble altar from 1942 was moved away from the wall of the sanctuary in the 1970s, and needs to be moved back to its original location. And there are a variety of other problems common to an older structure, “like termites,” he said.
During the six weeks he was been pastor at St. Anne, the 225-person capacity sanctuary has been close to full during Sunday Masses, said Fr. Gismondi. He estimated that between 300-400 people attend Sunday Mass there. Like I said, this is in a diocese where the TLM was openly sneered at for decades. The little seed that was planted at a termite infested "second thought" of a closed down parish literally will be a beacon of light in a sea of heresy and Modernism. Anyone who doubts me, obviously hasn't been to your average San Diego Nervous Disorder parish.
But here's the $64,000 question (and this pertains to Catholics world-wide) --- the Diocese of San Diego is geographically huge. From the coast all the way to the Arizona line, and almost a hundred miles from north to south. What happens when Catholics from El Centro or Borrego Springs or Fallbrook, or other towns within the diocese that are literally hours and hours away from St. Anne's, what if they (per Summorum Pontificum) are desirous of a Traditional Latin Mass in their neighborhood parish?
By the way... St. Anne's is in a pretty "rough neigborhood". Why am I not shocked that a TLM Parish wasn't established in La Jolla or Rancho Santa Fe? But that's OK. I get the funny feeling that the good folks in South Central San Diego (like most folks who don't have much) will appriciate St. Anne's a damn sight more than the rich snobs in La Jolla.
Anyhow, is it going to be a case of Tango Sierra for Traddies? Maybe not if the rumblings concerning the "clarification" in regards to Summorum Pontificum are true.
Here's some of the article from Rorate Caeli;According to the document, the traditionalist faithful present in a parish will have the full protection of the law to ask for the old Mass, and if the bishop refuses (here is the news), saying that there are no priests capable of celebrating according to the ancient rite in that place, the Commission Ecclesia Dei will authoritatively ("di imperio") send a priest able to do so to that diocese. In short, the bishops will no longer be able to refuse a priori to have the old Mass celebrated, because in such cases, the Commission Ecclesia Dei will send a delegated priest of its own. SLAM!!!
Last gasp of the Neo-Anglicans?
Great news from my hometown. And this from one of the more theologically liberal, anti-Traditional diocese in America. Here's some of the article from The California Catholic Daily;
San Diego bishop erects Latin Mass parish, anyone in diocese may join
After a 23-year-wait, the Latin Mass community of San Diego now has its own parish.
On Oct. 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, San Diego Bishop Robert Brom officially erected St. Anne Church at 621 Sicard St. as a “personal parish” for Catholics in the diocese who prefer the extraordinary form of the Mass in Latin. A “personal parish” has no geographical boundaries, which means any Catholic living in the diocese may join.
Bishop Brom turned over the parish to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), a society of apostolic life approved in 1988 by Pope John Paul II specifically dedicated to continued use of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite – also known as the Latin or Tridentine Mass.
“They’ve been waiting for this for years and years and years,” said Fr. Carl Gismondi, the new FSSP pastor at St. Anne. Before Bishop Brom elevated the Latin Mass community to parish status, it had been meeting since 1985 at the chapel of Holy Cross Cemetery as the only episcopally-authorized Tridentine Latin Mass congregation in San Diego.
The arrival of the Latin Mass parish to St. Anne brings new life to the parish, which had been merged with nearby Our Lady of Guadalupe parish and served only as a mission church until finally being closed altogether.
Fr. Gismondi, who resides in the parish’s four-bedroom rectory, says the old church “needs work.” For example, he said, a marble altar from 1942 was moved away from the wall of the sanctuary in the 1970s, and needs to be moved back to its original location. And there are a variety of other problems common to an older structure, “like termites,” he said.
During the six weeks he was been pastor at St. Anne, the 225-person capacity sanctuary has been close to full during Sunday Masses, said Fr. Gismondi. He estimated that between 300-400 people attend Sunday Mass there.
But here's the $64,000 question (and this pertains to Catholics world-wide) --- the Diocese of San Diego is geographically huge. From the coast all the way to the Arizona line, and almost a hundred miles from north to south. What happens when Catholics from El Centro or Borrego Springs or Fallbrook, or other towns within the diocese that are literally hours and hours away from St. Anne's, what if they (per Summorum Pontificum) are desirous of a Traditional Latin Mass in their neighborhood parish?
By the way... St. Anne's is in a pretty "rough neigborhood". Why am I not shocked that a TLM Parish wasn't established in La Jolla or Rancho Santa Fe? But that's OK. I get the funny feeling that the good folks in South Central San Diego (like most folks who don't have much) will appriciate St. Anne's a damn sight more than the rich snobs in La Jolla.
Anyhow, is it going to be a case of Tango Sierra for Traddies? Maybe not if the rumblings concerning the "clarification" in regards to Summorum Pontificum are true.
Here's some of the article from Rorate Caeli;
8 Comments:
I'm in LA...many blessings will come for those who are at that parish. One day I just might go visit that parish down in SD (That is when the conferences in SD come around, I need my Traddie fix as well as my anti-Liturgical Abuse stand)
All the best i hope that people who live far can attend maybe at the big feasts. I was lucky to find a church in Toronto that after 42 years in the wilderness had the first Solemn high mass TLM sung in latin for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. It was the most beuatiful, holy, sacred mass i have ever attened. Worth the travel.
I have it on very good authority that many of the primarily Hispanic families who attended the St. Anne "mission" after they lost their status as a parish (and whose forefathers, I'm told, built the church in the '20s) have chosen to stay at St. Anne's and not the parish that took over their previous territory. Some of them may have not attended the TLM in years, if ever, but I'll bet the reverence and spirituality of the classical Extraordinary Form will keep them there.
There are three things to be glad of in this post:
1. A Parish devoted to the Extraordinary form has a way of improving the liturgical standards of those around it, if only to keep the baskets filled.
2. A parish that had been closed and not offering the sacraments has been re-opened, always a good thing.
3. Benedict has done his terrain analysis, watched his "field of fire" and commenced his operations. This is doubly so when one considers what Cdl Rode' said to the various religious a week or two ago.
4. a previously abandaoned area--in the inner city, now has a real parish. Over the past 30 years I've watched in dioceses across the east, and read of them across the west, who close urban parishes in favour of sub-urban parishes, making it hard for the poor schmucks stuck in the old areas to even get to a mass!
OK--four things to be happy about!
Congratulations to the good and faithful people of San Diego. What an answer to prayer this must be. I am delighted to hear about traditionalism making a comeback in liberal California.
OOOOOOOOOO YEAH!
Best wishes to the parishioners!
Ladies & Gentlemen,
A few weeks ago, I had the great fortune to be traveling on business from the Far East and on into L.A. and down into San Diego. I attended the second Sunday of the new St. Anne's. It was a High Mass at 10:00am and it was OUTSTANDING, BEAUTIFUL, MAGNIFICENT, UNBELIEVABLE!!
Great job to all the TLM Community who have suffered so much under Brom, and now have a place of their own!
Semper Fi
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