Latin Masses in the Archdiocese of Toronto

 

The late Very Reverend Jonathan Robinson, C.O. offers the Holy Mass
at the Toronto Oratory Church of the Holy Family

There has been no published announcement from the Archdiocese of Toronto in reaction to the repugnant motu proprio of Pope Francis against the Holy Mass in its traditional form. There is no need. The current status quo applies. "Qui tacet consentit"  - silence gives consent! There will be no changes and for this, we can thank Thomas Cardinal Collins for his pastoral care and the announcements made last Sunday at all Masses that there will be "no changes." 

What we must do, as faithful in Christ, is to not despair and not abandon Our Mother, the Church at this time of Her suffering from abuse and a hostile takeover by malefactors. 

In Toronto and elsewhere, go to the Traditional Latin Mass. Go today and always. If you have never been, go anyway. Don't worry about not understanding or knowing what to do. Just go. 

ARCHDIOCESE OF TORONTO PARISHES

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL PARISH

263 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto

Sunday: Read (Low) Mass at 9:30 A.M.

https://oratory-toronto.org

 

HOLY FAMILY PARISH 

1372 King Street West, Toronto

Sunday, Solemn Mass at 11:00 A.M.  

5:00 P.M. Read Mass (Due to CCP Virus restrictions)

Monday to Friday Read (Low) Mass at 11:30 A.M.

Saturday Read (Low) Mass at 8:30 A.M.

https://oratory-toronto.org

ST. PATRICK PARISH

91 Church Street, Schomberg

Sunday Read Mass at 11:00 A.M.

https://stpatrickssc.archtoronto.org

ST. LAWRENCE THE MARTYR PARISH

2210 Lawrence Avenue East, Scarborough

Sunday Read (Low) Mass with organ/hymns 1:00 P.M.

Monday - Wednesday: 11:00 A.M.

Thursday: ​7:00 A.M.

Friday: 7:00 P.M.

Saturday: 10:00 A.M.

https://stlawrencemartyr.archtoronto.org/

SOCIETY OF ST. PIUS X

Church of the Transfiguration

11 Aldgate Avenue, Etobicoke

Sunday 8:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M.

Cathedral of the Transfiguration 

10350 Victoria Square Boulevard, Markham Sunday 5:00 P.M. 

Church of the Canadian Martyrs

364 Regent Street, Orillia

10:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M.

Also. Sudbury, St. Catharines and New Hamburg

https://sspx.ca/en/church-of-the-transfiguration

Complete schedule

https://ontario.sspx.ca/en/news-events/news/mass-and-announcements-toronto-61059

FOR MORE LOCATIONS PLEASE VISIT:

Una Voce Canada

The Reverend Father Yves Normandin - Requiescat in pace

 

It is reported that Father Yves Normandin has passed into eternity this morning at 4:50 A.M. EST. Father Normandin was a priest of Montreal who was the father of the restoration of the traditional Mass movement in Canada. There were three of these men, all who ministered in their own way. Father John Mole, OMI who founded the community of St. Clement in Ottawa died in 2004. Father Liam Gavigan, whom I knew personally and worked with him numerous times, passed on in 2017 and founded the communities now at St. Lawrence the Martyr and St. Patrick's in Schomberg in the Archdiocese of Toronto. It was Father Normandin, however, who was the lion. He travelled the entire country establishing chapels and offering the Mass in homes paving the way for both the Society of St. Pius X, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and other diocesan traditional Masses. Without Father Normandin and Mole and Gavigan, the Mass would have been lost entirely. There was a time, that there were only three priests in all of Canada offering the pre-modernist Latin Rite. This trinity of servants of God and his people are heroes.

No information is yet available on details. 

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

From Una Voce Canada...

The history of the Mass in Quebec is inseparably tied up with the history of Fr. Yves Normandin and Sainte-Yvett’s parish in Montréal. On 14th May 1975 Fr. Normandin decided to revert to the Mass of his ordination. On April 18, however, the CCCB had decreed that, effective 30th June 1975, only ill and elderly priests could thenceforth celebrate the traditional Mass, and only in private.

Oct. 27th 1975 in a meeting with Abp. Grégoire Fr. Normandin was told ‘I must demand your resignation because you stubbornly insist on celebrating the Mass of St. Pius V, contrary to the ordinance of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops…… You are to resign immediately. Otherwise, effective Nov. 5, you shall lose all jurisdiction in this diocese.”

Nov. 9th Abp. Lefebvre celebrates pontifical high Mass at Sainte-Yvette’s. Nov. 12th. Mgr. Grégoire published a letter which declared the Mass of all time is no longer the Mass of today, and that the cure of Sainte-Yvette’s is deserving of his removal by virtue of his unrepentant disobedience to the Church.

To cut a long story short the battle moves on to court, to the barricading of the rectory doors and the changing of locks; to Fr. Normandin having to leave the rectory, on Dec. 15th by stepladder from the balcony to escape notice of the guards and attend court. The rectory doors are broken down and Fr. Normadin starts a new phase in the ‘Traditional Latin Mass Movement’ in Canada.

This phase is what I would characterize as that of a wandering priest. Fr. Normandin ‘As a young man, I had dreamed of an apostolate as an itinerant missionary in the jungle, with the White Fathers of Africa. Now, at 52 years of age, I discover that Canada, thanks to our own post conciliar bishops, has become a missionary frontier, once again a spiritually barren land, offering itself to priests loyal to infallible and indestructible Tradition.

‘Every Sunday about 400 continue to attend the Traditional Latin Mass in spacious quarters in Montréal and we have found the means to expand our ministry, to Ottawa and to Northern New Brunswick, to Toronto, London and Stratford, to Winnipeg and to Vancouver and Victoria and even as far away as Florida.’

After the expulsion of Fr. Normandin there arose a movement under the leadership of Mr. Roman Bhattacharya. It is from this movement's fidelity to the traditional Roman Liturgy that formed primarily the faithful group, which is at the origin of the community Saint-Paul in Montreal. Their first "priest", providentially, was Fr. Normandin who for nine years after the expulsion from his Parish, led a heroic life of missionary activity providing access to the traditional liturgy across the Canada. It is at this point that Fr. Normandin visited Vancouver to offer the Mass.

Fr. Normandin was parish priest of the Latin Community Catholic St-Paul October 7, 1985, to January 1, 2010, i.e. for almost twenty-five years before finally retiring.

Toronto Latin Masses for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Missa Cantata - Sung Latin Mass for Candlemas in Toronto

Church of the Transfiguration (SSPX) at 8:00

Toronto Oratory Church of the Holy Family at 8:30

St. Lawrence the Martyr Catholic Parish at 10:00

TORONTO! Our Lady of Fatima Latin Mass

 

Tomorrow, May 13 is the 100th anniversary of the appearance of the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Mother of God at Fatima, Portugal. In the traditional calendar, May 13 is the Feast (3rd class) of St. Robert Bellarmine.  In the new calendar for the Novus Ordo Missae, it is the "Optional Memorial" of Our Lady of Fatima. An "Optional Memorial" is just that, the priest can choose the text for Our Lady of Fatima or the Ferial. The traditional calendar was never updated liturgically to recognise the appearance of Our Lady at Fatima.

In the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI made possible the updating of the traditional Mass calendar of 1961 to include more current feasts and saints. Recently, the Pontifical Council Ecclesia Dei in the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith decreed that Our Lady of Fatima could be celebrated on May 13 in the traditional Mass. How appropriate then that the first change should be for Our Lady and in 2017, to recognise the 100th anniversary of her appearance at Fatima.

The text of the Mass is the Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (August 22) with the double Alleluia for Paschaltide. The feast of St. Robert Bellarmine will be commemorated, meaning the Collect, Secret and Postcommunion will be doubled to include those from both Masses.

Una Voce Toronto is very grateful to the pastor and parish of St. Mary's Polish Roman Catholic Church for the opportunity to celebrate this great day.

We ask you to be generous at the collection as the funds will be used by the parish for sanctuary renovations.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Rubrical reminders from Una Voce Toronto - because we're "rigid"

Posted today at www.unavocetoronto.blogspot.com

unavocetoronto@gmail.com

Let us review some terms and basic rubrics for the Traditional Latin Mass, also known in modernist circles, as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. There is charity in truth and there is peace and unity in truth. There is no charity in silence and appeasement. It is incumbent upon those who work in the sacred liturgy to humble themselves to what the Church expects.

The commentary below is written with "referential authority." That is to say, the authority comes not from this writer but from the documents from the which the information is gleaned and condensed. The referred documents are Tra le sollecitudini, Mediator Dei, Da Musica Sacra et Sacra Liturgia and Rubricarum. The notorious Musica Sacra of 1967 is prohibited in accord with Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae.

Read Mass or Missa Lecta

Commonly referred to as “Low” Mass, this form of Mass is more properly referred to as a “Read Mass.” This comes from its Latin name, Missa Lecta. The Mass, in history, would have always been Solemn (see below), but as parishes and villages developed away from monasteries and cathedrals; and as mendicant Orders such as Dominicans and Franciscans, journeyed to preach, priests would desire to offer the Holy Sacrifice for themselves and the souls they found on their journeys. The Missa Lecta was developed for this purpose. It is a quiet and contemplative Mass with one server only, though two can be “tolerated.” The Mass is entirely in Latin, though, in accord with the legitimate Law as prescribed by Pope Benedict XVI, in Universae Ecclesiae the Lesson(s), Epistle and Gospel may be said in the vernacular from an approved translation (at the time of 1962) from the Altar without first being read in Latin. There is normally no music permitted.

Read Mass with Music

Music is not permitted in a Read Mass except in specific circumstances and certain specific rubrics. In fact, a more proper word than permitted would be tolerated, in its classic sense. One may have an organ prelude or postlude and organ music at the Offertory or during Communion in those times of the year where organ music is not prohibited and no solo organ music is permitted in the Mass during Advent, except on Gaudete Sunday or in the season of Lent on Laetare Sunday. No solo organ music is permitted at anytime at a Requiem Mass. Organ music may be used at a Requiem Mass only to support the singing and only if absolutely necessary to even do that. Music or hymn singing may be used at a Read Mass in the following manner. A hymn may be sung as a processional and the recessional and these may be in the vernacular. A Latin hymn may be sung at the Offertory and the Communion but it may not be the text of the Proper of the Mass which must be read by the priest aloud and heard by the faithful in attendance. A hymn may be sung in the vernacular at the Offertory and Communion provided it is connected with the liturgical action. For example, the Offertory hymn could be, “See Us Lord, About Your Altar,” or, “Lord, Accept the Gifts We Offer.” At Communion, the hymn, if in the vernacular, must be a hymn to the Blessed Sacrament or be a hymn of Thanksgiving.  The Gloria and Credo cannot be sung at any Read Mass.  A Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei may be sung if they are short, for example, Mass XVI or Mass XVIII, never Mass IX or VIII the Missa de Angelis. These are two long and delay the priest. All singing must conclude so that the action of the Priest is not delayed and the audible texts are not covered by music. The Priest does not sing the Collect or Postcommunion nor any other oration, nor does he chant in any way the salutations, nor do the people respond in chant. These are only said.

Sung Mass—or Missa Canata or Solemn Mass—Missa Solemnis

All Propers must be sung, there are no exceptions. The Epistle and Gospel must be sung, there are no exceptions. All salutations and response are sung, there are no exceptions. If the priest cannot sing the melismatic tones of the Lesson, Epistle or Gospel, then he can chant them recto tono, on the same note. If the Schola cannot manage to sing the Proper chants with the melisma, then it is permissible to sing them in psalm tone, or recto tono. They can also be sung in Polyphony when considered appropriate. At the Offertory and Communion, Latin motets or hymns can also be sung, but only after the Proper Antiphon.

Requiem Mass

The musical rubrics apply to a Requiem Mass as to the degree above.

Holy Mother Church has determined the above rubrics in order to ensure the proper dignity of the Mass. When we work within the Laws of the Church, there is peace and understanding and serene contemplation of the holy actions taking place before us.

When we deviate from these for pastoral or other reasons or through pressure, we create confusion and disunity and distress and these are not from the Holy Spirit; we insert our own desires into the liturgy, where it does not belong. None of us are masters of the Liturgy of God, we are rather, its servants. We must do our work in truth and humility, we must submit to the mind of the Church and we must reject any inculturation and pastoral provision that deviates from the truth.

At no time is a guitar permitted during a Traditional Latin Mass. It's been done!

There is no evidence that Fr. Franz Gruber, S.J. ever permitted Stille Nacht on guitar at a Midnight Mass due to a broken organ. This is “fake news.”

At no time is it permitted to sing anything in the vernacular in a Sung or Solemn Mass. Processional and recessional hymns take place outside of Mass. Mass begins with the Introit and ends with the Ite.  Any reference to what occurred between the great wars in Europe in Germany, Belgium or Holland should be understood in the context of dissent and diabolical disorientation that lead to the complete upheaval of the holy liturgy.

Lest one doubt the above, be assured that every educated Catholic in proper Church music and liturgy according to its venerable tradition is aware of these rubrics and knows where to find the sources. If they are not, then they are unqualified to do the work and they need to become educated. Let those who labour for the love of true worship of the LORD in the timeless liturgy understand the need to maintain consistency, peace and serenity in the work before us. This peace and serenity can only be achieved if we work within that which we are given. By humbling ourselves to the timelessness, we will achieve peace in our work. It is when deviations occur that we bring disunity and cognitive dissonance to the holy work before us.

Una Voce Toronto

How to celebrate Advent in Toronto - Get thee to a Traditional Latin Mass!

The Toronto Traditional Mass Society - UNA VOCE TORONTO, is announcing a number of Masses for the Advent season some of which are regularly scheduled, and some which are specifically organised by the Society.

On every Sunday in the Archdiocese of Toronto, there are four Masses offered in the Traditional Rite at diocesan parishes. In addition, the Society of St. Pius X offers three Masses at its Toronto Chapel and one in Orillia.

St. Patrick's Schomberg
9:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Oratory Church of St.Vincent de Paul
9:30 A.M. Read (Low) Mass

Oratory Church of the Holy Family
11:00 A.M. Solemn Mass

St. Lawrence the Martyr, Scarbrough
1:00 P.M. Read Mass with music

Society of St. Pius X
Church of the Transfiguration Toronto
8:00 A.M. Read Mass
10:30 A.M. Sung Mass
5:00 P.M. Read Mass
Church of the Canadian Martyrs Orillia
10:00 A.M.

There are three particular outside of Sunday to which I wish to draw your attention.

This coming Thursday, December 8, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There will be varied traditional Mass locations in diocesan churches in Toronto plus the SSPX. 

Two more that you should note and attend.

Saturday, December 10 at 9:00 A.M. at St. Mary's Polish Roman Catholic Church on Davenport Road in Toronto; a Read Rorate Mass with Music. While the old "custom" was to start before daybreak, that is not a liturgical rubric. The pastor at the parish offers the traditional Mass every Saturday at 9:00 A.M. and will offer here, the Votive Mass for Our Lady in Advent.

The next Saturday, December 17, is the Ember. There will be a Sung Mass (with Vox chanting) at the Carmel in Mississauga. An incredible liturgy that is rarely, if every sung with its multiple Lessons and Graduals culminating in the sung Canticle of the Three Children from the fiery furnace in Babylon.

Leave the shopping. Leave the insanity of our secular and grotesque and hostile Toronto. Get thee to a Latin Mass and get back to God this Advent!

Traditional Latin Masses in Toronto, this Epiphany and beyond

A regular commenter in a post two below left the following:

"But are all these blog visits changing anything for the better? There is no increase in the number of TLM's in Toronto and beyond." 

The writer of this comment, "Karl Rahner, Jr." and I welcome his input, has previously opined that my style and the content of this blog detracts from any work that I engage in for the purposes of spreading interest in the Extraordinary  Form of the Roman Rite. Further, there are a few others out there who with ignorance, arrogance and puerile petulant pride use phrases such as "radical traditionalists" and "trads-behaving badly" and other such silliness and opine that those terrible people, whomever they might be, actually hurt he cause of promoting the traditional Mass. Some of these, try to link Vox personally to a problem that does not exist because in my other life, I am President of the Toronto Traditional Mass Society-Una Voce Toronto.

Anyone who believes that this writer, or any blogger for that matter, has that much power ascribes something which does not exist. More importantly, it is an insult to the Holy Spirit who has through the work of many hands beginning in Econe, preserved the Holy Mass in the traditional form, to this day where others have been able to take up the cause. To state that this blog hurts the cause because someone might be offended, is simply poppycock. If anyone hurts the cause, it is those who throw around such language as "radical traditionalists" and "trads behaving badly" and other such puerile silliness. Good grief, to be Catholic is to be traditional!

Now, let us look at Toronto, since that was the matter raised.

On Epiphany upcoming, there will be two Read (Low) Masses and one Sung and one Solemn in the Archdiocese of Toronto celebrated in diocesan churches by diocesan priests. This does not include the Society of St. Pius X which has recently had to add a third Mass to its Toronto Chapel Sunday schedule.

On Immaculate Conception last there were five and two of them were Solemn and one was Sung and in 2014 there were actually six with three being Solemn.

I can also report that there is another parish in the east of the Archdiocese that has implemented a Latin Mass very Friday evening with three out of four Ordinary Form celebrated "ad orientem" and one, Extraordinary showing the "two forms of one Roman Rite" as Pope Benedict XVI so desired in parishes and another in the east on the First Saturday.

Not only that, but one of Toronto's oldest personal ethnic parishes has a traditional Mass every Saturday morning except on the First Saturday when it is in the Ordinary Form.

Now, I can remember as recently as 2007 prior to Summorum Pontificum except for two crumbs under the "generosity" of Cardinal Ambrozic there were two Sunday indult Masses in diocesan churches On Feast days other than the two Holy Days of Obligation, there were none. Zero, Nada, Zilch! In fact, Ambrozic refused anything further lest he give be seen to give support to something which he did not. Yes, that letter is on file with Una Voce Toronto.

Mass in the Presence of a Greater Prelate (Thomas Card. Collins)

Under Cardinal Collins, the facts are the total opposite and for that, he is to be thanked and commended as is the current Chancellor, Father Ivan Camillieri. Both have been supportive. In fact, your writer had the distinct opportunity and grace to have been the prime organiser under Una Voce Toronto and the Schola Director for the Music for the Mass pictured at the right and below. In those pictures are the Cardinal, a Latin Mass Chaplain-Associate Pastor, a Pastor or two, a Priest of Opus Dei, other Associate Pastors, a newly ordained diocesan priest and Seminarians of Toronto and thirty priests and monsignors in choir.

If the question is of Sunday, there are four every Sunday, not including the SSPX. One Sung, one Solemn and two Read. It would be wonderful to have more but let us look at some issues that impede the growth that have nothing to do with this blog or my writing - truly, some give too me too much power, 

The Archdiocese of Toronto has a policy of no changes to a Sunday schedule without episcopal permission. No additions of Masses, particularly in other languages, no reduction, no supplanting of one language or rite over another. There is no problem in this; changing languages and mass times can have a deleterious affect on parishes without proper consultation. As for schedule an Extraordinary Form Mass, to remove an OF for an EF would be upsetting and controversial. We don't need to see what happened to our parents and grandparents repeated. Further, in many parishes where there have  been EF Masses, the Sunday schedule is already jammed with five or six Masses. This has not affected the growth of the traditional rite because there is no demand at this time for more, nor the people who could sustain it. Everyone who truly desires the Mass on Sundays in the Archdiocese of Toronto can get to it within 45 minutes and that includes the outer reaches of the Archdiocese. Is this great? No, but so it is better than it has been and as younger priests come along, it will continue to grow. 

Further, we have organised a Triduum the last two years and there will be one in 2015 in Toronto in a Diocesan Chapel with the blessing of the Chancellor and Seminary! The fact is, while the loss of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter was regrettable, the diocesan priests have filled the gap, the Cardinal Archbishop and his Chancellor have been supportive and it is my belief that we are in fact, better off notwithstanding the current lack of a "personal parish." The fact is, if we look at where the FSSP exists in Canada, - St. Catharines, Ottawa, Calgary, Quebec City, with the exception of Vancouver, these are the only places where the traditional Latin Mass is offered. It has become a ghetto. The loss of the FSSP in Toronto is proving to be a blessing in disguise as priest and laity have stepped up and pushed ahead. 

The situation in Toronto is actually better than most places in Canada, and is not dissimilar to that elsewhere. The growth of the traditional movement is happening and it is sustainable and it is not going to be stopped. To suggest that this blogger or any other hurts this growth is preposterous and I won't stand for it when the growth is there for all to see.

Fundamentally, the growth must be organic for it to take root in people's hearts and minds. We don't need 1950's Catholicism a mile wide and an inch deep.

Sunday Masses in the Extraordinary Form in Toronto

St. Patrick's Schomberg, Sung Mass at 9:00AM

St. Vincent de Paul Toronto, Read Mass at 9:30AM

Holy Family Toronto, Solemn Mass at 11:00AM

St. Lawrence the Martyr Scarborough, Low Mass with organ and hymns at 1:00PM

Other days and Feast Days

Immaculate Conception Port Perry, 7:00 PM Last Friday of the month

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Toronto, 9:00AM Saturday except First Saturday

St. Isaac Jogues Pickering, 11:00AM First Saturday

St. Patrick's Phelpston 7:20 PM on Feast Days

St. Joseph's Mississauga 7;30P M on Feast Days

There is no such thing as a Sung Low Mass

I cannot count the numbers of Masses which I have attended and chanted as Cantor or Schola Master according to the more ancient use. I chant every Sunday and have personally organised over 30 Solemn or Sung Masses since Summorum Pontificum including a Mass in the Presence of a Greater Prelate. I say this not to boast but to indicate my level of experience. 

Never, ever have I heard of a Sung Low Mass, it simply does not exist. 

Here from the  Una Voce Toronto blog, the Toronto Traditional Mass Society.

Where is the mercy?

This blogger has friends that worship at the Toronto chapel of the Society of St. Pius X. I have a conflicted view of the fact that they do, but I can clearly understand it. One one hand, they attend their in a comfortable way, they do not participate in the life of the greater Archdiocese nor do they fight it out in the trenches; it would be a lot easier with them in the fight directly with those of us engaging the crisis daily. On the other hand, who am I to judge? The scandal and sorrow that they have endured on the part of priests or previous Ordinaries not sympathetic to the cause is legion. (I do not include Cardinal Collins in this as he has generally been supportive of the Toronto Traditional Mass Society's goals and the needs of the faithful. though clearly the FSSP issue is still a hard point), 

It is also repugnant that certain puerile people label them and others as madtrads or radtrads or trads-behaving-badly. It is insulting, degrading, juvenile, schizophrenic and unbecoming of any Catholic who purports to love the Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Holy Sacrifice at the Mass and His Church. 

It is regrettable that under our dear Pope Benedict XVI, a complete reconciliation could not be realised and I long for the day in God's good time and may I live to see it, that a perfect communion is established.

Full disclosure: I have worshipped at the Toronto chapel in the past and sang in the Schola there whilst between other chant engagements. I have never gone to the Sacrament of Confession there for obvious reasons but the Mass if valid and holy.

What these two bishops, in Italy and Argentina have done, by threatening the lay faithful with excommunication when the Church has already stated that they are not excommunicated is the height of episcopal arrogance and hypocrisy. These are our brother and sisters. These are Catholic faithful living the faith as the parents of these bishops did!

There is much talk of mercy these days. Mercy for sodomites, mercy for those paying the price for murder, mercy for adulterers. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy.

Well? Where is the mercy for these 99?

INTERNATIONAL UNA VOCE FEDERATION

MEDIA RELEASE – IMMEDIATE – 4 November 2014

International Una Voce Federation: threatened SSPX excommunications may be illegal

LONDON 4 November 2014 – The International Una Voce Federation which seeks to promote the traditions, particularly the liturgical traditions, of the Roman Catholic Church, within the official structures of the Church, today questioned the legality of a “notification” dated 14 October 2014 of the Roman See of Albano, Italy, claiming to ex-communicate those who receive the sacraments from, or attend religious services of, the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).

The Federation questions the legality of a notification in similar terms of Bishop Óscar Sarlinga of Zárate-Campana in Argentina, issued on 3 November 2014.

The Federation, which is a lay movement independent of any priestly or religious community, believes that preservation of doctrine, law and justice, as well as good pastoral practice, within the Church, is important.

The Federation believes that these “notifications” tend to imply that anyone who has ever attended services of the SSPX is not welcome in parish churches in these dioceses.

This view is clearly in direct contrast with the emphasis of the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis, upon mercy and forgiveness, as well as the “openness of heart” requested by Pope Benedict XVI as a prelude to a healing of divisions “in the heart of the Church”.

The Bishop of Albano is the Rt Rev Marcello Semeraro, media spokesman of the Italian Bishops’ conference and secretary of the Papal inner Council of 9 advisers.

The Federation is asking the Holy See to advise that these notifications are defective and to require them to be modified so as to comply with the law of the Church and the decisions of the Holy See.

BACKGROUND

On 14 October 2014, the Chancery of the Diocese of Albano issued a notification to parish priests claiming that anyone who attends SSPX services, even, apparently, children, thereby “break communion with the Catholic Church” and can only be re-admitted to the Church after “an adequate personal path of reconciliation”. The notification reads:

“The Catholic faithful cannot participate at Mass, neither request and/or receive sacraments from or in the Society. Acting otherwise would mean to break communion with the Catholic Church.

Therefore, any Catholic faithful who requests and receives sacraments in the Society of Saint Pius X, will place himself de facto in the condition of no longer being in communion with the Catholic Church. A readmission to the Catholic Church must be preceded by an adequate personal path of reconciliation, according to the ecclesiastical discipline established by the Bishop.”

Bishop Óscar Sarlinga of Zárate-Campana in Argentina, in a letter to his diocese dated 3 November 2014, states:

“It is not licit for the Catholic faithful to take part in the celebration of Mass in these conditions, neither to request nor to receive sacraments from the priests of the aforementioned "Society of Saint Pius X", including in private places turned into places of worship, without excluding, in case of obstinacy, also the ferendae sententiae penalties that may apply, according to the ecclesial spirit and that of protection of the faithful.

In the case of the rupture of ecclesiastical communion by the above-mentioned founded motives, in order to be later readmitted to the Catholic Church, a personal path of reconciliation (and eventually of removal of the canonical censure) will be required, according to the discipline advised by the Holy See and the [diocese's] own, established by the diocesan bishop.”

CANONICAL BRIEF

The attitude of the Holy See has always been that lay faithful who receive the sacraments from priests of the SSPX are not excommunicated. Examples are as follows.

In 1991 Bishop Joseph Ferrario of Honolulu declared six lay Catholics excommunicated on grounds of schism for having procured the services of an SSPX bishop to administer confirmation. These appealed to the Holy See which, through Cardinal Ratzinger as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, declared the decree invalid because their action, though considered blameworthy, did not constitute schism.

On 5 September 2005, the Holy See, through the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, affirmed that “the faithful who attend the masses of the aforesaid Fraternity are not excommunicate, and the priests who celebrate them are not, either—the latter are, in fact, suspended.” (Protocol n.55/2005, signed by the then Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Mgr Camille Perl).

On 27 September 2002, quoted and reaffirmed on 18 January 2003, the Holy See, through the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, stated that “In the strict sense you may fulfil your Sunday obligation by attending a mass celebrated by a priest of the Society of St. Pius X.” (Letters signed by Mgr Camille Perl).

“To break communion with the Catholic Church”, i.e. excommunication, can only be incurred where there is both an “external violation of a law or precept” and it is “gravely imputable by reason of malice or culpability” (canon 1321) and only if the proper penalty is excommunication.

Excommunication is not the proper penalty for “participating at mass” or “requesting or receiving the Sacraments” from SSPX priests or in SSPX-administered places of worship. Thus:

It is accordingly not correct that excommunication is thereby incurred.

In any event, those under the age of sixteen cannot incur a penalty (canon 1323.1); this would apply to those under this age who received baptism or confirmation.

Even when basing a canonical argument on the assumption that the SSPX has no canonical status in the Church and that its priests are suspended, following ordination without dimissorial letters, it does not follow that to seek the sacraments at their hands is an illegal act on the part of the lay faithful.

To say otherwise also conflicts with the provision in canon law (canon 1335) for the suspension of any prohibition of the celebration of the Sacraments or sacramental, or the exercise of a power of governance, when one of the faithful requests it for “any just reason”.

Furthermore, the notifications appear to challenge the Decree of the Congregation of Bishops dated 21 January 2009 lifting the excommunications of the SSPX bishops and instead seem to wish to re-impose those excommunications, within each diocese, contrary to this decree of a Congregation of the Holy See.

Moreover, it would be incongruous for the legislator to lift the excommunication of the bishops while imposing or maintaining it on the lay faithful to whom they minister.

CONCLUSION

The Federation is thus obliged to question the notifications since they appear to undermine papal legislation and canon law.

** ends **

The International Una Voce Federation is a lay movement, initially founded in Zurich in 1967.

The International Una Voce Federation aims to foster the cultural heritage of the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church upon which so much of European culture, music, art, literature and architecture has been built and nourished. Beginning with the retention of the Jewish Temple worship which, under Christian tutelage, developed into plainchant, sacred music became the basis of all later classical and choral music. Similar developments took place in art, architecture, literature and all the arts, in which the Christian tradition built upon the ancient Classical world and upon the Hebrew traditions that it inherited.

The Federation’s principal aims are to ensure that the traditional Roman rite of the Church is maintained in the Church as one of the forms of liturgical celebration, and to safeguard and promote the use of Latin, Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony and all the sacred, artistic, literary and musical traditions of the Roman Church in all their beauty and integrity.

A General Assembly of the Federation is convened every two years in Rome and elections are held for the Council and Presidency.

The Federation is recognized by the Holy See, its views are received with courtesy and respect by the relevant Roman Congregations, and its representatives are received by them in the same manner.

Its first President, Dr Eric Vermehren de Saventhem, was a German anti-Nazi diplomat who, together with his wife, born Countess von Plettenberg, from a well-known anti-Nazi Catholic family, escaped via the Embassy in Istanbul to Britain. Other Presidents have included the author Michael Davies from Britain.

Over the years the Federation has made various successful interventions. It was instrumental in persuading Pope John Paul II in 1986 to convoke a special Commission of Cardinals which resulted in the issue of the decree Ecclesia Dei Adflicta in 1988 and also played a part in persuading Pope Benedict XVI to issue the motu proprio decree Summorum Pontificum in 2007.

Mr James Bogle