|
The East Tennesse
Catholic Latin
Mass schedule expands Dan McWilliams The
traditional Mass in Latin offered within the diocese, having just been
increased in frequency from once to twice monthly, will now be held four
Sundays a month with the addition of two liturgies at Under
provisions of the apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei, Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz
granted permission to Father John Orr to begin offering the Latin Mass at 1:30
p.m. on second and fourth Sundays at the Farragut
church, beginning Nov. 27, the first Sunday of Advent. The bishop made the
announcement in an Oct. 11 letter to Father Orr, the spiritual director at The
Latin Mass currently is held at Both
Father Orr and Father P. J. McGinnity, pastor of
St. Thérèse, were trained to celebrate the Latin
Mass by priests of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, who staff the
Latin-rite parish of St. Francis de Sales in Mableton, Ga. “I
am so grateful to Father McGinnity and Father Orr
for preparing themselves to offer the Mass in Latin in accord with the call
of our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, who called for a generous
application of the decree that allowed the faithful to participate in this
Mass,” said Bishop Kurtz. “The
nice thing about having the Latin Mass at St. John Neumann Catholic Church is
that when St. John Neumann was offering the Mass in Father
Orr cited an important enthusiast of the Mass in Latin—Pope Benedict XVI. As
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pontiff wrote fondly of the ad orientem (“toward the east”)
liturgy, in which both the priest and people face the direction that
tradition holds is the one from which Christ will make his return. Father Orr
cited The Spirit of the Liturgy
(Ignatius Press, 2000), specifically the chapter “The Altar and Direction of
Liturgical Prayer,” among the Ratzinger writings on the subject. As
was the case with Father McGinnity, Father Orr has
benefited from the generosity of parishioners to help him celebrate the Latin
Mass. Because of their gifts, Father Orr now has seven vestments, a 1962
Roman Missal, and other items needed for the liturgies. The
diocese began offering a Latin Mass in February 2004 at St. Stephen Church in
The
bishop has given Father Orr and Father McGinnity
permission to offer the Latin Mass on the occasional fifth Sundays if the two
priests can coordinate the extra liturgy. In
his letter to Father Orr the bishop mentioned that regular Sunday collections
should be taken at St. John Neumann during the Mass in Latin and that those
collections are to be given to the Farragut parish.
Latin Mass collections taken at St. Thérèse support
that parish. The
bishop wrote that Father Orr should make the faithful aware that attending
the Latin Mass “does not exempt them from belonging to a particular parish
within the diocese and the obligation to support their particular parishes,
both spiritually and materially.” For
more information on the Latin Mass, visit the websites www.uvknox.org and www.knoxlatinmass.net. The Masses at
St. Thérèse and those to come at St. John Neumann
are the only traditional Latin Masses in the Diocese of Knoxville that Bishop
Kurtz has authorized according to Ecclesia Dei, given by Pope John Paul II on
© 2005, The http://www.etcatholic.com/oct23/latinmass.htm |