Citing growing interest in Traditional Latin Mass, Archbishop Chaput creates quasi-parish
- Catholic News AgencyApr 12, 2018
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia speaks at the Vatican Press Office, March 25, 2014. (Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA.)
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania - A new quasi-parish for Catholics interested in the Traditional Latin Mass will open in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia at a church that had been part of a 2014 parish merger.
“In response to a growing interest, it has become timely to provide additional pastoral care for those wishing to participate in Divine Worship in the Extraordinary Form,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput’s March 14 decree said.
A quasi-parish is the equivalent of a parish under canon law, with some exceptions. It can later become a parish at the discretion of the local bishop. The new quasi-parish will be located at the site of the former Saint Mary Parish in Conshohocken, a suburban Philadelphia borough in Montgomery County. About 8,000 people live in the borough, which is about one square mile in area.
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter will provide the clergy for the new quasi-parish.
“While it remains to be seen if this community will flourish so as to become a parish, the establishment of a quasi-parish to provide this spiritual care appears to be most fitting at this time,” Chaput’s decree continued.
The archbishop made his decision after consulting with local pastors, local priests who celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, and the archdiocese’s Council of Priests. The Philadelphia archdiocese announced the planned creation of the quasi-parish on April 8.
The decree becomes effective Aug. 1. A pastor will be appointed before that date.
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter exclusively celebrates the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, sometimes known as the traditional or Tridentine Latin Mass. It was founded in 1988 as a clerical society of apostolic life, then formally erected as an institute of pontifical right by the Holy See.
In contrast to some other priestly groups celebrating the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter was established with support from the Vatican, and is in full and ordinary communion with the pope.
The priestly fraternity’s North American seminary is based in Denton, Nebraska, with provincial headquarters in South Abington Township just north of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The fraternity staffs two parishes and a chapel in Pennsylvania. A member of the fraternity was assigned to a Discalced Carmelite monastery in Philadelphia last year.
The fraternity’s website currently reports 96 priests in 54 apostolates active in 39 U.S. dioceses and seven Canadian dioceses in its North American district alone. It has a somewhat smaller presence in France and Germany. One of its newest priests, Father Tymoteusz Szydlo, is a son of Poland’s former prime minister Beata Szydlo.
In July 2014, Saint Mary Parish merged with Saint Matthew Parish as part of the Philadelphia archdiocese’s pastoral planning initiative. St. Mary Church became a worship site of Saint Matthew Parish and made available for occasional liturgical use.
The parish merger left three non-parish Catholic churches in the area. Of these buildings, one was sold to the Coptic Orthodox Church and another to the Borough of West Conshohocken.
The former parish church of St. Mary’s had served as a center for the Polish community. A local Polish group formed by former parishioners had sought to preserve its status as a Catholic church.
The group welcomed the announcement of the quasi-parish.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled since this accomplishes what St. Mary Polish American Society sought to do, breathe new life into the church so it could remain a church available for Mass and other spiritual activities,” David Swedkowski, executive director of the Saint Mary Polish American Society, told the local news site More Than the Curve.
“The Society will continue to exist and focus on promoting Polish heritage in Montgomery County and continuing to raise money so the Fraternity can successfully care for St. Mary’s.”
As of 2012, two years before the parish merger, St. Mary’s had a weekend Mass attendance of 271 people, down 60 from 2008. It hosted only four baptisms and eight marriages in 2012, according to archdiocesan figures.
13 comments:
Maybe he could be made a quasi-cardinal...?
Heard about this yesterday. This is the second parish set up by FSSP in the Mid-Atlantic area in the last year. Previous one is in Baltimore.
Archbishop Chaput is a true liberal, generous and accommodating. Santita could take lessons from him.
Like myself and others, we have been saying for years that Absp Chaput should be a Cardinal. Despite all this talk about how native peoples are so important for the Church, I would not expect this from the current regime at the Vatican because of Chuput's "rigidity" in upholding the orthodoxy of the Catholic Faith.
How fortunate for the people of the archdiocese! This is a stunning church that is prominently situated and, therefore visible throughout the growing and trendy Conshohocken area. I always admired this building when passing by. Knowing the retired pastor, this building, prior to its merger, was well maintained. Nice to see that it will be preserved and adapted back to its original intended use.
It is not uncommon for the Holy See to withhold the red hat from a sitting Arch/bishop until the death of the former arch/bishop who was a cardinal of that diocese.
It is my hope and prayer that our bishop will follow Bishop Chaput's lead.
In 2010 A.D., Archbishop Chaput said that compared to the Traditional Latin Mass that:
"...in fact I find the Novus Ordo, properly celebrated, a much richer expression of worship;"
I wonder whether, eights years later, Archbishop Chaput supports his above statement?
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2010/06/glorify-god-by-your-life
Archbishop Chaput, June 30, 2010:
"In this regard, the Novus Ordo, the new order of the Mass promulgated after the council, has been a great blessing to the Church.
"Our liturgy gives us the zeal for the evangelization and sanctification of our world.
"The vernacular has opened up the liturgy’s content in new ways.
"It has encouraged active, creative participation by all the faithful — not only in the liturgy but in every aspect of the Church’s mission.
"By the way, for the record, I’m also very grateful that the Holy Father has allowed wider use of the older Tridentine form — not because I personally prefer it, in fact I find the Novus Ordo, properly celebrated, a much richer expression of worship; but because we need access to all of the Church’s heritage of prayer and faith."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Whether Archbishop Chaput should or should not be a cardinal (a position some may view as just another "ecclesiastical layer"---doubtless a view among some Eastern Orthodox), he is to be praised for trying to clean up the mess of his predecessors in what is now a very secular metro area (the metro Philadelphia area backed Clinton over Trump by a 2-1 margin in 2016).
Philadelphia has an African-American population of around 43% who vote for their Democratic plantation masters in overwhelming numbers. Same dynamic in Chicago, Detroit, etc.
Perhaps with the recent poll results and closing parishes it is maybe being pondered that the new Mass is making new protestants?
TJM, it is more than that (the city of Philadelphia)---the mostly white suburbs around that city also went for Clinton (some of them heavily so). What was remarkable is that Trump could win Pennsylvania even while losing the Philadelphia area so heavily---something that had never been done before Trump. Even in 1984, when Reagan was winning Pennsylvania, he only broke about even in metro Philly. Catholics outside metro Philly tend to be more conservative---think like the Harrisburg and Scranton areas---and the two-thirds of Pennsylvania outside metro Philly is more socially conservative. In fact, even liberal Democratic nominees like Dukakis (1988) and Kerry (2004) fared better than Clinton in that two-thirds of the state---finally blue-collar Democrats waking up that their party has been taken over by secular, far-left folks.
Anonymous, you obviously can't be Kavanaugh,
I think the Dems being the party of the little guy has been largely a myth created by the media. The Dem Party is controlled by lefty billionaires. Most Dem policies actively harm working men and women: minimum wage laws, unions, government assistance with no work requirements, supporting illegal alients by the millions, etc. Workers in states that have low minimum wages and right to work laws do better across the board.
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