FSSP Los Angeles will be holding the 2018 Sacred Music Symposium on the 18th – 22nd of June at St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Alhambra, near Los Angeles. The Symposium includes instruction for singers and choir directors in such subjects as medieval music, counterpoint and choral conducting. Participants will have the opportunity to attend Mass in the Extraordinary Form every day and to sing the music of Tomás Luis de Victoria at a Solemn High Mass celebrated by Fr. Josef Bisig, FSSP, on the final day of the Symposium. See the complete schedule here.

The video above is a reel from last year’s Symposium. To see more videos from previous years and to sign up, please visit www.ccwatershed.org/symposium. Registration deadline is March 31.

At the same time and in the same location as the Symposium, FSSP L.A. will be holding an Altar Server Training Camp and a week of instruction in the Latin Mass for priests. More info on those events will be forthcoming.

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In an act illustrating both his generosity and his commitment to the Shrine of St. Alphonsus, home of FSSP Baltimore, Archbishop William Lori has granted that every dollar which St. Alphonsus donates to this year’s Archbishop’s Appeal will go straight back to the Shrine, tax-free! Usually the parish receives a percentage of the amount that it donates to the Appeal, then a larger percentage after it reaches its goal. But this year every dollar donated by Shrine supporters will go to the Shrine.

FSSP Baltimore is eager to meet their goal and demonstrate their appreciation of and their commitment to the Shrine, and so they are looking for a generous response from Shrine supporters to the Archbishop’s kind gesture. If you have had the privilege of visiting the beautiful Shrine of St. Alphonsus, or are simply a supporter of the FSSP who would like to help the Shrine, please visit the donation section of the Shrine’s website here. The Shrine is in need of some significant repair work, so your donations are much needed to restore the splendor of this beautiful house of God.

May God reward you for your generosity!

On March 3, 2018, St. Clement Parish, the FSSP’s apostolate in Ottawa, Ontario, celebrated half a century of service to God.

The story of St. Clement is certainly a remarkable one, and was made possible in large part by the generous actions of three consecutive Archbishops of Ottawa. The parish’s origins can be found with a small community of Catholics who gathered on Sunday, March 3, 1968, to hear the Latin Mass of 1962 with the permission of Archbishop Joseph-Aurèle Plourde at the Monastery of the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood in Ottawa. In 1984, the community gained its first chapel, which was placed under the patronage of St. Clement, and in 1993, Archbishop Plourde’s successor, Archbishop Marcel Gervais, granted them their own church building and the rank of quasi-parish.

At the invitation of Archbishop Gervais, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter assumed administration of the parish at the beginning of 1995, with Fr. Charles Ryan appointed the first pastor, and in 1997, the Archbishop erected it as a personal parish within the Archdiocese of Ottawa. In 2011, Archbishop Gervais’ successor, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, invited the parish to move into the beautiful and historic church of St. Anne, which at the time was in danger of being closed. The parish accepted the Archbishop’s invitation, and celebrated their first Solemn High Mass at St. Anne on Trinity Sunday in June of 2012.

St. Clement Parish is, according to available information, the first parish in the world after 1969 to be dedicated solely to the celebration of the traditional Roman liturgy. You can read more about its fascinating history on its website or by reading The Continual Sacrifice: A History of the Origins of Saint Clement Parish, Ottawa 1968-1998 by Bernard Pothier. A new, 50-year anniversary book is currently in production, and is slated for release in late 2018.

On Saturday, St. Clement Parish offered a High Mass in thanksgiving for their anniversary, on the same altar on which its first Mass was celebrated at the Sisters’ monastery all those years ago.

Our thanks to Mr. Ian Gallagher for his contributions to this article and for the pictures of the anniversary Mass.

On the same day as our five seminarians in Denton, six more from our seminary in Wigratzbad, Germany, were also raised to the rank of subdeacon. His Excellency Bishop Lajos Varga, Auxiliary Bishop of Vác, Hungary, celebrated a Solemn Pontifical Mass on February 10th and conferred the subdiaconate on two German and four French seminarians, while twelve seminarians also received minor orders.

It was a wintery but bright day in the little town of Gestratz where the ordinations took place, light snow falling from the sky to join that already on the ground as the ceremonies ended and each of the ordinandi processed outside wearing the tunicle, the particular vestment of the subdeacon. As a part of the subdiaconate ordination, each candidate processes into the church carrying the tunicle on his left arm, and is clothed in it by the bishop during the ceremony.

The subdiaconate is the first of the major orders, the four minor orders being acolyte, exorcist, lector and porter. We will be doing a series soon on the history and duties of each of these orders, which are a great treasure that we have been privileged to preserve.

Please keep the seminarians in Wigratzbad and Denton in your prayers as they advance towards the priesthood!

Every year, you can join your intentions to the Solemn High Mass celebrated on Easter morning at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. Those whom you enroll will be remembered in this Mass.

Enroll for Easter Day 2018

You can read Fr. Saguto’s letter for the 2018 Easter Day Mass here, and you can download the holy card for the Mass by clicking the image to the right.

On February 22, 2018, on the Fraternity’s patronal feast of the Chair of St. Peter, His Excellency the Most Reverend William Waltersheid, Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh, PA, blessed the new chapel at our District headquarters in Scranton. His Excellency afterwards celebrated a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the newly blessed chapel, Fr. Zachary Akers assisting as deacon and Fr. Joseph Heffernan as subdeacon.

The beautiful processions and Masses of the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady, or Candlemas, across the North American District and beyond.

FSSP Dayton

Holy Family Parish

FSSP Houston

Regina Caeli Parish

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary

Denton, Nebraska

Priesterseminar Sankt Petrus

Our seminary in Wigratzbad, Germany

FSSP Maple Hill

St. John Vianney Chapel

FSSP Calgary

St. Anthony Parish

FSSP Chesapeake

St. Benedict Parish

A beautiful new organ has just been installed at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary! The installation was an impressive process, the organ being composed of a great many pieces that had to be transported up to the choir loft and assembled. The instrument, made at a shop in Montréal, is certainly a remarkable work of craftsmanship, and we look forward to hearing it as it embarks upon its role in Denton as a vital contributor to the honor and worship of God.

Mater Misericordiæ Parish, our apostolate in Phoenix, Arizona, was recently featured in the National Catholic Register! The article concerns the restoration of sacred spaces, and includes the story of how the interior of Mater Misericordiæ, a former Baptist church, was transformed into the beautiful space it is today. The article features a picture of Mater Misericordiæ at the top of the article, and you can read the church’s story at the part entitled “From Baptist to Catholic.”

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/repurposing-sacred-spaces-giving-holy-places-new-life