Post intelligent and civil comments. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the NLM
This was the first public Sunday Mass for Fr. Fessio and it was originally supposed to be a Low Mass as the other choirs and scholae were scheduled elsewhere. Around 10:30 the night before and at 6:30 in the morning two former students and a current student put together an impromptu schola and hammered out the chants for the day. Considering it was 7:30 in the morning the chapel was remarkably full of students and faculty. Fr. Fessio did a very nice job with his first Missa Cantata and should be commended on learning the Traditional Mass.
Wonderful!!!
The world is such a brighter place since September 14th. Praise God!
JMJ
Can you please post more pictures of this. I was accepted for next fall and this is VERY encouraging.
Just wondering.... where is his server?
I'm sure the liturgy was beautiful, but what a depressing picture.
Isnt there a beautiful Catholic Church in the Ave Maria area where the Mass of All Ages can be offered?
it's a start.
the first rays of light signals the dawn of the new day.
this is one of those first rays of light.
AMU is a troubled place, for reasons that have nothing to do with the liturgy (as well as for reasons that have everything to do with the liturgy). Don't send your kids or your money there.
http://avewatch.com
Isnt there a beautiful Catholic Church in the Ave Maria area where the Mass of All Ages can be offered?
No.
The Mother church of Naples Florida, which Ave Maria is under, is almost as hideous as the Taj Mahoney.
I've seen nicer looking warehouses at defunct military installations.
So, "transitional deacon" you make a good, or shall I lament, sad, point.
Maybe there is an FSSP or FSSPX chapel that AMU can use for the Mass.
Ut Prosim.
I'm afraid the Catholic churches in Naples/Bonita Springs run pretty uniformly modernist. There are no old churches. But then there is not really old anything in Naples. Before 1950 there was virtually nothing there.
But that doesn't make it that much different from much of the rest of Florida.
If AMU can get something worked out with Bishop Dewane on using the oratory, and if they can finish the sanctuary area as depicted in their artwork, then it might look reasonably serviceable in there, perhaps. As it is, the TLM has been celebrated by an FSSP priest for the last few months at a brand new parish about 10 miles from campus.
I am pleased to see Fr. Fessio - well known as an advocate of a Reform of the Reform, rather than the TLM - celebrating the usus antiquior.
athelstane,
I have seen a number of beautiful newly built churches in the mission style or romanesque look.
Why can't this be done in Naples, or anywhere else for that matter?
Expense is not a valid excuse since most of these modern monstrocities are very expensive to build themselves.
In days past, the poor immigrant and working men built beautiful Catholic churches with meager donations.
Naples or AMU could most definitely afford to build a church in the San Juan Capistrano mission style, or the Church of St Isidores in Watkins Falls, Colarado.
God bless you.
did he really need that pulpit and reading stand?
You can see some pics of the Naples/AMU Church and the interior of their sanctuary here:
http://
unamsanctamcatholicam.blo...egalomania.html
As the author points out, it looks like it is more appropriate for a meeting of the Jedi Council than for the Mass.
Boniface
although the novus ordo claims to be centered on the meal aspect it is interesting how priests trained in its school must have the big pulpit wherever they go to conceal the altar table. that is because the american form of the novus ordo has digressed into methodism.
Sometimes I wish we could all just be happy for one minute before all the criticism starts.
Mary Jane Ballou
I made it to 1 minute then let my fingers do the walkin'!
Sorry but all that was said about Ave Maria U. is true its a mess, and no there are no "lovely" churches in the Naples area they are all modern Novus Ordo in the round or barren Prostestant looking airplane hangers. The local bishop is no friend of the TLM he was up North celebrating a "clown" Mass with the circus performers in Sarasota, so it gives you an idea whats up with Naples!
Fovebitne traditioni in Societate Jesu R.P. Fessio? Spero!
CORRIGENDUM! "Favebit..."
i am sorry, but those two extra wooden objects make me sick.
"Will Fr Fessio favor tradition in the Society of Jesus?"
I hope and pray thus, and that he begins to see the fallacies of the New Theology as well.
Actually 'fovebitne' was okay, but it might be a solecism with the dative.
I don't know anything about Bp. DeWane's clown Masses, but I looked at the "Ave Watch" site linked by Boko and found some fairly good stuff on DeWane's orthodoxy--including his pushing Ave Maria to have more Latin Masses.
stigmatized,
we get your point.You hate the novus ordo,protestants, and preaching from pulpits. Fine, we got it the first time.
I'm shocked about the inability of some of the people who frequent NLM to say something nice about anything.
Wolf,
We agree that AMU is a mess, but Bishop Dewane is getting a bum rap about the so-called "clown Mass." I thought this was cleared up earlier, but here it is again:
What you refer to as a "clown Mass" was not what we generally mean by that phrase; it was not a Mass during which the celebrant dressed like a clown and featuring a bunch of lame Nouwen-inspired hijinx. Rather, it was a Mass offered for the circus performers who summer in the area, an important, if unusual, economic and cultural community.
Also, to echo papabile, where is the altar boy? When, before, during, or after Mass, was this pic taken?
monaghan is a fan of frank lloyd wright, so it should't come as a surprise that his architectural style is a bit out there.
while i think the exterior of the church amu is respectable enough, i agree that the interior is pretty hideous.
the tabernacle, however, causes me heartburn at all. true, it resembles the logo of his university, but it was implied in the earlier post that it resembles the logo for dominoes pizza, which simply isn't true.
let's face it, virtually everything in florida is ugly, except for the little town of seaside. you can't expect churh architecture there to be any different. florida was empty swamp until the 60s, at which time post vatican ii architecture was in full swing, so everything built in florida is going to be of the same poor design mold.
The Tabernacle looks like the radio my grandfather used to listen to the Jack Benny show, on.
A voice in the wilderness:
I have seen some very respectable looking churches in Florida.
St Robert Bellarmine in Miami, for instance is a fine example of a newer mission style church.
By the way, Father Fishwick offers the Tridentine Mass there every Sunday at 11:00 am to mostly Latino's.
Just because Florida has only been developed in recent years does not mean that it cannot be home to many beautiful and edifying Catholic Churches.
There are architects just dying to build magnificent Houses of worship, if only those rich dioceses in FLA would let them.
Very good I stand corrected Boko, hope the situation at AVE MARIA improves soon.
I have watched Fr. Fessio embrace tradition over the years. I think it really tells us what a great soul he is, that he admits there is something better and strives for it. It has been a long journey for him as it has for many of his students over the years. Now many of us are attending the usus antiquior, most probably because of Fr. Fessio's early influence in our lives.
Now let's pray that he can get a better "worship space" and vestments!
actually i like protestant preaching and the catholic churches i go to are just a poor imitation of it. for aesthetic beauty and allaround stayawakeness i would much rather attend a protestant service.
the novus ordo is self praising. it is forbidden to criticize it among those who have imposed and are continuing to impose it on others. but like anything else, it is open to criticism. anything which is stiff and contrived and still trying to desperately impose novus ordo forms as this photo shows might inspire this type of criticism.
This photo reminds me of some of the war photos where military chaplains celebrated where they could. I'm sure the mass had its own beauty precisely because it made the space sacred.
Looks lkke he is saying Mass in a furniture store....not even front of store - the store room of the furniture store! What a dog's breakfast!
The altar server was putting the cruets back on the credence table. There were other pictures.
The Mass was offered in the ballroom which is being used as a temporary chapel. Do not expect it to be a wonderful piece of ecclesiastical architecture as it is meant to be used for dancing and eating....not the Sacrifice of the Mass. Also, the normal setup in the room is much more....church-like but has been modified as they are also using the room for a "Guys and Dolls" performance this week.
The reading desks were not blocking the altar by any means, it is just the angle of the picture.
And it is very terrible to insult Bishop Dewane as he has peronally invited the FSSP to send priests to the diocese and has urged AMU for a DAILY Mass according to the 1962 Missal. He has done more than most bishops have to encourage the TLM. While the vestments for the other priests at the Mass for circus performers were pretty awful, if you looked at the pictures you would see that Bishop Dewane is wearing a wonderful gold chasuble. Throwing the words "clown Mass" around is scandalous if you do not know the situation that actually occured. Bishop Dewane is a wonderful bishop who is working to improve a rather disordered diocese and also is attempting to negotiate with the AMU administration (Monaghan and Healy) that seems to think that it has no need to submit to his lawful authority.
Pray for Fr. Fessio and Bishop Dewane as they attempt to save the Church in that area from the perils that seek to destroy it (namely President Healy and the ultra-liberals who think that "canon law hasn't caught up yet" to the lay-run Church).
Prayer is good wherever it is offered.
The Mass is the Mass wherever it is celebrated.
All good wishes and prayers to Fr. Fessio.
And here I was, thinking the Mass setup seemed plain but dignified, and that the vestment design on Father's back brightened things up very nicely.
Honestly, people. There are plenty of horrible, no-good, very bad church arrangements to complain about. One that's just not as nice as one might like -- especially when it's the first time for the TLM, and in an auditorium -- why are you so angry about it? Be happy that it's happening at all, sit back, and watch the TLMs increase; and complain later, if you don't see progress.
"Brick by brick", as Father Z would say.
I echo those who criticized Wolf for his uninformed accusations of Bishop Dewane presiding at a "clown Mass." While I have never actually attended that Mass, I am from the area, and believe that the Mass is prayed annually at St. Martha in Sarasota, where a good relationship existed between the parish and the Ringling Bros. Circus.
To assert that this was a full-blown clown Mass without any actual knowledge or evidence is absurd rumormongering -- especially when is has been established that Bishop Dewane actually is a friend of the XF. Unfortunately, sometimes people seem more interested in liturgical witch-hunts than responsible criticism.
Also, John Collorafi, I am aware of the (somewhat tired) arguments against the advocates of nouvelle théologie. While some of it supporters are off the deep end, to link ressourcement and the so-called "new theology" to the problems in the Church today is wrongheaded. In fact, it could be part of the solution (along with some other legit approaches, some of which are more time-honored) once things settle in further decades after the Council.
By the way, that same St. Martha parish with the "circus Mass" was the indult parish in the northern part of the diocese for many years, and it still harbors the XF Mass.
of course prayer is good wherever it is offered. that is not the point being made...the point is that certain things can distract from the reality of what is occurring...and they are MEANT to distract.
Dan,
"I have seen a number of beautiful newly built churches in the mission style or romanesque look.
Why can't this be done in Naples, or anywhere else for that matter?"
You got me.
I think we all know cost isn't (or should not be) the real issue.
Obviously, many folks think that the AMU oratory was something of a missed opportunity. $27 million will buy you a very nice baroque or Romanesque church, even in SW Florida's inflated real estate market.
But the oratory design is largely the inspiration of Tom Monaghan (who paid for virtually the entire thing, it must be said), and he is a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and Fay Jones (whose influence clearly informs the oratory design).
1. "The local bishop is no friend of the TLM he was up North celebrating a "clown" Mass with the circus performers in Sarasota, so it gives you an idea whats up with Naples!"
Let me add to what the others here have said: Bishop Dewane has turned out to be a real surprise. A pleasant one. He has, in his short term in the diocese of Venice, a) Invited the FSSP in for a full-time presence in Sarasota, as well as the mass they now provide in Naples as well; b) Banned several noted dissidents, such as Eugene Kennedy and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, from speaking in local parishes; c) ordered a Ft Myers church to cease its longstanding practice of offering yoga sessions in its church while mass(!) was underway; d) Enjoined AMU to drop its opposition to the TLM and instead offer it on a daily basis. For starters.
I'm not saying he's the second coming of Burke yet, but he's already better than most bishops.
2. Fr. Fessio in the past expressed real reluctance to bring the TLM/usus antiquior to campus. But once the Motu Proprio was imminent, he softened his view - he said he would be obedient, as a Jesuit should be. And he has.
He remains a Reform Of The Reform Man. But he has done a great deal for the traditional mass despite this, not least with Ignatius publishing Mosebach's new book (with a foreword from Fr. Fessio himself), and his speaking engagements around the country explaining and promoting Summorum Pontificum. To my mind, this is Jesuit fideility at its very best. We all owe him very much.
Maybe Matthew can post some of the drawings done by ND architectural students of proposed designs for the Ave Oratory and town.
And then we can rend our garments and gnash our teeth some more.
I attend a full TLM parish just about every day of the week and love the Traditional Mass. I came from a Novus Ordo background, and as such, came to admire the work of Fr. Fessio and still do. He wishes to have one form aid the other, same as our present Holy Father does.
But, the real reason which prompted this reply is to point out the tremendous spiritual pride emanating from some of the responses among these comments. Its not helping anyone.
Peace in Christ Jesus.
Boko--there were, as I understand, some counter-proposals, though I'm not sure where the pictures have gotten to in the intervening time. It's been quite a while.
why have catholics been trained to defend ugliness to the death? why must ugliness always prevail?
You know who might have some? Michael Rose. I'll check his website. He was all over the "Oratory" thing back when it was gonna be glass.
stigmatized,
If you were in the middle of Africa and there were no parish churches around at all.....and the only option you had to fulfill your sunday obligation was to attend a Traditional Latin Mass offered on the bed of a truck would you decline to hear Mass just because it is "ugly?"
Sometimes we must make due with what we have. AMU does not have a chapel at the moment and they are making due with what they have. If you cannot apprecieate the graces that have come from that TLM then maybe you should refrain from frequenting these blogs if you are so "stigmatized" by seeing the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered in something other than a baroque cathedral.
what if you DO have cathedrals?
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