More positive TLM news for Philly Archdiocese

[Gerard]

I've been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks now, but in light of the announcement from Archbishop Chaput concerning the FSSP, there is even more good news for the Philly diocese. 

Doylestown a Philly suburb wil now have more frequent TLMs as the Shrine of Our Lady of Czetochowa will be offering TLMs every second Sunday of the Month in the lower chapel.  The main Church is modern, uninspiring architecture, but the lower church is very conducive to the TLM. 

Now, if enough people will simply go to these masses, the growth would accelerate.  Cardinal Rigali has previously put a gag order on priests discussing the TLM during any Novus Ordo Masses.  I think a lot of that is still prevalent.

[The Harlequin King]

Those Masses at the Shrine have been going on for a year and a half now. I bring my schola up there once or twice a year to assist with a missa cantata.

Here's a photo from last year. I sang the Epistle.

[Xavier]

Deo Gratias. May Tradition triumph quickly in the Church.

[Gerard]

Those Masses at the Shrine have been going on for a year and a half now. I bring my schola up there once or twice a year to assist with a missa cantata.

Here's a photo from last year. I sang the Epistle.

Good to know it's been going on for a while now.  (Great pic btw. And thanks for all of your efforts to help the growth and restoration of the TLM in the archdiocese. )  I had known that there was an "annual" TLM at the Shrine a few years back.  It used to be in September. But I had not known it went to monthly.  What are the attendance numbers like?

I found out about the monthly masses only because someone who frequents the Shrine saw the flyer in the doorway and sent me a photo of it. 

It's significant that there is a regular TLM going on that hasn't been shoved off in a corner, in a non-Catholic neighborhood without real parking. 

Usually the scam has been to put the Mass in a lousy part of town at an inconvenient time, usually overlapping any other TLMs in the diocese and the priests are put on a "rotation" that makes them go to greater efforts to say the TLM if they want.  So a priest who is within a mile or two of a TLM 1, gets to say the TLM 2 a distance of twenty miles away while another priest drives an hour to say the TLM 1.   Maybe that little bit of skullduggery will be ended.

[The Harlequin King]

What are the attendance numbers like?

I think there were a hundred when I was last there on Laetare Sunday. But I'm not good with estimating crowd sizes.

[Maximilian]

Here's a photo from last year. I sang the Epistle.

No criticism intended of you or your efforts, and traditionalists in the past have had to offer the TLM in garages and hotel rooms, but that place looks really ugly. It doesn't give me any feeling of a Catholic church, not even a bad, N.O. one. Feels more like a synagogue or something.

[The Harlequin King]

No criticism intended of you or your efforts, and traditionalists in the past have had to offer the TLM in garages and hotel rooms, but that place looks really ugly. It doesn't give me any feeling of a Catholic church, not even a bad, N.O. one. Feels more like a synagogue or something.

The photo is a bad angle. Here's a straight-on one, which shows the chancel screen and everything. It's in imitation of the original one in Poland. The rosaries and crutches, etc. suspended on the wall are tokens of thanks by pilgrims to the shrine. There are still people who creep to the altar on their knees here.



Now, I have no comment about the much larger upper chapel, which is a modern design!

[martin88nyc]

I have been to the shrine once with my parish as part of the parish yearly "pilgrimage" to the shrine. The upper church there is awful. There is no high altar, no rails. I am in absolute disbelief that this is taking place. A monthly TLM at the the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, unbelievable.

[Larry]

I have been to the shrine once with my parish as part of the parish yearly "pilgrimage" to the shrine. The upper church there is awful. There is no high altar, no rails. I am in absolute disbelief that this is taking place. A monthly TLM at the the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, unbelievable.

The upper church is an abomination, but the chapel is acceptable. Also, the Franciscans who reside there are orthodox.

[The Harlequin King]

The upper church is an abomination, but the chapel is acceptable. Also, the Franciscans who reside there are orthodox.

I think you mean the Paulist Fathers.

(correction to myself: should have said Pauline Fathers, a totally different institution)

[martin88nyc]

I have been to the shrine once with my parish as part of the parish yearly "pilgrimage" to the shrine. The upper church there is awful. There is no high altar, no rails. I am in absolute disbelief that this is taking place. A monthly TLM at the the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, unbelievable.

The upper church is an abomination, but the chapel is acceptable. Also, the Franciscans who reside there are orthodox.

Yes the chapel is nice, a replica of the original one in Poland.

[Larry]

The upper church is an abomination, but the chapel is acceptable. Also, the Franciscans who reside there are orthodox.

I think you mean the Paulist Fathers.

They used to be Polish Franciscans. The Paulists? I really don't trust those guys.

[The Harlequin King]

They used to be Polish Franciscans. The Paulists? I really don't trust those guys.

Understandable. In fact, we are both wrong. I double-checked. I should have said Pauline Fathers, not Paulist Fathers. The Pauline Fathers are a monastic order originating from medieval Hungary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Saint_Paul_the_First_Hermit

But the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown was founded by a Pauline Father from the beginning. Here's a page on their history from the Shrine's website: https://czestochowa.us/content/view/1545/126/