Friday, March 11, 2011

Pontifical High Mass in the Extraordinary Form at National Shrine Cancelled

April 9th Pontifical High Mass in the Extraordinary Form at National Shrine Cancelled.

WASHINGTON, DC--The Paulus Institute for the Propagation of the Sacred Liturgy regrets to announce that the Pontifical High Mass in the Extraordinary Form scheduled to be offered at the high altar of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on April 9th is cancelled. The Paulus Institute had organized the Lenten Mass in honor of the Holy Father on the sixth anniversary of his election to the papacy. It was to have been the second such Mass, the first having been offered at the National Shrine last year before a capacity congregation of over 4,000. Unfortunately, this year's scheduled celebrant, Archbishop Augustine DiNoia of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome, withdrew his acceptance of our invitation as a result of changed circumstances. Although the Paulus Institute has worked for the past several weeks to proceed with the Mass in the end we were unable to obtain the necessary permission. "We deeply regret this turn of events,” said Paul King, president of The Paulus Institute. “We are very disappointed, well aware that thousands of Catholics throughout the United States have made plans to attend. Countless others around the world would have watched and prayed with the EWTN broadcast and wanted the DVD.

“This conclusion is most unfortunate, but we are not standing still. We are looking forward to a number of activities and events for the future, both near and long term.”

The Paulus Institute offers its encouragement to those faithful new to the traditional form of the Mass and those familiar with it. As Pope Benedict has said, “what was sacred before remains sacred now." What nourished the saints of the last thousand years still nourishes us today.

For information about forthcoming activities of The Paulus Institute see www.paulusinstitute.org.


# # #
Contact: Paul N. King
President
pking@ThePaulusInstitute.org
Mail: The Paulus Institute
PO Box 30172
Bethesda MD 20824
Update:

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf says:
 
I received an addendum to the Press Release from the Paulus Institute:

THE PAULUS INSTITUTE
FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE SACRED LITURGY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Paul King (pking@KingPLLC.com)
MARCH 11, 2011

April 9th Pontifical High Mass – addendum

WASHINGTON, DC— The Paulus Institute would like to clarify that Msgr. Walter Rossi and the Shrine are not at all responsible for the cancellation of the Apr. 9 Mass, and indeed have been very helpful.

For information about forthcoming activities of The Paulus Institute see
http://www.paulusinstitute.org.


    2 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Very unfortunate. I was looking forward to it as I know many others were.

    Was there any reason for the denial of permission? Who denied permission or will that person prefer to do his work anonymously and hide under his desk?

    Aged parent said...

    I would like to know who, and under what pretext of legality, sabotaged this event. As Summorum Pontificum makes perfectly clear, permission from the local Ordinary to say this Mass is NOT required, nor can Bishops restrict it in any way.

    Of course for SP to be effective it must be enforced by Rome. So in the (sadly, unlikely) event that Rome doesn't know about this someone might want to contact the Ecclesia Dei Commission post haste.