Traditional Latin Mass in Cubao Cathedral on December 24 at noontime

SEDSI receives letter and blessing from Papal Nuncio

Societas Ecclesia Dei Sancti Joseph traces its origins to the "Latin Mass Society of the Philippines" that was founded on December 18, 1987. As such, SEDSI is marking its 25th anniversary this year. Although SEDSI was not able to hold an anniversary Mass on December 18 of this year, it nevertheless received the following very important message and recognition of the legitimacy of its cause: 

The TLM comes back to Sto. Domingo Church!

The church of Sto. Domingo in Quezon City, also known as the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary La Naval de Manila, was the site of the first regularly-scheduled and publicly-accessible indult every-Sunday Traditional Latin Mass in the Philippines since Quattuor Abhinc Annos was promulgated in 1984. That Mass (according to the 1962 Roman Missal rather than the Traditional Dominican Rite) was offered by Fr. Manuel Piñon OP at the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary from 1990 until 1994 when it was suppressed by the late Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin.  

On October 22, 2012, the Traditional Latin Mass will make its first appearance in the Sto. Domingo church since the 1990's. This time, the Mass will be celebrated, not at a side altar, but at the main altar. The Mass will be offered by Fr. Michell Joe Zerrudo at 7:00 P.M.

Providentially, since it is October, the image of Our Lady of the Rosary La Naval de Manila is also enthroned at the center of the sanctuary (see above), thus allowing for the Mass to celebrated right in front of her -- just like in the days of Fr. Piñon.

UST TLM: Venue change for September

I have just been informed that the UST TLM for September will be offered at the Religious of Mary Immaculate chapel (Holy Family Dormitory, 1231 Arsenio Lacson St.), just outside UST itself. This is located beside Jollibee Lacson. 

The Mass will be at 6:30 P.M. and will be offered by Fr. Eric Forbes OFMCap, who is from Guam and has Filipino ancestry. 

Traditional Latin Masses to mark the 5th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum

1) Holy Family Parish Church, Roxas District, Q.C. Missa Cantata with incense in the presence of a Relic of the True Cross, at 8:00 PM. 

2) Sacred Heart Parish Church, Hillsborough Village, Alabang, Muntinlupa City. 7:30 PM. Missa Cantata without incense.

3) The Most Rev. Jose Palma D.D., Archbishop of Cebu and President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, will celebrate for the second time, a Pontifical Solemn High Mass at the Sanctuary of Mary Coredemptrix (of the Franciscans of the Immaculate) at Bgy. San Jose, Talamban, Cebu City, on Friday, September 14, 2012 at 4:00 P.M. 

Some upcoming Masses

1. A Solemn Mass will be celebrated in the Basilica of Our Lady of Charity  in Agoo, La Union (Diocese of San Fernando, La Union) on September 8, 2012, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This is the first Solemn Mass according to the 1962 Missal to be offered in this Basilica since the present church was constructed in the 1970's. It is organized by the Latin Mass Society of North-Central Luzon.

2. At 6:00 P.M. on September 20, Bishop Antonio Tobias D.D. of the Diocese of Novaliches, Quezon City, will offer Low Mass in the Oratory of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo De Manila University, Quezon City. It is organized by the Ateneo Latin Mass Society, which is behind the monthly (every third Thursday) Low Masses in that oratory. 

3. For the first time since June 2009 (when the every-Sunday TLM in the St. Jerome Emiliani church in Alabang Town Center ceased), the Traditional Latin Mass will be celebrated with reasonable regularity in the City of Muntinlupa, at the southern edge of Metropolitan Manila, at a rate of about twice a month. These Masses will take place within the territory of the Sacred Heart Chaplaincy (now raised to parish rank) in Hillsborough Alabang Village. These Masses are organized by the Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus led Fr Lambert Legaspino in collaboration with the religious and lay people of the parish. Societas Ecclesia Dei Sancti Joseph applauds the initiative of Fr Lambert and is delighted to respond to requests for assistance to make this initiative a reality.

The first two Masses will be the following:

September 9 (Sunday) at 11:00 a.m. – Southridge Holy Family Chapel. Missa Cantata with incense. 15th Sunday after Pentecost.

September 14 (Friday) at 7:30 p.m. – Sacred Heart Parish Church. Exaltation of the Cross. This Mass will follow the regularly-scheduled 6:00 p.m. Friday Mass and will launch the Traditional Latin Mass at the parish church. Missa Cantata. 

Another milestone: First-ever TLM by an official from the Papal Nunciature to the Philippines

From the blog of Acolythorum Fraternitas Sanctae Crucis:

Rev. Msgr. Seamus Patrick Horgan, the First Secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in the Philippines, was invited to offer Mass according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite last August 26, 2012 at the Baptistry Chapel of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Pasig City. 

Msgr. Horgan is an Irish priest working for the diplomatic service of the Vatican City State.  He arrived in the Philippines on May 24, 2012.  He replaced Msgr. Giorgo Chezza. 

According to an article in the New Liturgical Movement website, "Monsignor Horgan, unknown to many perhaps, has celebrated in the Extraordinary Form previously in the Killaloe and Limerick dioceses. In 2003 he celebrated the Mass of the Latin Mass Society of Ireland's pilgrimage to the site of the little Ark in Kilbaha Co Clare. He also celebrated several Masses in St Patricks Church, Dublin Road, Limerick home of the Institute of Christ the King's Apostolate in the diocese of Limerick. He also celebrated a memorable Christmas Day Mass in the city in 2004 at the Mercy Convent Chapel at Mount St Vincents on O'Connell Avenue. Monsignor worked for a time in Roscrea before being transferred to the Apostolic Nunciature in Kampala, Uganda." He also worked in Apostolic Nunciature in Bern, Switzerland.

More pictures can be found at the original blog post.

Traditional Latin Mass returns to the world's largest Catholic university!

As previously announced, the evening of August 24, 2012 saw the Traditional Latin Mass being celebrated in public in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for the first time since the liturgical reforms of Paul VI took effect. UST is the Philippines' oldest existing university and sole Pontifical University. It is also the world's largest Catholic university located in one campus in terms of the number of students (around 45,000 students in the Manila campus).

This surely ranks among the greatest achievements of the canonically-regular branch of the Traditional Latin Mass movement in the Philippines since it began in 1987. It was organized by students and faculty of this university, with training and other forms of assistance provided by Societas Ecclesia Dei Sancti Joseph (SEDSI).

The Mass was offered in the St. Dominic Chapel in the 3rd floor of the Tan Yan Kee Student Center. The chapel could hold about 60-70 people maximum (including choir and altar servers) but the crowd in attendance -- far more than a hundred-strong -- greatly exceeded expectations, and spilled out into the surrounding corridors. Screens and projectors had to be used to allow the faithful who were in the corridors to follow what was happening inside the chapel. The vast majority of the attendees were students of the University. Most of the servers and the whole choir were also drawn from UST students -- all in their late teens and early twenties -- who had practiced for this occasion for the past several weeks. 

Antique chalice used for the Mass

The Mass was offered by Fr. Michell Joe "Jojo" Zerrudo, priest of the Diocese of Cubao, Chaplain of SEDSI and celebrant of the daily TLM in Holy Family Parish, Roxas District, QC. He is an alumnus of the Central Seminary, one of the Philippines' two national seminaries, located in UST and run by the Dominican Fathers. In choir was Fr. Winston Fernandez Cabading OP, who was vital to the whole project of returning the TLM to UST.

Relics on the Altar used for Mass 

It is hoped that the Traditional Latin Mass will be offered monthly in UST. Plans are already being made for another Traditional Latin Mass in September, this time in a larger venue within the University. Should this push through, the City and Archdiocese of Manila (where UST is located) will once again have a regular Traditional Latin Mass for the first time since the First Friday Mass in the tiny chapel of the now-defunct Marian Center in Quiapo, Manila ceased sometime in 2010. UST will also become the second Filipino Catholic university (after the Ateneo De Manila University in Quezon City) and, not counting seminaries, the third Catholic institute of higher education in the Philippines (the first being La Consolacion College in Bacolod City) to have a regular TLM in its premises. 

For the foreseeable future, TLM's in UST will be according to the 1962 Roman Missal. Dominican-Rite Masses will, hopefully, come at a later date. 

The UST Varsitarian has a news report on the event: Tradisyunal na Misa sa Latin, muling inialay sa Unibersidad (article written in Tagalog). It is my understanding that the article has some unintentional misquotes that, nevertheless, do not detract from its positive tone. 

Most of the photos were taken by Leandro-Jose C. Tesorero and Tsard Pazcoguin. 

The last and third-to-the-last photos are from the Varsitarian, UST's student paper. 

Solemn Mass for the External Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

On August 17, 2012, Holy Family Parish witnessed yet another Solemn Mass according to the 1962 Missal. Fr. Joseph Skelton of the Diocese of Tagbilaran was the celebrant, Fr. Rodel Lopez OMI served as deacon and Fr. Michell Joe "Jojo" Zerrudo as subdeacon. The Mass was of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, observed as an external solemnity. Photos are by Albert Thian. 

Official of Papal Nunciature in the Philippines to offer Traditional Latin Mass!

From Acolythorum Fraternitas Sanctae Crucis -- the group attached to the every-Sunday Traditional Latin Mass in Pasig Cathedral -- comes the following announcement:

To our knowledge this is the first time since the advent of the liturgical reforms of Paul VI that an official of the Papal Nunciature in the Philippines has offered the Traditional Latin Mass in public. 

Traditional Latin Mass comes back to University of Santo Tomas!

To our knowledge, this is the first-ever Mass according to the 1962 Missal to be publicly offered in the Dominican-run University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila -- founded by the Spaniards in 1611, the Philippines' sole Pontifical University, the "Catholic University of the Philippines" -- since the liturgical reforms took effect in the 1960's. 

This Mass will be offered by Fr. Michell Joe "Jojo" Zerrudo, chaplain of SEDSI, parish priest of Holy Family Parish in Roxas District, QC, and alumnus of Central Seminary, the interdiocesan seminary located in UST.

Confirmations and Solemn Mass by Bishop Gregorio, August 12, 2012

As previously announced (see this and this), Bishop Camilo Gregorio, Prelate of Batanes, confirmed several youths and offered Solemn Mass according to the liturgical books in force in 1962 on August 12, 2012 in the Holy Family Parish in Roxas District, QC.

During the Confirmations, the Prelate was assisted by Fr. Dominic Lim OFMConv. In the Solemn Mass, Fr. Rodel Lopez OMI served as deacon while Mr. Dennis Raymond Maturan served as straw subdeacon (there was no assistant priest available). 

H/t to Mao Joseph M. Almadrones for the pics. 

Lectures on the Ceremonies of the Traditional Latin Mass

UPDATE: UST lecture rescheduled due to the floods. See below.

Fr. Eric Forbes OFMCap offering the TLM in Parish of the Lord of Divine Mercy, Diocese of Cubao, on the Second Sunday after Easter, 2011. 

The Rev. Fr. Eric Forbes, OFM Cap - in coordination with Societas Ecclesia Dei Sancti Joseph - shall give a talk on "The Ceremonies of the Holy (Tridentine) Mass Explained" on the following dates: 

August 14, 2012 at 7pm, 3/F Tan Yan Kee Student Center, Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, España, Manila (originally scheduled for August 9)

 August 13, 2012 at 3pm, St. Maximilian Seminary, Multinational Village, Parañaque City

Fr. Eric Forbes OFM Cap. is the celebrant of the every-Sunday Traditional Latin Mass in St. Fidelis Capuchin Friary at 135 Chalan Kapuchino, Agana Heights, Guam 96910. It is the sole regular TLM in Guam. He regularly visits the Philippines.


Photo from Dennis Raymond Maturan

Three upcoming Pontifical Masses

1) As previously announced, Msgr. Camilo Gregorio, Prelate of Batanes, will confirm several of the faithful according to the traditional rites of Confirmation, after which he will offer Mass according to the 1962 Missal. These will take place at 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, August 12, 2012, in the Holy Family Parish (Roxas District) of the Diocese of Cubao. 

 2) Most. Rev. Antonio Tobias DD, Bishop of the Diocese of Novaliches, will celebrate a Solemn Pontifical High Mass on Tuesday, August 14, 2012, at 7:00pm at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, Regalado Ave., Fairview Park 1, Quezon City. He will be assisted by the friars of the Franciscans of the Immaculate while the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate will chant the Propers and Ordinaries as schola.

3) The Most Rev. Jose Palma DD, Archbishop of Cebu and President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, will celebrate for the second time, a Pontifical Solemn High Mass at the Sanctuary of Mary Coredemptrix (of the Franciscans of the Immaculate) at Bgy. San Jose, Talamban, Cebu City, on Friday, September 14, 2012. 

Low Mass of Bishop Camilo Gregorio, Prelate of Batanes

For the background to this Mass and to the involvement of Msgr. Gregorio with the Traditional Latin Mass, please see this article: Bishop Camilo Gregorio to offer Low Mass on July 14, 2012

Bishop Gregorio will be back in Holy Family Parish on August 12, 2012 (Sunday) for Confirmations and Mass according to the Traditional rites.