Pontifical Mass and Vespers by Archbishop Raymond Burke in Artallo

This past weekend, the small town of Artallo, thanks to the intelligent foresight of its parish priest Canon don Marco Cuneo, witnessed the true glory of the Pontifical rites of the extraordinary form.

In fact, His Excellency Abp.Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, celebrated a Solemn Pontifical Mass and Pontifical Vespers for the feast of St. Sebastian, Titular Saint of the parish.
The concourse in terms of faithful and clergy from the whole Diocese of Albenga-Imperia and beyond was impressive and moving.

H.E. Msgr. Mario Oliveri, the Diocesan Ordinary, whose fatherly benevolence has become universally known amongst those who love the traditional rites of the Church, and who celebrated himself the Pontifical Mass from the throne in the E.F. in Imperia in October 2008, benignly conceded the use of the throne and pastoral staff to the visiting Archbishop.



Canons form the Collegiate, Cathedral and Metropolitan Chapters of Albenga, Imperia, Genoa and Milan attended the ceremony.


Thanks to Can. Cuneo's great liturgical competence and human kindness, we were able to enjoy the spendour of some of the most solemn ceremonies of the Roman Rite within the frame of the joyful, fervent devotion of a Catholic town to his Patron.



Thank you, Your Excellency! Ad Multos Annos!

N.B. Further details of the ceremony on messainlatino.it and maranatha.

Video of the First Mass in Dolcedo

A video of the First Mass of Don Francesco Ramella, a new priest of the diocese of Albenga-Imperia, Italy, which was celebrated in the Extraordinary Form and has been mentioned here and here, has become available:

Thanks again to the NLM friends at Messa in latino for the tip.

Usus Antiquior First Mass in Dolcedo, Italy

Last week, I mentioned two First Masses of diocesan priests in the Extraordinary Form which were going to take place in the diocese of Albenga-Impria, Italy, cf. my post First Masses in the Extraordinary Form which gives details and background. One of these Masses, which took place last Sunday, was celebrated by newly ordained Father Francesco Ramella as a Solemn Mass in the parish church of St. Thomas the Apsotle in Dolcedo, the splendorous and completely intact sanctuary of which you can see in last week's post. Mozart's Spatzenmesse was sung by a choir, as well as Adorabunt Nationes by Himmel, and Ave Verum and Te Deum again by Mozart, whereas the Gregorian propers were sung by the Benedictines of the Immaculate. Some of the canons of the Cathedral and of the Concathedral also attended. Our friends of Messa in latino now have some images of this Mass.

The new priest greeting the faithful:


The sacred ministers - including a presbyter assistens, a privilege for First Masses - approaching the altar:











The NLM's best wishes and congratulations to Don Francesco Ramella and his fellow new priests.

First Masses in the Extraordinary Form

Very welcome news comes via the excellent Italian blog Messa in Latino from the Ligurian diocese of Albenga-Imperia. This diocese and its bishop, Mons. Mario Oliveri, have been noted before on the NLM: Mons. Oliveri has apparently been very accomodating to religious communities which has helped to bring about a situation in which even the smallest parishes of the diocese today have one or more priests in residence, which is very rare even in Italy these days. Last year, he has also received the new foundation of the Benedictines of the Immaculate of Dom Jehan de Belleville, who are attached to the usus antiquior, into his diocese (cf. NLM articles here and here). Mons. Oliveri himself has celebrated Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form in his Concathedral (cf. NLM report here). Interestingly, Mons. Oliveri, who also wrote a contribution for a recent book on Romano Amerio (cf. here) is a member of the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The news is that this coming Saturday, Mons. Oliveri will ordain four new diocesan priests in his Cathedral. The notable thing is that two of these will celebrate their First Masses on the following Sunday, 11 January 2009, in the usus antiquior. Especially one of these, it seems, will be a rather splendid occasion: Soon-to-be-Father Francesco Ramella will celebrate his First Mass as a Solemn Mass in the parish church of St. Thomas the Apsotle in Dolcedo, the completely intact sanctuary of which you can see to the right. Mozart's Spatzenmesse will be sung by a choir, as well as Adorabunt Nationes by Himmel, and Ave Verum and Te Deum again by Mozart, whereas the Gregorian propers will be sung by the Benedictines of the Immaculate. Some of the canons of the Cathedral and of the Concathedral will attend.

The remarkable point here is of course not just the splendid Mass itself, but that this shows that not even a year and a half after Summorum Pontificum has entered into force, the usus antiquior is beginning to become a normal part of the life of the Church, not only for "special interest" groups, and not only in parishes, but also in dioceses. Admittedly, this is true as yet only in a very small number of dioceses (certainly not in mine), but the movement is unmistakable, and we have every reason to hope that with our own prayer and work it well steadily spread.