Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Liturgical Continuity in Liguria - Pontifical Mass in Roverano

Liguria, the coastal region of north-western Italy with its capital Genoa, under the beneficial influence of that city's great Archbishop, Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, has in large parts preserved a spirit of continuity even while implementing the postconciliar liturgical reforms. In this spirit it is now also among the areas where the implementation of Summorum Pontificum is making its greatest advances, as we have seen, e.g., in the diocese of Albenga-Imperia. In this context, here are some pictures I have come across of a Pontifical Mass in the Ordinary Form recently celebrated by H.E. Msgr. Francesco Moraglia, Bishop of La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato, at the Marian Shrine of Roverano, in the province of La Spezia, the easternmost part of Liguria. Note that Mass is celebrated ad orientem on the original high altar, and that the Bishop is wearing a pontifical dalmatic as well as episcopal gloves (chirothecæ), two items of traditional liturgical vesture still permitted in the Ordinary Form, but today unfortunately mostly omitted.




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