During a recent visit to Croatia, His Excellency Salvatore Cordileone, archbishop of San Francisco, celebrated a Pontifical High Mass in the traditional rite at the church of St Blaise in Zagreb, for the feast of St Thomas Aquinas. This was the first such Mass celebrated in Croatia since the post-Conciliar liturgical reform. His Excellency also celebrated two prelatitial Masses, one at the same church on the following day, and another the previous day at the church of the Holy Trinity in Krašić. He also attended a liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the Greek-Catholic cathedral of Ss Cyril and Methodius. Our thanks to the organizers, the Benedictus Society (FIUV Croatia), for sharing these photos with us.
Anyone who has ever served this rite of Mass knows that it requires a fair amount of organizing and rehearsal to do properly; the reward is, of course, a ceremony which truly impresses upon one, forcibly and unmistakably, the power and majesty of what the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass really is. We can all take encouragement once again from the fact that none of the people who are making the effort and commitment to put this together are old enough to be doing so from any sense of “nostalgia”; what we see here is a true and sincere love for the richness of our Catholic liturgical tradition. Feliciter!
Missa Praelatitia the following day, for the feast of Ss Perpetua and Felicity
On March 6th, Mass for the feast of Ss Perpetua and Felicity at the church of the Holy Trinity in Krašić.
