The final service in the traditional Latin (“Extraordinary”) form of the liturgy permitted in our community by the Archdiocese of Hartford will be celebrated in a Solemn Votive Mass of St. Gregory the Great, patron of our Society, on Sunday January 14 at 2:00 pm at St. St. Stanislaus Church, State Street at Eld Street, New Haven. The Mass, followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, will be celebrated by the Rev. Richard G. Cipolla, Pastor Emeritus of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, and longtime supporter and chaplain of the Society. [Please note Fr. Cipolla’s communiction below.} The Rev. Robert L. Turner, Pastor of St. Ambrose Parish, North Branford will be the deacon and The Rev. Peter Langevin, Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich, will be the subdeacon. The Gregorian chant and polyphonic music for the service will be provided by the Schola Cantorum of the St. Gregory Society.

The Officers of the Saint Gregory Society encourage all who are devoted to the traditional Liturgy to plan to attend this service, to bring family and friends, and to invite others to attend and witness this historical, if ominous, event in the life of the Church in our area.

COMMUNICATION FROM THE REV. RICHARD G. CIPOLLA
The recent announcement from the Archdiocese of Hartford that the Traditional Mass is suppressed at St. Stanislaus in New Haven is a source for me of deep sadness. The St. Gregory Society was founded 38 years ago to offer the Traditional Mass, especially in the beauty and depth of the Solemn form, as a positive response to St. John Paul II’s Indult allowing the use of the 1962 Missal. Not only did the Society play an important role in the regular restoration of the Traditional Mass but also brought back Beauty as an intrinsic and central element of the celebration of Holy Mass. The Society of St. Gregory’s importance to me is indeed great, for it was at my first celebration of the Traditional Roman Mass over twenty years ago in Sacred Heart church in New Haven that I first understood the transcendental power of the Mass and its deep relationship to the Beauty of the person of Jesus Christ who is both Priest and Victim.

I am convinced that despite the foolish and painful attempts in this pontificate to radically suppress the Mass of Catholic Tradition, Beauty is stronger than ignorance and oppression. In a real way the parishes that have offered and still offer that Traditional Mass are in debt to the St. Gregory Society for its leadership beginning 38 years ago to the present time. I would ask that as many Catholics who love the Traditional Roman Mass attend the “last” Traditional Mass in New Haven at St. Stanislaus Church on Sunday 14 January at 2 p.m. For the laity to show great support for the Traditional Mass is necessary at this time to counter the forces of reaction within the Church that have deliberately forgotten that the Mass is not self-worship but the worship of the transcendent God in the person of Jesus Christ.

Oremus pro invicem.

Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla, Ph.D., D. Phil.(Oxon)