Devotees of the traditional Mass will no longer be able to attend the ancient liturgy in St. Joseph Parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City after the end of June.
(LifeSiteNews) — A long-standing traditional Mass in rural Missouri is the latest such Mass forced to end, per the restrictions of Pope Francis’ Traditionis Custodes.
Devotees of the traditional Mass will no longer be able to attend the ancient liturgy in St. Joseph Parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City after the end of June.
As highlighted by Father John Zuhlsdorf, St. Joseph Parish pastor – Father Dylan Schrader – made the announcement last week, much to his own dismay and that of the community which has built up around him:
As of June 29, the traditional Mass at the parish will cease. This is due to the expiration of the most recent dispensation from Traditionis Custodes, which then-ordinary Bishop Shawn McKnight petitioned the Vatican for. Traditionis Custodes, issued in July 2021, prohibits the celebration of the Church’s ancient liturgy in parish churches, and though McKnight had won a dispensation from the rule until now, it seems he has not been granted another.
The bishop is to set aside “one or more locations” where the faithful can attend the Latin Mass, but without this “location” being a “parochial church” and without establishing any new personal parishes, as stipulated by Traditionis Custodes.
“It is because that dispensation expires at the end of June and because it has not been renewed that the bishop directed me to end the celebrations here,” announced Schrader.
However, he added that there was no public statement on the matter from the Diocese of Jefferson City, nor from Bishop McKnight, thus the only news about the cessation of the Mass is via Schrader himself.
On April 8, Pope Francis named McKnight to be the Archbishop of Kansas, replacing outgoing Archbishop Joseph Naumann.
The traditional Mass has been celebrated by Schrader on a weekly basis for around seven years, after McKnight responded to public requests for such a Mass.
No diocesan administrator has yet been appointed to the vacant see, nor has there been any formal announcement about alternative provision of the Latin Mass in place of that at St. Joseph Parish; however, Schrader noted that he was optimistic the ancient rite would soon be available “on some basis, but that will not be known for sure until the fall.”
Ordained in 2010 and a devotee of the old rite, Schrader was appointed to the historic parish of St. Joseph three years ago, and in the seven years of the traditional Mass in the diocese a stable community had developed.
Praising the community growth, Schrader commented:
That effort required sacrifices by many people: altar boys had to be trained; booklets had to be made; chants had to be learned; and so forth. I built the temporary altar rail that we used at Saint Brendan’s in my garage! Many of you have consistently driven great distances and have given of yourselves to support this. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude. The schola. Our devoted altar boys. The newsletter. The booklets. The devotions. Father Pat Dowling, who has been such a big help with confessions. The potluck lunches. There are so many good things that have been built up over the years.
Schrader also praised Pope Benedict XVI’s liturgical position with regard to the traditional Mass, urging that the Catholic Church’s faith must remain the same and that the traditional liturgy will play a key role in the “healing the Church needs so much” and which “will not come quickly.” The priest commented:
The Church’s faith after Vatican II must be essentially the same as it was before Vatican II. Vatican II did not change what we fundamentally believe as Catholics. Therefore, the way we prayed before Vatican II remains a good and important expression of what we believe today. We are not suddenly a different religion from our ancestors, and so what was sacred for them should be sacred for us.
Personally, I am convinced that Pope Benedict’s vision is fundamentally correct. I also think that the healing the Church needs so much will not come quickly. It will require generations, and it will require the recovery of our tradition so that the riches of our liturgical, devotional, and theological heritage again become familiar to people. That is why I also think it is important that the traditional liturgy be readily available to people.
Some of the most thriving centers of the traditional Mass in Missouri include churches run by the Institute of Christ the King in St. Louis and the Monastery of the Benedictines of Mary Queen of Apostles.
However, the real world impacts of Pope Francis’ biting restrictions on the traditional Mass continue to be felt, as exemplified by Schrader’s announcement.
Catholics have expressed the hope that Pope Leo will be more open to the old Mass than his predecessor, and though Leo has shown himself to be more attuned to the liturgy than Francis, he has refrained from wading into the Latin Mass issue so far.
