Juventutem Michigan comes to Holy Redeemer Today! (Oct 26)

There is an opportunity this evening for an Extraordinary Form (Latin) Sung Mass with bilingual homily at Holy Redeemer in southwest Detroit.  Local chant celebrity Wassim Sarweh will be lending his vocal talents.

Join Juventutem Michigan for the 7:30 mass preceded by a trilingual rosary for vocations.

Event info here.  Link also includes images from a previous Extraordinary Form mass celebrated at Holy Redeemer in September. 

Happy Birthday to the Church in Detroit

Sorry folks for the lack of posting!  I have been quite busy with Juventutem, a production of a play about Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, my job, and lots of other fine things.  There are some big things going on, so I had to stay up late tonight to put up this post.

As I write it is now the 25th of July 2012.  Yesterday was the 311th anniversary of Cadillac's founding of Detroit. Tomorrow (The feast of St. Anne) is the 311th anniversary of the start of construction on the first Church in Detroit, the second (or third depending on your source) oldest continuously running parish in the United States, Ste. Anne.  I have a couple of posts on Ste. Anne de Detroit.

Being that St. Anne is duly the Patroness of Detroit, there are some special events coming up.

• Ste. Anne de Detroit holds annually a Novena prior to (St. Joachim and) St. Anne's feast day (July 26). This year it culminates in the feast day Mass (7pm) celebrated by His Excellency the Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit.

• At the Cathedral on July 25th at 7pm, there will be a special Ecumenical Prayer Vigil for the feast wherein the Archbishop will welcome Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Nicholas.  The Archdiocesan Schola (and friends) will be praying some beautiful chants for this night of prayer.

• St. Josaphat will celebrate the external solemnity of St. Anne on Sunday July 29 at 9:30am.

Try to make it out for any of these special events, and pray to St. Anne for the city and Archdiocese of Detroit.

Detroit Church Festivals 2012

Soon the St. Florian Strawberry Festival begins, and the season of Church festivals is upon us. (It actually started last weekend with St. Patrick's Irish Festival.

The Michigan Catholic has posted the dates with contact information for almost all the festivals. (I know at least one is missing...)  Check it out!

http://www.themichigancatholic.com/2012-parish-festivals/

St. Louis the King

I went to Holy Thursday Mass in 2011 at St. Louis the King. This was part of a tour that I went on. (Yes it took  me 1 year to get a post up.)  St. Louis the King was founded in 1923, and its current edifice was built in 1959.  When I walked in and looked about I was reminded of St. Barbara in Dearborn. (Founded 1924, Built 1955)  It is similar in some ways to St. Peter and Paul (West Side, founded 1923, church probably built in the '50s as well) as well.  The Poles were spreading out in the '20s and building their churches in the 50's apparently! (Yes these are all Polish churches.)  While these lack the grandeur and decoration of the  Polish churches before the turn of the 20th Century, these churches are still dignified in construction, and you know where the focus belongs.

The parish has been merged with St. Ladislaus (Hamtramck) and Transfiguration/Our Lady Help of Christians to form Blessed John Paul II Parish.  It appears as though all three churches have weekly masses, if the Genesis Vicariate website is up to date.  I wonder if the bass who sang the lowest Panis Angelicus anyone could ever hear has been retained.

I didn't get a very good picture of the sanctuary, but please see that and some more of my pictures below.

 Things are more on the simple side here, but still dignified and the focus is on the cross and the tabernacle.

 This is the altar of repose.

 A Polish tradition they have retained: the Tomb of Christ

 St. Maximilian Kolbe who just over 8 months after this became more significant to me.

 Perpetual Help niche.

St. Louis the King himself, well a statue of him.

East Catholic High School Demolished

The most recent print edition of the Michigan Catholic had a short article about the Demolition of East Catholic High School. I will update once I get the information, because there was a note in the article about how alumni could get souvenir bricks form the demolition company.

Last year I visited St. Anthony (closed 2005, sold 2010) with a reader, fellow Detroit Church enthusiast/photographer Andy aka cath4ever. We didn't get inside, and frankly I wouldn't have wanted to, but I have a few external photos I would like to share to mark the formal end to the edifice of East Catholic. Alumni may pick up souvenir bricks through Adamo Demolition. Google tells me their number is 313-892-7330.

Facade of St. Anthony.

East Catholic, former home of the Chargers.

A view of the Farnsworth side.

Erected AD 1926 to foster religion, knowledge, and virtue.

True story.

Good Friday in the Cluster

I would like to share a few photos from the clustered parishes of Sweetest Heart of Mary, St. Josaphat, and St. Joseph.

High Altar at its most austere.

Fr. Roman leads the people in Gorskie żale.

Stations

The 11th Stations

I was particularly struck by the 11th station as I stood under it. The Lord's eyes looking back at you. "See how much I love you," they seem to say.

St. Josaphat before the Good Friday Liturgy in the Extraordinary Form

The tomb.

Bishop Reese and Abbé Connaughton before the Liturgy

Abbé Connaughton chants the lesson

Ecce Lignum Crucis, in quo salus mundi pependit.

Venite adoremus.

Patrick arranges flowers on the high altar at St. Joseph

Dorothy tends to the altar cloths.

Relic of the true cross on the high altar.

Almost ready for the great vigil.

Sanctuary lamp is out.

Back to Sweetest Heart for a rare Good Friday Fish Fry.

Which ended up making us late for tenebrae.

Tenebrae ends at the tomb.

And so we wait. St. Joseph's tonight for the Great Vigil!

Another upcoming Church tour March 18

For those interested in Polish culture and Churches in Detroit, this is one for you. I saw a blurb in the church bulletin, and I thought I should share it with the internet.

Here is the schedule for March 18, 2012:

11:00-12:10- Mass at St. Hyacinth (Priest Janusz Iwan)(St. Joseph’s Day)*
12:10-12:30- Tour of St. Hyacinth -(Dennis Orlowski painting included)
12:30-1:00- Box Lunch at St. Hyacinth (call Stewart before tour with your choice of four types of Subway sandwiches—EAT HEALTHY!!)
1:00- Board Motor Coach and drive to St. Albertus (Terrific Driver is Henry)
1:10- 1:50- Tour St. Albertus with Teri -(Oldest Polish Church in Michigan)
2:00-2:45- Tour Sweetest Heart of Mary with Geri- (Detroit’s most beautiful church)(one of three Polish churches in a row on Canfield —The three churches include St. Albertus, “Sweetest Heart”, & St. Josephat.
3:00-3:50- Tour St. Florian Church In Hamtramck with Greg Kowalski
4:00-4:40- Shop at Srodek’s and Polish Art Center (possibly longer)
4:55-6:05- Dinner at the fantastic Polonia Restaurant in Hamtramck**
6:45- We should be back at St Hyacinth by 6:45 .

Check out the website for further information. All of these churches have been featured here before. Click on the labels to find the posts.

Mr. McMillin has some other interesting tours planned. Check out the rest of his offerings.

Red hats in Detroit

I happened to go to the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament this past Sunday and noticed some things I hadn't before, suspended Galeri. These hats (until the late 1960's) were given to Cardinals at their consistory. As you have probably heard by now, the US has gained 2 Cardinals, Dolan and O'Brien. Our newest US cardinals received the scarlet zucchetto and biretta.

The Cardinal's galero is traditionally hung over his remains upon interment. The popular tradition is that once the hat disintegrates and falls the ground the Cardinal has left Purgatory and entered heaven.

However, Cardinals Mooney and Dearden are buried in Holy Sepulchre cemetary in Southfield, so we veer from tradition there.

Maida and Szoka are the other two Detroit Cardinals, both still living. It is not known whether the current Archbishop Vigneron will ever receive the red hat.

I don't know which Galero belongs to which deceased Cardinal, but one hangs in each transept.

North Transept with beautiful stained glass depicting angels and saints surrounding the throne of Christ the King.

South transept has the Blessed Sacrament side chapel.

Close up of Galero.

External shot of Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

What's happening with our Churches?

Update 2/21 for the pith-seekers: See the action plan for your parish here.

I apologize, oh internet for neglecting to update you.

There is going to be a press conference tomorrow, and there is this which I copied and pasted from aodonline.org which apparently has a new URL:

Together in Faith: Parish Action Plans The Archdiocese of Detroit between Feb. 14 and Feb. 16 has mailed to all registered Catholic parishioners a Pastoral Letter from Archbishop Allen Vigneron, along with the results of the Together in Faith, Phase Two planning. This new information will be available on Monday evening, Feb. 20 at www.aodonline.org/TogetherInFaith

My pastor read a little bit of what we are getting in the mail. This isn't the doom and gloom that the media has been dishing out, but our Archbishop is laying out a plan for our parishes to be healthier through our involvement. Support Archbishop Vigneron in Together in Faith.

I already received a letter from Archbishop Vigneron, but it had nothing to do with this. Some fellow young adults and I wrote thank you notes to show our appreciation for his stand against the current administration's HHS mandate. Here is a video he posted this past week.

April 13th: Easter Friday Church tour.

Michael Semaan is organizing another Church tour. This one will be focusing on the Southwest neighborhood and some familiar favorites will be visited as well. It will close with a Tridentine Mass at St. Joseph reportedly to be celebrated by Fr. Darrell Roman, Administrator of St. Joseph who has learned to read Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form in the months since he became administrator of the clustered parishes of St. Joseph, St. Josaphat, and Sweetest Heart of Mary.

E-mail me or leave a comment if you want the contact information or the full form. ( I don't want to put all of Michael's information all over the internets.)

See the post labels for any previous posts I may have made about the churches on the list.

Ad Limina visit and Spiritual Bouquet

Archbishop Vigneron, along with auxiliary Bishops Reiss, Hanchon, Byrnes, and Cepeda, and the balance of bishops from Michigan and Ohio, will be making an Ad Limina visit February 1-6. The Archdiocese/Archbishop will be blogging the visit in a similar way as when the Archbishop received the Pallium in 2009.

The Archdiocese would like to present a spiritual bouquet to the Holy Father as part of this visit. Read about it here. Add a comment with your pledge for the spiritual bouquet.

Here is the main URL for the AOD blog. Start following for updates on the visit and also on the quinquennial report!

Meet the AOD Coordinator of Music!

The Archdiocese hired a new Music Coordinator in October, Joe Balistreri. Joe has been a Music Minister at St. Matthew in Detroit since 2002. He will be putting on an organ recital to be followed by a reception/meet and greet on two occasions.

The first will be Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 2pm at Our Lady, Star of the Sea in Grosse Pointe Woods.

The second will be Friday January 20, 2012 at 7:30pm at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth.

The recital will feature "French organ works based on Epiphany proper chants. Composers include Durufle, Tournemire, Messiaen, Hakim."

If you like Organ music, or you are a music minister in the Archdiocese, this is a great opportunity for you!

St. Leo's gets some attention.

I haven't been to St. Leo's but a Reuter's Photographer has. (Update: So has reader Andy... see link at the bottom)

There is a corresponding article. And the Photographer's blog on the subject

St Leo's will be one to watch. One day perhaps I will be able to visit this ~120 year old church. Here are the recommendations of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council:

... St. Leo is encouraged to begin to develop in early 2012 with completion by June 2012 a plan to merge with St. Cecilia. In light of the financial and building maintenance challenges and the thriving charter school at St. Leo, but the need for a continued Catholic presence in this part of the city, the planning group is encouraged to consider one of the following two options:

1. St. Leo church be offered to the current Charter school for sale, continuing Outreach at an acquired location to yet be determined ...

2. Negotiate with the current charter at St. Leo’s to consider renting the school at St. Cecilia’s, (larger property may serve its needs), therefore providing an opportunity for St. Cecilia’s-St. Leo to thrive as a united community at the St. Cecilia site, but continuing to serve the poor in the community.

It's not certain that this one will be closed, but the odds seem to be stacked against St. Leo's. It doesn't appear to be used very much as a worship space (only 1 mass time listed on AOD site), but the outreach is very important to the people of the city. Hopefully an amenable solution can be attained so that the poor can be served here or nearby for many years to come.

Reader Andy posted some pictures to his Flickr account. (202 to be exact)