Tenth Anniversary Celebration • “Summorum Pontificum”

HE TENTH anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, is being marked in a variety of ways in different places. Some parishes and universities have hosted lectures, concerts, and discussion groups. Others have arranged for solemn Masses to commemorate the historic promulgation.

The occasion will be marked in Philadelphia with a solemn Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form on September 14, 2017, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. This is the date on which the motu proprio came into effect, after having been published on July 7, 2007.

This Mass will be offered by Most. Rev. Joseph N. Perry, auxiliary bishop of Chicago, at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul (18th Street & Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia).

Philadelphia’s Cathedral will also be the site for this week’s solemn high choral Assumption Mass, organized each year by Mater Ecclesiae Parish (Berlin, NJ). Music for this celebration will be provided by the Ars Laudis Festival Chorus and Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Timothy McDonnell. The Mass Ordinary will be Franz Schubert’s Mass No. 3 in B-flat Major.

Mass for the Blessed Mother’s feast will begin at 7 PM on August 15, 2017 in the Cathedral Basilica. All are welcome.

One decade removed from Summorum Pontificum, now is a good time to go back and re-read the document and the accompanying letter. Both texts are noteworthy for the pastoral concern that prompts and shapes them.