How Is The EF Doing At Your Parish?

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Seamus_L

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I know in the US, it’s been quite successful at places like St Boniface in Pittsburgh, and St John Cantius in Chicago, and I seem to have heard rather positive comments about how it was doing at parishes in Cleveland, Cincinnati and a few other places. I think we’d all love to hear from anyone who’s been to an EF really anywhere in the world, and what attendance was like ?
 
Seamus_L said:
I know in the US, it’s been quite successful at places like St Boniface in Pittsburgh, and St John Cantius in Chicago, and I seem to have heard rather positive comments about how it was doing at parishes in Cleveland, Cincinnati and a few other places. I think we’d all love to hear from anyone who’s been to an EF really anywhere in the world, and what attendance was like ?
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This is a well established community, but it is the only parish in Pittsburgh that offers the EF. Just recently, the adjoining diocese of Greensburg began offering the EF at St. Vincent’s, and advertised it in its weekly paper, together with inserts in parish buleltins. The first week had 400 in attendance. Last summer, it had dwindled to 35-60, per a post here by Silver Thread who knows the stats. Not too much representation for an entire diocese.

My own take on it is that the abuses of old are rare now in the OF and the liturgies are very beautiful. So why travel over an hour to go to the monastery to fulfill one’s Sunday obligation? Another drawback is the 2 PM mass which is not too accommodating to many folks. The monks do have to celebrate the OF for the people as a priority, so this may be the only time it can be celebrated.

One of the monks just celebrated two mass on Sunday in my parish while our pastor was gone. The last one would not be over until 11:45, so that does not leave much time for travel back to the monastery. I feel certain these monks help many parishes in this way, so 2 PM is about the only good free time left to them. A neighboring parish has also employed monks from St. Vincent’s, and their mass doesn’t end until 12:15.

The two parishes you mentioned in your OP are perhaps staffed with a regular priest at all times.
 
I’m referring to the Latin Mass, and inquiring as to what attendances are like at various parishes. That’s all.
 
It’s nonexistent at our parish, due, I believe to the fact that there’s little-to-no demand for it.
 
My parish does not offer the EFand never has regularly. In my diocese it is currently offered at 12 different parishes out of 60-some. Exactly where moves around a bit as the priests are transferred, but numbers are quite consistent. Each time we have attended, the congregation has resembled a normal Sunday attendance.

Our pastor is extremely devout and while the priests assigned here do vary in their liturgical style, we have never been to a Mass that isn’t reverant, correct, and said with great love. :signofcross:
 
Not in my parish (though my pastor’s celebration of the OF is what the vision of V11 saw, very beautiful, reverent, no abuses) but in my archdiocese every Fridays and Sundays.

Hartford
St. Peter Church - 860-525-2683
160 Main St.
Hartford, CT 06126
Sundays at 7:30 a.m.
Fridays at 6:30 p.m.
 
ClearWater said:
Don’t feel badly. I don’t know what EF is, either!

😉
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That’s the point I was trying to make. Most don’t know what the EF or the OF are. I’ll bet there are very few sermons on it or priests or bishops who even mention it at all. Most just know it as the English Mass or Polish Mass or Spanish Mass or just Mass.
 
DaveBj said:
It’s nonexistent at our parish, due, I believe to the fact that there’s little-to-no demand for it.
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If you look at the history of some of the parishes, many EF’s are said in parishes which were ready to close their doors due to no demand of the OF.

To be fair, though, some of the closings have been saved by the Spanish Masses, in the U.S. anyway.
 
We had one at our local OF parish. It was celebrated by a visiting priest once a month. He asked the Abp if he could move the Mass closer to his own parish. So the Abp Ok’d the move, which literally destroyed our group. So Now I drive 75 miles north once a week for Mass (EF).

That group has slowly grown from about 80 to about 120 over the last few months. 😃
 
At the FSSP parish I occasionally attend its doing great. Three Sunday masses each week and daily mass. Just by eyeballing it, I’d say there are between 250-400 people across the 3 masses. They just completed a major renovationand have saved some very beautiful altars from a church that had closed.

At my territorial parish I doubt most people even know that the Extraordinary Form exists or is available. Most Catholic I know aren’t even aware that the older form is perfectly valid and that there are thriving communities.

On the plus sides I have seen several diocean seminarians visit the FSSP parish and express how much they appreciate the similarities and differences between the two forms. Gives me hope that the two can continue to peacefully coexist.
 
Forgot to mention that those in our area who want the EF can go to Christ the King Monastery in the northeast part of the county, where there’s one every Sunday.
 
I asked the Pastor in my parish for a LM and was told NO. But in the next town the priest stared a LM every Sunday. I have been going there when I can. There are only about 20 or so there. I hope that more hear of the mass and come.

There is another about an hour away that has a full church every Sunday.
 
At my parish, they don’t have one.

The nearest one about 10 or so minutes away just started in September. They do it at 3pm. They only do a Low Mass at this point. I’d say there’s normally about 10 to 20 people there. It also depends on whether the church 30 minutes away is doing a Missa Cantata that day.

The one that’s 30 minutes away is one where they do Missa Cantata twice per month (typically-Low Mass otherwise) and they’ve been doing it for quite some time. They also do the Mass at 3pm. For the Low Masses they aren’t as crowded, but when they do the MC I’d say there’s probably a couple hundred people there.

I’m most interested to see how the new one does after February. I’m sure that the Mass being during football doesn’t help.
 
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