News from Diocese of Saginaw, MI

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spanky said:
I was wondering…Did they truly conduct mass ad orientem before the new mass? Seems that Holy Family’s altar is on the west end of the church. Further, unless my sense of direction is flawed, St. Mary’s Cathedral’s altar is on the north end.

So is the mass at Holy Family celebrated both ad orientem and versus populum at the same time? Did the priests position themselves on the side of the altar that faced east at St. Mary’s?
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Got me — my family attended the Cathedral way back then. My memory consists mostly of trying to crawl under pews after my Hot Wheels car that I dropped. We later moved to Shields and attended Holy Spirit. That Church also had a West-end altar. Sorry — I’m just too darn young to remember.
 
Ad Orientem means mostly that priest and people faced same direction… towards high back altar. typically, should be east, but not all churches were able to be oriented that way.
 
bknebel said:
Ad Orientem means mostly that priest and people faced same direction… towards high back altar. typically, should be east, but not all churches were able to be oriented that way.
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Thank you for the clarification…
 
Did anyone else catch Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s show last night? He had audience members asking questions of his guest and one of his audience members who asked a question was a NEW seminarian (he said he had only been a seminarian for five weeks) from the diocese of Saginaw. The seminarian was obviously older–perhaps in his late 50s. I can’t recall his name though. Fr. Benedict went on about what a great bishop our Bishop Carlson is.
 
I watch Fr. Groeschel every Sunday eve. I was watching last night. The statement was wonderfully affirming.
 
How many Saginaw Diocese churches (and priests) are decorated in a lovely shade of Episcopalian blue for advent? My home parish is all in blue once again this year, right down to the birch trees in the sanctuary covered in blue Christmas lights and the priest vesting in blue, blue candles in the Advent wreath.

There is no mistaking this color for violet. Navy blue and violet don’t look alike. Have any parishes gone back to using violet? Is this just a Saginaw thing?
 
oh my.

Blue is not a liturgical color on its own, unless its a complimentary color on a white vestment for the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I don’t think this is just a Saginaw thing, but I do think its prevelant there, from what I’ve heard.
 
MICATH said:
How many Saginaw Diocese churches (and priests) are decorated in a lovely shade of Episcopalian blue for advent? My home parish is all in blue once again this year, right down to the birch trees in the sanctuary covered in blue Christmas lights and the priest vesting in blue, blue candles in the Advent wreath.

There is no mistaking this color for violet. Navy blue and violet don’t look alike. Have any parishes gone back to using violet? Is this just a Saginaw thing?
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I’ve been to parishes in whcih the altar was decorated with several shades of blue–no way to mistake it for violet.

Holy Family in Saginaw has everything dressed in violet though. I am not aware of any other parishes doing Advent stuff in violet. I wasn’t even aware that violet was the proper liturgical color until recently. For the last 20 years or so, most of the parishes here have used blue during Advent.
 
Why is it that we even need to debate liturgical colors? If Rome says violet, let’s keep it there… it is no wonder people are confused about their faith when we can’t even live it out the way the church and God have asked us! Is it so hard to be faithful? I’m praying for all of us. Not just Saginaw. I would never want to say that that is the only place there are ‘issues.’

A few years back I posted on my opinions of the Cathedrals’ lay out after it was renovated back in the 1980’s or earlier… the way it is now with chars facing both ways, altar and ambo beign moveable… ANYWAYs… i made comments taht were very much less than charitable… I wish to apologize for those comments of the past because it came to me in prayer one time at my parish church where I grew up… Jesus spoke to me and said “look at this church. You love this church, don’t you?” I replied 'Oh yes Lord, I love my church!" Jesus replied, “What if it were designed like St. Mary’s in Saginaw is now?” I said, “Lord! That would ruin it and change it and that would be horrible!” Jesus returned the thought a little differently: “But it would still be YOUR parish, wouldn’t it?” “Yes Lord, it would… It would always be my parish church…”

SO… in two breaths today- one, I wish we could all stay true to the teachings and practices the church has given us. They are there for a reason… and secondly, I apologize for uncharitable thoughts in that direction of not being faithful or trying things a different way. We may not always have done things ‘perfectly’ in our parishes, but they are still our parishes. I pray that we can all remain faithful to the church and to our parishes. May God be with us to keep the church holy and faithful!
 
True… but notice the article says that the advent wreath is adapted to the liturgical colors… and blue has never been a liturgical color! red is a traditional color… so that makes sense!
 
saggal said:
Supposedly, Bishop Reh or Bishop Untener (depending on who’s telling the story) ordered that Holy Family not be touched so that there would be one church in Saginaw that would represent the traditional look of a church.
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You’re half right.

According to my high-placed sources…

Bishop Reh was bound and determined to renovate Holy Family in much the same style as the Cathedral. However, he got a mini-revolt instead. The Holy Family included people who had left the Cathedral after its renovation-and they weren’t about to lose the same battle twice. They even took out full-page ads in the Saginaw News asking Bishop Reh to leave it alone.

Bishop Ken Untener is the one who decided it wouldn’t be touched, so that we have an old-fashioned church in Saginaw.
 
Karl_M said:
You’re half right.

According to my high-placed sources…

Bishop Reh was bound and determined to renovate Holy Family in much the same style as the Cathedral. However, he got a mini-revolt instead. The Holy Family included people who had left the Cathedral after its renovation-and they weren’t about to lose the same battle twice. They even took out full-page ads in the Saginaw News asking Bishop Reh to leave it alone.

Bishop Ken Untener is the one who decided it wouldn’t be touched, so that we have an old-fashioned church in Saginaw.
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This is good to hear!
 
Karl_M said:
You’re half right.

According to my high-placed sources…

Bishop Reh was bound and determined to renovate Holy Family in much the same style as the Cathedral. However, he got a mini-revolt instead. The Holy Family included people who had left the Cathedral after its renovation-and they weren’t about to lose the same battle twice. They even took out full-page ads in the Saginaw News asking Bishop Reh to leave it alone.

Bishop Ken Untener is the one who decided it wouldn’t be touched, so that we have an old-fashioned church in Saginaw.
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Thank God they kept Holy Family intact–that is a GORGEOUS church. I LOVE their elaborate altar.
 
One funny story about the “wrong” colors for Advent. On a recent Catholic Answers “So You Want to be an Apologist” segment, the $50 question was - which color in NOT appropriate for Advent: Purple, Violet, Blue, or Rose. Of course the answer is Blue, but the gentleman said Rose and lost the $50 prize. Now I realize he must have been from the Saginaw Diocese where Blue (and I go to different churches in Midland) is the norm for Advent. I think now it was a trick question by Jim Akin 😉
MBS1
 
It has now been several months since Pope Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio regarding the extraordinary form of the Mass.

Has the Diocese of Saginaw formally commented on it, one way or another? I can’t even find an acknowledgement of it at all on the diocesan website www.saginaw.org
:confused:
 
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