St. John Cantius Church in Chicago

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Millie

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Some people were interested in St. John Cantius Church in
Chicago, and I have a link to their recent ordination ceremony. You will notice that Cardinal George of Chicago presided over
the ceremony.

Whenever I get a chance, I drive 75 miles from here in Wisconsin
to attend St. John Cantius. People also come from Indiana to
attend. Their Tridentine Latin Mass is like going home. They even have an altar rail and the altar cloth!

This may not be an important thread, but I just wanted to know
what people think about someone preferring the Latin Mass.
 
Well, since I don’t know how to post a link, I’ll just excerpt a
few lines from the article by Karl Maurer that appeared in
Catholic Citizens of Illinois:

Before hundreds of parishioners, Father James Isaacson, S.S.J.C., Father Dennis Kolinski, S.S.J.C. and Deacon Brendan Gibson formally entered religious life Tuesday evening in the Rite of Ordination to the Priesthood and the Diaconate presided over by Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. for the Archdiocese of Chicago and held at St. John Cantius in Chicago.

The Society of St. John Cantius was founded in 1998 by Fr. C. Frank Phillips, C.R. as a Roman Catholic religious community of men dedicated to a restoration of the sacred in the context of parish ministry.
 
St. John Cantius is a must for any Catholic spending a weekend in Chicago. They have Tridentine High, Tridentine Low and Novus Ordo every Sunday, all in Latin. Acoustics are very poor. 😦

The church is very easy to get to, get on the Blue Line (it connects O’Hare to the Loop downtown, and connects with other lines at Clark/Lake) and take it to “Chicago” (Avenue). Or by car, it is at Chicago, Ogden and Milwaukee and parking is not generally a problem.

Chicago is also a great town to attend the Liturgy in one of the Eastern Rite Catholic churches (Byzantine, Ukrainian, Melkite, Syro-Malabar &c.). BTW masstimes.org does not always tell you if a church is Eastern Rite.
 
As I’ve mentioned before, I used to be a postulant in this religious order.

I don’t know that the acoustics are poor. I can tell that, while I was there, their Gregorian chant schola was pretty poor and underdeveloped. Their choirs are really good, though.

I visited a couple of Eastern Catholic Churches in Chicago. They all seemed very Latinized, except for the Ukranian one, that was across from the Ukranian Cathedral. I forget the name . . .
 
Not only that, but the church is an incredible piece of architechture- and it’s absolutely filled with beautiful paintings and statues.
 
St. John Cantius is an interesting place… I haven’t been there for a Sunday mass, but I’ve been there for the First Friday Tridentine mass & benediction. I thought the reverence of the congregation was pretty amazing - during parts of the mass, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Not even an extraneous cough or rattling paper. I did get the sense that the priest kind of hurried his way through some of the prayers - not quite the 15-minute low mass that I’ve heard about in days gone by, but pretty close. It seems that the homily is optional too - sometimes you get one, sometimes you don’t. Well I guess that’s the option for weekday mass. And one time the choir closed with a hymn by Charles Wesley - yes, a Protestant hymn. Wesley probably never imagined “Loves Divine All Loves Excelling” would be sung at a Latin Tridentine Rite mass!

I must say though… I went there for adoration on Holy Thursday, and it was the LEAST solemn of the churches I visited. The Opus Dei parish St. Mary of the Angles was a close second. Both of these very traditional churches had lots of people milling about, talking quietly, etc. which made for a less reverent atmosphere. Some of the other churches in the area did a great job on Holy Thursday for creating a very beautiful, sacred, and quiet environment for adoration.
 
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