The Youtube channel Caeremoniale Romanum has just uploaded videos of a Pontifical Mass celebrated by His Eminence Alphonse Cardinal Stickler on the feast of St Luke, October 18th, 1997, in the basilica of St Cunibert in Cologne, Germany. The master of ceremonies here is the late Fr Franck Quoëx, whose skill in that role was unrivaled; the assistant priest is Mons. Gilles Wach, superior of the Institute of Christ the King, and I believe the other major and minor ministers also came from the Institute.
This Mass was celebrated less than a decade after the Ecclesia Dei indult was issued. In that era, Pontifical Masses in the old rite were still extremely rare; few bishops knew or cared to remember how to celebrate them. One could hardly imagine that 20 years later, we would see events such as the one we recently highlighted which took place in Louisiana, where a Pontifical Mass is celebrated by the local ordinary, served by local clergy, and the servers are all too young to remember when this was regarded as an impossible or controversial thing to do. Let us remember the enormous debt of gratitude we owe to men like Card. Stickler and Fr Quoëx, who both passed away in 2007, for their tireless support of the traditional liturgy, and their work of many years which ensured that it would not only survive, but flourish.
The first 9:45 of the first video are a montage of photos of the church, of the vestments set up for Mass, of the Cardinal, etc. The ceremony begins with his arrival and donning of the cappa magna outside the church; the vestition at the throne begins around 15:30, and the Mass begins at 21:20. The video stops in the middle of the Gloria in excelsis.
From the rest of the Gloria to the middle of the sermon, which begins at 17:10. The text can be read in German in this pdf of the Una Voce Deutschland bulletin.
From the distribution of Holy Communion (which takes up almost 20 minutes) to the unvesting of the Cardinal. The German version of the Te Deum, “Grosser Gott, Wir Loben Dich”, is sung at the end.
This Mass was celebrated less than a decade after the Ecclesia Dei indult was issued. In that era, Pontifical Masses in the old rite were still extremely rare; few bishops knew or cared to remember how to celebrate them. One could hardly imagine that 20 years later, we would see events such as the one we recently highlighted which took place in Louisiana, where a Pontifical Mass is celebrated by the local ordinary, served by local clergy, and the servers are all too young to remember when this was regarded as an impossible or controversial thing to do. Let us remember the enormous debt of gratitude we owe to men like Card. Stickler and Fr Quoëx, who both passed away in 2007, for their tireless support of the traditional liturgy, and their work of many years which ensured that it would not only survive, but flourish.
The first 9:45 of the first video are a montage of photos of the church, of the vestments set up for Mass, of the Cardinal, etc. The ceremony begins with his arrival and donning of the cappa magna outside the church; the vestition at the throne begins around 15:30, and the Mass begins at 21:20. The video stops in the middle of the Gloria in excelsis.
The rest of the sermon, which ends at 3:50, to the beginning of the distribution of Holy Communion.
The last video is very brief, the rest of the Cardinal’s exit from the basilica.
