Parish Responses to Chicago Liturgy Regs Face Different Directions

The Pillar ^ | 1/17/22

[marshmallow]

Restrictions on liturgy announced in the Archdiocese of Chicago three weeks ago have prompted diverse reactions among priests in the archdiocese, while the archdiocese itself has become a focal point for the U.S. implementation of instructions, issued by the Vatican’s worship office last month, on the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.

Pushback on new liturgical policies suggests their implementation may become an ongoing issue within the Chicago archdiocese, even while one well-known parish has aimed to diffuse tensions over new archdiocesan rules.

“The Canons Regular are…committed to filial piety for the Archbishop of Chicago and the Bishop of Rome,” Fr. Joshua Caswell, superior general of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius and pastor of Chicago’s St. John Cantius Parish announced in a sermon Jan. 16.

“In that spirit of unity, we will offer only the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in its Ordinary Form, both in English and in Latin, on the first Sunday of each month, as well as on Holy Mother Church’s major feasts of Christmas, Pentecost, and the Triduum of Easter. These liturgies will be celebrated as only the Canons Regular can—and as the Council fathers truly intended,” the priest added.

Caswell’s parish, St. John Cantius, is among the most well-known in the Archdiocese of Chicago to offer the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, which was restricted last year by Traditionis custodes, a July edict from Pope Francis. In December, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship issued its own guidance on the pope’s motu proprio; the legal force of that guidance remains unclear.

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich announced in a Dec. 25 policy that parishes offering the Extraordinary Form, like St. John Cantius, would be required on the first Sunday of each month and on some......