By Joseph O'Brien

Priestly group restoring the extraordinary form

Canons Regular of St. John Cantius use Web, workshops to promote the traditional Mass

The motto of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius is meant as a promise: "To restore all things to the sacred."

Inspired by the long tradition of canons regular in the Church -- the term refers to the oldest form of clerical community life in the West -- these Chicago-based Canons Regular have been making good on that promise even before being established by Chicago's Cardinal Francis George in 1999. The Canons Regular operate from the downtown parish of St. John Cantius, where the Canons' founding priest had been assigned in 1988.

"This was a boarded-up, broken-down parish church with 700 tons of pigeon dung stuck to the rose window on the church's north side," Canon Father Scott Haynes said. "There were only 30 individuals on the parish lists attending Mass in a church that can seat 1,700."

Today, the church has been resurrected. Restored to its original Romanesque glory, the parish has welcomed a 1,000 percent increase in parishioners. These 3,200 families are served by the Canons Regular's seven priests and 14 brothers and organized a full parish-based choir for Sunday Mass. Daily Mass and Sunday Mass are both offered in Latin and English, and in the extraordinary and ordinary forms.

Apostolate on line

After the release of SummorumPontificum, though, the Canons extended their restoration focus beyond parish boundaries.

According to Father Haynes, the community at St. John Cantius is becoming a popular liturgically-based apostolate for parishes and dioceses around the country seeking to implement the motu proprio.

The Canon Regulars travel the country and even internationally, offering instructional workshops on the extraordinary form to priests. Father Haynes serves as one of the main instructors in these workshops.

He said that the group has turned its work into a cyber-apostolate, too -- launching www.sanctamissa.org, an online resource to provide priests with the resources to celebrate the extraordinary form of the Roman rite. Available in English and French versions, it will eventually offer resources in 10 languages, Father Haynes said.

The website provides an online tutorial, liturgical texts and music, and the liturgical calendar for the extraordinary form. It also features an online bookstore and order form for purchasing a DVD that the Canons Regular produced on site at St. John's to train priests in the extraordinary form.

Since the website's launch date on Aug. 5, 2007, Father Haynes estimated, 1.6 million visitors have logged onto the site.

Overcoming fear

Father Haynes has noticed that the motu proprio has relaxed not only the strictures on the extraordinary form, but also the attitudes of priests toward this form of the Mass.

"Before the motu proprio, there was a lot of fear," he noted. "Because a lot of diocesan priests had not had instruction in Latin or this form of the liturgy in seminary, I think there was a lot of reluctance among priests to take it on. They were uncomfortable because they were not exposed to it. I think there were many who were also thinking, 'If I put my foot forward on this, learn this form of the Mass, I'm setting myself apart from my brother priests.' It takes a lot of courage to do that, any time you set yourself apart. You're making yourself different -- so there's going to be a little hesitancy."

Father Haynes said if a priest's superiors or peers shun celebrating the extraordinary form as "preconciliar backtracking," his enthusiasm for the older form will often be dampened.

"I've trained some priests who took the training and certainly had the skills and know-how to learn it, and with confidence to celebrate the extraordinary form very well," he said. "But then they'll go back to their diocese and there will be resistance on one side or another in their particular situation."

Cardinal support

Father Haynes said Cardinal George has gone out of his way to encourage priests in the archdiocese to learn the extraordinary form if they desire it. As the cardinal's go-to priests on the subject, Father Haynes added, the Canons Regular have been training priests in workshops at the archdiocese's Mundelein Seminary.

Father Haynes said that while a priest doesn't need the bishop's permission to celebrate the extraordinary form, the bishop's support is key to implementing the motu proprio.

"If the bishops will set the tone, then I think the priests and the lay faithful will quickly follow," he said. "The more a bishop embraces the motu proprio publicly -- and even celebrate the Mass in the extraordinary form himself -- the more quickly the faithful will embrace this treasure of the Church."