THE RETURN OF THE TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS TO
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY
September 17, 2005
The issuance of the indult “Quattuor abhinc annos” by Pope John Paul II on October 3, 1984, provided the impetus and the procedure for those Catholics living in central Kentucky to begin their efforts to restore the Traditional Latin Mass in Lexington, Kentucky. An article about the indult appeared in the Lexington Herald-Leader that same month. This and other reports of the Holy See’s action prompted discussions among local Catholics who desired renewed availability of the Traditional Latin Mass. Dr. Ruth Silberstein ran a small classified advertisement asking those interested in that Mass to call her. When several interested people came together, a petition drive was initiated, which was led by Al Arbogast. Later a letter to the editor of the Herald-Leader from John Spangler was published on March 12, 1985, asking readers to write the Bishop of Covington (Lexington was then a part of that diocese) if they wanted the Traditional Latin Mass to be made available again.
In February 1985, a petition of 110 Catholics from central Kentucky was submitted to Bishop William Hughes of Covington requesting that a Latin Mass under the indult be established in Lexington. Based on this petition and other requests from around the diocese, the bishop asked each deanery to “discuss the advisability and conditions for a Tridentine Mass.” On March 14, 1985, Al Arbogast and John Spangler met with the priests of Lexington’s deanery to present the views of the petitioners, and, after a lengthy discussion, the deanery voted 9 to 3, with 4 abstentions, to recommend favorably action under the indult in the Lexington area. No other deanery’s discussion included lay participation, and no other deanery gave the bishop a favorable recommendation, although several other priests around the diocese did vote in support of allowing the Latin Mass. At the March 18 meeting of the diocesan priests’ senate, that body voted 11 to 5, with no abstentions, to recommend that a First Friday Mass under the indult be allowed in Lexington each month. The diocesan worship commission considered the request at its May meeting and voted almost unanimously against recommending action under the indult.
By letter of July 18, 1985, Bishop Hughes wrote that based on his consultations, he “was unable to grant the request and give permission,” but offered to meet to discuss his decision. Al Arbogast and John Spangler met with the bishop in Covington on August 13, and while he declined to change his decision based on his understanding of the Second Vatican Council, he did authorize a weekly Sunday Mass in Latin under the 1970 Roman Missal, with only the readings in English. While this was not what was desired, it was accepted in the hope that it might lead to action under the indult in the future and because it provided a welcome alternative form of worship to existing parish liturgies.
A Latin Mass under the 1970 Roman Missal began on Sunday, November 3, 1985, at St. Peter Claver Church, in Lexington. The celebrant was Father William Poole, pastor of that parish and acting dean of Lexington’s deanery at the time of the petition for Mass under the indult. Father Poole’s constant support of the Latin Mass throughout its existence has been an important element in its return and growth in Lexington. This Latin Mass under the revised missal continued until January 1989, although its frequency had reduced by that time to the first Sunday of each month.
Changes in 1988 both in Lexington and at Rome prompted a successful request to change the Lexington Latin Mass from the 1970 Missal to the 1962 Missal. In March 1988, Bishop J. Kendrick Williams was consecrated as the first bishop of the Diocese of Lexington, which was created from portions of the Diocese of Covington and the Archdiocese of Louisville. In June of that year, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the mandate of the Holy See; Pope John Paul II then issued his motu proprio “Ecclesia Dei adflicta” of July 2, 1988, in which he decreed that “respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition, by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962.” Based on these new circumstances, the new bishop of Lexington was asked to allow the 1962 Roman Missal to be used for the Lexington Latin Mass. After some delay, during which the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei was contacted and communicated with Bishop Williams, the bishop replied by letter of December 22, 1988, granting his permission for the use of the 1962 Roman Missal at the first Sunday Latin Mass at St. Peter Claver in Lexington.
Thus it was that nearly four years after the original petition, Latin Mass under the 1962 Roman Missal resumed in the Diocese of Lexington on the first Sunday of January 1989, and it has continued from that time. In October 1989, with Bishop Williams’ permission, the Mass increased in frequency to the first and third Sundays of each month. With Father Poole’s departure from St. Peter Claver and the arrival of a new pastor not sympathetic to the Latin Mass, it became necessary for a new location to be found. For some time, the good Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker at Taylor Manor Nursing Home made their chapel available to the Latin Mass, when no other parish location could be found within the city of Lexington. Because of a decrease in attendance, the desire to be more centrally located within the city of Lexington, and changes in leadership at St. Peter Church, a request was made to relocate there, discussion and agreement followed, and the Latin Mass returned to Lexington and to the church best suited there for the celebration of the Traditional Mass with its high altar and baldachino intact.
February 2003 saw the consecration of the second Bishop of Lexington, the Most Reverend Ronald W. Gainer. In July of that year, Bishop Gainer wrote that he was “happy” to confirm in writing his continued permission for the Tridentine Latin Mass in Lexington, made it explicit that those who attended were “an approved diocesan organization,” and expressed his appreciation for the preservation of “this very beautiful Rite of our Roman Catholic faith.” Because of deaths, retirements, and reassignments, the pool of diocesan priests available for the Latin Mass had decreased to just two, and Masses were having to be cancelled when no celebrant was available. Bishop Gainer was approached about the possibility of bringing the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter into the Diocese of Lexington to assume responsibility for the Latin Mass. Father Valentine Young, O.F.M., a Franciscan priest of the Cincinnati province, had frequently been a guest celebrant for the Lexington Mass from 1991 when he was back in the region on visits to his province; Father has for the last several years been an associate of the Fraternity with assignments at Maple Hill, Kansas, and Rapid City, South Dakota.
On the first Sunday of May 2005, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, the Bishop of Lexington attended the Lexington Latin Mass in choro and preached the homily; a reception for the Bishop was held after the Mass. At the beginning of his homily, Bishop Gainer made the following remarks:
It is a great joy and a pleasure to join with you this afternoon in celebrating this Latin liturgy. Although this is my first time to be physically with you, I hope that in some ways you have been able to sense and to know my support for the Lexington Latin Mass.
And I am happy at the beginning of my sermon to be able to share with you some good news so that those who are attached to a Latin liturgical tradition may have here in our diocese, here at St. Peter’s, an even wider and an even more generous availability of the Latin Mass.
Just yesterday I had my third or fourth conversation with Father George Gabet, the superior of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter for the United States, and everything is in order with the Priestly Fraternity [for Lexington] to become an apostolate of the Fraternity and for Father Valentine Young, a Franciscan priest who is an affiliate of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, to come to Lexington and to be available for the celebration of the Latin liturgy more frequently, more regularly. I had the opportunity to meet with Father Valentine some months ago and also have had several conversations with his superior, his provincial, Father Fred Link. All but for dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. I know that Father Valentine will be available here in our diocese, living here, probably in mid-July.
So I am very happy to share that news with you which will facilitate a wider and even more generous enjoyment of the indult to be able to have access and to celebrate the Latin liturgy.
I want to also compliment you on the beauty of the singing, and the richness, the fullness, of the rites which we are celebrating this afternoon.
Father Valentine arrived on July 20, 2005, to begin the Lexington apostolate of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. With his arrival the frequency of the Sunday Latin Mass increased to every Sunday, and beginning on Monday, August 8, daily Mass under the 1962 Roman Missal was begun at St. Peter as well. On August 7, the first Solemn High Mass was offered in Lexington in some forty years, with Father Valentine as celebrant and Father William Fitzgerald, O.Praem., as deacon, and Father Paul Berscheid, as subdeacon.
We look forward to continued growth in the attendance at the Traditional Latin Mass at Lexington. There is a Latin adage Deus providebit. – God will provide. Lexington is a diocese with a small number of Catholics and with a very small Catholic percentage of the total population. We rejoice greatly and thank Him profoundly for our finally having regular Sunday and daily Masses under the 1962 Roman Missal here in Lexington after twenty years of work and prayers.