There are 16 parishes in Marin County. Most Holy Rosary Chapel is not one of them.
On any given Sunday at 9:45 a.m., however, the historic church at the end of a long corridor of eucalyptus trees off busy Highway 101 in San Rafael is packed with local Catholics, many of them registered parishioners of other local parishes who come to Mass here for the exceptional beauty of the church, its gifted homilists, musicians and each other.
“There’s a unique sense of community and fellowship here that I don’t get at any other parish,” Marx Cazanave of Kentfield told Catholic San Francisco after Mass Oct. 13.
“The space itself teaches,” said Michael O’Smith, director of adult faith formation at St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco, referring in part to the chapel’s spectacular stained glass windows and a porcelain-white, bas-relief version of a painting by Italian artist Lorenzo Lotto. The painting depicts St. Dominic receiving the rosary from the Virgin Mary in a vision in 1208.
Most Holy Rosary Chapel is part of St. Vincent School for Boys, which opened in 1855 on 300 acres of land on the banks of San Pablo Bay. Architecturally reminiscent of Hearst Castle, the chapel was dedicated in 1930, replacing the original church lost to fire in 1888.
Originally called the St. Vincent Orphan Asylum of San Francisco following a Gold Rush-era cholera epidemic, St. Vincent School for Boys is the legacy of an Irish pioneer named Timothy Murphy, who deeded the land to the Archbishop of San Francisco. It became distinguished for the care of abused, neglected or traumatized boys.
Today, St. Vincent School for Boys is a residential program of Catholic Charities of San Francisco treating up to 60 boys, ages 7-18. Though the church falls under the auspices of St. Isabella Parish, it does not share its pastor.
In recent years, volunteer celebrants have celebrated the early Sunday Mass, including Spokane Bishop Tom Daly, former campus minister at Marin Catholic High School, and for the last eight years, Msgr. Robert Sheeran, Bishop Daly’s successor at Marin Catholic.
An extraordinary form Mass is also held at the church at 12:15 p.m….
Novato’s Tom Cullen, a retired military pilot, said he and his family discovered Sunday Mass at the Holy Rosary Chapel after moving to California from Massachusetts in 2004.
They belong to Our Lady of Loretto Parish and attend Mass there as well. But he admitted they consider Most Holy Rosary Chapel “their home.”
The homilies, the chapel’s beauty and the after-Mass fellowship outside on the large portico is a “tremendously uplifting experience,” he said.
He acknowledged that some local Marin pastors feel that the Mass at St. Vincent is taking attendance away from their parishes. But he argues that he and others in the community feel “really fed” at the chapel.
The above comes from a Nov. 4 story in Catholic San Francisco.
The one-line throwaway reference about the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in this chapel in Marin County at St. Vincent’s Home bespeaks the neglect of this Mass for the Ages in this archdiocese and throughout the country. How can any real Catholic not know the difference between the sterility of Bugnini’s modernist Mass where the congregation essentially worships itself and the Tridentine Mass at which the unbloody memorial of Christ’s Crucifiction takes place. There were no homilists or doughnut eating at Calvary. One of the post-Vatican Two poisoned fruits was the so-called Ordinary Rite, whose introduction led to a mass exodus of Catholics from the Church.
George, you ask “How can any real Catholic not know the difference between the sterility of Bugnini’s modernist Mass…” What? Most real Catholics have never heard of Bugnini. Most real Catholics don’t know much if anything about Vatican II. What was that? Three generations have grown up in the Church without ever hearing about VII, or the Latin Mass, or … well, you get the point. The millions of people who go to church each weekend have no idea what you are talking about. They go to the Mass they know. On the altar in their churches, the bread and wine is turned into the Body and Blood of Christ which they receive at communion. It is the same Body and Blood as at the TLM. I know that many people, a growing crowd to be sure, love the TLM, but they cannot allow themselves to become a “cult.” One Mass is a licit and valid as the other, only different.
Bob One I can tell you are really bothered by the growth of the TLM in the past few years… that is why you throw the cult word at us, did it ever once occur to you that TLM was purposely suppressed by evil in the hierarchy to change th Church completely. Thank you Dear Lord for Summorum Pontificum
Ah a little ‘competition’ among the various sites.
While the parishes can not change the basics of the Liturgy, they can improve some parts of the presentation.
Among the various guest priests who celebrate Mass at the chapel, the article might have also acknowledged Fr. William Young, who regularly celebrates the Mass there on Sundays in the extraordinary form, the Traditional Latin Mass.
“… a mass exodus of Catholics from the Church.” Got it!
Tell us where he is wrong…. undo Vatican 2
Yes, moderators. Your failure to discuss more fully the 12:15 Mass is difficult to understand. At a minimum, you could have talked with Fr Young who is a pioneer veteran in reestablishing the Traditional Latin Mass in the Bay Area. Or, you might have spoken with acting sacristan Mr. Thomas Miller about the effort and history in reestablishing this outpost combining the beauty of the Traditional Latin Mass with the magnificent chapel. Your correspondent might have discussed the famed stained glass of the windows imported from Germany and the Carrara marble of the High Altar.
Having recently learned who you moderators and organizers are, I am very disappointed in this slap-dash treatment of Holy Rosary Chapel. You can do better, can you not? Please go to http://www.tlmsf.org for more information.
Your issue is with Catholic San Francisco, which is where the article above came from, not with California Catholic Daily. In fact, California Catholic Daily ran an article in June 2017 devoted specifically to the TLM at Holy Rosary: https://cal-catholic.com/holy-rosary-san-rafael/. You should do your homework before throwing stones. If you have a problem with the Catholic San Francisco article above, contact its editor.
One further disappointment. You might have mentioned the Gregorian Chant sung for all the TLM Masses. How many Catholic churches today offer Gregorian Chant?
The link on this page to Archbishop Sample’s talk on the mass, is a must before commenting on this post. He is so on spot. How Portland has been blessed with such a shepherd. I hope they know it.
Link on Latin mass is currently on the top right side. Thank you to whoever posted it. It’s beautiful, balanced and inspiring.
I agree 100% with Larry’s comments (see above). Not to mention more about the extraordinary form of the Mass that is said by Fr. Young every Sunday at 12:00 PM seems purposely left out. Why?
Anonymous, I did see it. In fact, I have a comment at that page. There’s some homework for you. And others seem to agree that the problem is with CSF. But, don’t our moderators know that when they develop content?
larry , a complaining spirit is not a gift to anyone.receive the gift of the brief article with thankfulness.