California Catholic Daily Exclusive
On Saturday, June 10, San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone ordained two men to the priesthood: Fr. Michael Liliedahl and Fr. Alvin Yu. The next day, each priest attended the others’ Mass of Thanksgiving at their respective home parishes. For Fr. Liliedahl that was San Francisco’s St. Dominic’s Church and for Fr. Yu that was San Francisco’s Saints Peter and Paul Church. Fr. Yu is not only a native San Franciscan, he was baptized, had his first holy communion, and was confirmed at Saints Peter and Paul. He also attended Saints Peter and Paul School, and the associated Salesian Boys’ and Girls’ Club.
This past Sunday, Fr. Yu celebrated a second Mass of Thanksgiving—this time in the Extraordinary Form. Because the Mass took place at Saints Peter in Paul, Fr. Yu was able to celebrate the Mass of the External Solemnity of the two great apostles of the church. Spiritually, the Mass was reverent and physically it was spectacular.
Preparation for the Mass was a joint effort of Saints Peter and Paul and St. Margaret Mary in Oakland, with assistance from St. Patrick’s Seminary, and San Francisco’s Star of the Sea and St. Monica’s Churches.
Mr. Ricky Wong, of St. Margaret Mary Church served as the Master of Ceremonies. Mrs. Georgianna Askoff served as the organist, and the chant was performed by the Pacific Collegium. The homilist was Fr. Joseph Previtali, assistant chaplain of the Traditional Latin Mass Society of San Francisco. The remarkable floral decorating was designed and led by Ms. Joan Konrad, also of St. Margaret Mary. Altar servers were from St. Margaret Mary and San Francisco’s Star of the Sea Parish, joined by seminarians from St. Patrick’s Seminary.
The Mass was videotaped and photographed by Jay Balza, of the Traditional Latin Mass Society of San Francisco. More of the photos may be seen on his Facebook page.
It was absolutely beautiful!
We are indeed fortunate to have these Latin Mass communities in the Bay Area. And they work so well together!
A beautiful and holy Mass! Congratulations to Fr. Yu! Hope he will say the old Latin Mass again, sometime soon! A whole lifetime ahead, for the newly-ordained priest, Fr. Yu, with opportunities, when possible, to say the old Latin Mass! No doubt, it also will be an opportunity for young altar boys, to learn to serve– and see if maybe they might at some point, be interested to discern a vocation to the priesthood! Good influence, for future vocations to the priesthood!
Praise God for such a wonderful priest
Beautiful! The Church will survive will young priests like this coming aboard.
This looks like Sunday Mass at my home parish when I was a lot younger. Beautiful to see!
The photos are stunningly beautiful. Very nice.
Deo gratias!
Well, let’s see: (1) get rid of the coffee table and then the Church looks right; and (2) these priests should say only the TLM,not as a once and awhile event.
Come on, Archbishop, the Pope gives increasing evidence that he plans on “revising” Summorum Pontificum once Benedict is gone (and perhaps earlier). You leaders need to step up and insist on teaching Catholic Tradition and making it permanent.
“These priests should say only the TLM.” This is most uncharitable to say especially for us Catholics who are also nourished by the Ordinary Form. As much as I love the EF and frequent it, St. Chris, it is not where the future of the Church is. The future is in a reverent, dignified OF whose celebration is informed by the TLM.
Your comment is ridiculous, “jon.” The TLM is the core of Mankind’s connection to Christ. The Novus Ordo, which almost all Catholics are forced to attend, has been responsible for mis-forming generations of Catholics. The NO is “valid,” and we can believe it so through the Doctrine of Indefectibility, but it is deeply flawed.
You are also wrong that the NO “is informed by the TLM.” The Church, especially under Francis, uses the NO to shield Catholics from anything traditional. Just look at the craven attack on Cardinal Sarah by his suggestion of using the ad orientem posture in saying the NO. Do not be fooled.
St. Christopher,
I don’t think you can say that the TLM is the core of Mankind’s connection to Christ. Any valid Mass serves in this capacity. Can you actually say that the Mass that the Risen Christ celebrated with his disciples or the Mass celebrated by the early Church is any less of the core than the TLM?
And just what does jon know of the Church and its future? Is he the Pope? He knows nothing! Many young families are flocking to the TLM, and have many children, which they are raising successfully in TLM parishes! With future priests coming from these families– that all a big part of the future of the Church!
Anonymous, my point that the future of the Church is found in a reverent and dignified OF is based on Pope Benedict’s own words from his motu propio, Summorum Pontificum, where the Holy Father wrote
“that the new Missal will certainly remain the ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, not only on account of the juridical norms, but also because of the actual situation of the communities of the faithful.” So you see Anonymous even Benedict himself claims that the EF will not supplant the OF.
St. Christopher– We do not know what is in the heart of this young priest. He is assigned to a Novus Ordo parish. One of his many jobs will be to say the NO Mass. We do not know if he is one of those priests who will offer Mass every single day even as a private Mass when he has no parish Mass. I would take a guess here that he does say Mass every day and that when he is doing it on his own its a TLM.
Maybe someone should ask him.
Had a Latin Mass at our church yesterday was beautiful
The singing in Latin , the altar boys looked spectacular in their black and white cassocks
They put 2 kneelers for communion. I loved kneeling to receive our Lord. I wish all churches would bring the communion rails back
Also churches should have Latin mass more often
maybe once every other month
Memo to Sts Peter and Paul: time to get ride of that ‘table’ thingy.
Many decades ago, in my home parish– when they first brought in the “table”-type altar, for the New Mass (Novus Ordo) in 1969– and placed it in front of the beautiful High Altar, in our beautiful old church — the priest got in back of the new “table” altar, with very little room to move around in– and faced us, facing away from the High Altar and Blessed Sacrament, in new vestments– and people in the church giggled nervously! A sort of humanistic “personality cult” of the priests also began to emerge– no doubt some priests were nervous, they no longer faced God– and sometimes joked a bit– and people began to sometimes view them as kind of “entertaining,” and less “priestly!”
Our parish is SO LUCKY to have Father Yu as his first assignment.
A real shame that the “table” couldn’t have been removed for this Mass. It acts as a visual BARRIER.