An appeal to friends of the Roman Forum

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Frank Chow

The following is an appeal from Dr. John Rao, director of the Roman Forum.

“Now battle had to be joined, and therefore men were needed to restore a new order, and new theologians as well, to whom the evil was manifest from its outward phenomena down to its most subtle roots; then the time would come for the first stroke of the consecrated sword, piercing the darkness like a lightning flash. For this reason, individuals had the duty of living in alliance with others, gathering the treasure of a new rule of law. But the alliance had to be stronger than before, and they more conscious of it.” (Ernst Jünger, On the Marble Cliffs, XX)

Dear Friends of the Roman Forum,

I am writing to you today not only in a final appeal for funding for our twenty seventh annual Summer Symposium in Gardone Riviera on Lake Garda in Italy (July 8th-July 19th), but also to ask for your financial help and prayers to keep the Roman Forum from having seriously to downsize or even to end its activities entirely thereafter.

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Music that “makes your heart soar” attracts young and old

Posted on February 17, 2019 by Frank Chow

We thank J.P. Sonnen, tour operator and history docent with Vancouver-based Orbis Catholicus Travel, for contributing this article.

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Local Catholics will be making their way this August to Saints Joachim and Ann parish in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia to participate in the 2019 BC Sacred Music Symposium. The organizers have announced the dates of this second annual event for August 2-4, 2019. Early registration is open through the website bcsacredmusicsymposium.com.

The launch of the symposium last year drew large crowds, founded in part on a belief that classical liturgical music can appeal to younger audiences. The highest number of participants were the under-40s. This phenomenon is on par with research that shows a clear indication of new listening trends in North America. Some studies show almost half (45 per cent) of young people see classical music as an escape from the noise of modern life.

The new symposium aimed at younger singers is based on more than just a trend. Young participants cited a desire for the sacred, a refuge from the world of noise and static music, seeking worship music that “makes your heart soar,” proving even the oldest of sacred music repertoire still has something meaningful to offer.

The symposium seeks to bring together musicians and faithful of all skill levels and ages to gather for instruction, collaboration, and fellowship. The event includes the opportunity to attend choral workshops and lectures on multiple levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced, professional, and, new this year, chant intensive.

There will be a special emphasis on Gregorian chant. This is because chant serves as a model for the nature, the spirit, and the form of liturgical singing in the Roman Church. Among the ecclesiastically approved ways to set the Latin text to music, chant is the most notable one. While congregational signing is encouraged, singing by the people in the pews has its natural limitations.

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BC Sacred Music Symposium 2019

Posted on February 2, 2019 by Frank Chow

The organizers of the BC Sacred Music Symposium are pleased to announce that the 2019 symposium will take place from August 2 to 4 at Sts. Joachim and Ann Parish in Aldergrove, British Columbia. Early registration is now open through March 3, 2019.

This will be a weekend for musicians of all skill levels, and all people of goodwill with a general interest in sacred music, to gather for instruction, collaboration, and fellowship. There will be an opportunity to attend choral workshops (beginner, intermediate, advanced, professional, and, new this year, chant intensive!) and lectures, and to experience the riches of the Church’s musical tradition in the celebrations of Holy Mass and the Divine Office.

We are also very excited to announce that our keynote speaker and the celebrant of the symposium’s principal Mass will be Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, Executive Director of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). For more information or to register, please visit our website: bcsacredmusicsymposium.com

Promotional video | BC Catholic article about the 2018 Symposium

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The Roman Forum: Gardone Riviera Summer Symposium and Church History Lectures in NYC

Posted on January 22, 2019 by Frank Chow

The Roman Forum is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the broad defense of Catholic doctrine and Catholic culture. It was founded in 1968 in the wake of Humanae vitae by the great philosopher Professor Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977), whom Pope Pius XII called “the twentieth century Doctor of the Church.”

The 27th Annual Roman Forum Summer Symposium in Gardone Riviera, Italy, will take place on July 8-19, 2019. Its theme will be “Modern Foundation Myths and the Destruction of Church and Civilization.”

The 27th Annual Roman Forum New York City Church History Program for 2018-19 will resume on January 13, 2019, with a lecture by Dr. John Rao titled “Vatican Council: The Theological and Political Background.” All sessions meet on Sundays at 2:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Pompeii Church, Carmine Street, NYC.

For more information about both programs, please see this letter by Dr. John Rao, Director of the Roman Forum.

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Help support Traditional seminarians

Posted on November 13, 2018 by Frank Chow

Our Seminarian Program currently provides financial assistance to six Canadian seminarians at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary (OLGS) in Denton, Nebraska, operated by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), and two Canadian seminarians at St. Philip Neri Seminary in Gricigliano, Italy, operated by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP).

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Denton, Nebraska

It costs money to form and train good priests. According to the OLGS website:

“The actual cost [to form a seminarian] is about $22,000 per year. Most of this cost is paid through the generosity of our benefactors, who deserve our prayers every day … The charge for room, board, and tuition is $7,000 per seminarian, per year. This amount is substantially less than the actual cost of priestly formation, thanks to the generous support of Fraternity benefactors. Additional expenses may include books, medical and vehicle insurance, travel to/from home during breaks, etc. Candidates are expected to find benefactors (i.e., family, friends, Knights of Columbus, parish, etc.) to help pay for the various expenses associated with their priestly formation” [emphasis added].

St. Philip Neri Seminary, Gricigliano, Italy

According to the ICKSP website:

“The expense of maintaining the seminary building, as well as that of lodging, feeding, providing instruction, and supplying the necessary study materials to approximately sixty young men, is very high. Our seminarians are thus asked to contribute the relatively small amount of $1050 per month toward these costs, but many are not able to afford this contribution” [emphasis added].

With your help, we hope to donate $8,000 towards the support of our eight seminarians in the coming year.

Your donation to our Seminarian Program will help form future priests who will lead souls to heaven by bringing the beauty and spirituality of the Traditional Latin Mass to dioceses across North America.

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Prof. Roberto de Mattei addresses Una Voce Canada’s 2018 Annual General Meeting

Posted on November 13, 2018 by awiegert

Prof. Roberto de Mattei

Prof. Roberto de Mattei

Una Voce Canada (the Vancouver Traditional Mass Society) held its 2018 annual general meeting on Saturday, November 10, at Holy Family Parish, a personal parish in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, British Columbia, dedicated to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and in the care of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter since 2008. The board of directors was elected by acclamation. Serving for the coming year are David Reid, president; Frank Chow, vice president; Lynn Reid, treasurer; Margie Mackey, corresponding secretary; Arnold Wiegert, webmaster; and Claire Phillips, Kenneth Lieblich, and Alexander Dyakowski, directors.

We were privileged to have as our guest speaker the renowned scholar Professor Roberto de Mattei, Associate Professor at the European University of Rome until his retirement, and President of the Lepanto Foundation. It is our great pleasure to be able to bring you a recording of his complete talk and the question-and-answer session that followed. The full text of the talk is found here.

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Crisis in the Church: A Historical Perspective

Posted on November 13, 2018 by Frank Chow

The following address was delivered by Professor Roberto de Mattei at the Una Voce Canada Annual General Meeting held at Holy Family Parish, Vancouver, British Columbia, on November 10, 2018.

The Century of Revolutions

The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ: a reality that transcends history, but in history lives and battles and hence is called the Church Militant. For this reason we cannot speak about the Church without reflecting on the historical horizon in which She operates. In 2017, we commemorated three Revolutions which changed [the course of] history: the Protestant Revolution, the French Revolution and the Communist Revolution. Three Revolutions that are part of a single revolutionary process.[1]

2018 is the anniversary of two events positioned inside the same revolutionary process: the hundred years since the end of the First World War and the fifty years since the Revolution of 1968. Two anniversaries that help us to place the crisis of the Church in its historical context.

The First World War shook up the political geography of Europe. The disappearance of the Austrian Empire deprived the European continent of its centre of gravity, paving the way for the Second World War. But the postwar period of the early 20th century was principally a Revolution in the culture and mentality of European man. It was the end of an era.

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“Restore or Rebuild the Church and the Mass?”

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Frank Chow

This column by K.E. Colombini first appeared October 2, 2018, on the Crisis Magazine website and is reprinted with permission.

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St. Francis de Sales Oratory

Our youngest daughter and I recently found ourselves at a Latin High Mass at the beautiful Oratory of St. Francis de Sales in St. Louis. It had been a few years since I had been there; while my attraction to Mass in the old “extraordinary” form has been strong, and opportunities abound in St. Louis, one gets stuck in a rut. This was our 15-year-old’s idea, and I embraced it. As always, attending these Masses helps me reflect about the way things used to be, the way they are now, and the way they should be. To some extent, they provide the antidote to some of what ails the Church today.

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Una Voce Canada Annual General Meeting: November 10, 2018

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Frank Chow

The annual general meeting of Una Voce Canada (Vancouver Traditional Mass Society) will be held on Saturday, November 10, following the 9 a.m. Mass at Holy Family Church, 4851 Beatrice Street, Vancouver, BC. The meeting will take place in the parish hall.

Professor Roberto de Mattei will be our guest speaker. An internationally renowned Roman Catholic historian and author, he will be coming to us from Italy, where he is Associate Professor of Modern History and History of Christianity at the European University in Rome, founded in 2004. He is president of the Lepanto Foundation, with offices in Washington, DC, and Rome, as well as founder and director of the Lepanto Cultural Centre. He is a prolific writer, the author of many books that have been translated into several languages. The topic of Professor de Mattei’s talk will be “Crisis in the Church: A Historical Perspective.”

Only registered members may vote during the meeting. To join or to renew your membership, pick up a form in the foyer of Holy Family Church, email info@unavocecanada.org, or visit our membership page online. The cost of a year’s membership, which includes a subscription to our quarterly newsletter, is $20 for an individual or $25 per family.

A complimentary light lunch will be served following the Mass for all those who will be staying for the meeting. If you plan to attend, please sign up on the sheet in the foyer at Holy Family, email info@unavocecanada.org, or leave a message at 604-608-3552 by November 1.

All are invited!

Meeting poster | Membership form

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Solemn Mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral, Vancouver

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Frank Chow

… at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 29, the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, to ask God’s blessings as we prepare to begin a new schoolyear.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary is located at 646 Richards Street in downtown Vancouver. All are welcome!

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