latin mass in front royal

'Packed House' Welcomes Latin Mass to Front Royal

Click Here for Photos of Latin Mass in Front Royal

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 8/10/06)

The choir loft at St. John the Baptist Church in Front Royal offered the best view of the delicate black and white head coverings, the newly installed Communion rail and the tall candles on the ornately adorned altar. Each served as a telling sign that the parish’s first Latin Mass was no ordinary eucharistic celebration.
A large group of altar boys assisted Father Ed Hathaway, pastor, in celebrating the Mass last Sunday. Attending in choir were Fathers Paul deLadurantaye, director of the Office of Sacred Liturgy; Chris Pollard, parochial vicar; and Jerome Fasano, pastor of St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton. Eager parishioners and curious visitors filled the pews and flooded out the back of the church into the vestibule.
“It was a packed house,” said Father Hathaway, who said the Latin Mass is “an expression of our tradition that fills in a piece of our heritage.”
While the Latin Mass was familiar to older parishioners, it was the first introduction for many younger ones. Following the Mass, Ellen Kelly signed a “thank you scroll” for Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde, who expanded the option for the Latin Mass to be celebrated in the diocese in March. The Latin Mass also is celebrated every Sunday at St. Lawrence Church in Alexandria.
Holding son, Peter, 1, Kelly said that she and her husband enjoyed “teaching our boys what a truly reverent Mass can be like.”
They weren’t the only ones teaching their children the older traditions of the Church. Bayard and Kimberly Keller filled up the vestibule with their 10 children. The family is moving to Front Royal from Westminster, Md., where they currently attend the Latin Mass in Baltimore.
“It’s something that we’ve evolved into,” Bayard said, as he continuously adjusted the white veil on top of his 4-year-old daughter’s head.
Celebrating the Latin Mass is “more reverent and pleasing to God,” said Therese DeClue, 17. DeClue said she used to attend a Latin Mass with her family in Michigan.
Catherine Jerge, sitting in the front row with daughter Emma on her lap and daughter Jessica by her side, said she used to attend the Latin Mass as a child.
“I love it,” she said. “It’s just a good experience.”
“‘Lord it is good for us to be here,’” said Father Fasano, echoing the day’s Gospel reading of the Transfiguration in his homily. “Some of us have waited 37 years to be able to say this. It is good for us to be at this Mass that we love so much.” The one language “reminds us of the universality of the Church.”
Kurt Poterack, director of Christendom College’s choir and adjunct professor, played the organ and led a schola in the Latin chants, which served as a guide for the congregation that tried its best to keep up with the unfamiliarity of the service.
Regina Hines, a parishioner from Sacred Heart Parish in Winchester, said the two-hour Mass was “a lot longer, a lot grander, a lot more solemn” than what she was used to. She particularly was touched by the reverence given to the Eucharist through kneeling while receiving Communion.
“It’s not a Mass that I would want to go to every Sunday,” she said, but added that it was valuable “to get hold of the old tradition, to reach back into what used to be.” She said she might make the 30-minute drive from Winchester once a month.
Not every Sunday’s Latin Mass will be two hours long, said Father Hathaway. The high sung Mass, which was celebrated last Sunday, will be held on the first Sunday of the month, with a low Latin Mass to be celebrated every other week.
Parishioner Michelle Catellan said she hopes that she and her family will attend the Mass regularly. “It really draws your mind and your heart into heaven.”

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.