Bishop Celebrates the 1962 Mass at the Cathedral in Albany

The Cathedral was filled nearly to the brim as the Bishop of Albany, installed just less than a year ago, celebrated the Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal.

Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, installed as Bishop of Albany on April 10th, 2014, celebrated a High Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite on Saturday morning, March 14th at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Fr.s Michael Flannery and William Pape of the Diocese of Albany and Fr. Jeffery Larche, MS served at the Mass, as well as 10 altar boys, including 2 MCs. A choir of sixteen singers was led by Brian Gurley, the Director of Music for the Cathedral .

This event was publicized on Fr. Z's WDTPRS, Patheos, and Cleansing Fire.

The Mass was particularly special to this Diocese because it was the first Mass in the Extraordinary Form to be celebrated at the Diocese's Cathedral in nearly 50 years, and it is especially notable because it was celebrated by the Bishop of Albany. Historic, indeed.

As previously mentioned, the Cathedral was nearly full for this event. Attendance estimates range from 350 to nearly 600. I helped to hand out worship aids (with the Propers and Prayers) before Mass, and we extinguished all 300 of them before 15 minutes prior to the event. The Priests and MCs had to scramble before Mass to make sure that enough hosts would be consecrated because of the unexpected large number of people that were pouring into the Cathedral. The parking lot was nearly full with more than a half-hour to spare before the beginning of Mass.

Post by The Extraordinary Form in the Albany Diocese.

Overall, it was a fantastic event. The turn-out was incredible, and the response was very positive! Thank you to all who organized and supported this event, and an even bigger thank you to all who participated as servers or singers. Most of all, thank you, Bishop Scharfenberger, for making this Mass possible!!

We were unable to obtain a professional photographer for the Mass. However, David Pietruza was gracious enough to take photographs during the Mass. I also managed to take some (less-than-high-quality) shots from my pew. Please excuse the poor quality. Next time...

View more photos of the event HERE and please "LIKE" our page on Facebook, The Extraordinary Form in the Albany Diocese.


UPDATE 3/15/15 8:30pmEST:

Here is a recording of the Bishop's Homily. Hopefully it's audible.