Solemn High Mass for All Souls 2015 at Philadelphia Cathedral Basilica

We were very pleased to have our Holy Father, Pope Francis, celebrate Holy Mass with our archbishop, bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople of our archdiocese this past September in our Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter & Paul during the World Meeting of Families.

On the evening of Monday, November 2nd, 2015, in that same mother church or our Archdiocese, we celebrated Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form, using the Missal of 1962 in accordance with Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, which encourages wider use of both forms of the Roman Rite.  

At this particular occasion, a Solemn High Requiem Mass and Absolution of the Dead at the Catafalque was celebrated to pray for the Holy Souls, our brothers and sisters who have died and gone on to their judgment before God after this earthly life.  This ancient and solemn liturgy also reminds us of our own mortality and need for a constant conversion, for we know neither the day nor the hour in which the Lord will call us.

We were pleased to welcome Father James Bartoloma, Chancellor of the Diocese of Camden, as our celebrant.  Father Harold McKale, Chaplain of the Traditional Latin Mass Community of Philadelphia and parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Doylestown, and Father Sean Loomis, parochial vicar of St. Bede the Venerable in Holland, served as deacon and subdeacon, respectively.  The music of Tomas Luis de Victoria, Missa pro defunctis, was offered by our schola to accompany our prayers to heaven.

Please feel free to click on any of the pictures below to enlarge.