A bit of jubilant fireworks display around the beginning of July has become an anticipated spectacle around Gricigliano, where the Institute's St. Phillip Neri Seminary is located. This brilliant, exuberant expression of joy against the darkened Tuscany sky is a fitting finale to the solemn pageantry which has occurred within the church and chapel all week: Ordinations!
This year, the priestly ordinations took place on Thursday, July 5, again in the magnificent Sts. Michele e Gaetano Church in Florence. Holy Mother Church gained five new priests, who received Holy Orders at the hands of His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke. Grateful always to God's bounteous provisions, the Institute invites all faithful and friends of the Institute to share in our great joy in introducing: Canon Alexis d'Abbadie d'Arrast, Canon Jorge Arrasate Iragui, Canon Alban Denis, Canon Sébastien Goupil, and Canon Louis Valadier. Deo Gratias!
Cardinal BurkeThe ordinations of these new canons of the Institute and the celebrations that followed were the climax of several days of clerical ordinations preceded by an intense preparatory effort.
Throughout the previous week, many man hours were spent preparing this beautiful Florentine church for the solemn ceremonies of ordinations. Heavy, ornately embroidered curtains and hangings were installed over the vaults and archways using a crane inside the church. The Cardinal's throne was built and finished to the last detail. The magnificent high altar was cleaned and decorated.
This important week began with the conferral of the cassock by the Prior General, Monsignor Gilles Wach, to the seminarians who had completed their first year of seminary formation. Those seminarians who were soon to be ordained to the diaconate also made on this day their Profession of Faith and the anti-modernist oath.
Diaconal OrdinationsThe next day His Excellency, the Most Reverend John Basil Meeking, Bishop Emeritus of Christchurch, New Zealand, conferred the clerical tonsure in the seminary chapel of the Immaculate Conception, as well as the various Minor Orders of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte. All told, sixteen Americans were among the forty seminarians who received minor orders.
On July 4, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample, Bishop of Marquette, Michigan, ordained five seminarians to the diaconate, and ten new subdeacons. Among these new subdeacons are five from the United States.
Cassock conferralThe Institute is deeply honored and grateful to the prelates of the Church who came to preside over these important events: His Eminence, the Most Reverend Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, who ordained the new canons; the Most Reverend John Basil Meeking, Bishop Emeritus of Christchurch, New Zealand, who conferred the minor orders; the Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample, Bishop of Marquette, Michigan, who ordained the deacons and subdeacons. All three were present on July 5, when His Eminence, Giuseppe Cardinal Betori, Archbishop of Florence, presided over the solemn Benediction and singing of Te Deum, the ancient praise of thanksgiving to Almighty God for the graces bestowed upon the Institute.
To all friends and faithful of the Institute, we express our most sincere gratitude for your generous and unfailing support, and implore your continued prayers for these new priests and seminarians who will become our future priests in the years to come.