The historic neighborhood of Springfield in downtown Jacksonville, Florida is abuzz with excitement and anticipation as the Society of Saint Pius X embarks on a monumental initiative—the Pompeii Rising Restoration Project.
Dear Friends,
The primary work of the traditional Catholic movement is to pass on the integral Catholic Faith in the midst of a terrible crisis in the Church and, by means of that Faith, to save our souls. The crisis in the Church, however, has not just affected the Faith. It has also affected the external structures in which the primary manifestation of the Faith, the Mass, takes place. As such, traditional Catholicism also seeks to preserve the many beautiful churches built by our forefathers in the Faith.
Since the Second Vatican Council, thousands of parishes have closed or have been absorbed into surrounding parishes. As a result, churches built before the Council, in traditional Romanesque, Gothic, or Baroque style, have been abandoned. It is as if these buildings, which were built for the traditional Latin Mass, lost their charm to churchgoers when the Mass that was celebrated in them switched to the new liturgy.
Meanwhile, new churches have been built since the Council that match-up with the New Mass. These churches are often ugly, barren, banal, unimposing, and flat. Not infrequently, they exchange the traditional cruciform shape for a more democratic circle. Their very structure implies that they were built more to affirm man than to worship God.
If the Novus Ordo Mass had life and was able to sustain itself (it does not), and the persecution of traditional Catholicism were pursued to the end (something Our Lord will prevent), the churches of old would be wiped out and only their sickly, modern replacements would appear on the landscape.
For this reason, it is always a joy for the members of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) to be able to acquire a beautiful church and restore to it the Mass for which it was built, the “Mass of all time.” Some prominent examples of such acquisitions are the St. Joseph Church in Saint-Césaire, Quebec, Canada; Eglise Saint-Joseph in Brussels, Belgium; and the Church of Our Lady of the Snows in Vienna, Austria.
Here too in the United States, we have been able to acquire pre-Vatican II diocesan churches and make them thriving centers of traditional Catholicism. There are, for example, St. Vincent’s in Kansas City, St. James in Pittsburgh, St. Mary’s Assumption in St. Louis, and Queen of Angels in Houston.
The purpose of this Regina Coeli Report is to announce the restoration of the Old Holy Rosary in Jacksonville, Florida. You will find in these pages a history of the church, along with a description of the restoration work that is being done. Soon, the traditional Latin Mass will return to that church, and it will be the home for the SSPX faithful in that city.
Let us thank God for this great grace and also pray that more such opportunities might arise for the churches built for the “Old Mass” and for the SSPX.
Fr. John Fullerton
US District Superior