On Monday, July 4, ten first-year seminarians (including five Americans) and one oblate received the cassock from the Institute's Prior General, Monsignor Gilles Wach in the beautiful Florentine Church of Saints Michael and Gaetano. They were tonsured on July 5 by the Most Reverend Luciano Giovanetti, Bishop Emeritus of Fiesole, who also conferred the various Minor Orders of Porter, Lector, Exorcist, and Acolyte, to over forty other seminarians in the Seminary Chapel of the Immaculate Conception.
On the following day, the Most Reverend Athanasius Schneider, ORC, Auxiliary Bishop in Astana, Kazakhstan, ordained two deacons and nine subdeacons at a Pontifical Mass in the Church of Saints Michael and Gaetano.
On Thursday, July 7, His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, celebrated the Votive Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ Eternal High Priest for the first Thursday of the month and ordained four priests — Canon Federico Pozza (Italy), Canon Matthieu Thermed (France), Canon Brieuc de la Brosse (France), and Canon Bertrand Bergerot (France).
That same evening, the Most Reverend Giuseppe Betori, Archbishop of Florence, offered Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament with Te Deum in the seminary chapel of Gricigliano. His Eminence, Cardinal Burke assisted at this solemn Liturgy, which was followed by a festive dinner on the seminary terrace and fireworks display offered in joyful thanksgiving for all of the graces received.
The next day, each of the newly ordained priests offered his First Mass.
Hundreds of faithful and friends of the Institute from many European countries as well as from the United States attended the Liturgies of this week of Ordinations.