2013 Ordinations: 70 Seminarians receive Major and Minor Orders
Ordination Week is the pinnacle of the academic year at the Institute's St. Philip Neri Seminary; it is also an occasion which manifests the Institute's love for Christ our King and Sovereign Priest, fidelity to His Church in union with her bishops, and reverence for the timeless traditions of Holy Mother Church.
The week on July 1 began with the reception of the cassocks by the first-year seminarians on July 1, and culminated with the ordinations of five priests on July 4, and ended with their first Masses in the denouement. Every event throughout Ordination Week was planned and executed with utmost devotion to Our Lord: the careful preparations of the sacred spaces (the Church of Sts. Michele e Gaetano in Florence and the Seminary's Immaculate Conception Chapel), the heart-felt greeting of the bishops and cardinal as each arrived to preside over the day's ceremony, the solemn ceremonies themselves, and the festive reception of guests.
Reception of Cassocks (July 1)
On the Feast of the Most Precious Blood, July 1, sixteen seminarians received the cassock upon completing their first year of formation. Entering the church in civil clothes, each seminarian received his black cassock and clerical collar from the Institute's Founder and Prior General, Monsignor Gilles Wach, in solemn ceremony. The black cassock symbolizes mourning for Christ, and death to sin and the world, while the clerical collar evokes His words: "for my yoke is sweet and my burden light." Following Holy Mass, these seminarians assembled on the steps of Sts. Michele e Gaetano, having taken an important first step toward the clerical state.
On the same day, the candidates for the Diaconate also made their Profession of Faith and the anti-modernist oath. They likewise pledged to observe the Constitutions of the Institute, thereby becoming incardinated members of this Society of Apostolic Life. Finally they receive the Cross of St. Francis de Sales (photos) which emphasizes the importance of the Divine Office in daily life.
Minor Orders (July 2)
His Excellency, the Most Reverend Matthew Madega, Bishop of Mouila, Gabon, conferred Minor Orders to about fifty seminarians and three oblate brothers at the Seminary Chapel on July 2, 2013. The Minor Orders, consisting of Tonsure, Porter, Lector, Exorcist, Acolyte, are imbued with varying clerical duties and symbolic meanings to gradually advance each man toward the priesthood. For example, the newest seminarians in their cassocks received clerical tonsure, whereby five locks of hair are removed by the bishop in the shape of the cross, to denote renouncing the vanities of the world.
For each seminarian, receiving successive Minor Orders represents a deepening commitment and growing conformance to the humility and dignity of the priesthood. Thus, this was a day of great joy for all the seminarians, for they received the graces to persevere from the hands of a bishop of the Church: Bishop Matthew Madega of Mouila, Gabon, who also celebrated Holy Mass at the Chapel following the ordination ceremonies.
Diaconate Ordinations (July 3)
The third day of Ordination Week was an important one for eleven men who became Subdeacons, and ten who were ordained Deacons, for these are definitive steps which made each a permanent member of the clergy who will serve as a minister of the altar for life. The Institute is most grateful to His Excellency, the Most Reverend Guido Pozzo, currently the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, who came to ordain the Subdeacons and Deacons, and to celebrate Pontifical Mass.
The already hallowed interior of Sts. Michele e Gaetano came alive with the ceremony and solemnity of the occasion. Graces from the sacred liturgy and timeless tradition of the Church were evident throughout; the choir and pews were filled to capacity with invited clergy and guests, Sisters Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus Christ Sovereign Priest, and many faithful, some of whom were family and friends of the ordinands.
Ordination to the Holy Priesthood (July 4)
On July 4, 2013, His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, was welcomed and received at the entrance of Sts. Michele e Gaetano for the profound act he was about to perform: the ordination of five men to the sacred priesthood. For the five who became Deacons in this same church last year, this day was marked with sublime joy and humility. Amidst the ritual and ceremony well-rehearsed in the course of the Church's history, they would receive the Sacrament of Holy Order and for all eternity become priests in the footsteps of Our Lord and Savior, forever serving Him and His Church. In the glorious four hours inside this sacred edifice, buoyed by the prayers of the Church, in an atmosphere infused with the fragrance of incense and melodious recitation of timeless chants, the newly ordained emerged: Canon Geoffroy Bonfils, Canon Alexandre Garcia, Canon Paul Le Brethon, Canon Adrian Mesureur, Canon Pierre-Emmanuel Poullain. Deo gratias!
Gratitude and Thanksgiving
Poignantly, following the ordination ceremonies, each new Canon of the Institute generously—and gratefully—conferred their first priestly blessings upon Cardinal Burke who ordained them, the Superiors of the Institute who nurtured them, and the parents and faithful who supported them.
That same evening, the His Eminence, Giuseppe Cardinal Betori, Archbishop of Florence, celebrated Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament with Te Deum in the seminary chapel of Gricigliano in order to thank Divine Providence for the great abundance of graces received throughout the whole week. His Eminence, Cardinal Burke was present for this solemn Liturgy, as was Archbishop Pozzo, Bishop Madega and Dom Louis Marie de Geyer d'Orth, the Father Abbot of Le Barroux Benedictine Abbey. After the Liturgy a festive dinner was served by the seminarians on the seminary terrace, and a fireworks display wonderfully expressed the spirit of joy and thanksgiving.
The next day, each of the newly ordained priests offered his First Mass. Many of their family members and friends assisted at these first Masses with piety and emotion, thus contributing to the profoundly spiritual experience of these First Masses. With special fervor the new priest offers Holy Mass in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, where he has prayed daily throughout those seven years of his seminary formation.
In the tradition of the Institute community and in the hospitality so dear to its patron St. Benedict, festive celebrations filled the refectory and the gardens of the Seminary, as well as the courtyard of the Sisters Adorers' convent, in thanksgiving to Divine Providence for the fruits of Ordination Week. Not only is the Institute grateful to all those who were physically present for the ordinations, but countless souls—many of whom reading this page—who were spiritually present, and all who supported and prayed for all the seminarians and the Institute throughout the year. To all our benefactors we offer daily prayers and an invitation to continue to be a part of the Institute's mission in the service of Our Lord. God willing, each year the abundant vocations—fruits of your prayers—will be realized in more and more priestly ordinations for Holy Mother Church.
Assorted photos of the week's events are also available.