Photos of FSSP Priestly Ordination in Providence, RI

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On Saturday, October 26th, His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider ordained the Rev. William Rock FSSP to the sacred priesthood at St Mary’s Church, the home of the Fraternity’s apostolate in Providence, Rhode Island. Here are some photos of the ceremony, for which the church was completely packed. Tomorrow, we will share some photos of Fr Rock’s first Mass and a few other related events.

Fr Andrzej Komorowski, the Superior General of the F.S.S.P., reads the call to orders.

The ordinand comes forward and kneels before the bishop, who then reads a sermon from the Pontifical.

The Litany of the Saints is sung, led by two cantors who kneel at the entrance to the sanctuary; the ordinand prostrates himself, while all others kneel.

Towards the end of the Litany, the bishop rises, receives the crook and miter, then turns to the ordinand, and sings the invocations, “That Thou may deign to bless + this chosen one. – That Thou may deign to bless + and sancti+fy this chosen one. – That Thou may deign to bless +, sancti+fy and conse+crate this chosen one.”, making the sign of the Cross over him where I have put the + sign.

All the priests present in turn lay their hands on the head of the newly-ordained; the priest here is Fr John Berg, the previous Superior General of the FSSP, currently serving as pastor of St Mary’s.

All the priests keep their hands raised until the imposition of hands is finished.

The bishop rearranges the new priest’s stole, changing it from the diaconal arrangement to the priestly one…

and then clothes him with the chasuble. The back of the chasuble is left pinned up until the end of the ceremony.

The “traditio instumentorum – the handing over of the instruments” of priestly sacrifice, the chalice and paten.

I am sure the majority of our readers are already familiar with the custom, which is not formally a part of the rite, that once the ritual is complete, the presents the manuterge with which his hands were bound to his mother. It is a long-standing tradition that when a priest’s mother dies, she is buried with the cloth between her hands, to symbolize that she gave a priest to God, and will be rewarded for this in heaven. For this occasion, Fr Rock received ahead of time a manuterge and gift box that both have the words “Mater Sacerdotis Sum” on them, along with the date; the box also had the name and place of the church on it. A similar box with the date and place and the words “Pater Sacerdotis Sum” has the stole which Fr Rock wore when he heard his first Confession, and will be given to his father in the future.

The newly ordained priest concelebrates Mass with the bishop, kneeling at a small desk with a Missal on it; he is traditionally accompanied by an older priest to help him through the ceremony.

Towards the end of the ceremony, the new priest’s chauble is unpinned by the bishop, as a symbol that he has been released to the exercise of his priestly ministry.