This is now the second time I am writing about St. Joseph’s in Detroit, Michigan; the last time was at Christmas Eve this past year when I was there with a friend for a beautiful midnight Mass. But I’ve known for some time that they have a Novus Ordo Latin Mass on Mondays and Tuesdays, and on Tuesdays followed by a Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

When I went this Tuesday, I had a little trouble getting there, both on account of my unfamiliarity with Detroit City and because the exit I needed was closed. So I was out of the car and into the church just a minute or so late. St. Joseph’s is one of three huge, beautiful, old Catholic churches which are all within a couple miles of each other in the heart of Detroit. They’re not exactly in an area encouraging of leisurely evening strolls down the block, both because that part of Detroit looks sorta bombed out and because there are, to use a word heard on the lips on Mr. Phil Fiadino, our former peace and social justice minister at Cornell, a number of distressed persons walking about.

Of the three churches in this group, St. Josaphat’s hosts the indult on Sundays, St. Joseph’s is incredibly beautiful and completely unwreckovated, and I have not yet been to Sweetest Heart of Mary. While the combining of these three parishes into one is almost certainly owing, in part, to the Second Vatican Council, they were also depleted by the exit of people from inner city the Detroit.

So when I got to the Mass a minute or so late, and after I had noticed quite a few cars parked around the church and some in its parking lot, I was surprised, entering this giant church, to see only four middle-aged ladies in the pews. The priest, an older gentleman, was engaged at the altar and behind him was another older man, the server. Now as a rule, I know that vast crowds of people don’t attend most weekday Masses, but I had expected something better than this. I mean, I was willing to drive all the way from East Lansing to see it! so it had to be more exciting than just four ladies worth! And, indeed, at some point later, a gentleman came in took some pew behind me.

One thing which I like about the Latin Novus Ordo, which I enjoyed while at the Oxford Oratory, is that the whole of the Canon is said aloud. When it’s said aloud, it’s easier to follow along in one’s missal and, in general, it’s a nice thing to hear the Latin, especially words as hallowed as those of the Roman Canon. But instead of the Roman Canon, the priest used that blasted Prex Eucharistica Tertia and breezed on through the Mass. The whole thing was very short: it might have been done in under 15 minutes. I could hear the priest part of the time, but the rest of the time, the microphone wasn’t working and so I just put down my Novus Ordinary missal and knelt there.

Then we prayed the Novena prayer to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I thought that the priest might have left the sanctuary in order to lead us before the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, at the mid-left side of the nave, but he did not; I visited this shrine, with its beautiful, antique prie-dieu, the cushions of the kneeler and arm rest of which are embroidered - I almost wondered if I was allowed to kneel on it.

After the Mass, I said Sext - I wasn’t sure how long the place would stay open, or if they would let me stay in. I can’t figure that a place like that is left unlocked and unattended during, well, any time of the day there in Detroit. But, even after the priest appeared to have left, wearing blue pants, a black shirt, and sunglasses, a couple of the ladies who had been at the Mass continued to pray.

And I pray: please God, through the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, that this church, St. Joseph’s, will some day be given to priests or religious of the old rite. In 1873, St. Joseph’s was dedicated and I imagine that it looks not much different today than it did then. To see such a building filled again with the life of a parish and all the traditional sacraments would be a miracle of beauty.

But surely, of these three churches, St. Josaphat’s, Sweetest Heart of Mary, and St. Joseph’s, at least one can be given by the archdiocese to the FSSP or the ICKSP. As of today, there is not one full old rite parish in the state of Michigan. We have three indults in the Diocese of Lansing (though none in Lansing itself) and there is one indult in Detroit. There is an indult in Grand Rapids and in Kalamazoo, I believe, and one or two in the Upper Peninsula, surprisingly, given that there are so few people up there. There are also several chapels of the Society of St. Pius X - there are many traditionalists in Michigan, but not yet, I guess, a bishop willing to give them a full parish.

Anyway, there’s my report about the Latin Novus Ordo at St. Joseph’s in Detroit. Probably not worth a long drive in my opinion, to assist at that particular Mass, though it’s definitely worth a trip at some point to see the church itself.

(Again, as on Christmas Eve, I failed to take any of my own pictures, this time because my camera is in the Mediterranean, aboard a boat, that is.)

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