According to a report from Christendom College’s Director of Admissions, Sam Phillips, in this week’s Chronicler, the College is now offering the Traditional Latin Mass every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And, beginning yesterday—Laetare Sunday—Christendom College began making the Traditional Latin Mass the only Mass available on campus one Sunday of every month.
This in addition to the TLM being offered every Sunday at the parish Church of St. John the Baptist in Front Royal (just a 7-minute drive from campus) makes Christendom one of the most TLM-friendly colleges in the world.
Congratulations to my old Alma Mater on this historic decision. I’m unaware of any other mainstream Catholic college that does not offer the New Mass every Sunday of the year. Christendom is now the first, which means it will generously expose its entire student body to the TLM at least once a month. On that Sunday there will be no Novus Ordo option, which virtually guarantees that Christendom’s student body will learn more about the Church’s traditional liturgical patrimony than on any other college campus in America.
Christendom was already in the top three most Catholic colleges in America. It is a place which offers great hope for the future of Catholic higher education, obviously, but I also believe Christendom and a handful of small but up-and-coming Catholic colleges and universities are destined to replace the likes of Notre Dame and Holy Cross as the premier institutions of Catholic learning in America. Why? Because they are attempting to remain Catholic against all odds and in the midst of unprecedented revolution in the Church, and God will surely reward those efforts. They are also wholly dedicated to His mother and to the promotion of her cult—and He will surely bless them for that.
Up until this point, there was a hesitancy at Christendom to fully embrace the liturgical patrimony of the Catholic Church as contained most completely in her glorious Traditional Roman Rite of Mass. Whatever the reasons for it, that hesitancy is obviously fading. Deo Gratias!
We here at The Remnant have always acknowledged the great difficulty for more mainstream organizations to make adjustments such as this one. To hardcore traditional Catholics, for example, restoring the TLM may seem like a little thing, a “no brainer” in fact. But perhaps many do not fully appreciate the incredible pressure—even persecution—that can be brought to bear by powerful forces in the Church who regard any openness to Tradition as a dangerous affront to the spirit of Vatican II. There is a heavy price to pay for publicly accommodating Tradition, in other words, even if we traditionalists are fortunate enough to be in positions where such political pressure cannot always be easily brought to bear.
I’ll say no more about that, other than to acknowledge and salute the courage that was indeed required of our friends at Christendom College to take this bold step, which, essentially gives Catholic families a place to send their children where there will be no stigma attached to those who attend the TLM (even exclusively), where one hundred percent of the faculty (and something like 98 percent of the student body) are practicing Catholics, and where the Kingship of Christ is celebrated on campus rather than ridiculed or, worse, ignored.
Deo volente, this is Christendom’s first step on its way to offering the TLM on campus every day. And in the meantime, we thank Him for this sign of hope, that the TLM is becoming a permanent liturgical fixture at Christendom College.
Catholic Tradition is on the move, and Christendom will rise again. All glory and honor to God.
Viva Cristo Rey!
