The academic year at the Institute’s international Seminary of St. Philip Neri culminated in the grace-filled week of Ordinations from July 2-7, 2018. The liturgies were celebrated daily in Florence, Italy, at the beautiful Church of Saints Michael and Cajetan, which was confided several years ago to the care of the Institute’s clergy by the Cardinal Archbishop of Florence.
On Monday, July 2, nineteen men from nine various countries received the cassock, while the future deacons made the profession of faith, the oath to uphold the traditions and teachings of the Church, as well as the pledge to observe the constitutions of the Institute as incardinated members. Solemn High Mass for the Feast of the Visitation was then celebrated by the Prior General, Monsignor Gilles Wach.
Newly-clothed in their cassocks, the nineteen seminarians received the clerical tonsure the next day during Pontifical Mass which was offered by His Lordship, the Most Reverend Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury in the United Kingdom. Bishop Davies also administered the Minor Orders of Porter, Lector, Exorcist, and Acolyte, to over thirty seminarians, upon their completion of the second, third, and four years of their formation.
On the following day, July 4, His Grace, the Most Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, ordained fourteen subdeacons and five deacons.
Thursday, July 5, being the first Thursday of the month, the votive Mass of Jesus Christ Eternal High Priest was celebrated by His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Patronus of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, for the ordination of four new priests: Canon Pablo Piaggio Kokot (Argentina), Canon Paul d’Aubigny (France), Canon Fernando de Almeida (Brazil), and Canon Baudouin Chaptal (France).
That same evening, Cardinal Burke offered Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament with Te Deum in the seminary chapel of Gricigliano. Archbishop Cordileone and Bishop Davies assisted in choro at this solemn Liturgy, which was followed by a festive dinner and superb fireworks display for the hundreds of family, friends and supporters who attended. The next day, the First Friday of the month, each of the newly ordained priests offered his first Mass in honor of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Seminary Chapel of the Immaculate Conception.
On August 2, 2018, four American deacons will be ordained to the holy priesthood by Cardinal Burke at St. Francis de Sales Oratory in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Institute expresses heartfelt gratitude for all of the prayers and support which thousands of people have offered from across the world for these newly ordained clergy at the service of Holy Mother Church for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
