St. Clement Parish (french: Paroisse St-Clément) is a bilingual
Roman Catholic parish community located in
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and entrusted to the
Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter
The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter ( la, Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Petri; FSSP) is a traditionalist Catholic society of apostolic life for priests and seminarians which is in communion with the Holy See.
The society was founded in 19 ...
. After the replacement of the liturgical norms of the
1962 Roman Missal
The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated almo ...
by the
post-Vatican II Mass in the 1960s, St. Clement Parish was the first community in the world to be authorized to celebrate the
Mass and other
sacraments
A sacrament is a Christian rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the real ...
in
Latin only, according to the older liturgical norms.
Since June 3, 2012, St. Clement Parish operates out of
Ste-Anne Church in
Lowertown.
History
In 1968, Ottawa Archbishop
Joseph-Aurèle Plourde
Joseph-Aurèle Plourde, (January 12, 1915 – January 5, 2013) was a Canadians, Canadian Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa, Ontario.
Early years
Archbishop Plourde was born in Saint-François-de-Madawaska, New Brunswick to Antoine Plourde a ...
authorized a small group of
Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
who remained attached to the Church's traditional liturgical heritage to continue to use the Latin
Tridentine Mass.
This group found an older priest who agreed to serve them in this desire, and they received permission to use the chapel of the Monastery of the
Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood on Echo Drive in
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
for Mass. They were served first by Canon René Martin, the chaplain of the convent, then by Fr. Guy Martin, W.F. In the early 1970s, the community was told to use the
Mass of Paul VI
The Mass of Paul VI, also known as the Ordinary Form or Novus Ordo, is the most commonly used liturgy in the Catholic Church. It is a form of the Latin Church's Roman Rite and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969, published by him in the 1970 ...
, which they did, but using the Latin language. Fr. Charles-Henri Bélanger, a former padre of the Canadian Armed Forces, became chaplain to the congregation in 1981.
The Community continued to gather at the Precious Blood Sisters' Monastery until 1984 when the Sisters renovated their chapel. That year the Community acquired a small building of their own in the Ottawa suburb of
Gloucester, which they renovated into a chapel, placed under the patronage of
Saint Clement, and furnished with altars salvaged from the renovated Monastery chapel.
The Community continued to use that chapel until the summer of 1993, when Archbishop Plourde's successor, Archbishop
Marcel Gervais
Marcel may refer to:
People
* Marcel (given name), people with the given name Marcel
* Marcel (footballer, born August 1981), Marcel Silva Andrade, Brazilian midfielder
* Marcel (footballer, born November 1981), Marcel Augusto Ortolan, Brazilian ...
, made available a purpose-built church complete with rectory at the corner of Mann and Russell Avenues in the
Sandy Hill neighbourhood of Ottawa. Built in 1957, this building had housed a French-language Catholic parish, St. Pie X, until 1983, when the building had been sold to the
Maronite
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
diocese of Ottawa and renamed St. Charbel's. At the time the Maronite community in Ottawa was growing rapidly as a result of the
Lebanese Civil War. In 1993 the Maronites moved to a larger church in
Vanier. With this new church building, the Archbishop elevated the St. Clement Latin Community of Ottawa to the rank of a quasi-parish.
The Community had been served on an ad hoc basis by three older priests (one of them being Fr. John Mole, OMI) who were familiar with the rubrics of the Tridentine Mass. However, with failing health of all of them, the Community was concerned that it might have secured a permanent building but would be without a priest. At about that time, the
Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter ( la, Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Petri; FSSP) is a traditionalist Catholic society of apostolic life for priests and seminarians which is in communion with the Holy See.
The society was founded in 19 ...
(FSSP) was getting ready to ordain its first Canadian-born priest. The FSSP is a fraternity of priests who are loyal to the
Holy See and are dedicated to preserving the pre-
Vatican II form of the
Roman Rite
The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...
of
Mass and all 1962 forms and liturgical books for the
sacraments
A sacrament is a Christian rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the real ...
, as well as fostering Catholic teaching and devotion. Archbishop Gervais discussed the problem with the FSSP and it was agreed that the FSSP would assign a priest to minister to the needs of the St. Clement Community, making it the first personal parish entrusted to the FSSP in their history. The first FSSP-appointed priest, Fr. Charles Ryan, had been ordained only a few weeks before his assignment to St. Clement on New Year's Day, 1995. The FSSP has been serving the parish ever since.
In 1997, on the patronal feast (23 November), Archbishop Gervais erected St. Clement as a full canonical bilingual
indult
In Catholic canon law, an indult is a permission or privilege, granted by the competent church authority – the Holy See or the diocesan bishop, as the case may be – for an exception from a particular norm of church law in an individual case ...
parish serving the faithful wishing to worship according to the earlier Roman
liturgy
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
.
In June 2011, Archbishop
Terrence Prendergast proposed that the St Clement parish community relocate to
Ste-Anne Church, a heritage building in
Lowertown which had closed due to low attendance. The parish agreed to the move and began holding Masses at Ste-Anne's on June 3, 2012.
[Phil Gaudreau]
St Clement's Parishoners Will Move To Ste-Anne Church
CFRA News, April 23, 2012 [L'église Sainte-Anne d'Ottawa restera ouverte grâce à de nouveaux fidèles](_blank)
Radio-Canada, 23 avril 2012
Marie Reine du Canada Pilgrimage
Members of the parish organize and lead the annual Marie Reine du Canada Pilgrimage, a 100 km
pilgrimage on foot from
Saint-Joseph-de-Lanoraie to the Marian shrine of
Notre-Dame du Cap at
Cap de la Madeleine,
Quebec.
Founded by a group of lay parishioners and first partially walked in 2003, the pilgrimage is based on the
Notre-Dame de Chrétienté
The Chartres pilgrimage (french: pèlerinage de Chartres), also known in French as the pèlerinage de Chrétienté ( en, pilgrimage of Christendom), is an annual pilgrimage from Notre-Dame de Paris to Notre-Dame de Chartres occurring around the Chr ...
pilgrimage from
Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
to
Chartres Cathedral in
France. It takes place over the
Labour Day
Labour Day ('' Labor Day'' in the United States) is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for ...
weekend and draws over 70 pilgrims each year.
In recent years the number has been about 100.
[''Faithful in All Generations: A History of Saint Clement Parish 1968-2018'', p. 99]
References
External links
St. Clement parish websiteThe Priestly Fraternity of St. PeterThe Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (Canada)Marie Reine du Canada Pilgrimage the Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI given ''motu proprio''
{{Catholicism
Roman Catholic churches in Ottawa
Roman Catholic churches in Ontario
Churches used by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter