Installation of Msgr. Steenson

Newly installed Ordinary Steenson greets Cardinal Wuerl

It was an amazingly historic day yesterday in Houston, Texas. I was present for the inaugural Mass for Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson as the first ordinary of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter.



It was a time to meet old friends and make new friends, and always a great chance to meet readers of this blog. It was very moving to see the warm welcome given by the two cardinals--Wuerl and diNardo--to the new Ordinary. Mass was then celebrated according to the Anglican Use, and it was quite something to see two cardinals of the Catholic Church kneeling with us to recite the Prayer of Humble Access..."Lord we do not presume to come to this Thy table, trusting in our own goodness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies..."



Music was provided by combined choirs of the Catholic community in Houston led by the eminent organist and composer Dr. Kevin Clarke,  himself a convert from Anglicanism--now an organist of St Theresa's, Sugarland. Among the classic pieces of English music was Byrd's Mass for Five Voices, Parry's great anthem, I Was Glad, O Sacrum convivium by Thomas Tallis, and Bl. Cardinal Newman's great hymn Praise to the Holiest in the Height.




Appropriately, for the establishment of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, the readings were the passage from Isaiah about the steward of the King, I Peter 5. 1-4, in which St Peter encourages his bishops to be 'fellow shepherds' and Matthew 16 on which Christ founds his church on Peter the Rock. Msgr. Steenson's homily was fitting with his status as a patristics scholar. He spoke on the controversy in the early church on the reception of those who had apostatized. The Pope was generous and made it as easy as possible for them to come back into full communion. That same generosity was seen in the warmth and humility of the Cardinals--representing the Holy Father--as the Ordinariate was established.



All in all, it was a most moving and historic day, and what a great privilege to be part of it.



Rocco Palmo reports here

Photogallery from Houston Chronicle here.

Msgr. Steenson's homily here.