Ordinariate Solemn Mass at the Crypt: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

On August 3, 2023, the Durandus Institute coordinated a solemn Mass according to the Ordinariate's "Divine Worship" Missal at the Crypt of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. The liturgy was a votive Mass of Saint John Henry Newman, opening the 2023 academic conference of the Saint John Henry Newman Association of America. A music program sung by the renowned DC-area men's ensemble, The Suspicious Cheese Lords, additionally commemorated the 400th anniversary of the death of composer William Byrd (d. 1623) this year with Byrd's "Mass for Three Voices" and "Ave verum corpus" during holy Communion.

Holy Mass was celebrated by a priest of the Ordinariate, Father Jason Catania, assisted by Father Christopher Woodall as deacon and Father Armando Alejandro, Jr. as subdeacon. Father Nathan Davis preached the sermon. Our executive director, James T.M. Griffin, assisted as the 1st Master of Ceremonies.

The Crypt of the National Shrine is an important site in the life of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter for being the place where--on the feast of Saint John Henry Newman, October 9 2011--the community of St. Luke's and their rector was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church. The Crypt has also been the site for the ordinations of several Ordinariate clerics. However, the Durandus Institute's event marks the first time that the Divine Worship Missal has been publicly celebrated within the National Shrine.