ARTICLES

They're Nosebleed High Church, But Much More

Where Christ is King and Priest in Oakland

BY CHRISTOPHER ZEHNDER

"The numbers of the faithful are constantly growing, and the Mass is rather packed." Would that all Catholics could say this of their parishes. That an Oakland priest, Father Michael Wiener, can say it of his parish suggests that something rather right is going on there. That he can say it, given that he celebrates Mass in Latin and teaches the perennial Catholic doctrine, might be a surprise to many.

But in a conversation I had with him in late summer, Father Wiener (pronounced VEE-nayr) added, "we are convinced -- we are very much in the middle of the Church; we are not on the peripheries." Perhaps not at first thought, but at second, or (for some folks) even third, it may seem strange that Father Wiener need make this disclaimer. By all accounts he and his congregation, the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, are attentive to their duties and vocation, teach orthodox Catholic doctrine, and are (as someone expressed it to me) "nosebleed high church" -- devoted to smells and bells and chant. It is for none of these, however, that Father Wiener and the institute may be suspect in some circles, but for the fact that they celebrate, exclusively, the pre-conciliar (Vatican II, that is) Latin Mass.

Father Wiener is not unfamiliar with the assumption that priests like himself who are devoted to the "Tridentine" Latin Mass are, at best, crypto-schismatic. But, he says, such an opinion doesn't agree with the facts. Both in the diocese of Oakland and in Rome, the Institute, he said, enjoys "excellent relations with the authorities." But, Wiener intimated, one other fact should cause the doubtful to question their assumptions about traditional groups like the Institute of Christ the King. "We do not consider ourselves to be on the edge," said Wiener, "because we do what has been done by the Church over the centuries."

Anyone who wants to see firsthand what has "been done by the Church over the centuries," may go to St. Margaret Mary church at 1219 Excelsior Avenue in Oakland. There Father Wie ner offers the traditional Latin Mass daily at 6 p.m. and on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. On Sundays, Father Wie ner celebrates a sung High Mass at 12:30 p.m. In 1989, Bishop John Cummins approved the weekly celebration of a Sunday Tridentine Mass at St. Margaret Mary's. Last January, Bishop Allen Vigneron invited the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest to provide the Latin Mass at the parish and appointed Father Wiener his episcopal delegate for the Latin Rite of 1962.

Father Wiener's arrival in Oakland marked the first presence on the West Coast of the institute of which he is a member. Those more or less familiar with things Tridentinist might have heard of the other major group of priests who celebrate the Tridentine Mass -- the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter -- but know little or nothing of the Institute of Christ the King. Founded only in 1990, the institute was canonically erected in the diocese of Mouila in Gabon, West Africa by the late Bishop Obamba. Since then, with the help of German cardinal Augustin Mayer, the institute was canonically erected in Florence, Italy (where it has its motherhouse and seminary), and in dioceses in France, Spain, South America, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. In the United States, the institute staffs a parish in Cashton, Wisconsin; oratories in Wausau, Wisconsin, Rockford, Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri; a chapel in Green Bay, Wisconsin; and is opening up an apostolate in Kansas City, Missouri. The institute's national headquarters is in Chicago, where it is constructing a Shrine of the Divine Mercy. In addition, the institute runs schools in France, Belgium, and Africa, and has a female branch, the Adorers of the Royal Heart, with a rule based on that of St. Francis de Sales.

St. Margaret Mary's is not Father Wiener's first assignment. Born in Ham burg, Germany, Father Wiener is a convert to the Faith; he was received into the Church in 1986. Ordained a priest in 1999, he directed a similar apostolate in Basel, Switzerland. Though the institute's other U.S. foundations are tantamount to full-fledged parishes, offering the sacraments solely according to the traditional rites, in Oakland the "Indult Community," as it is called, shares an already established parish that administers the sacraments according to the post-conciliar Roman Rite.

Yet, this smaller presence in Oakland has been fruitful, according to Father Wiener. Not only does he celebrate the Mass and hear confessions every day in the morning and evening, he teaches catechism. In less than a year, the number of faithful attending the Sunday traditional Mass at the parish has more than quadrupled from the original 130. Because of the traditional rites at the parish, "people are coming back to the Church," said Father Wiener. "People who for whatever reason were away from the Church are attracted by this liturgy and by the way the priest celebrates the liturgy and teaches the catechism. They are attracted by the peacefulness and the charity of the way we are proposing the unity and universal character of the Faith."

And non-Catholics are coming into the Church "in respectable numbers." In August, Father Wiener told me that he had recently baptized an 87-year-old lady, "who had never made the way to the Catholic Church because there was always something that wasn't according to her lifestyle. But she was affected by the liturgy." Many young people, too, said Wiener, are returning to the Church and converting. "They are mostly Protestants who are already baptized and receive only the sacrament of Confirmation after their acceptance into the Church," said Father Wiener. "The initial point is always that they see the beauty and fullness of the liturgy and the mystery which is so much present and expressed in this liturgy. They are attracted by this because it is something they haven't found so far."

Father Wiener said his work in Oakland is inspired by the unique apostolate of the institute, expressed by its dedication to "Christ the King, Sovereign Priest." "These two elements -- Christ's priesthood and kingship -- are very important," said Wiener. are a foundation that has a major goal to form priests who are able to announce the kingship of Christ in all the aspects of our life. Roman Catholic priests are priests of Christ, and Jesus Christ is the first priest and the sovereign priest from whom all priesthood derives." The kingship of Christ, "an nounced ex plicitly by Quas Primas, the en cyclical of Pope Pius XI," Father Wie ner continued, "is visible and recognized in all our lives andmade known by the Church, by the priests, in our whole culture. The kingship of Christ, as the encyclical of Pius XI stated explicitly, is not only important for the end of all times; it is important for the world today. Christ is king objectively because He is God and man, and, secondly, He has merited, so to speak, His kingship by being our savior, by suffering on the cross. That's the teaching of Quas Primas."

The institute, according to Wiener, seeks to sanctify its priests and the faithful to whom they minister "through the ordinary means of the Church, by conferring sacraments, by teaching catechism and the Catholic faith, and by being present, with the instruments Christ has given the Church, in a world that is more and more de-Christianized. The priesthood is one major instrument, the major instrument, in making Christ's presence visible, because, by celebrating the mysteries of the altar every day, the priest is sanctifying himself and others. And as our founder, Monsignor Gilles Wach, has said to seminarians and priests, all graces and all gifts of Christ flow and come from the altar, the center of the life of priests and therefore also the soul of all benedictions and graces for the faithful. The priests of the institute are called to announce, pronounce, and teach the kingship of Christ in our world by the means of the whole tradition of the Church, the spiritual tradition, which is so rich and so broad."

Besides celebrating the Mass, which is "the first source" of everything a priest does, said Father Wiener, "the priest is present in the various groups of faithful in the parishes, in our schools. Priests are important because they re-present Christ, they have to live and give an example of His teaching in their respective environments. And people who have contact with these priests don't receive a book in their hands with all the teachings and essential points, but they see all the time how this is effective through the graces the priest is conferring. We do not engage in an ideological teaching or activity; we do not unfold explicit dogmatic teachings all the time; but the simple fact that the priest is there and is visibly a man of the altar who is trying to sanctify himself and others has effects. And the effects are visible, because everywhere we are, the groups are growing, the faithful are attracted by that."

The institute's apostolate derives its "character" and "flavor," said Father Wiener, from its patrons: "one major patroness, who is the Blessed Virgin under the title of 'the Immaculate Conception,' and three patrons, St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Francis De Sales." From St. Francis de Sales, the institute receives the charge to "cook the truth of the Catholic faith in the milk of charity until it tastes sweet," said Father Wiener. "We know that today it would not be a very effective endeavor to pronounce the pure truth of the Catholic teaching without being charitable. It never was effective, but especially today we try to combine charity and truth, because they belong together. Truth without charity is not the truth of Christ, and charity without truth is not the truth of God." St. Thomas Aquinas, said Father Wiener, "guarantees the fullness of the truth of philosophy and dogmatic theology in the whole tradition of the Church. We remember that St. Thomas Aquinas is specifically recommended by the Second Vatican Council as universal teacher of the Church, and he was often recommend by almost all popes as the universal teacher of the church. St. Benedict guarantees our love for liturgical music (the Gregorian chant), the love of liturgy, and the hospitality of the European culture which [calls upon us] to receive all foreigners, all guests, as another Christ, as Christ Himself.

"And the Blessed Virgin of course is primary patroness because the Immaculate Conception is the foundation for all we do, for we base all our activities on the truth of the Incarnation."

Essentially, the institute's charism is to form priests, who are simply priests, acting as priests should act. "And that means, in a broader sense," said Father Wiener, "that we do this on the ground of the whole tradition of the Church, in the richness of the traditional liturgy, in the love and charity of the teaching of Francis de Sales."

The celebration of the sacraments "in the richness of the traditional liturgy" is "a very essential part of the specific vocation of the institute," Father Wiener said, "because we think that all truth in our culture, all things we experience in life as gifts of God, somehow connect us directly to the celebration of the liturgy of the altar. This liturgy really has a central role, and looking at the history of the world, particularly the history of Europe, you see that over the centuries everything goes back to this wonderful celebration of the liturgy."

But why does the institute celebrate exclusively the Tridentine Rite of the Mass and sacraments? Why not cele brate Mass according to the Missal of Pope Paul VI, the so-called Novus Ordo, in Latin, with the priest oriented toward God, incense, and Gregorian Chant? "The very traditional Novus Ordo in Latin refers to and relates to the tradi tional Mass," Father Wiener said. "The traditional Mass is the Mass which was both celebrated by the Church over centuries, without any major changes, and all changes which took place were the result of a very smooth, natural, and homogeneous development. It's always for me a convincing thought that this liturgy was celebrated for so long and converted and sanctified so many people and still does today. The Novus Ordo, of course, is the result of a more drastic change and development. So I think the question should not be, why don't we celebrate the Novus Ordo? But why, to what extent, should one forget and disrespect the tradition?"

Father Wiener related that in 1986 he was baptized into the Church in the new rite and attended Novus Ordo Masses for years in Munich. "But as soon as I saw the traditional rite, I was so attracted and so convinced that this was powerful and very effective that I was interested to learn more. The more I learned, the more I was convinced that this was something which should never be forgotten."

Father Wiener added that the Tridentine rite of the Mass "is the Mass of the Second Vatican Council." When the council fathers promulgated the document Sacrosanctum Concilium (the council's constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), they "had before their eyes the traditional Mass," Father Wiener continued, "and this Mass was celebrated all through the Vatican Council. The council fathers did not want to abolish this Mass and change it in a way to make it unrecognizable."

But devotion to tradition does not signify, as some might suppose, a crabbed narrowness or a ghettoized retreat into a merely private piety. "We need to understand," said Father Wiener, "that we should not react towards the lack of presence of faith in our world by becoming Jansenists, a closed-up, small group of elect. We have had, the traditional teaching has always kept, the right perspective on the Church as the Body of Christ, as the visible Christ in our world. We have always kept this supernatural perspective of the Church and never lost the link between the daily life of Christians and the presence of the Church in our world. The institute, especially, tries to live this spiritual orientation according to the teaching of St. Francis de Sales, who was one of those who always said that sanctification of the lay people should be ordinary, something that belongs to the major goals of the Church. So we are friends of this orientation. By celebrating the mysteries of the altar of the liturgy in the most beautiful, the most solemn, the most dignified way, we are convinced that people in the world can translate the gift of God into their daily lives."

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