Another New York diocese files for bankruptcy 

A chalk home blessing from the feast of the Epiphany / A.Davey via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Denver Newsroom, Jan 6, 2022 / 03:00 am (CNA).
Have you ever gone past a door with what appears to be random letters and numbers written at the top? The… […]

Washington D.C., Sep 20, 2017 / 12:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Sistine Chapel Choir will perform the U.S. for the first time in three decades, and will sing compositions that one expert says are an important heritage of the American church.

Italian priest Father Massimo Palombella directs the Sistine choir, which will be singing works by Renaissance composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Antonio Allegri and Tomás Luis de Victoria.

“As in Rome, this style of Renaissance polyphony would be adopted by the Churches of the New World as the standard style of music, especially for the Mass,” Dr. Grayson Wagstaff, dean of the Latin American Music Center at the Catholic University of America, explained to CNA.

On Sept. 20, a free concert will be hosted at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. next to Catholic University of America.

After attending Italy’s prestigious conservatory and spending years as a theology and music teacher, Fr. Palombella became the director at the Pontifical Music Chapel, and began conducting the choir in 2010.

Dr. Wagstaff applauded the Salesian priest’s efforts to use the Vatican’s historic repertory and rejuvenate this style of music into the daily life of the Papal Chapels.

Fr. Palombella will be performing sounds iconic of the Mexico City Cathedral and the many works of the Spanish composers which had made their way to the “new world.”

“These works by Spanish composers would be the core of music transmitted, taught and copied in manuscripts in Mexico,” Dr. Wagstaff said. “Young boys from Mexico (then ‘New Spain’) would be selected to receive training in music and become boy choristers for the cathedrals.”

He added that this music is very significant to the “Church’s artistic patrimony,” and now has the ability inspire “parishes to focus on quality music and learning about the Church’s legacy of art,” especially from Latin America.

Fr. Palombella studied philosophy and theology at the Salesian Pontifical Unversity, and trained under organ players Luigi Molfino and Bishop Valentino Miserachs Grau. He also attended the Conservatory of Turin.

Ordained a priest to the Salesian order in 1995, he began teaching dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Salesian University and the Language of Music at Sapienza University of Rome. He then succeeded Father Giuseppe Liberto as director of the Sistine Chapel Choir.

In his remarks to CNA, Dr. Wagstaff noted the importance that the upcoming concert has to the university.

“For us, this is a celebration of CUA’s role as one of the great centers in the world for teaching and preserving this musical legacy of Catholic tradition as well as our wonderful tradition of musicology and research on the history of music in Rome.”

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Pope Francis offers a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the repose of the souls of cardinals and bishops who died the previous year. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Jun 1, 2024 / 07:08 am (CNA).

Cardinal Kelvin Edward Felix died in his home on the island nation of St. Lucia Thursday, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, at the age of 91.

The Dominican cardinal led the Archdiocese of Castries in St. Lucia from 1981 until his retirement in 2008. In 2014, in his first-ever consistory, Pope Francis made Felix a cardinal, the first from the Antilles.

After his retirement, Felix lived on the island nation of Dominica, where he assisted the local Church.

The Archdiocese of Castries said the retired archbishop moved to the Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of the Assumption on St. Lucia in 2023 to receive medical care for health problems which required him to withdraw from most public functions.

“Frail from age and medical complications he eventually succumbed after days of constant prayer for the Church and for vocations to the priesthood and religious life,” the archdiocese said in a May 31 press release.

Felix’s funeral will be held at the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Castries, on June 12. According to the Archdiocese of Castries, the cardinal’s wish was to be buried on the grounds of the cathedral of Dominica.

Pope Francis sent his condolences to the Catholics of the West Indies on Saturday, recalling Felix’s dedication to the education of young people and his contribution to the Church throughout the Caribbean.

Felix studied for the priesthood at seminaries in Dominica and Trinidad before being ordained a priest on April 8, 1956 for the Diocese of Roseau.

He later continued his education, receiving a diploma in adult education from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, and a master’s degree in sociology and anthropology from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

From 1967-1970, the priest studied sociology at the University of Bradford in England, while serving the Caribbean community of the West Yorkshire region. His experience with the difficult economic conditions of his flock in Bradford led him to start the Bradford Credit Union, which still serves Antillean immigrants in the United Kingdom today. He received the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II.

In the Caribbean, Felix taught at the regional seminary and was principal of St. Mary’s Academy in Dominica. He served as associate general secretary of the Caribbean Conference of Church and later as its president.

He was appointed metropolitan archbishop of the province of Castries by Pope John Paul II in 1981, and was president of the Antilles bishops conference for six years from 1991-1997.

As archbishop, Felix promoted the formation of priests, religious, and lay leaders, and was in charge of the organization of Pope John Paul II’s visit to St. Lucia in 1986.

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