Times-Picayune Article on OLMC: With incense and Gregorian chants, Latin mass to continue in New Orleans despite Pope’s restrictions

The Times-Picayune ran a piece on the Latin Mass in the New Orleans Archdiocese and particularly Our Lady of Mount Carmel by staff writer Marie Fazio. In the article, Fazio summarizes Archbishop Aymond’s perspective on the Tridentine Mass in the Archdiocese and interviews several parishioners.

Fazio writes:

Since its establishment last August, Our Lady of Mount Carmel has grown from 250 founding members to more than 600, making it one of the largest in the Southeast, said the Rev. Damian Zablocki. It’s one of seven places in the archdiocese of New Orleans, including St. Patrick’s Church in downtown New Orleans and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Kenner, that regularly offers the Latin Mass.

Hours after the Pope’s restrictions were announced July 16, nearly 500 people packed into the pews of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to celebrate a solemn high Mass, the most formal version of Latin Mass with more celebrants, incense and Gregorian chants. One of the celebrants was Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who told the congregation that the Pope’s letter was an opportunity “to show the world that Mass can be celebrated in many different ways.”

“Be not afraid,” he told the worshippers. “What you know as the Latin Mass here — and not only here but in the other six locations — will continue.”