Fr. Frank RICCOMINI is an excellent, holy priest that, despite the large size of his flock, makes great effort to speak to every adult and child often. His days start at 6AM and end around 11PM. He has many many duties every day and he is forming souls to be Saints, nothing more, nothing less. He is a great role model for the boys in the chapel and is the reason why so many of our young men are attracted to the priesthood: they see a man as courageous and steadfast in the faith as Fr. Riccomini.

I could not agree with you more Fr. R. is a wonderful priest and I might ad one of the hardest working people I have ever met .With him I have no complaint

So how can I attack the church they just built and not Fr.R. or the Society ?
Because I wont point fingers or call out blame  .I don't know who is to blame for the empty echo chamber I only know what I see

BTW beautiful rosary procession today, cant wait to see the photos

I have a vague memory of Father Riccomini saying that they were "encouraged" to build a bigger church than was originally planned.  Not sure who did the encouraging, Fellay? the District Superior at the time?

Does anyone else remember this?

Okay, so I just compiled all the correspondence I ever received about the project from 2010 and, by the looks, it looks like they stuck pretty close to the original design plans. The only difference I see is that they originally planned for a much more elaborate facade.
I also hear that the half-dome (the semi-dome above the alter) will be painted in the future. Other additions that are on the way are stained glass windows. Some will be recycled from other parishes across the country and some will be new. There is also a large statue of the Pieta will be added in the church courtyard. All of these additions have already been payed for or donated. With the help of the District office, most of the funds have already been collected.

Part of the old church will be converted to classroom use for the school. The majority will be remodeled into a performing arts and lecture center to be used by the school for graduations, theatrical performances, cultural events, conferences (like the Angeles Press conference), etc. The majority of the funds for this project have also already been collected.

Per city rules, they have to expand their current parking because they built a new structure. The remodeling of the old church will provide for more parking to comply with the city rules.

I have attached pictures of the design renditions from 2010 and the current structure.

I'll wait a few days until someone starts another thread and comments on how, perhaps, the altar veil isn't the correct color. That is how narrowminded some people have become on this forum.

Fr. Frank RICCOMINI is an excellent, holy priest that, despite the large size of his flock, makes great effort to speak to every adult and child often. His days start at 6AM and end around 11PM. He has many many duties every day and he is forming souls to be Saints, nothing more, nothing less. He is a great role model for the boys in the chapel and is the reason why so many of our young men are attracted to the priesthood: they see a man as courageous and steadfast in the faith as Fr. Riccomini.

1. That kind of nitpicking isn't seen on CathInfo, and anyone who has read more than a few of my posts would know that.

Anyone out there -- what do I think of dogmatic home aloners? Picky trads who create needless division over stupid things like a priest's accent, rubrics (when to stand and kneel), choice of altar Missal (1962 vs 1955), whether or not the current Pope is mentioned in the Canon, etc.?

In fact, the Matthew haters club usually likes to call me "Trad-cuмenical" since I deal with the various Trad groups like Pope Francis deals with the various false religions. But you see the difference? the various Trad groups are all CATHOLIC, so why wouldn't I keep my arms open to all of them? What Pope Francis is doing, with his false ecuмenism, is clearly wrong, since they are heretics and infidels. But unless you're drinking the Dimond Bros kool-aid, you can't really believe that about the various competing Traditional organizations and chapels. Am I Trad-cuмenical? You bet! I wear that charge as a badge of honor. It means I'm not sectarian or schismatic.

I am a Traditional Catholic, which involves a few core beliefs:
A) Catholics have a right to doubt-free priests and sacraments.
B) The Novus Ordo Mass is proven to be destructive of the Faith, and the New Rite of Ordination is doubtful
C) We can and should go outside the official authority structures of the Conciliar Church to pursue A), because "Salus Animarum Suprema Lex"

And a few behaviors, or a short checklist EVERY TRAD USES when evaluating a place for Mass:
A) Was the priest properly ordained by a valid bishop?
B) Was the priest properly trained in a seminary, and is he completely against Vatican II as an infiltration of malicious men (Modernists/Freemasons) into the Church?
C) Is he saying the Tridentine Mass, i.e., the Catholic Mass as it existed before Vatican II?
-- End of list --

You might add D) Does this chapel escape the charge of being a virtual cult (is there a schismatic or sectarian spirit towards other Trad chapels?)
But

As you can see, the list is quite simple. Pretty much every Mass worth attending would pass this short test.


2. This isn't about the personal holiness or dedication of individual priests, like Fr. Riccomini. It is beside the point. What if this were 1970, and we read an exchange between a few Catholics in 1970 discussing their priests. How would we Trad Catholics today respond, with the knowledge of history? We'd be saying, "Good luck man -- everything around that priest is going to decay; it won't matter if he's good, bad, or in-between." We know how it turned out.

Well, in this case the wise among us know where it's headed. It's moving a new direction with the force of a train. "Good priests" like Fr. Riccomini will either have to bail at some point, or get crushed underneath if they even TRY to slow it down. Or they'll just ride that train all the way to Modernist Rome. Those are the options.

Likewise, it's the SSPX that's the problem. The organization, as an organization, has lost it. They have fundamentally changed their attitude towards Vatican II, and the evidence is anywhere you care to look. There is literally too much to mention. And any things "traditional" they utter are only spoken to deceive the more serious Traditional Catholics who are still attending their chapels. There is a new orientation, a new code of behavior, and it all hangs together as a cohesive whole.

what a bunch of bunk. there is no way that approximately 1/2 of all the people left this parish. You need to get real on this. Nor are they $5,000,000 the hole. Stop the misinformation, please!

you are right they are 2.5 mil in the hole . Think it is worth it ? did you get what you paid for ? ...Not by a long shot

 speaking of people .where were they all today? Maybe 1/2 have not left but they sure are leavING  2nd mass was not even close to the numbers from the old church AND WE HAD 3 MASSES THEN


 

Sorry about that last post (remember this). Tried to download a picture but it didn't take. You know maybe I am all wrong about the new church
I have tried myself to talk to Fr.R  but to no avail Even when you can get past his usher/bodyguards he just wont answer any questions directly