Further aims of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – Catholic lay association in support of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum (from there onward, the Society), from the very day of its foundation, Feast of All Saints, the 1st of November, 2010, has been organizing Holy Traditional Latin Masses according to the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, which were offered in the basement chapel of the Moscow Immaculate Conception Cathedral. On Sundays and Holy Days the actual attendance would amount to around 50 persons. Another endeavors of the Society were missionary trips across Russian cities in order to bring the Mass of Ages to the people of Russia and educate them on the matters pertaining to it and the Catholic Tradition, as well as organization of recollections and spiritual exercises in the Moscow Cathedral.

Across the span of the last 10 years the Society would faithfully follow the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church as well as directions of Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

We thank God for those years.

The last Mass organized by the Society and offered according to the 1962 Roman Missal in the Moscow Cathedral took place on the 1st of November, 2020.

As we always strive to be honest before God and men, we have to admit that we cannot turn the blind eye to the changes in the Church, which are initiated and approved by the Vatican. Apart from that, we do not want to give our support as well as work alongside the modern Church for by those actions we would have been affirming all those changes which were commenced during the II Vatican Council as Catholic. From that very moment the modern Church has refused to combat the Modernism, ecumenism and humanism, and in turn has become the leading force in the spreading of those ideas, which were condemned by the Church long ago. We perceive this as plain refusal of the eternal truth in order to appease the volatile politics of the world.

The Society has finally decided to take the more decisive actions concerning the preservation and further transmission of the ancient Tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore we accept as valid and licit:

  • The Holy Mass offered according to the Missal of the Pope St. Pius V;
  • Set of rubrics and Calendar promulgated by the Pope St. Pius X;
  • Rules of fasting and abstinence promulgated by the Pope Pius XII;
  • 1917 Code of Canon Law promulgated by the Pope Benedict XV.
Therefore we stand on the Sede Vacante position, and abjure the reforms of Vatican II as well as all of the changes in the teaching and practice of the Church which followed the decisions and constitutions of that Council. We want to live the whole religious life from which all the aberrations and simplifications, such as the abbreviation of the Roman Missal in 1962, are entirely excluded. It is also very important, that all priests and bishops, who distribute the Sacraments to the faithful, are ordained and consecrated respectively according to the pre-Vatican II approved rites of the Church.

Thus the new aims of the Society:

  • Recommencement of the offering of public Traditional Latin Masses according to the Roman Missal of the Pope St. Pius V;
  • Prayer meetings;
  • Spiritual exercises;
  • Missionary trips to the regions in order to get Catholics acquainted to the Traditional Liturgy.

From now on the official name of the Society is “The Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” without mentioning the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

The Society was founded as the first ever Russian lay initiative for the restoration of the Catholic Church in Russia. So, the Society continues its business in the different format as well as in different pace. However, it is going to continue working with the same feeling of responsibility as it was during course of the last 10 years. We need some time to reorganize our affairs, and the first steps have already been commenced.

All new information concerning our businesses and upcoming events is going to be posted on our new website corjesu.ru as well as through the newsfeeds Mass times in Russia and Russian Traditional Bulletin. The website summorum-pontificum.ru has the information concerning the first 10 years of the Society’s work as well as regarding the Tradition of the Roman Catholic Church before Vatican II.

Moscow, 20.11.2020