Traditional Midnight Mass at the Cathedral
Consider celebrating Christmas midnight Mass at San Francisco’s Catholic cathedral with Archbishop George Niederauer.
As St. Mary’s Cathedral closes in on its 40th anniversary on May 5, 2011, some traditions continue their staying power. One is the archbishop celebrating midnight Mass – and it really is at midnight – at the cathedral on Geary Boulevard and Gough Street.
The music is something extraordinary at both the 8 p.m. Mass with the children’s choirs from the cathedral and from nearby St. Brigid School and at midnight Mass with the teen and the adult choir. The choirs are accompanied by music from the cathedral’s 4,842-pipe Ruffati organ, made specially for the cathedral and installed in 1970, said Msgr. John Talesfore, rector of the cathedral. Both Masses include a half hour concert beforehand.
“People hear children’s choir and they think ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.’ The children are singing polyphony, Gregorian chant and four-part traditional choral music,” Msgr. Talesfore said.
He said cathedral music director Christoph Tietze is “extremely gifted in working with young voices.”
Tietze also accompanies the singers on the organ, and they will sing a responsorial psalm he composed for the Christmas Masses, Tietze said. “O Come All Ye Faithful” will include a second verse in Latin, and “there are a couple of carols that the children know in other languages,” Tietze said, including “Silent Night” which was written originally in German. The midnight Mass will include a French carol, and a Jamaican carol sung by the teens, he said.
The cathedral Christmas Eve Masses are also an opportunity to feel the international Christmas spirit as the church fills with 1,500 to 2,000 people visiting San Francisco from all over as well as with Catholics from throughout the Bay Area who want to share in the long-standing traditions at the cathedral, Tietze said.
A three-quarter-scale wood-carved Italian nativity set greets Mass goers shortly after they enter the great space, Msgr. Talesfore said, and it is a treasure all its own with a San Francisco history attached. A gift of the O’Hara family, it sat on the lawn of McAvoy and O’Hara mortuary for decades before the family had it refurbished and donated it, Msgr. Talesfore said.
The cathedral also has an 11 a.m. English Mass and a 1 p.m. Spanish-language Mass on Christmas Day.
The archbishop and Auxiliary Bishop William Justice also spend part of the Christmas feast days with incarcerated prisoners, said Annabelle Groh, manager of the Office of the Vicar for Clergy for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Bishop Justice usually spends Christmas Day at the San Mateo County Jail while Archbishop Niederauer says Mass at San Quentin State Prison earlier on Christmas Eve. Both are continuing a practice begun earlier by Archbishop John Quinn, continued by now-Cardinal William Levada and Auxiliary Bishop John Wester, now bishop of Salt Lake City, said Msgr. Talesfore, who said he believes it was inspired by Pope John XXIII’s visit to a Roman jail on the day after Christmas 1958. “These men are not with their families,” Groh said of the prisoners visited by the bishops. “It seems to mean as much to the bishops as to the men.”
“There are very few things in the Gospel where Jesus directly indicates what we should do and one is caring for the imprisoned,” said Bishop Justice.
By Valerie Schmalz
From December 17, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
