Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Ozark, Missouri is the only parish in the Springfield, Missouri metropolitan area to offer the Mass according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Following the motu proprio of Pope Benedict XVI, Summorum Pontificum (effective 14 September 2007), Mass according to the 1962 Missal of Pope Saint John XXIII was celebrated in Springfield, Missouri for
the first time in just over 38 years by Monsignor Raymond Victor Orf (+2021) at Holy Trinity Parish on 10 February 2008, the First Sunday of Lent and feast of Saint Scholastica. Eventually the Extraordinary Form Mass was celebrated on Sundays and weekdays at the Cathedral of Saint Agnes in Springfield beginning on Tuesday, 1 July 2008, the feast of the Most Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. After being celebrated for seven years and 3 ½ months at Saint Agnes, our then-Bishop James Vann Johnston, Jr. asked our parish to take up the offering of Mass in the Extraordinary Form for the local community beginning in October 2015. Our parish pastor at the time, Father Scott Michael Sunnenberg, celebrated his first Missa lecta (Low Mass) in the Extraordinary Form on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, 18 October 2015, which was also World Mission Sunday and the feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist. The Feast of the Most Holy Body of Christ -- Festum Sanctissimi Corporis Christi -- was celebrated as an External Solemnity on Sunday, 3 June 2018 with the first-ever Missa solemnis (Solemn High Mass) to be celebrated in this church structure since it was built and dedicated in 1991. On 16 July 2021, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pope Francis issued a new motu proprio outlining renewed restrictions regarding the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Liturgy. Sole competence & authority to determine the allowance of such celebration is now given to the local ordinary (bishop). Our bishop, His Excellency Edward Matthew Rice, on 22 July 2021, feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, issued a letter to all priests and faithful of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau stating that he would be making “no change” to the current allowance for the celebration of the Mass according to the liturgical books of 1962. With his permission and approval, our parish continues to celebrate Mass according to the 1962 Missal at 12:30 on Sundays. Regarding the stipulation in TC that the usus antiquior not be celebrated in parish churches, Bishop Rice invokes Canon 87, paragraph 1 to grant dispensation from this portion of the motu proprio, permitting celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite to continue in parishes. We affirm and profess that:
1) The Second Vatican Council (11 October 1962--8 December 1965) was a valid and legitimate ecumenical council;
2) The Mass, Sacraments, and Liturgies of Pope Saint Paul VI (1970), commonly referred to as the Novus Ordo or the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, are valid and legitimate;
3) His Holiness Pope Francis is the 266th Pope and Bishop of Rome, the valid and legitimate head of the Catholic Church, to whom we owe spiritual and filial submission.
