We are glad that you have chosen to visit our website. The clergy and parishioners of Saint Dominic Chapel reject the changes of Vatican II. They uphold the Roman Catholic Faith by maintaining everything which was taught and done by the Church prior to Vatican II. In order to receive the sacraments here, it is therefore necessary that you attend exclusively the traditional Latin Mass, and avoid the new Mass and reformed sacraments. We invite you to visit us and to take free of charge the booklets entitled Welcome to the Traditional Latin Mass and Traditionalists, Infallibility and the Pope, which are very informative. These booklets can be found on the counter near the main entrance to the building. Please take them with you and read them thoroughly. If you are contemplating adherence to Catholic Tradition, we invite you to join us for Holy Mass on Sunday and to speak afterwards with the clergy, who would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. We ask only that you refrain from receiving Holy Communion until you have made the decision to attend exclusively the traditional Latin Mass and to avoid the new Mass and reformed sacraments.
The apostolate of Saint Dominic Chapel is to provide Catholics throughout the Metro Detroit area with a thoroughly Catholic atmosphere in which to practice the Faith. In order to achieve this purpose, Vatican II and its reforms are firmly rejected as being at variance with the authentic Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. Only clergy who have been duly ordained in the traditional rites of the Church are permitted to celebrate Mass, administer the sacraments and preach at Saint Dominic Chapel.
The Pope has no authority from Christ in temporal matters, in questions of politics.... His authority is ecclesiastical authority; it goes no further than that of the Church herself. But even in religious matters, the Pope is bound, very considerably, by the divine constitution of the Church. There are any number of things that the pope cannot do in religion. He cannot modify, nor touch in any way, one single point of the revelation Christ gave to the Church; his business is only to guard this against attack and false interpretation. We believe that God will guide him that his decisions of this nature will be nothing more than a defense or unfolding of what Christ revealed. The pope can neither make nor unmake a sacrament; he cannot affect the essence of any sacrament in any way. He cannot touch the Bible; he can neither take away a text from the inspired Scriptures nor add one to them. He has no fresh inspiration nor revelation. His business is to believe the revelation of Christ, as all Catholics believe it, and to defend it against heresy.... The Pope is not, in the absolute sense, head of the Church; the head of the Church is Jesus Christ our Lord.... The Pope is the vicar of that head, and therefore visible head of the Church on earth, having authority delegate from Christ over the Church on earth only.... If the Pope is a monarch, he is a very constitutional monarch indeed, bound on all sides by the constitution of the Church, as this has been given to her by Christ. --Fr. Adrian Fortescue (England's greatest liturgical historian, 1874-1923), The Early Papacy to the Synod of Chalcedon in 451 (St. Austin Press, 1997), pp. 27-28