About Us
What is Una Voce La Crosse?
Una Voce La Crosse (UVLC) is a lay organization representing Catholics who attend and support the Traditional Latin Mass in the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse and the surrounding region.
Our chapter serves a growing community of faithful from western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota who are devoted to the traditional liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. Families regularly travel from communities such as Tomah, Arcadia, Black River Falls, West Salem, Winona, La Crescent, Cashton, Melrose, and many surrounding areas to participate in the Traditional Latin Mass and to support one another in the life of the Church.
Una Voce La Crosse is affiliated with Una Voce America and is part of the International Una Voce Federation, founded in 1965 to support and promote the traditional liturgy of the Roman Rite throughout the world.
Like all Una Voce chapters, our mission is to support the continued celebration and availability of the Roman Mass codified by Pope Pius V, ensuring that this ancient and venerable form of the Roman Rite remains a living and honored part of the liturgical life of the Church.
The Una Voce Movement
The name Una Voce — Latin for “with one voice” — comes from the Preface of the Mass, where the Church sings the praises of God’s glory together with the angels and saints. It captures our heart: to join our voices, across the world and across the ages, in the worship of God.
The international Una Voce movement was founded in the years following the Second Vatican Council by lay men and women who loved the traditional liturgy and wished to see its riches preserved. From those beginnings grew the International Una Voce Federation, an association of national and local groups around the world. Our chapter is part of Una Voce America, and through it, of that worldwide family.
Una Voce is a lay apostolate — an undertaking of the faithful in support of the Church’s shepherds, never in opposition to them. We work within the Church, in union with the Holy Father and our bishop, seeking through reasoned and charitable means to foster love for the traditional Roman liturgy.
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What Our Chapter Does
At the local level, Una Voce La Crosse seeks to:
Support the Mass
To support the continued celebration and availability of the Traditional Latin Mass throughout the Diocese of La Crosse and the surrounding region.
Build Community
To gather and connect the faithful — spread across many miles — so that no family attached to the traditional liturgy walks the road alone.
Foster Formation
To open the riches of the Mass through formation and resources, such as the articles in our library, for newcomers and lifelong faithful alike.
Safeguard the Sacred Arts
To promote Latin, Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, and the sacred arts that have always served the worship of God.
Charity, Hope, and Union with the Church
Ours is a community that has known the sorrow of losing places dear to us. Yet the spirit of Una Voce is not bitterness but hope and charity — a steadfast love for the Mass and for the whole Church, and a quiet perseverance in seeking the good. We strive always to act with patience, with respect for all, and with confidence in God’s providence.
We hold no quarrel with our fellow Catholics. We simply love the traditional liturgy, and we wish to share its beauty — gently, faithfully, and within the life of the Church — with all who are drawn to it.
Constitution & By-Laws
Una Voce La Crosse is governed by the following Constitution and By-Laws. Click any article to read it.
Article I — Name
This chapter of Una Voce shall be known as “Una Voce La Crosse”, and shall be referred to as “chapter” throughout these By-Laws. It is a member of Una Voce America.
Article II — Statement of Purpose
The chapter has the following aims that shall direct its activities:
- To work as a lay movement within the Church for an organic restoration of the liturgy in conformity with its nature and with the Latin tradition.
- To ensure that the traditional Roman Mass as codified in the Missale Romanum edited by Pope John XXIII is maintained — both in practice and in law — as one of the forms of eucharistic celebration which are recognized and honored in universal liturgical life.
- To obtain freedom of use for all other Roman liturgical books enshrining “previous liturgical and disciplinary forms of the Latin tradition” (cf. Ecclesia Dei, n. 5).
- To safeguard and promote the use of Latin, Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.
- To encourage, wherever it would benefit the faithful, the establishment of non-territorial parishes and/or chaplaincies in which only the liturgical books used in 1962 are employed.
- To serve the Church by helping the members of the movement and, through their apostolate, all the Christifideles better to understand, and more fruitfully to participate in, the Catholic liturgy as a sacred action.
Article III — Membership
- All candidate names must be read on the floor and approved by vote of the majority of members at a regular meeting.
- Each member must be a practicing Catholic that agrees to our Chapter’s Statement of Purpose and shall pay annual dues of $36 (not to exceed this amount for any single family) no later than the February meeting.
- All new members shall pay pro-rated dues no later than the third meeting following approval of membership.
- Dues shall be waived for clergy members.
Article IV — Elections
- The annual election of officers shall take place at the December meeting.
- The election of officers shall be by closed ballot. A majority of all votes cast shall be necessary to elect an officer. Prior to each election, the Chairman shall appoint a teller to count the votes.
- Vacancies in elective offices shall be filled, by election, at the next regular meeting succeeding the meeting at which the vacancy was created.
- Each officer elected must fill the office to which he or she is chosen at the first meeting of the calendar year.
Article V — Officers
- Only members who are in good standing, i.e., paid their annual dues, shall be eligible to hold office. No member shall hold more than one office at the same time.
- The elective officers shall be as follows: Chairman, Vice Chairman, and Secretary/Treasurer.
- The officers shall perform the duties required of them by the By-Laws of this chapter. If any officer is absent without good cause for three meetings the membership will have the right to call for elections of said office.
- When suspending a member, the Chairman shall immediately send to the suspended member notice of suspension, including the date and the reason.
- The Secretary/Treasurer shall file all minutes and reports in a book and they shall be preserved as a part of the records of this chapter. The Secretary/Treasurer shall send out the minutes via email to all members after each meeting.
- The Chairman, at his discretion, shall form all committees and appoint all committee chairmen thereof.
Article VI — Meetings
- Regular meetings of the chapter shall be held bi-monthly, with time and place to be determined at the previous meeting. Before a meeting can begin, a quorum must exist. Thirty-three percent (33%) of the membership constitutes a quorum. The Chairman shall decide if a quorum exists.
- All meetings of the chapter shall be presided over by the Chairman.
- The following shall form part of the order of business at regular meetings: call meeting to order; opening prayer; roll call of officers; introduce visitors and new members; minutes read and approved; communications read; report of committees; old business; new business; good of the chapter; closing prayer.
- Special meetings shall be convened either by vote of the chapter at a preceding regular meeting or by direction of the Chairman. Each special meeting must have a stated purpose, and no other business shall be transacted at any such meeting.
- The order of business at special meetings: call meeting to order; opening prayer; special order of business; closing prayer.
- It shall be the duty of all officers to attend each meeting of the chapter. In case of the inability of any officer to attend, due notice shall be given to the Chairman and arrangements made to have all necessary books and papers present at the meeting.
- In the absence or inability of the Chairman, the Vice Chairman shall preside and shall execute all of the duties of the Chairman.
Article VII — Funds
- All monies obtained from any source, by or through any person acting for or in the name of the chapter, shall be considered chapter funds and shall be forthwith delivered to the Chairman, who will report at the close of each meeting the amounts received and from what source, and shall deliver the same to the Treasurer and take a receipt.
- The Treasurer shall deposit all monies received in a bank to the credit of the chapter. Disbursements from this fund shall be made only by check signed by the Chairman and Treasurer.
- No money shall be paid or transferred from the Treasury of this chapter (except such monies as the chapter is called upon to regularly pay for its current expenses) unless by two-thirds vote of the members present and voting at a regular meeting.
Article VIII — Miscellaneous
These By-Laws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members present and voting at a regular meeting held subsequent to a regular meeting at which notice in writing providing for such amendment shall have been given and regularly read.
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