The Conference and Requiem Mass in his honour is taking place on Saturday 4th October in St Mary Moorefields, London: details and booking here. The Requiem will be High with a professional choir singing some great polyphony; the celebrant will be Fr Anthony Conlon. It will be at 4:15pm and anyone can turn up to that.
I was just becoming active in the Latin Mass Society at the time of his death, and sadly I never met him. But like so many people attracted to the Traditional Mass, one of the first things I did after chatting to some trads was, on their recommendation, to read Michael Davies' great trilogy, 'Liturgical Revolution' (Cranmer's Godly Order, Pope John's Council, Pope Paul's New Mass), which I can still recommend to everyone. Like all his works it is clear, thorough, and fair-minded. It opened my eyes to a perspective on the crisis in the Church which had been hidden from me up to then. Extensive further reading over the following years has confirmed the truth of it.
I was just becoming active in the Latin Mass Society at the time of his death, and sadly I never met him. But like so many people attracted to the Traditional Mass, one of the first things I did after chatting to some trads was, on their recommendation, to read Michael Davies' great trilogy, 'Liturgical Revolution' (Cranmer's Godly Order, Pope John's Council, Pope Paul's New Mass), which I can still recommend to everyone. Like all his works it is clear, thorough, and fair-minded. It opened my eyes to a perspective on the crisis in the Church which had been hidden from me up to then. Extensive further reading over the following years has confirmed the truth of it.
There is an excellent appreciation of him on Rorate Caeli. I include below, from it, the note sent by Cardinal Ratzinger when he learned of Michael's death.
Say a prayer today for him. Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.
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‘I have been profoundly touched by the news of the death of Michael Davies. I had the good fortune to meet him several times and I found him as a man of deep faith and ready to embrace suffering. Ever since the Council he put all his energy into the service of the Faith and left us important publications especially about the Sacred Liturgy. Even though he suffered from the Church in many ways in his time, he always truly remained a man of the Church. He knew that the Lord founded His Church on the rock of St Peter and that the Faith can find its fullness and maturity only in union with the successor of St Peter. Therefore we can be confident that the Lord opened wide for him the gates of heaven. We commend his soul to the Lord’s mercy.’
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger,
9 November 2004.
9 November 2004.
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