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Wednesday, November 06, 2024
All Souls: Annual Mass of Requiem for the Latin Mass Society
Tuesday, November 05, 2024
On a heretical pope: reply to Dr John Lamont
The top of the newly-restored baldachino in St Peter's, Rome, on the occasion of the traditionalist pilgrimage 'Ad Petri Sedem': to the See of Peter. |
I am in debt to Dr John Lamont for his thorough discussion of the question of papal heresy. It is a problem that does not have a definitive explanation in magisterial texts, but as many important theologians and canonists of past centuries agree, it is one that has to be faced. Contrary to a naïve ultramontanism, it is not impossible for a pope to espouse heretical opinions, and indeed it has happened more than once in the past. The question is, what happens then?
This possibility is in itself not a challenge to the doctrine of papal infallibility. Papal infallibility has been very carefully defined at the First Vatican Council, and naturally it was defined very narrowly. The Pope’s public teaching on matters of faith and morals is guaranteed free from error (not, be it noted, inspired, like Scripture, only preserved from error) when he teaches the whole Church in the most solemn manner. Such teaching is not at issue here. A heretic is a heretic even if he never teaches anything solemnly. I might be a heretic even if I never express my heresy to another human being – although, in that case, no-one would know. The most likely case of papal heresy would be a pope harboring heretical opinions which are expressed in a private capacity, or at least in a less solemn mode of teaching, such as (on the usual historical reading) Pope John XXII teaching from the pulpit against the Particular Judgement in the 14th century.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
More on the 'Traditionalist Ordinariate'
The Dominican Rite in a Dominican community: how would this relate to an 'ordinariate'? |
A response in turn has been made to this by Fr de Bligniere's confrere, Fr. Antoine-Marie de Araujo, in Rorate Caeli. He suggests that my criticism is based on a misunderstanding of the proposal:
First, the proposed traditional ordinariate is not intended to replace, or even encompass, the traditional institutes (FSSP, ICKSP, etc.), parishes, or communities that celebrate the ancient rite today. There is no question of establishing a structure into which all traditional Catholics should fall.
However, I am perfectly aware that the proposal is for what he calls a 'a flexible and permeable instrument, well-adapted to the diverse situation of Catholics attached to the old Latin traditions.'
As I wrote on OnePeterFive:
Monday, October 28, 2024
A dream pilgrimage: in the Catholic Herald
Walking on the banks of the Great Ouse on the way to Walsingham. |
For the “On Pilgrimage With” section of the September 2024 edition of the Catholic Herald magazine, we spoke to Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society and president of Una Voce International, about his dream pilgrimage:
Where would you go?
I’ve walked from Ely to Walsingham with the Latin Mass Society since 2009, and more recently extended the route back to Cambridge, with a smaller group of pilgrims. I’ve also done the traditional Paris to Chartres pilgrimage a few times. The ultimate walking pilgrimage, though, has to be from the Pyrenees on the French border to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Whom would you take?
As many people as possible!
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Hold On To Your Kids: a book review
Blessing at the end of Mass by Fr Andrew Southwell, at the St Catherine's Trust Summer School |
I don’t like referring to children as “kids”, but this is the title of a book some readers may find interesting or useful: Hold on to your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter more than Peers, by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté. It was first published in 2004 but has been republished this year, with an extra chapter, by Penguin, nothing if not a mainstream publisher.
The idea expressed by the subtitle is not a new one. In 1997, the folktale enthusiast Robert Bly wrote a book called The Sibling Society: An Impassioned Call for the Rediscovery of Adulthood, which had a particular focus on how men find it difficult to come to maturity without good father figures. This might seem like a statement of the obvious, but Bly felt that he had to work very hard to get it across to his audience, and he wasn’t wrong.
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Home Education: in the Catholic Herald
The quiz at the SCT Summer School |
The only people involved in a child’s education who have an overview of the whole process, from babyhood to adulthood, and who truly know the child, and his or her needs and ambitions, are parents.
They are their children’s primary educators, in a sense that encompasses the moral relationship between parent and child, and the practical and biological relationship.
To a teacher, your child is one among many pupils, as they try to get the class through the syllabus with as many children as possible keeping up, and not too many getting bored. They know little about what else their pupils are learning, or have learnt up to now.
It is simply impossible for teachers to pay that much attention to any one child. No teacher, however conscientious, can take the ultimate responsibility for a child’s education. That burden can never be lifted from parents. It follows that parents must know what is going on in their children’s school, and intervene when necessary.
Monday, October 21, 2024
LMS Oxford Pilgrimage 2024: photos
Wednesday, October 09, 2024
LMS Oxford Martyrs Pilgrimage, 19th October
With Dominican chant and sacred polyphony from the Schola Abelis and the Southwell Consort.
William Byrd Mass for Five VoicesThomas Tallis In Manus TuasWilliam Cornysh Ave Maria
Friday, September 06, 2024
LMS Residential Latin Course: photos
Tuesday, September 03, 2024
SCT Summer School 2024: photos
Latin questions in the end of school quiz. |
Monday, September 02, 2024
Iota Unum talks this autumn
Doors open at 6:30pm; the talk will start at 7pm.
There is a charge of £5 on the door to cover refreshments and other expenses.
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
Evelyn Waugh on the liturgical reform: on this day, 1964
Catholic Herald, 7th August 1964
Questions for the 'Progressives'
SIR.— Like all editors you justly claim that you are not responsible for the opinions of your correspondents and claim credit for establishing an open "forum".
On the other hand you write of "exploding renewal" and "manifest dynamism of the Holy Spirit", thus seeming to sympathise with the Northern innovators who wish to change the outward aspect of the Church.
Monday, July 29, 2024
The Way of Beauty: in Catholic Answers
Brand new Altar Rails at St Mary Magdalen's, Wandworth (London), replacing those destroyed many years ago. |
Pope St. John Paul II wrote twenty-one years ago,
[We should not] overlook the positive contribution made by the wise use of the cultural treasures of the Church. . . . Artistic beauty . . . a sort of echo of the Spirit of God, is a symbol pointing to the mystery, an invitation to seek out the face of God made visible in Jesus of Nazareth (Ecclesia in Europa 60).
This observation would not have surprised Catholics in previous centuries. When John Paul II said it, however, it was an intervention into a highly controversial, and sometimes embittered, debate, which still rages today.
Monday, July 22, 2024
Mass in Dundee
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Conversation with 'Learn Latin'
Thursday, July 18, 2024
LMS Annual General Meeting: photos
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Two more petitions to save the Traditional Mass: in the Catholic Herald
Thursday, July 04, 2024
48 Public figures support the Traditional Mass: materials
The Latin Mass Society's Annual Requiem in 2023, in Corpus Christi Maiden Lane |
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
George Galloway on the Traditional Mass
George Galloway: Official photo from the UK Parliament |
This has emerged in an interview with Timothy Stanley in the Daily Telegraph. Galloway, who is seeking re-election as the Member of Parliament for Rochdale in England's north west, noted that he is a practicing Catholic, and a 'big fan' of Pope Francis.
Stanley, a Catholic convert who also has experience of the radical left, felt inspired to ask him about the Traditional Mass.
The article is paywalled (here) but this is the money quote:
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
The Sign of Peace, for Catholic Answers
The Kiss of Peace at the LMS Walsingham Pilgrimage 2023: High Mass in the Shrine |
The friction derives from the experience of it getting out of hand—being disruptive and even an intrusion. These problems were serious enough to raise the question, at the 2009 Synod of Bishops in in Rome, of moving the Sign of Peace to before the Offertory. Here, I want to shed some light on the meaning of the rite, which helps to put the question into some context.
At the LMS Annual Mass of Reparation in Bedford. |
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Learn Latin this Summer!
In person teaching (more here)
- An intensive course to make the most of your time
- Based on the Latin of the Traditional Mass
- Three tutors to make sure everyone has exactly the level of Latin instruction they need
- Daily Traditional Mass celebrated by our chaplain
- A Catholic ethos
- 80% discount for clergy and seminarians
- 50% discount for students
- Another £55 off for LMS members
Wednesday, June 05, 2024
Getting men to Mass: for Catholic Answers
Men outnumber women at the LMS Walsingham Pilgrimage: sign up here! |
Monday, June 03, 2024
Corpus Christi Procession in the rain
Friday, May 31, 2024
An Ordinariate for Traditionalists?
Three priests of the Archdiocese of Westminster take part in a High Mass for Pentecost Monday in Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, in London. |
In the new edition of the traditionalist journal Sedes Sapientiae readers will find an article by Fr Louis-Marie de Blignières FSVF on the idea of a traditionalist ‘circumscription’, a term covering Personal Ordinariates and Prelatures, and a response to this article by me. Fr de Blignières, for those who don’t know, is the founder and superior of the Society of St Vincent Ferrer, which uses the traditional Dominican Rite. His article promotes the idea of a “circumscription” for Traditionalists: a non-geographical diocese headed by an Ordinary appointed by Rome. I am a bit more sceptical.
Since then an interview with Fr de Blignières has been published on Rorate Caeli on this subject, and I have been encouraged to put my thoughts about it into the public domain as well, to further stimulate what is a very necessary debate. What follows is complementary to my Sedes Sapientiae article.
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Dan Hitchens on Sister Clare Crocket: podcast from the Latin Mass Society
Talks take place in the basement of Our Lady of the Assumption; please enter by the back entrance into the basement: 24 Golden Square, W1F 9JR near Piccadilly Tube Station (click for a map).
Doors open at 6:30pm; the talk will start at 7pm.
There is a charge of £5 on the door to cover refreshments and other expenses.
Saturday, May 25, 2024
Happy 20th Birthday, Juventutem International!
Friday, May 24, 2024
Fr John Hunwicke: 'month's mind' Requiem
Requiem in Warwick Street from last year. |
Monday, May 20, 2024
Novena for a special intention, starting Tusday 21st May.
Bishop Sherrington giving Benediction at the LMS Confirmations in 2019, St James' Spanish Place. |
The Latin Mass Society calls for a Novena in honour of Corpus Christi
We appeal to our members, supporters, and well-wishers to pray a Novena with us for an special intention:
beginning on Tuesday
21st May,
and culminating on the eve of Corpus Christi, Wednesday 29th May.
This is not some matter of international importance, pertaining to just one diocese, but it is of great importance for those concerned, and it is emblematic of the sufferings of Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass which have followed Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter Traditionis custodes.
For the case we have in mind, and for all similarly affected because of their devotion to the Church’s traditions, we implore the assistance of Our Lord, really present in the tabernacles of our churches, through the intercession of His Mother and St Joseph Patron of the Church, and of our church’s patron saints: to remember His people. Those praying this Novena might like to use the following invocation (repeated three times):
Parce Dómine, parce pópulo tuo: ne in ætérnum irascáris nobis.
Spare, O Lord, spare Thy
people: and be not angry with them for ever.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Praying for the Conversion of the Jews
The Good Friday 'Intercessions' in 2023, in St Mary Moorfields, London. |
The Church desires that Jesus of Nazareth be accepted as the longed for “Christ,” by “Israel”—Israel in the biblical sense, the Jewish people. This implies that they accept the Christian faith, in the context of the Church’s mission to “all men.”
Readers who have followed the debate surrounding the Good Friday Prayer for the Jews found in the pre-Vatican II 1962 Missal may find this surprising, but this is not an isolated case. Even more explicit prayers for the conversion of the Jewish people are found in the Liturgy of the Hours, in the Morning Prayer of December 31 and in Lauds on January 2, and the idea is raised elsewhere.