LMS Oxford Pilgrimage 2024: photos

Last Saturday was the Latin Mass Society Oxford Pilgrimage, in honour of the city's Catholic martyrs. As usual we had a High Mass in the Dominican Rite, followed by a procession and Benediction. 

The celebrant was Fr Lawrence Lew; you can read his sermon here.

LMS Oxford Martyrs Pilgrimage, 19th October

Please support the annual Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage, which will be taking place on 

Saturday 19th October, the feast of St Frideswide.

11am High Mass in the Dominican Rite, in Blackfriars (St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LY) 

With Dominican chant and sacred polyphony from the Schola Abelis and the Southwell Consort.

William Byrd Mass for Five Voices

Thomas Tallis In Manus Tuas

William Cornysh Ave Maria

2:15pm Procession from Carfax to the site of the martyrdom of Blessed George Napier in Oxford Castle, and back to Blackfriars

3pm Benediction at Blackfriars.

LMS Residential Latin Course: photos

The Latin Mass Society's Residential Latin Course is an under appreciated event. It has benefitted teenagers and octagenarians, priests, seminarians, and novices, and the discount for clergy is extended to those who are planning to attend seminary the following year.

This year the week-long course (Monday to Saturday) took place in Park Place Pastoral Centre in Wickham, Hampshire, with 18 students -- equaling our largest ever group in 2019 -- and three tutors, who were able to offer different levels of Latin to the mixed-ability attendees. 

Park Place's modern chapel accommodates the Traditional Mass quite well, and attendees were able to participate in daily Mass. We even had two Sung Masses: one for the Assumption, and another for the final day.

The Latin Mass Society's commitment to Latin learning is ongoing, with our exclusive Latin coursebook, Simplicissimus, which uses the Latin of the Missal for all its examples and exercises, and support for clergy and seminarians doing online Latin courses. If you'd like to emailed when the next Residential course is announced, email info@lms.org.uk .

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SCT Summer School 2024: photos

Latin questions in the end of school quiz.

I've not had time to blog about the August events I've been involved, but here are a few photos of the first of these: the St Catherine's Trust Summer School, which took place Sunday to Saturday, 4-10 August, in St Cassian's Retreat Centre, Kintbury, for children aged 11-17. I founded the St Catherine's Trust as a vehicle for these events back in 2005, and we've done them ever since -- though we had to cancel two during Covid.

Iota Unum talks this autumn

The next season of Iota Unum talks is confirmed:

Friday Sept 27, Joseph Shaw: The family and Catholic culture

Friday Oct 25, Calum Miller: Should pro-lifers vote for Trump?

Friday Nov 29: Prof Tom Pink 'Conscience and the Law'

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.

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Evelyn Waugh on the liturgical reform: on this day, 1964

The liturgical reform ushered in by the Second Vatican Council was not a matter of replacing the 1962 Missale Romanum with the 1969 edition. Between the two there was a veritable blizzard of documents and liturgical changes, starting with Vatican II's own Sacrosanctum Concilium in 1962 and the Instruction Inter Oecumenici. The concrete changes began with the latter, which was promulgated 26th September 1964, but plenty of experiments and abuses were taking place in the meantime.

This period saw an intense debate about the liturgy in the Catholic press, and on this very day 60 years ago, a letter by the Catholic convert novelist Evelyn Waugh was published by the Catholic Herald. This letter is often quoted, but as a matter of historical interest I am publishing it in full on its anniversary.

Catholic Herald, 7^th 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.

The Way of Beauty: in Catholic Answers

Brand new Altar Rails at St Mary Magdalen's, Wandworth (London),
replacing those destroyed many years ago.

My latest on Catholic Answers.

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.

Read it all there.

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Mass in Dundee

On Sunday 14th I had the privilege to attend Mass in the Lawside Convent in Dundee. Different parts of the complex now house the Marian Franciscan Friars and Sisters. Mass was celebrated by Fr Philomeno.

 

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Conversation with 'Learn Latin'

The other day I had a live conversation with Diego of @latinedisce Learn Latin, on a Twitter 'space'.

@latinedisce promotes Latin, and has created free online resources to learn it.

This was a wide-ranging conversation, introducing the Traditional Mass, its history, and the way people engaged with it. If you missed it, here it is on YouTube.

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LMS Annual General Meeting: photos

Annual General Meeting are notoriously dull but the Latin Mass Society's are a bit different, and this year's was rather fun. It took place on the feast of SS Peter & Paul on 29th June; things have been so hectic since then I have only now got round to processing my photos.

We are especially grateful to the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory for hosting us and for the beautiful Mass which preceded the meeting proper. 

Two more petitions to save the Traditional Mass: in the Catholic Herald

My latest in the Catholic Herald.

Sir James MacMillan, Catholic , published on 3rd July in a British newspaper, The Times, calling on Pope Francis not to impose fresh restrictions on the Traditional Mass. I have commented extensively on this petition and the petitioners: see here.

Today, in part responding to this petition and to the persistent rumours that Pope Francis is planning these restrictions, perhaps even to be published this very day, two other letters have been published with the same intention.

First, a letter from a retired Mexican Cardinal, Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, which had been sent to Pope Francis a week ago, has been published, together with a 'Letter of Adherence' from personalities from all over the world.

Second, a petition organised by the American poet Dana Gioia, has been published with eleven signatures, representing American Catholic artists and academics.

Read it all there.

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48 Public figures support the Traditional Mass: materials

The Latin Mass Society's Annual Requiem in 2023, in Corpus Christi Maiden Lane

This post is to gather together links to materials on this subject.

You can see the petition and signatories here. You can sign an open petition supporting it here.

The Latin Mass Society's press release is here.

News reports: The Tablet, The European Conservative, The Pillar, The Catholic Herald. 

Commentary by me: in The European Conservative, in The Catholic Herald, in OnePeterFive

Chairman's Briefing on the petition. 

Response to Fr Raymond de Souza in Crisis.

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George Galloway on the Traditional Mass

George Galloway:
Official photo from the UK Parliament

Cross-posted from Rorate Caeli.

George Galloway, the radical left-wing politician vying for Muslim votes in Britain's current general election, who was too hot to handle for the British Labour Party and so created his own--first, the Respect Party, now the Workers' Party of Britain -- yes, that George Galloway -- loves the Traditional Mass and has advised the Pope not to restrict it.

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:

The Sign of Peace, for Catholic Answers

The Kiss of Peace at the LMS Walsingham Pilgrimage 2023: High Mass in the Shrine

The Pax, the Kiss of Peace, is one of my favourite ceremonies of High Mass: one of the most dramatic and easily understood symbolic actions. The celebrant kisses the Altar and given the deacon a stylised embrace; the deacon embraces the subdeacon, the subdeacon the MC, and if there are clergy in choir it can be passed on down a whole row of them on both sides of the church.

For a photographer it is easy to miss. It only happens at High Mass with deacon and subdeacon, and not at Requiem Masses or on Maundy Thursday. At Prelatial Masses and First Masses of newly ordained priests, you get an extra chance to catch it, with the 'Assistant Priest'.

This is the historical context for the ceremony in the Novus Ordo, which sadly can take a form that feels not only somewhat secular but even disruptive and an invasion of personal space. I always think of a letter to the Catholic press from one worshipper in Bristol some years ago:

In my church, one elderly widower tours the pews 'making a meal'; of his license to to make contact with female bodies. ... When the 'feel good' moment arrives, they approach me expectactly, but I ignore such cheap, shallow, bonhomie. I have often felt like adding 'a little peace before Mass would not have gone amiss.'

My latest piece for Catholic Answers is on this topic. It begins:

The Sign of Peace, the handshake that takes place at Sunday Mass between the Our Father and the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) before Holy Communion, is sometimes a source of friction and confusion.

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.

Read the whole thing there.

At the LMS Annual Mass of Reparation in Bedford.

 

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Learn Latin this Summer!

The Latin Mass Society offers 80% discounts to clerics, seminarians, and those about to enter seminary (trainee permanent deacons too!), if they are based in or come from England and Wales, to learn Latin either online or at our in-person course in August. Lay people are also welcome of course! 

In person teaching (more here)

Monday to Saturday, 12-17th August, at Park Place Pastoral Centre near Fareham in Hampshire. 

• 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

The course is very competitively priced even without the discounts!

Getting men to Mass: for Catholic Answers

Men outnumber women at the LMS Walsingham Pilgrimage: sign up here!

My latest pieces for Catholic Answers is about the alarming typical imbalance between men and women at Mass in the West. I devote a chapter to the 'feminisation of Christianity' in my book, The Liturgy, the Family, and the Crisis of Modernity, and there is also quite a lot on the subject on this blog.

There is a certainly a marked contrast between the imbalance of the sexes at typical Novus Ordo celebrations and the more balanced situation in the Traditional Mass, with some activities associated with it, which are particularly appealing to men, such as walking pilgrimages, often showing a clear majority of men. This is beginning to enter the discourse as a fact accepted by all sides: after all, anyone can see it for themselves by visiting a few Masses on Sunday. But as I note in this article, the tendency among liturgical progressives is not to acknowledge that they might have something to learn from others, but rather that it must be the case that anything in the Church able to attract men must be misogynistic.

That would be a pretty grim conclusion: that men will only attend Mass if it is in some sense anti-woman. It conforms, however, to an unspoken idea that seems behind a lot of modern discourse, that men are intrinsically bad, and not worth trying to save: worthy only, in fact, of condemnation, for characteristics that they cannot help having, as if God were not pleased with His creation after all.

My article for Catholic Answers begins:

Corpus Christi Procession in the rain

I think special credit is due when a procession takes place in the rain. This one was onthe feast of Corpus Christi, last Thursday, at SS Gregory & Augustine's, Oxford.

After the procession we had Benediction.

We had previously had High Mass.

 

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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.

My latest on 1Peter5.

It begins:

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.

Read the whole thing there.

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Dan Hitchens on Sister Clare Crocket: podcast from the Latin Mass Society

Dan Hitchens gave a talk to the Latin Mass Society's series of talks, 'Iota Unum'. He spoke about the remarkable religious sister, Clare Crockett, who hailed from Northern Ireland and died in Ecuador in 2016, aged 33. Her order was the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother (S.H.M.).

You can listen to Dan's talk on the LMS podcast channel: search for 'Latin Mass Society' or 'Iota Unum'; here is direct link: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-j3pmw-1623f84

If you are in reach of London, do join us for these talks in person, meet the speaker, have a glass of wine, and meet some people in real life!

The next talk:

Friday 28th June, Sebastian Morello: ‘Cartesian Catholicism and the Loss of Sacred Space’

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.

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Happy 20th Birthday, Juventutem International!

For the 20th Anniversary of the foundation of Juventutem International. The celebrant was Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP, the Chaplain; the deacon was Fr Henry Whisenant, and subdeacon Fr Neil Brett. The church is their regular London venue, the beautiful church of St Mary Magdalen's, Wandsworth, in Southwark Archdiocese. Mass was for the Friday of the Octave of Pentecost. It was accompanied by the Southwell Consort and sponsored by the Latin Mass Society.

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Fr John Hunwicke: 'month's mind' Requiem

The Latin Mass Society is pleased to announce that on Wednesday 29th May a Requiem Mass will be celebrated for the late Fr John Hunwicke, roughly a month after his death on 30th April 2024, in London.

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street, has a regular Wednesday evening Traditional Mass, and this is taking place in that time slot, at 6:30pm.

It will be celebrated by the parish priest, Fr Mark Elliot Smith, who, like Fr Hunwicke, is a priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

It will be accompanied by the Southwell Consort, singing Victoria's Missa pro defunctis.

As an aside, we have arranged a Mass to be celebrated near the 20th anniversary of the Michael T. Davies, at our annual Mass at St Augustine's, Snave, on the feast of the Holy Cross, Saturday 14th September. (Because of the feast it will not be a Requiem Mass, but it will be offered for him.)

Mass in Snave is at 12 noon. (Click for a map.) See my report of the last one.

Requiem in Warwick Street from last year.

 

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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 21^st May,

and culminating on the eve of Corpus Christi, Wednesday 29^th 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.

I have a little comment on this here. This is one of our irregular 'Chairman's Briefings' which go to people signed up to the monthly Newsletter.

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Praying for the Conversion of the Jews

The Good Friday 'Intercessions' in 2023, in St Mary Moorfields, London.

In the Evening Prayer of the 1974 Liturgy of the Hours, on Easter Sunday and throughout its octave, and then again on the third and fifth Sundays of Eastertide, the Church prays,

"Let Israel recognize in you [Jesus] the Messiah it has longed for; fill all men with the knowledge of your glory."

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.

Read the whole thing there.

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Ascension Day High Mass in Oxford

A splendid High Mass took place in SS Gregory & Augustine's in Oxford for the Ascension. The celebrant was the Priest in Charge, Fr John Saward, assisted by Rev. James Forde-Johnson (as deacon) and Rev. Kevin O'Connor (as subdeacon).

Discussion of 'A Defence of Monarchy' with Calvin Robinson

I discussed the book I edited, 'A Defence of Monarchy: Catholics under a Protestant King' on Fr Calvin Robinson's 'Common Sense Crusade' show. This is the segment which Calvin has shared on his Facebook page. Subscribers can see the whole show here; before I come on, Eduard von Habsburg, Ambassador to the Holy See for Hungary, talking about his book 'The Habsburg Way'.

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Rogation Mass in Maiden Lane, London

On Monday I attended the regular Mass organaised by the Latin Mass Society in Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane. It was a Rogation Mass, and for the first time (as far as I know) we had the Rogation procession. This went round and round the church while the Great Litany was sung, with each intercession made twice -- so it took a pretty long time!

Kingsley Lewis, RIP

Kingsley Lewis was the Latin Mass Society's Local Representative in Cardiff for many years. He was also a member of the Committee (a Trustee) of the Society, and from 2008 to 2011 he was Deputy Chairman.

He died on 7th May 2024, in Spain, where he had retired.

A Welshman and a gentleman, devoted to the traditions of the Church. Requiescat in pace.

These photographs were taken at the Latin Mass Society's Priest Training Conference in London Colney Pastoral Centre in 2009.

 

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A Defence of Monarchy: podcast with Gavin Ashenden

This post on my podcast with Gavin Ashenden got forgotten about, so here it is. I have a page on my book with lots of resources, here.

My two-part conversation with Gavin Ashenden is now available, on the subject of a book I edited, A Defence of Monarchy: Catholics Under a Protestant King.

You can find them in your usual podcast platform, by searching for 'Gavin Ashenden' or 'Merely Catholic'. If you want direct links here they are:

Part 1 is here

Part 2 is here (from 8 mins 30 seconds)

In the second part the discussion turns to the Papal monarchy,

Some endorsements of the book have now come in.

HE Eduard von Habsburg, Hungarian Ambassador to the Holy See

This is an incredibly interesting and well done book. It is especially valuable that it makes the argument in favour of even a weak monarchy, in its constitutional powers and even in terms of the personal commitments of it representatives. Instead of giving way to despair, the book encourages us to continue to appreciate the constitutional and symbolic importance of monarchy, while we wait for a monarchy that embodies Catholic principles in their fullness.

Fr Calvin Robinson, Patron of the British Monarchist Society

This book provides many lessons to Roman Catholics on why the British monarchy is a good thing; how Christians can be united around the British institution, even with our differences; and a staunch reminder that British heritage is undeniably Catholic, and a strong preserver of Catholic tradition through ceremonies such as the coronation and funeral services of the monarch. The last thing any traditionalist should want to see is the end of Catholic tradition.

Gavin Ashenden, Chaplain to the Queen 2008-2017

This excellent and intriguing new book edited by Dr Shaw, defending the monarchy from a Catholic perspective, offers not only an informed perspective on  constitutional developments and realities, but makes a powerful case that the monarchy we have offers us a great deal more than would a republic. It also serves as a defence of the integrity of Elizabeth II against under-informed anxieties held by some passionate defenders of the rights of the unborn child.  The grasp of constitutional and historical development makes refreshing reading for anyone interested in our constitutional settlement not only as a matter of history, but also to furnish us with ways of judging the political dilemmas a turbulent cultural future may present us with.

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Fr John Hunwicke: a brief appreciation

The Vidi Aquam before Sunday Mass at the St Catherine's Trust Family Retreat, after Easter, 2013.

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Fr Hunwicke giving 'First Blessings' after his ordination in 2012, in the church of St Winifride,
Holywell, during the St Catherine's Trust Summer School and LMS Latin Course.

On Tuesday 30^th April 2024, the feast of St Catherine of Siena, Fr John Hunwicke of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, died.

He was a convert Anglican cleric, who was ordained as a Catholic priest in 2012. Although already retired by this time, he was always willing to put his great erudition and long experience of teaching to use for the cause of the Traditional Mass. 

Fr H. celebrating Mass for the Guild of St Clare Sewing Retreat in 2022. The 
young server here was the recipient of the 'First Blessing' in the photo above. 

As an Anglican, Fr Hunwicke was a ‘Papalist’, one who accepted the supremacy of the Pope in principle, and also a proponent of the Traditional Roman Rite, which he had learnt as a seminarian at St Stephen’s House in Oxford before the liturgical reform. He joined the Latin Mass Society as a ‘Friend’, since only Catholics can be full members.

For thirty years he taught Latin at Lancing College. His last post as an Anglican was to the ancient church of St Thomas the Martyr, near the railway station in Oxford.

Teaching Latin for the LMS Residential Latin Course, 2013

As a Catholic, a priest, and a supporter of the Latin Mass Society, he was willing to help in all sorts of ways. He took part as celebrant, deacon, or subdeacon in High Masses, in pilgrimages to Our Lady of Caversham, regular Masses at Holy Trinity Hethe, in SS Gregory & Augustine’s, and other places in the Oxford area and beyond. He led retreats for the Guild of St Clare and the St Catherine’s Trust. He taught in the Latin Mass Society’s Residential Latin Course, from soon after ordination, in 2012, until 2022, after which ill health made this impossible. He also took part in other initiatives, and for many years was a much-loved participant in the Roman Forum’s Summer Symposium in Gardone Riviera, Italy, an annual, international Traditional Catholic gathering.

Celebrating High Mass in St David's, Pantasaph, 2013.

Wherever he went he was valued for his great wit and erudition, and also for his pastoral touch. Joining the ‘Roman Church’ was a momentous and courageous move, and some on our side of the Tiber had mixed feelings about a batch of new recruits who combined powerful intellects with strong characters. I like to think, nevertheless, that Traditional Catholics, such as those in the Latin Mass Society, made their appreciation of him clear.

He leaves a wife, children, and grandchildren.

As is our usual practice, the Latin Mass Society will organise a 'month's mind' Requiem for him, as someone who has made an important contribution to our work. Details will be published when confirmed.

Requiescat in pace.

Preaching at the SCT Summer School / Latin Course, 2014.

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