LMS Chairman

'Restore Comunion on the Tongue Alone'

2012-01-28T15:52:00.001Z

A couple of Australian priests have started an online petition to the Holy Father for the restoration of the practice of receiving communion on the tongue for the whole Latin Church. They should be supported: why not go over there and sign up?

http://communiononthetongue.blogspot.com/

Bishop Athanasius Shneider and Cardinal Burke have already signed up! Bishop Shneider's book 'Dominus Est' is an excellent intriduction to the arguments.

Pope Paul VI allowed communion in the hand only as a concession, limited to places where the abuse was already established. It has become clear that the original arguments in favour of communion in the hand - historical, theological, pastoral - were spurious and it is time this permission was withdrawn.

We need also to make reparation for the countless acts of profanation of the Blessed Sacrament which have been facilitated by this practice.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Letter on Child Protection

2012-01-27T19:11:00.000Z

This weekend the Catholic Herald has published a letter of mine on the subject of 'Child Protection'. It responds to an article by Will Heaven.

Will Heaven (Comment, Jan 20th) tells us that monastic schools, like Downside, where there have been failures of child protection, should be handed over to lay trustees. By the same logic, I assume he would want the many lay schools plagued by such failures to be handed over to monks.

We need to look, not at the clerical or lay status of trustees, but at their attitudes and policies. Unfortunately the leadership of Catholic schools appears to be following the example of its secular counterpart, both by imposing explicit sex education on our children and by an increasing reluctance to expect staff to live in accord with Church teaching.

The secular model is to promote anarchic sexual liberalism in schools, balanced by an hysterical concern for the procedures of child protection. This is not going to solve the problem of the sexual exploitation of children in the long term. Until the Catholic school sector is prepared to buck this trend decisively I, like an increasing number of Catholic parents, will be teaching my children at home.

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Shaw

Two things struck me about Heaven's article. The first was his idea that the problems at Downside would go away if the monks were no longer the trustees. It is reasonable I suppose that a religious order which makes a hash of an apostolate hands it over to someone else, but Heaven's suggestion smacks of anti-clericalism. How, exactly, would having lay control help? Hasn't he noticed all the non-religious, indeed non-Catholic schools which have had child protection issues? It is the attitudes and policies of the individuals in positions of authority which are important, not whether they wear clerical dress. On this, Jonathan West of 'Confessions of a Skeptic' agrees with me, in his Tablet article this week and his comments under Heaven's article: lay leadership is not a 'silver bullet'. (Tablet link for subscribers.)

I have another concern about the attempt to separate monastic schools from the monasteries which founded them. If this happens we will have two institutions sharing a site, but nothing else. It will be entirely reasonable for the monastic community to ask why they are allowing this alien institution to take up so much of their land, rent free. Why not turn it into luxury flats? Hybrid models, in which the Abbot appoints some trustees and some unnamed person others, seem to be a recipe for permanent conflict.

The other thing which struck me was Heaven's jaunty reference to Downside going mixed. He writes:

There is no question about it: Downside School is still flourishing. A few years ago, I wrote in this newspaper about its “second spring”, which occurred after 2005 when it allowed girls to join. I noted that the school was livelier and noisier than before and was at its capacity of 430 pupils.

Alas, Downside – as a community – is now experiencing an unexpectedly harsh winter.

You might think that the sudden onset of colder weather might make Heaven wonder whether 2005 was spring after all. For why did they they let in girls, to a school which had been single-sex since its foundation a century earlier? Did the monks suddenly feel a special charism to look after the emotional needs of adolescent girls? I don't think so. Letting in girls enabled it to bring number back up to capacity: oh, that's it!

I don't blame the monks of Downside in particular, they were just following the trend. The point is that this is a trend in which the interests of pupils were sacrificed to financial considerations, and to educational fashion. No one was ignorant, by 2005, of the educational benefits to girls of being in a all-girls' school; the subject had been studied to death. Catholic boys' schools, usually with superior brand-recognition and resources, continued to undermine the girls' schools by going mixed because it was in their interests, not in the girls'.

If anyone is interested in the Church's teaching on co-education, they can look at Pius XI on the subject in 1939 (Divine illius magistri):

68. False also and harmful to Christian education is the so-called method of"coeducation." This too, by many of its supporters, is founded uponnaturalism and the denial of original sin; but by all, upon a deplorableconfusion of ideas that mistakes a leveling promiscuity and equality, for thelegitimate association of the sexes.

This is related, by the denial of original sin, to the real elephant in the room, which I mention in my letter, which is the sexualisation of children. The motto of the secular educational establishment is 'Do whatever you are comfortable doing; don't let anyone make you feel guilty about it; don't let anyone do to you what you're not comfortable with'. This places the burden of child protection on the children themselves. Since the only standard of what is abusive is the child's perception, accusations of abuse are justified almost by definition. By the same token, the 'grooming' activities of abusers, in which they attempt to convince their victims that abuse is really ok, have been adopted as school policy: nothing is not ok, children, if you just accept it. This is why we have the extraordinary situation in which schools are deliberately sexualising children, and then crying blue murder at the least plausible accusation.

The Catholic Church has a great opportunity here, because the secular orthodoxy has become so extreme, and so incoherent, that at least some people will give an alternative a hearing. The Natural Law tells us what is abusive, and we have the intellectual resources to create an environment for children in which abuse is less likely to happen. Why not do it, and make a virtue of it?

I see Oona Stanard is stepping down from the Catholic Education Service. Perhaps her replacement can give these matters some serious consideration.

Full disclosure: I am a Fellow of St Benet's Hall, a Hall of Oxford University whose trustees are the Abbot and Council of Ampleforth Abbey.

A welcome distraction

2012-01-25T14:15:00.001Z

Yesterday evening another family member arrived, a little girl. Mother and baby are both very well.

Here she is with her big sister.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

LMS Pilgrimage to Lourdes: 17-21st September.

2012-01-21T16:26:00.002Z

Apologies to my readers for the slow posting. Term has started in Oxford, and the busy-ness of the Latin Mass Society, and other things, has reached a sort of crescendo for reasons too tedious to explain.

Here, however, is a project close to my heart which I can now announce: a traditional pilgrimage to Lourdes, with the sick, organised by the Latin Mass Society. We have actually booked the space on one of the tour-operators' schedules, so we have dates: 17-21st September 2012.

The LMS has had groups going to Lourdes before, but the point of Lourdes, more than of any other shrine, I think, is taking the sick, and we have never done that before. Our Lady commanded that people should come on pilgrimage 'with the sick', and created a spring in which they could be bathed. Many, many graces have been bestowed through this means over the century and a half which have elapsed since then, included a stream of extraordinary miracles of healing which have continued to this day.

If you haven't been to Lourdes, you must go. If you've been, then you'll want to come on this pilgrimage, where the liturgy and spirituality will be traditional: the traditional Mass, traditional devotions, and so on.

Lourdes is an extraordinary place. It is the most visited 'tourist' destination in France, and when you get there you will understand why. It is famous for its tacky shops but that is not why the visitors are there: they are there for Our Lady.

After my appeal in the Mass of Ages in the last issue, a number of very good people have come forward to volunteer to help organise it: lay people and clergy with considerable experience of Lourdes. We can now throw the thing open to all who would like to register an interest, both the hale and hearty and those who would come as 'malades', those needing medical care, help with mobility and so on. We can't take your money for booking at this stage but we'd like to hear from you.

The dates are 17-21st September (Monday to Friday). We'll be flying from Stanstead (unless you want to make your own way there) and the all-inclusive price will be in the region of £600.

Email us to register your interest, and let us know if you've been before:

info@lms.org.uk

Retreat and Chant Course

2012-01-13T12:19:00.000Z

Updated:

You can dowload an application form for both events here.

You can book entirely online for the Retreat

and for the Chant Course.

We are on track for a lot of very exciting events this year, and here are some of the first: the regular St Catherine's Trust Family Retreat and (running in parallel) the Gregorian Chant Network Weekend Chant course, on Low Sunday weekend, after Easter, 13-15th April.

The venue is the Oratory School in Oxfordshire, between Oxford and Reading and near Pangbourne railway station (link to map).

The Family Retreat is a unique event, with around 150 people, including children of all ages, on retreat with the Traditional Mass and devotions. Everyone is welcome - you don't have to be or have a family! - but we have activities for children of all ages to enable their parents to attend the spiritual conferences as easily as possible. This year we will have two priests, Fr Andrew Southwell and Fr Thomas Crean OP, and hope to have a seminarian as well.

Running alongside this is a Chant course. Again, everyone is welcome, with any level of experience. The course is led by Colin Mawby, the composer and former Director of Music at Wesminster Cathedral, and Christopher Hodkinson, of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge. Having two chant tutors will enable us to divide the group according to the experience of the singers, so everyone will get the most out of it. The singers accompany the Masses and devotions of the Retreat, so as well as theoretical work on the chant there is live singing with an audience.

You can dowload an application form for both events here.

You can book entirely online for the Retreat

and for the Chant Course.

English FSSP Seminarian in the Catholic Herald

2012-01-10T17:36:00.000Z

Ian Verrier, who I mentioned just the other day as a Fraternity seminarian visiting the FSSP apostolate in Reading, has given a interview in the current Catholic Herald. It's not on the CH website, but happily the interviewer, Mary O'Regan, has it on her own blog, The Path Less Taken.

And a very good interview it is too! Go over to her to read it.

The number of men from England and Wales joining the seminaries of Traditional orders - the Fraternity of St Peter, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, and the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer - is one of the great success stories of the Traditional Movement here. There will be a feature article about this phenomenon in the next Mass of Ages: don't miss it, you'll be able to get it here. Don't read it three weeks after everyone else like The Tablet does, get it delivered your door by joining!

The Latin Mass Society gives financial support to these courageous young men: you can make donations to our 'Seminarian Fund' which is spent on nothing else.

A meatless Epiphany

2012-01-08T18:14:00.000Z

Friday was the first, and I think perhaps it will be the last, time that English Catholics will be required to abstain from flesh meat on 6th January, which is the Feast of the Epiphany in both the reformed Universal Calendar and the 1962 Calendar. We had a splendid candle-lit Mass in SS Gregory and Augustine to celebrate this important feast.

A good occasion for lobster and caviar, perhaps!
The Church of SS Gregory & Augustine's looks quite well lit, but it is a trick of the camera. It was lit entirely by candles, except for the choir loft - we had a single electric bulb!

The solemn proclamation of the moveable feasts of the year, after the Sermon: chanted in Latin.
The distribution of blessed chalk, at the end of Mass.

A lovely occasion. Many thanks to Fr John Saward and the parish of SS Gregory & Augustine's in Oxford, and the Schola Abelis, who accompanied the Mass.

Solemn Mass and Chant Training in St George's Cathedral, Southwark, 11th February

2012-01-07T15:06:00.001Z

Solemn Mass St George's Cathedral, Southwark

Saturday 11 February 2012 10:30am

with Gregorian chant sung by the Cathedral Choir

Same day:
Gregorian Chant Training Day with Nick Gale and Mark Johnson
(Gregorian Chant Network)

Schedule
11:45 Course begins, registration, plenary session with Nick Gale
13:00 Lunch (bring packed lunch)
13:45 Chant Course afternoon sessions (Nick Gale and Mark Johnson)
15:30 Break15:45 Rehearsal for Vespers
16:30 First Vespers of Septuagesima Sunday
17:00 Ends

Fee: £15; reduced to £10 for LMS members.

To register interest for the Gregorian Chant Training Day please email

lmssouthwarknorth AT gmail DOT com

Contact (replace AT with @ and DOT with .)

New toy

2012-01-01T13:03:00.001Z

I have a new toy - or rather, my Iphone has. It turns pictures like this -

Into pictures like this. A zoom lens.

Fr Simon Leworthy FSSP was celebrant.

We were joined today at Reading by another FSSP seminarian, Ian Verrier. His musical skills were much appreciated!

The advantage of this lens is that I can do better blog posts directly from the phone.

Happy Feast of the Circumcision! And what must be the shortest Gospel in the lectionary.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Tablet quotes Mass of Ages

2011-12-30T15:39:00.000Z

Not for the first time, I think. They've picked up the article wrtitten by the FSSP seminarian James Mawdelsy about World Youth Day (see cover photo). As I noted in the blog post below, James was a pro-democracy activist in Burma and was imprisoned; he was subdeacon at the Midnight Mass in Reading I attended. I'm not sure The Tablet can quite get its head around someone moving from political activism to a Traditional Seminary...

It has taken them a few weeks to get their hands on a copy of Mass of Ages. LMS members got it at the beginning of November. Don't get left behind!

You can buy your copy of Mass of Ages here!

Midnight Mass in Reading

2011-12-27T16:33:00.001Z

We had a splendid and very well-attended Solemn Mass in Reading for Midnight Mass. Fr Simon Leworthy FSSP was celebrant, Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP deacon and the FSSP Seminarian James Mawdsley subdeacon.

By coincidence I was given a copy of James Mawdsley's extraordinary book, 'The Heart Must Break', for Christmas. It is about his experiences campaigning for democracy in Burma. It is written from a rather different perspective to that of the seminarian of today - it was published in 2001 and he has naturally moved on - but it is very interesting none the less. How many seminarians have been tortured and kept in solitory confinement under a brutal dictatorship?

Some Christmas humbug

2011-12-24T19:11:00.005Z

The Introit for Midnight Mass, widely known as one of the most beautiful in the repertoire, has the surprising psalm verse: Quare fremuerunt gentes? Why did the pagans rage?

The verb fremo suggests roaring and growling as well as rage. The birth of Our Lord was not met with universal rejoicing. Good people rejoiced. The wicked were besides themselves with rage.In the Gospel story the wicked have their representative in Herod. But this is a cosmic thing. The same contrasting reactions will be on display when Our Lord comes the second time. The good will rejoice. The wicked will feel very differently. The events which bring God into the world are divisive (Matthew 10.34.)

Down in New Zealand, it seems there are militant liberal Anglicans. It seems they are in the camp of the enraged, and want to destroy the Christmas message. They put up an enormous poster of Our Lady looking, with horror, at a pregnancy test kit. The purpose of this blasphemous image is, I assume, to turn the Christmas story into some boring fable of modern life, but it is motivated by the same hatred of Christ that prompted Communists in the Spanish Civil War to shoot at statues of Our Lord. Only the means used differ: the hoped for result, the destruction of an image of transcendental value and redemption, is the same.

A Catholic layman has cut away the lower part of the image. The Reluctant Sinner, for whom I am indebted for the story, isn't sure if this was morally justified, and wonders if we should turn the other cheek. But tolerating an injustice done to God, and to Our Lady, is not an example of turning our other cheek. It turns the other cheek of the whole of society.

The question remains of what means should be employed to oppose such images. The reaction of secular commentators to this 'direct action' (or can only lefties use that term?) is to condemn Catholics in general as intolerant. I don't think that the reaction of the secularists would be any different whatever means had been used: if a Catholic had invoked religious hatred laws, for example, or picketed the Anglicans, or organised a letter-writing campaign. When Catholics criticise the actions of others they are being intolerant.

If a Catholic church had put up a huge poster attacking, with similar lack of taste, the beliefs or actions of non-Catholics, they would also have been accused, naturally, of intolerance, intolerance of others' beliefs or actions. When Catholics criticise this kind attack on Catholics, they are accused of intolerance: intolerance of the anti-Catholic views of others. So Catholic protests against intolerance are intolerant. In fact, Catholic speech of any kind is intolerant, if it reflects in any way the Christian message, because the Christian message is itself intolerant. Attacks on the Christian message cannot be intolerant, since they are attacks on intolerance. You follow me?

This looks like double standards, and it is. Using the language of tolerance here is humbug. But it is a humbug to which everyone who uses that kind of language contributes, when they try to use it to defend 'religious freedom'. The notion of everyone tolerating everyone else, of a big happy family of diverse opinions, only works as long as there are unspoken limits to the tolerance based on Christian assumptions: incest, paedophilia, Satanism, the latest crazy cult. Twenty years ago these limits were enforced not by reasoned argument but by shared assumption. Everyone just took for granted that we didn't tolerate those things, and that obvious Christian activities (nativity plays in school, street preachers) were ok, and that obvious Christian sensibilities (against blasphemy) should be respected. That's not true any more, and the incoherence of the notion of tolerance is being laid bare. What we are being left with is an official cult of secularism, which cannot tolerate Catholicism, because Catholicism has heavy things to say about right and wrong.

Herod couldn't kill the Christ child, and Christmas comes round again whether the secularists like it or not. Christ comes into the world, and demands our adoration, an adoration which has cost countless Catholics their lives. We may be required to put up with some intolerance ourselves.

Problems with the Reform of the Reform, again

2011-12-21T09:29:00.001Z

Fr Ray Blake's encounter with a green-ink correspondant, about his extremely cautious experiment with saying Mass ad orientem, illustrates the point I made in this post perfectly: it is usually easier for a priest concerned about increasing the sacrality of parish liturgy to introduce a new Mass in the Extraordinary Form, or even to make one of his existing Masses an EF one, than to raise the standard of the existing Masses along 'Reform of the Reform' lines.

Fr Blake has already done the EF bit, so I'm not criticising him. On the contrary,I think he's being heroic; I also think that, ultimately, this is a necessary thing, even in the OF. No Catholic can read the Holy Father's criticism of worship versus populum in his 'The Spirit of the Liturgy' and then just carry on as normal. The relevant chapter is available to read here; here's a short quote:

The turning of the priest toward the people has turned the community into a self-enclosed circle. In its outward form, it no longer opens out on what lies ahead and above, but is locked into itself.

Let us pray for Fr Ray, the parish of St Mary Magdalen, and the anonymous letter-writer.

FIUV General Assembly

2011-12-19T15:13:00.002Z

With my full set of photos now available, I thought I'd attampt to give a brief taste of the Una Voce Federation's 'General Assembly' in November. Above are the delegates of the Federation's member associations, with a number of guests, including Cardinal Burke. Below are most of speakers at the conference.

Leo Darroch, President of the Federation, re-elected unopposed at the General Assembly

Monika Rheinschmitt, Treasure, also re-elected.

Don Giuseppe Vallauri, FDP
Don Giuseppe Vallauri then gave a talk upon the ‘private prayers’ of the Priest during Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite

Don Stefano Carusi, IBP
Don Stefano Carusi addressed the Open Forum on the specificity of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, its spirit, and its progress since being erected in 2006.

H.E., Dr. Helmut Ruckriegel
As a member of the FIUV since the very early days, Dr. Ruckriegel was particularly well placed to give a brief history of the foundation, the struggles, the ideals and the future of the FIUV, especially for the benefit of new members of the Federation.

Right Reverend Monsignor Valentín Miserachs Grau.
The Right Reverend Monsignor Valentín Miserachs Grau, President of the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music, addressed the Open Forum on the subject of Sacred Music and the Centenary of the Pontifical Institute which was founded by St. Pius X in 1911.

Fr Joseph Kramer, FSSP
Fr Joseph Kramer, FSSP, Parish Priest of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, the personal parish for the usus antiquior in Rome, spoke about the present state of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

Rev. Canon Luzuy, ICRSP
The final guest speaker at the Open Forum was Canon Joseph Luzuy, ICRSP, who spoke about the recent developments in the Institute of Christ de King Sovereign Priest, including his own Roman apostolate in the Church of Gesu e Maria on the Via del Corso, and the Basilica of Saint Mary Major and that has now extended into the Diocese of Livorno.

Centre, Mr. Oleg-Michael Martynov (Una Voce Russia), with a number of delegates from his part of the world, including new members of the Federation.

FIUV General Assembly photos: Solemn and Low Mass on Sunday

2011-12-18T10:00:00.000Z

On the Sunday of the FIUV General Assembly, we went (as we did in 2009) to the church of the Fraternity of St Peter, Sta Trinita. This is a very lovely church, of which Fr Kramer FSSP is the Parish Priest, and Fr William Barker FSSP his deputy. Although I've already referred to the Solemn Mass we all attended on Sunday morning, and the Low Mass said by Fr Barker I attended the same evening, since I have finally processed my photographs of these Masses here is a small selection.The church was packed for the morning Mass.

More photos of Solemn Mass here.Low Mass, which was preceeded by Benediction and followed by the blessing of a very beautiful catafalque, with the singing of the Libera me.
More photos of the Low Mass here.

FIUV General Assembly photos: Pontifical Low Mass in St Peters

2011-12-17T22:25:00.000Z

I returned from the Una Voce Federation gathering in Rome in November unable to process my photos, so here, finally, they are, first, for the wonderful Pontifical Low Mass was had in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in St Peter's, celebrated by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect Emeritus of the Pontifical Council Ecclesia Dei.

It was the first such Mass I have attended. The first thing to notice is that the celebrant vests in the sanctuary, as at Pontifical Solemn Mass.

You can't see it, but the server next to the Missal for the Gospel had a hand candle (ie in a silver candlestick with a handle) to illuminate the Gospel (again as at Pontifical Solemn Mass).

Cardinal Castrillon preaching.

The choir loft was occupied by some superb singers, who usually sing for the FSSP at Sta Trinita. Although this was a Low Mass, they sang some motets.

Note the cardinal's folded cappa and red biretta left on a prie dieu outside the sanctuary.

The 'Second Confiteor': Cardinal Castrillon gives the absolution.

The Cardinal's red zuchetto (skull cap) is made ready, on a silver tray. They also used a ewer, rather than a little cruet, for the water.

The final blessing.

Having remonved his vestments, the Cardinal is again in his 'day clothes', as it were.

The nave of St Peter's in the late morning is a sea of tourists and pilgrims, taking photos with various electronic devices. The Una Voce delegates returned to our hotel for lunch: with Cardinal Burke.

On disagreeing with bishops

2011-12-17T17:13:00.000Z

Fr Z reports that a Catholic candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, Rick Santorum, has publicly disagreed with the US Conference of bishops, on the subject of immigration. The bishops suggested that, to deal with the huge pool of illegal immigrants already in the United States, they be given the right to stay if they remained in the country for a certain number of years.

“If we develop the program like the Catholic bishops suggested we would be creating a huge magnet for people to come in and break the law some more, we’d be inviting people to cross this border, come into this country and with the expectation that they will be able to stay here permanently,” said Santorum..."

It reminded me of a British politician, John Gummer MP (as he was: he's now Lord Deben), a few years ago. In a speach in the House of Commons in February 2007, he said

"I want to give one example [sc of discrimination] because I happen to disagree with my Church on it, so it is a good example to use. I think that it is right to remove the discrimination against same-sex couples in relation to adoption, but I also think that we should be tolerant of people who do not agree with that."

Gummer had become a Catholic in 1992.

I suppose Tablet-type Catholics would say that they were both entitled to say what they liked, regardless of what their bishops had said on the matter. Left-leaning Catholic liberals (not all liberal Catholics are on the political left) can be surprisingly assertive about the need for other people (not themselves) to obey ecclesiastical pronouncements they happen to like, but this is just tactical. The fundamental view is that if you believe something, it is a matter of conscience; if it is a matter of conscience, then it would wrong for you to act against what you believe. It follows from this facile syllogism that the teaching of the Church should never be followed by anyone on pain of sin, unless by someone who by sheer coincidence happened to agree with it already.

Ultramontanist Catholics would say that both are wrong: the classic proposition of ultramontanism is that the whole gamut of offical teaching is binding on the Catholic, and in both cases we have bishops exercising their teaching office on a matter of public morality, or at least appearing to do so. In each case it is a matter not of doctrine narrowly defined, but of the practical moral implications of doctrine, but if you don't allow bishops (and the Pope) to set out such practical moral implications in an authoritative way then the doctrines will be useless verbal formulae.

A lot of conservative Catholics are attracted by ultramontanism today, in reaction to liberalism. Both positions are mistaken, however. Against liberalism, the point of authoritative teaching is bringing people the light of the Gospel, so that where people once believed the wrong thing, they start believing the right thing. The Church can do this because her teaching is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit, and the people are rationally justified in accepting the teaching because they recognise in the Church the voice of Our Lord. In all sorts of ways the Church's authority can be perceived by people of good will: they can see her power to transform lives and make saints, for example; they see supernatural signs accompanying her activity, and they see the intellectual power and coherence of the teaching itself.

Against ultramontanism, the Church distinguishes between binding and non-binding pronouncements with great care, and this distinction is part of her teaching: to ignore it in order to adhere to that teaching more closely is self-defeating. On matters of historical or scientific fact not directly connected with the deposit of Faith, the Church exercises extreme caution: we are never obliged to believe the truth of private revelations, for example. Again, the moral urgency of a bad situation is for bishops and the Pope to point out: the remedy may be obvious (like feeding some starving people), or it may require complex judgements based on human learning and expertise. In the latter case, it is a matters of prudential judgement, and here there is room for legitimate disagreement.

As Fr Z suggests, however much we may disagree with Santorum on his favoured immigration policy (whatever it is), it is hard to deny that exactly what policy will most help actual and potential immigrants and their hosts is a matter of prudential judgement. Economic and political judgement comes into play. Well-meaning policies can be counter-productive.

Gummer/ Lord Deben is on thinner ice. While there are prudential judgements at issue in placing children with adoptive parents, the idea that is a matter of justice, of non-discrimination, that those in civil partnerships be allowed to adopt, is (as the Bishops of England and Wales had pointed out) incompatible with the obligation of adoption agencies to place children in the best possible family. It is also at right-angles to fundamental Catholic teaching on the nature of the family. Again, the very notion of civil partnerships as a quasi-family unit involves the legal recognition of a sexual relationship incompatible with Natural Law. In speaking as he did, Gummer demonstrated a refusal to be docile to a whole raft of Catholic teachings, not as applied to an individual, tricky, practical case, but in principle.

Juventutem London

2011-12-16T08:21:00.000Z

Another set of photos which has been waiting for for PC to be fixed was that of the Juventutem London Solemn Mass, October 28th. Old news now, but their NEXT Mass will be

taking place at St Mary Moorfields, Eldon Street at 6.30pm on 23rd December. Facebook here.

At the October Mass, in St Patrick's Soho Square, the celebrant was Fr Simon Leworthy FSSP; deacon, Fr Andrew Southwell; subdeacon, Fr Leon Pereira OP. The Mass was accompanied by the Juventutem London Schola led by Matthew Schellhorn.

Annual Mass in Mapledurham

2011-12-15T17:17:00.001Z

Due to problems with my PC over the course of the last few weeks I have a backlog of photographs to post. The annual Mass in Mapledurham took place on 26th November.

It is always a joy to hear Mass in the private chapel of this house, which sheltered priests and was the base of a local Catholic mission for centuries after the Reformation. Mass was said for many years in a hidden chapel in the attic. The present chapel was built after the Catholic Relief Act, at the end of the 18th Century.

Fr Anthony Conlon sang the Mass, and the Schola Abelis sang. These photographs show me serving - an unusual occurance, since I am usually singing! Mass was said with 'Low Mass ceremonies', which is to say with just one server, and no incense.

The chapel is 'Strawbery Hill Gothic', the very early, and not very authentic, Gothic revival, which is still very close to the Classical style of many Catholic churches built after the Catholic Relief Act. It thus avoids the 'Non-Conformist Chapel' look of some Catholic churches of the period (which can, of course, also be very attractive in its own way), with a conscious reference to the Catholic Medieval past.

We have a Mass in this chapel each year, thanks to the hospitality of Mr John and Lady Anne Eyston, the heirs of the Blount family who lived in the house throughout 'Penal Times'.

More photos here.

Gaudete Sunday in St Bede's

2011-12-13T22:07:00.002Z

On Sunday I was at St Bede's, Clapham Park for the monthly polyphonic Mass. It was of course Gaudete Sunday, and Fr Andrew Southwell was wearing some very splendid Rose vestments.Fr Andrew Pinsent was guest preacher.
The Mass was accompanied as usual by the Cantores Missae, directed by Charles Finch, who sang Mass in honour of Our Lady of Loreto by Vinzenz Goller, Ave Maria by Vinzenz Goller, Ave verum by W.A. Mozart, and Alma redemptoris mater by G.P. da Palestrin.

If you've not experienced these Masses with these singers you should go! This is a really unique situation in England and Wales, made possible by a number of benefactors, including the Latin Mass Society.

After Mass I spoke to Br Dominic Mary F.SS.R, a member of the Papa Stronsay community who was passing through: more on that here.

More photos.

Stand it up, Pepsi!

2011-12-09T22:15:00.001Z

The second editorial of The Tablet this week (10/12/11) makes a remarkable claim: that Vatican II contradicts the teaching of the Church.

Referring to Dignitatis Humanae, on the one hand, and the Syllabus of Errors (as exemplifying the 'traditional teaching'), on the other, the Editor writes: 'There is no "hermeneutic if continuity" that can reconcile the two positions.'

Are Miss Pepinster and her team going to join the Sede Vacantists? No: the idea is that this was actually a Good Thing.

How, one might ask, could it be a good thing for Vatican II to turn out to be a heretical pseudo-council? Well, Miss Pepinster doesn't think Vatican II was a heretical pseudo council. This would be tame compared with what she actually believes: she thinks that every previous council was a heretical pseudo-council, and that every previous Pope was a heresiarch. (Or the great majority of them, any way, and none of the others contradicted them.)

This follows from her quoting Dignitatis Humanae: 'This doctrine of religious freedom is rooted in divine revelation, and for this reason Christians are bound to respect it all the more conscientiously.' If, as she claims, the teaching of DH is correct, dogmatic, and binding, and if, further, it contradicts the previous teaching of the Church, the Pius X and all the rest of them did not have the Catholic Faith.

Perhaps I am being unfair in applying masculine, linear logic to the meandering thoughts of a feminist. But what I would like to know is: what, according to Miss P, actually WAS the teaching of DH? For this article, ambitious as it is, neither quotes nor paraphrases the document on this central question. She merely tells us it was contrary the Syllabus, when it condemned the proposition 'Every man is free to embrace and profess the religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.'

It would be astonishing if the Fathers of the Council professed that condemned proposition - it would simply be mad. How can people be (morally) free to break Natural and Divine Law? DH was about the question of using coercion against people who had the wrong beliefs, not about the objective liceity of the beliefs themselves.

But hey, perhaps the great brains of The Tablet have got a quote up their sleeve which everyone else has overlooked. So I say: you made the claim, Miss P, you stand it up.

While we are waiting for her to do that, readers can ponder this passage from DH.

"Religious freedom, in turn, which men demand as necessary to fulfill their duty to worship God, has to do with immunity from coercion in civil society. Therefore it leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ."

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Visit to the ICKSP in the Wirral

2011-12-07T10:16:00.001Z

On Sunday I was in the Wirral with my family to see the apostolate of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP, 'the Institute'), in this corner of the diocese of Shrewsbury. We were joined by Paul Waddington, the LMS Treasurer, who lives in Yorkshire.

First I attended Mass in the Church of the Sacred Heart, where Canon Olivier Meney ICKSP celebrated a Missa Cantata.

After Mass Paul Waddington and I took Canon Meney and his assistant, Abbe Cosme Montjean (an Institute seminarian), to a very jolly lunch over the Mersey in Liverpool. We then went to see the church of which he now rector: the well-known church of SS Peter & Paul, now a shrine in honour of SS Peter & Paul and St Philomena, in New Brighton. Canon Meney and Abbe Montjean live in the Presbytery which adjoins the church, having overseen the completion of the work necessary on that. What remains is the restoration of the church itself.Currently, Canon Meney is saying daily Mass in what was the Sacristy.

The church itself is extremely impressive. It was built in the 1930s and can seat 650 people. It stands on a hill, and the copper dome can be seen far out to sea.

The Sanctuary, which seems to be entirely as it was built, is ideally suited to Solemn Mass.

There is a very fine Lady Chapel on the Epistle side.

The restoration in hand is a hugely exciting project, and I look forward to seeing its progress in the coming months. Bishop Davies is to be commended for the imaginative way he has found to secure the future of this much-loved church.

From left to right: Paul Waddington, Canon Meney, me, and Abbe Cosme Montjean, in the presbytery dining room.

Full set of photos here.

Pope 'male' shock - The Tablet

2011-12-03T10:47:00.001Z

The Tablet's eye for a story is in evidence this week in the Editorial, where Catherine Pepinster scoops the world with the shocking, shocking news that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, is 'male'. The surpasses the brilliance of the news, carried without fail in every edition, and with unflagging outrage, that the Pope is Catholic.

How did our intrepid reporter work it out? By reading the Holy Father's latest document, on women in Africa. Naturally, once we know the author of the document is male, we know in advance that the contents have no value. A bit like Miss Pepinster's ramblings about men, or the priesthood, one assumes.

Being female, Miss P's thoughts on women in Africa carry far more weight than those of the Universal Pastor. Her great insight? Women in Africa should be given condoms.

Nothing is more predicable than a feminist. And nothing more out of touch with reality. What are these women going to do with these condoms? Women, ahem, don't actually wear the things. All they can do is give them to their overbearing menfolk and beg them to use them. Is that empowering?

Saying to a man: 'wear this and you'll be free of responsibility for any offspring, and if you infect me with AIDS everyone will say you took all reasonable precautions: you can use me as a sex object as much as you like' - that's empowering too.

In this real world, Miss Pepinster, condoms reduce the rate of infection between a couple, one with AIDS and one without, by 80%. Do you want to subject women to that 20%? If that is what western feminists can offer, they can keep it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Change and renewal as the reiteration of the same old thing

2011-11-30T09:51:00.000Z

News comes from Malta about Archbishop Cremona's Pastoral Letter for the start of Advent, which could be read as a veiled criticism of the Traditional Mass which is finally making some headway on the island. The Archbishop (the letter is also signed by the Bishop of Gozo) is insistent on the need for change:

Experience shows us just how true is the old adage which states that “the one who does not renew himself will wither away”.

By his very nature, man seeks to renew himself and that which is around him. Life is a process whereby we move from one phase to another. At the same time, man is also capable of resisting change. He is capable of putting spokes into the wheel of change, choosing to remain entrenched very firmly in the past. This is because sometimes change comes at a price.

He must be excited about the latest developments, then, in which the Church seems to be escaping the rut of the last forty years. Forty years ago, of course, it wasn't a rut: all those new developments really were new, or fairly new. Pastoral Councils, permanent deacons, Mass in the vernacular, lay participation, ecumenism... But that was forty years ago. Times have changed; we must change; to live is to change; we mustn't stagnate; change change change...

But it seems the Archbishop isn't in favour of all change. On the contrary, he has a positive idea of what kind of changes are needed. And funnily enough, these are exactly the changes which were made forty years ago. Because it seems those changes weren't entirely complete.

Yet since some seed has fallen onto dry land or among thorns, so the desired fruit might have not all been reaped.

So the change we really need to undergo is to go back to those old changes and do them all over again - or to do them some more - or embrace them more fully - or something.

Is it possible that 'not all the fruit has been reaped' because the times are no longer demand this kind of approach? Is it possible that, forty years being a long time and all that, different changes are now called for? No, not at all. On the contrary, we must

shift from our present standpoint and move forward, rather than simply going around in circles.

Even more worrying is this danger:

Therefore, unless we are vigilant, as a Church we too run the risk of running dry, our liturgy becomes theatrical, the Church is rendered no more than a historical museum.

This pastoral letter could have been written by any number of bishops. It encapsulates the generational misunderstanding which is gripping the Church. Those whose went through the 'Post Conciliar Renewal' with enthusiasm know exactly what is 'old' and what is 'new': the old Mass is old, the fearless preaching of the Gospel is old; the new Mass is new, ecumenism, lay participation and all the rest is new. If anyone suggests having the EF this is obviously a case of someone wanting something old, of rolling back the renewal, or undoing change. And of course in a sense it is.

But for anyone younger than fifty, the new Mass is old. Eucharistic ministers, lay readers, ecumenical gatherings and all the rest are not new and exciting, they are part of the familiar and faded pattern of church life. When we discover that they were only instituted a generation ago, that doesn't fill us with enthusiasm; it just makes us realise that their roots are not deep, they don't derive from the timeless wisdom of the Church: if they aren't working, we should try something else. The Old Mass is new, having a sense of the sacred in church is new, insisting on a separation of roles between priest and faithful is new, liberating, refreshing; the fearless preaching of the Gospel, without an exaggerated tact toward our 'separated brethren', is a breath of fresh air. The talk of change change change which accompanies a deep hostility to changing anything, the exhortations to renewal which accompany the insistence that the theology, hymns, vestments and parish structures of the 1970s be preserved in amber for all time... these just strike us as absurd. Can't you read the signs of the times, friends?

Ecclesia Dei New Zealand

2011-11-29T09:38:00.001Z

The other day Diane Taylor, Secretary of Ecclesia Dei New Zealand (the New Zealand affiliate of the Una Voce Federation), visited Oxford; we had lunch together. Here she is looking at the relics in the Relic Chapel of the Oxford Oratory.

It's pretty unusual to be visited by members of the Una Voce Federation from the other side of the earth, but having come to Rome for the Federation meeting Mrs Taylor decided to make the most of it.

In the capital, Aukland, New Zealand has had for some time a church dedicated to the Traditional Mass, served by a priest who looks after a regular congregation drawn from far and wide. This is an important precedent for the developing situation in England: a church shared between a parish and the Fraternity of St Peter in Reading, an official 'Chaplaincy' of the Fraternity in the Diocese of Northhampton, and the agreement between the Bishop of Shrewsbury and the Institute of Christ the King which gives them the use of the Church of SS Peter & Paul in the outskirts of Liverpool.

Trouble up North

2011-11-27T11:39:00.002Z

The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, who are based at their monastery of Golgotha on the island of Papa Stronsay in the Orkneys, have documentation on their blog which appears to show that they have been deprived of a share of a legacy by the Society of St Pius X.

The will of the late Mrs Kingon-Rousse of Herne Bay stated:

7. SUBJECT TO the payment of my debts funeral and testamentary expenses and the aforementioned legacies I give all the remainder of my estate not otherwise effectively disposed of by this Will or any codicil hereto to the Society of St. Pius X in Great Britain and request that one half of such residue of my estate be used for the benefit of the London Branch of the Society operating from St. George's House 125 Arthur Road London SW19 7DR who service Saints John Fisher & Thomas More Church Herne and for the remaining half share to be utilised for the benefit of Father Michael Mary and the community of Redemptorists at Golgotha Monastery Island Papa Stronsay Orkney Isles KW17 2AR. And I further request that Father Michael Mary put aside the sum of TWO THOUSAND POUNDS (£2, 000.00) for mass offerings to be used for the repose of the soul of myself and my family by birth or marriage and for the benefit of every holy soul in purgatory AND I declare that the receipt of the Treasurer or other competent officer for the time being of the Society of St. Pius X in Great Britain appearing to my Executor shall be a sufficient receipt to my Executor in respect of this residuary bequest

The Sons have received the £2,000 for Mass stipends, but not the rest. A strange story.

But all is made clear in the latest edition of the SSPX Newsletter (December 2011):

'Let it be know that this good lady's wishes to support the traditional Redemptorists were certainly taken into consideration when, after consultation with the General House, and following legal advice, a good deal more than the original sum of money was used to purchase St Columba's House on Stronsay for the benefit of the faithful Redemptorists who remained following the 2008 split, as well as the local faithful.'

I am very happy to put this statement from Fr Paul Morgan, Superior of the SSPX in Great Britain, before a wider audience.

The Sons conclude their post with the words: 'we resign ourselves to this injustice.'

In the meantime, the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, a community which voted in 2008 to seek canonical regularisation from Rome, and have received it, are in serious need of money. You can send donations to them directly, and join the mailing list of the Friends of Papa Stronsay. If you have not done so,

take out a subscription to their quarterly newspaper, The Catholic,

buy their annual Wall Calendar!

Yes the LMS does one too, so buy that as well! One for your kitchen, one for the sitting room - obviously! And buy a few more to give your friends for Christmas!

A side issue

2011-11-25T13:39:00.001Z

A series of possibly linked facts has become evident. They may, or may not, be of interest to readers.

The Society of St Catherine of Siena has disappeared from the internet. Its web address was http://www.caterinati.org.uk/ (Here are some remains.)

The Journal Usus Antiquior is now edited by Ben Whitworth. (Recall the launch.) It is no longer linked to the Society of St Catherine of Siena (though see the Facebook page).

Dr Laurence Hemming no longer describes himself as a Deacon of the Catholic Church on his website.

I don't know what to make of all this; the full facts are not available to me. I don't think it is terribly important. It is a side issue.

Attack on me by Christian Order

2011-11-23T16:38:00.002Z

The small number of dedicated Christian Order readers who manage to wade through through the first 26 pages of the latest edition will find a few paragraphs attacking me by name, on page 27 and the top of 28, for my blog post about the fiasco of the cancelled conference organised by Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. I hesitate to give this any publicity but I think it is worth making a few remarks about it.

As Editor of Christian Order Rod Pead has long treated it as a personal mouthpiece, but recent issues have taken this principle to new extremes. The current issue comprises entirely, with the exception of a letter to the editor printed on the inside covers, the Editorial. Christian Order has a small format, but that is 79 pages of text (there are no pictures), not counting the contents page. This is not an unprecedented situation, and this is in fact just Part III of an apparently endless rant about the Jews.

I doubt any sane person will have the time or inclination to sit down and untangle the various theological and political claims being made by Rod Pead in these articles, to establish whether he can fairly be accused of anti-semitism. What a glance at the contents page tells us, however, without further ado, is that he is in the grip of an obsession. The style is prolix and undisciplined; he's just rabbitting on like a pub bore on speed. If there were a serious point at the bottom of all this verbiage, a serious person would realise that these CO articles are counter-productive in getting it across.

Rod Pead's attack on me is entirely about a single sentence in my blog post about the 'PEEP fiasco'. The point of the post was to say, against Dr William Oddie, that the successive errors of judgement which led to the cancellation of the PEEP conference cannot be attributable to a traditonalist element in Pro Ecclesia which Daphne MacLeod ought to purge. On the contrary, Mrs MacLeod was taking full responsibility for the decisions, and the conspiracy-theory element of the story is neither typical of or nor restricted to those associated with the Traditonal Mass. I added, towards the end:

"I don't know much about Kramer and Sungenis, but I know they are widely regarded as dangerous lunatics, and with justification."

I'd be happy to withdraw the 'with justification', on the basis that it is for their accusers to make the case, which of course they are happy to do. My point is simply that there is a perception of them being extremists, and that this perception is based on enough evidence (justification) that it is not going to be undone in a trice by a couple of adverts in the Catholic Herald. Given what had just happened - the withdrawal of Cardinal Burke as a speaker on the grounds that PEEP was a cause for concern to faithful Catholics (ie, a bit extreme), inviting two alternative speakers who are regarded as more than a bit extreme was not a very clever idea.

Rod Pead's accusation against me is that this remark of mine is an unjustified slur on the good names of Kramer and Sungenis: no, it's not, it is merely a comment about public perceptions of them; my lack of knowledge about them in themselves is made explicit.

He also says that this remark indicates that I am a 'useful idiot' in going along with the great conspiracy of Jews, Communists, Freemasons, and promoters of theological innovation, yawn yawn. Well, I have news for Rod Pead: insofar as there are problems in the Church, insofar as error needs to be opposed, and our great liturgical traditions made available once more to all Catholics, as our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI now gloriously reigning wills, the Latin Mass Society is doing a great deal more about it than Christian Order.

A brief restoration of the Domine Salvam Fac for the OF

2011-11-23T10:00:00.000Z

I was alerted to a story in the Daily Mail saying that 'for the first time ever' Catholics were to have an official prayer for the Queen, for her Diamond Jubilee. Not until I saw the Catholic Herald was it explained that this was to be said on Trinity Sunday 2012. I could find no trace of the announcement on the Bishops' Conference website (what is this website actually for, one may ask?)

Not even the Catholic Herald seemed aware that the Bishops were using the prayer which was said at the end of the principal Mass on a Sunday in every parish in England and Wales until 1964. The translation is not the same as that found in my Baronius Press missal but it is clearly the same prayer.

Not only do Catholics still have this prayer when they attend a Sung Mass on a Sunday in Extraordinary Form, but they sing part of it; it is familiar as the 'Domine salvam fac' ('salvUm fac' when there is a king). The rest is strictly a collect, which is said by the priest. (You can hear it sung from the LMS website here.)

I'm delighted to see this being restored, at least for one Sunday. I'm not sure why it 'is used after the post-Communion prayer and before the final blessing', instead of right at the end of Mass; perhaps the Bishops are worried that, not being used to it, the people would start leaving church before the prayer was said.

In 1964, so I understand (I hadn't been born) the Bishops of England and Wales announced that the Domine salvam fac would no longer be said, but a prayer for the Queen should be included among the Bidding Prayers. I think I have heard this happen, but I'd say it was pretty rare. What actually happened in most places is that prayers for the good estate of the Queen were just forgotten.

When this prayer is mentioned there is usually a flurry of annoyed comments from Jacobites, Fenians, and assorted grumpy Republicans asking why we should pray for the Queen. The answer is not, of course, that (as one commentator on the Catholic Herald story suggested) she is a 'good Christian lady'. She's not, particularly. The idea that she should refuse to sign any of the now quite numerous laws permitting the cold-blooded murder of her most vulnerable subjects, as her Coronation Oath would suggest she should, and as several Catholic monarchs have done, seems far from her mind. The answer is, simply, that she is the Queen. If we had a Republic (which God forbid), we should pray for the President, or the Republic itself, however good, bad, or indifferent they might be. To refuse to pray for the Head of State is to refuse to pray for the good of the very fabric of law and custom which sustains society. It is a form of spite whose object is ultimately oneself. Much more productive is the slogan of the otherwise obscure American statesman, Carl Schurz:

My country right or wrong! If right to be kept right! If wrong to be set right!

I don't know when Catholics started to pray the Domine salvum /salvam fac for the monarch, but a friend of mine has found it in a Missal printed in 1815. Message to the Daily Mail: we've been doing this for a long while!

Sunday Missa Cantata in Oxford

2011-11-22T13:58:00.001Z

On Sunday Fr John Saward celebrated a Missa Cantata at 12 noon in SS Gregory and Augustine's in the Woodstock Road. Although we are blessed with many traditional Masses in and around Oxford, a Sung Mass on a Sunday is rare, and Fr Saward is now celebrating one each month.

The Mass was accompanied by the Schola Abelis, with polyphony: Cristobal de Morales's five-part Missa L'Homme Armee (the Armed Man).

The next one will be on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, 18th December, again at 12 noon.

Annual Requiem

2011-11-20T15:06:00.003Z

Yesterday was the LMS' Annual Requiem for our deceased members, a Pontifical Mass in Westminster Cathedral celebrated by Bishop Alan Hopes. Fr Andrew Southwell, the LMS Chaplain, was assistant priest; Fr Tim Finigan was Deacon, Fr David Irwin Subdeacon.

Before Mass, we had our customary prayers for Cardinal Heenan. I laid a wreath on his tomb in the Cathedral; the prayers were led by Fr Patrick Haywood. The current issue of the Mass of Ages has a feature on the 'Heenan Indult', which the Cardinal personally requested (at the request of the Latin Mass Society) from Pope Paul VI, in 1971, forty years ago this year. The importance of this, the first official permission for the Traditional Mass for the good of the faithful, is difficult to overstate. The permission was extended to the whole world only in 1984.

Bishop Hopes on the faldstool.

Bishop Hopes wore a dalmatic and tunicle under his chasuble, as bishops do. He took them all off, a put on a cope, to preach (at the end of Mass, not after the Gospel, again a custom of Requiems) and to bless the catafalque.

As is now customary, there was a catafalque, which Bishop Hopes blessed.

These photos aren't as good as usual since I don't have access to my usual processing software. It is very noticable how dependant I am on the magic of Photoshop when taking long-distance photos in dim lighting - and without a flash. Normal service, I hope, will be resumed shortly. The rest of my photo set is here.

Mystery solved

2011-11-18T15:14:00.002Z

In my post about early morning Masses in St Peter's, I included a photo of one of the chapel murals: an intriguing but obscure scene. I've now been told (by our Rep for Clifton, no less!) what it depicts.
Here's the picture.The thing I missed completely when I posted it was that the fellow about to commit suicide is clutching a key. This wouldn't have helped me all that much but it seems his demonic possession and suicide in front of a king is the punishment for his sacrilege in attempting to steal the key which decorated St Peter's tomb.

I am told: "The fresco is to be found in the Chapel of the Madonna of Partorienti. It was painted by Giovan Ricci da Novara, between 1618 and 1619. The panel is one of several by da Novara, and represents 'The Longobard and the Key of St Peter', which is an episode narrated by Gregory the Great. The Longobard is the man committing suicide. He tried to break the golden key from St Peter's tomb and then, taken over by an evil spirit, he slit his own throat. The enthroned king is Autari, the king of the (Arian) Lombards, who repairs the damage done to St Peter's tomb. "

Confirmations in London

2011-11-14T12:11:00.004Z

Recently Ordained Bishop Steps in at Last Moment to Enable Latin Mass Society Confirmations to Go Ahead

Rt Rev John Sherrington, newly installed auxiliary bishop of Westminster conferred Confirmations in the Traditional Rite on 31 candidates at a ceremony organised by the Latin Mass Society (LMS) at St James’s, Spanish Place in central London on Saturday, 12 November.Originally, Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster was intending to confer the Sacrament but had to withdraw at the very last moment owing to ill health. Bishop Sherrington stepped into the breach at less than 24 hours’ notice to ensure a very successful and happy event went ahead as scheduled. He was assisted by Fr Andrew Southwell, the LMS National Chaplain, Fr Tim Finigan and the rector of St James’s, Fr Christopher Colven.After celebrating Pontifical Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament the bishop joined candidates and their families and friends in the Parish Social Centre for a buffet lunch where he also cut one of two celebratory cakes.

After celebrating Pontifical Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament the bishop joined candidates and their families and friends in the Parish Social Centre for a buffet lunch where he also cut one of two celebratory cakes.LMS General Manager Mike Lord said: ‘We were delighted to have the chance to meet Bishop Sherrington for the first timesince his installation and grateful that he was able to help us out at such short notice. It was a joyful occasion for all involved. I understand this was the first time that the bishop had administered Confirmations in the Traditional Rite, but it was a seamless performance, drawing complimentary remarks from the clergy who assisted him, all of whom are experienced hands in the Extraordinary Form. We were very happy that Bishop Sherrington spent time chatting to the candidates and their families afterwards, even delaying his departure for another appointment to ensure he had had the opportunity of speaking to everyone. Westminster archdiocese is fortunate to have acquired an auxiliary so pastorally attuned to the needs of ordinary Catholics, whatever form of the liturgy they are attached to.’

See more on Fr Tim Finigan's blog; see the full set of LMS photos.

Photos of the FIUV Conference

2011-11-11T14:22:00.003Z

I'm not in a position to process my photos yet, annoyingly, but here are a couple I took: of Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos celebrating Mass in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in St Peter's, and of the conference participants with Cardinal Raymond Burke.

Here are some photos taken by the Wandering Oblate.

Choir singing at our Mass in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel; they are in fact the regular singers at Sta Trinita, the FSSP church.

The congregation: the chapel was pretty full.

The last blessing.

Cardinal Castrillon after Mass with Leo Darroch, FIUV President.

Cardinal Burke at lunch.

My set here for Cardinal Hoyos' Mass; here for the Conference.

The Wandering Oblate's set of photos; blog - I think he'll be posting on the conference soon.

FSSP Vocations Retreat

2011-11-10T10:40:00.002Z

Vocation discernment weekend, at St John Fisher House in Reading on 16-17-18 December 2011:

For Catholic men between 18 and 35 years of age (under 18 please contact us).

Starts on Friday 16^th December 2011 at 6pm – ends on Sunday 18^th December 2011 mid-afternoon. Led by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP.

Location: St John Fisher House is the residence of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter in England & Wales.

Address: 17, Eastern Avenue, Reading, RG1 5RU, England.

Access: 27mn from London Paddington by direct trains up to every 10mn, and from London Waterloo. Direct trains from Oxford, Bournemouth, Bristol, Newcastle, York, Birmingham, Gatwick Airport, Southampton Airport, etc. Direct ‘RailAir’ buses from Heathrow to Reading train station every 20mn. Motorway: M4.

Limited overnight accommodation: please book now.

Programme: Spiritual conferences, socials, Holy Mass each of the three days (Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite) including polyphonic Sunday Mass, silent prayer, private talk with Fr de Malleray, FSSP. Fr de Malleray will explain what a vocation is in general and to the priesthood in particular. Read here the Holy Father’s recentLetter to seminarians. Extract: “The proper celebration of the Eucharist involves knowing, understanding and loving the Church’s liturgy in its concrete form. In the liturgy we pray with the faithful of every age – the past, the present and the future are joined in one great chorus of prayer. As I can state from personal experience, it is inspiring to learn how it all developed, what a great experience of faith is reflected in the structure of the Mass, and how it has been shaped by the prayer of many generations.”

Cost: no set price for students or unemployed – any donation welcome; others: £50 suggested.

New: our special Vocations flyer and videos on www.fssp.org.uk/england/pages/vocations.

Early morning Masses in St Peter's

2011-11-08T21:35:00.002Z

I have been hearing about the early Masses in St Peter's and this morning I got up early to see them. If you get to the front of St Peter's before 7am, you see the great iron gates swing back and you (and, at least today, a crowd of others) can swarm in.
In the following minutes priests start pouring out of the sacristy to say private Masses at side altars. Some go into the crypt, some to the altars of the upper basilica; some are saying Masses for groups of visitors, some are simply saying a private Mass. There were priests saying Masses in various languages, some for quite large congregations, singing; others were saying the Traditional Mass.

We followed one group into the crypt, which I have never seen before. It is an odd mixture of beautiful old chapels and ... modern ones.
I'd be interested to know what this fresco, in the crypt, depicts; it appears to show someone threatening suicide surrounded by people in turbans, with the eager encouragement of a devil.

We ended up back in the upper Basilica and (looking out for the tell-tale altar cards) found at least two Traditional Masses being said; the one we actually attended was at the altar over the tomb of Bl Innocent XI, and under an immense fresco of the Transfiguration. (The other was in the chapel of St Pius X.)

I have no idea who the celebrant was, but he ended up with a congregation of four. Sadly, neither he nor the other priest celebrating the EF had a server; if I'd been there when he arrived, I would have volunteered myself.
(Someone with greater knowledge than I have can perhaps explain why the priests saying the OF were in red today and those saying the EF were in green; the Universal calendar on my IPhone would, if anything, suggest they'd be the other way round.)

Flushed with our success we then had breakfast at the maddest restaurant in Rome: Babingtons, to be found for more than a century at the foot of the Spanish Steps, which serves English food. Yup, scones and clotted cream, 'Full English Breakfast', a wide range of teas... I had an extremely good Eggs Benedict, in honour of the Holy Father. I did, however, resist the temptation to photograph it.
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End of FIUV Conference, & liturgical fabric

2011-11-08T11:54:00.001Z

The second aftrnoon of the FIUV conference is an 'Open Forum', taken up with talks. I think I can best blog about this when the talks become available on-line, which is planned. We heard from representatives of the Fraternity of St Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, the Institute of the Good Shepherd, and the head of the Institute of Sacred Music.

After the end of the Conference, on Monday morning, we had a private Mass in the modern chapel of the hotel.

And I have been busy! First, with two members of the Guild of St Clare, the LMS' guild of needlecraft, I visited Lisio, a fabulous source of liturgical fabric. They have supplied fabrics for use by the Holy Father himself, and have wonderful things, many based on motifs from Renaissance art.

Their stuff ranges all the way from 'very expensive' bracket to the, well, mind-bogglingly expensive. But these fabrics can be used in many ways, in panels and as trims, and in the right context this could be a very useful source.

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FIUV Conference Day 2: Mass

2011-11-07T09:30:00.002Z

Yesterday we attended Mass at Sta Trinita dei Pellegrini, the church of the Fraternity of St Peter's in Rome, for their

regular Sunday Solemn Mass. I was delighted to see not only Fr Kramer FSSP, the Parish Priest, but also Fr William Barker FSSP, whom I saw ordained in Wigratzbad only two years ago. He is Fr Kramer's deputy.

I was in fact back there in the evening to attend Mass with my wife Lucy who had just arrived, and that (Low) Mass was celebrated by Fr Barker himself. At the end of Mass he blessed a beautiful catafalque (with the Libera nos and the full cermony, as at the end of a Requiem), a custom they have for the first 8 days of November.

It was very noticable to me how numbers have increased since two years ago. In 2009 the 10.30 Solemn Mass was well attended, but this time the church was full. There was a free place here and there but you had to look for them, and there were people standing at the back. This is a great testimony to the hard work of Fr Kramer, and the excellence of the liturgy, and very good polyphonic choir.

In addition it should be noted that, as I was told by another priest, there are now no fewer than eight places where the faithful can attend the Traditional Mass in central Rome on a Sunday - not counting the SSPX.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

FIUV Conference Day 1 Part 2

2011-11-06T13:56:00.001Z

After Mass yesterday we were joined for lunch by Cardinal Raymond Burke.

We then had the 'Private' part of the conference, at which Leo Darroch was re-elected as President, and Monika Rheinschmitt (from Germany) as Treasurer. We have a new Secretary, Thomas Murphy, from Ireland. The Council was elected unopposed (the number of nominations exactly matched the number of places available), including me, and the head of the new group formed in the Philippines, Carlos Palad.
This was not the most photogenic part of the conference, but it is an important one. We have accepted 17 new Associations into the Federation since the last meeting two years ago, bringing the total to 45, an astonishing rate of growth; it is of immense benefit to the new members to have the moral and practical support of the more establishes groups and of the Federation as a whole. FIUV has never been more active or useful.

Pontifical Low Mass in St Peter's for FIUV

2011-11-05T10:58:00.001Z

Today, the first day of the Una

Voce International confernce, we had a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Hoyos in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of St Peter's.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

LMS Ordo 2012 now available

2011-11-05T09:08:00.000Z

Actually it came out when I was recently away but I thought it would be good to advertise the fact here. The Ordo tells you what Mass can or should be celebrated each day of the year: so how movable feasts and Sundays interact with non-movable ones, what class each feast is and so on. It is essential for any priest wanting to say the Traditional Mass, and extremely useful for singers, servers, and anyone else wanting to know what to expect!

It costs £7.90 incl postage and you can buy it here.

NB: 'A unique feature of the LMS Ordo is that, in addition to information on the universal calendar, it lists variations for the dioceses of England and Wales for the Traditional Rite.'

Cups and Chalices, again

2011-11-04T10:25:00.001Z

My letter in The Tablet about the alleged vulgarity of the Roman Canon talking about the 'precious chalice' stimulated a predictable mail-bag for their letters page, and they published one response in the mag and another in their 'Letters Extra' page on their website. The appearance of two letters attacking me by name does not seem to justify their publishing a response from me, however, so I'll give the letter I immediately sent them in full below.

First, the letters from the enraged, but clearly terribly confused, liberals. The repetition of the same old point, that New Testament doesn't use the phrase 'precious chalice', unlike the Roman Canon, never seems to stimulate the obvious question: are we talking about a translation of the New Testament, or a translation of the Roman Canon?

Letters, 12th Oct

Perhaps the chairman of the Latin Mass Society, Joseph Shaw (Letters, 8 October), might go back to the Bible to find the authentic version of what Jesus himself said and did at the Last Supper? All our English translations of the Greek/Aramaic synoptic gospels and St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians refer to “the cup” in their accounts of the institu- tion of the Eucharist. There was no “precious chalice” at the Passover meal in the upper room, despite the use of “hanc praeclarum calicem” in the fifth century, Latin adaptation of the original texts. Wasn’t one of the aims of the new translation of the Mass to bring us closer to biblical sources?

Margaret Smart

Brighton, East Sussex

Note the glorious fantasy of the Aramaic Gospels. This version only exists today in the fevered imaginations of biblical critics, and probably never existed anywhere else. What weight does an imaginary text have in this debate? Does the Church teach that imaginary documents are inspired by the Holy Spirit?

Letters Extra 12th Oct

Joseph Shaw (Letters, 8 October) is right: "he took the cup" is not an accurate translation of the words accipens et hunc praeclarum calicem in the Roman Canon. But it is an accurate translation of labon to poterion, (literally, "getting the drinking-cup") which is what we read in Matthew (26:27) and Mark's (14:23) accounts of the institution of the Eucharist. Luke (22:20) and Paul (1 Corinthians 11:25) use the same word, poterion, which means "cup". There is no suggestion that there was anything praeclarus ("excellent" or "noble") about it, nothing to justify our calling the cup Jesus used at the Last Supper a "precious chalice" – still less "this precious chalice" (hunc means "this"). So what is Dr Shaw claiming: that an uninspired prayer trumps the Word of God?

(Fr) Paul Browne OSB, Leyland, Lancs

My response (directed to the letter published in hard copy, though equally applicable to both).

Margaret Smart (Letter, 15th October) unwittingly illustrates the point she wishes to deny. She clearly thinks that it was a mistake for St Jerome, and his predecessor translators of the gospels into Latin, to use the Latin 'calix' ('chalice') to translate the Greek 'poterion'. She further thinks it was a mistake for Pope St Gelasius I to allow the phrase 'praeclarem calicem' into the Roman Canon. Most interestingly of all, she thinks it was a mistake for Pope Paul VI to retain this phrase in the First Eucharistic Prayer, and allow 'calix' in the others. What she cannot claim is that the new Missal translation is mistaken in giving 'precious chalice' for 'praeclarem calicem'. That is simply what it means.

So her objection, to repeat, is not to the translation, but to the Latin original. She, like many of your correspondants, is rejecting the theological aptness of the 1969 Mass, and of the entire Western liturgical tradition which lies behind it, in relation to this exact phrase.

However, I fancy her objections are based on a misunderstanding. While the chalice may, or may not, have been precious in terms of human craftsmanship, it was certainly precious in terms of its contents. And as the Church accepts Tradition as a source of dogma alongside Scripture, the Roman Canon has its own theological authority.

So here I am, once again defending Archbishop Bugninni and Pope Paul VI against the onslaughts of ignorant people who think they know better. And I shall always defend them in such cases. Insofar as they gave us innovations, what they did is fallible of human nature and can be criticised by Catholics of good will. But insofar as they faithfully passed on to future generations the ancient tradition of the Church, their actions have the authority of that tradition, in this case an unbroken Ordinary Magisterium of fifteen centuries. That authority does not give way to silly letters in The Tablet.

Chalice: the Holy Chalice of Valencia, which has long been claimed to be the 'poterion' used at the Last Supper. The cup part of it is indeed of Our Lord's era, and is made of agate. There is more information on Fr Z's blog.

Mass of Ages relaunched!

2011-11-03T09:02:00.004Z

The first edition of the new-look Mass of Ages, produced by our new editor Gregory Murphy, is now available. It is on its way to LMS members, and can be purchased from a number of Catholic bookshops, as well as directly from us on-line.

For the first time it is in FULL COLOUR!

Buy it here.

From the News Blog:

We have interviews and special features, news from around the country, a regular report from Rome, a new family notebook column, an Advent feature, a special appeal about Lourdes, an interview with an ex-LMS Rep turned priest, a feature on the 40th anniversary of the Heenan Indult, in-depth reports from WYD from a Traditionalist perspective, comment and opinion columns, a delve into the LMS archives from past decades, your letters and a prize crossword, plus full listings of Traditional Masses across England and Wales.

Pro-Life March to Parliament

2011-11-02T11:07:00.002Z

Join Family Life International, EuroProLife, SPUC, Good Counsel Network, Helpers of God's Precious Infants and other ProLife groups in bringing attention to the grave plight of our unborn brothers and sisters.

Since 1967, more than 7 million children have died at the hands of the death peddlers. Our British politicians continue to fund the killing of Britain's future generations at a rate of 200,000 per year that is One million children every 5 years.

When Our Lord asks what did you do to protect my innocent little ones, you can confidently reply, “I called to the end of the killing of these innocent little ones was one of those activities.

“500 Crosses for Life” is an initiative of European Voice of Unborn Children: Protect our Life (EuroProLife) Please join us so our voices can be heard pleading for the voiceless.

More details at www.flionline.org, www.europrolifeuk.org

Family Life International, Doing the most important work on earth.

First Mass in New Brighton under the ICKSP!

2011-10-31T17:38:00.003Z

News from the Latin Mass Society:

We extend a warm welcome to Canon Olivier Meney, ICKSP, who took up residence at SS Peter and Paul's Church, Atherton Street, New Brighton, Wirral CH45 9LT, at the weekend. Canon Meney celebrated his first public Mass in the church this morning, Monday, 31 October. (New Brighton is part of the Liverpool conurbation and is on the Liverpool underground system.)

As you will no doubt already know, the Bishop of Shrewsbury, Rt Rev Mark Davies, recently invited the Institute of Christ the King to re-open SS Peter and Paul's as England's first Traditional Parish, an arrangement mandated by the Holy Father's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. Bishop Davies has also asked the Institute to run the parish as the diocese's permanent centre of Eucharistic devotion.

Renovation on the church and presbytery, which were closed in 2008, has been proceeding for several months now, but the main structural work is almost complete. There is still work to be done to get the church into a suitable condition for parish use, but Masses can now be said at a side altar.

More Masses for this week announced
Canon Meney has announced that there will be Masses at SS Peter and Paul on All Souls' Day (Wednesday, 2 November) at 8.00am and 8.30am, and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week (3-5 November) all at 9.00am. Further Masses have yet to be announced.

On All Saints's day, Canon Meney will celebrate Mass at the nearby Sacred Heart Church at Moreton at 11am.

We congratulate Bishop Davies on his far-sighted, pastoral decision to re-open the church at New Brighton and to make it available to the Institute of Christ the King. Canon Meney's arrival at New Brighton coincided providentially with his order's patronal feast day of Christ the King (Sunday, 30 October). We ask you to keep Bishop Davies and Canon Meney in your prayers.

Wall Calendar 2012 now available!

2011-10-31T12:13:00.002Z

This year we have completely redesigned the layout of the calendar to make it more attractive and better to use:

• Feast Days in accordance with the 1962 Missal
• More pictures of Traditional Catholic events in England and Wales and overseas
• More space to write your appointments etc.
• Spiral-bound with hanging loop (easy to change months)
• Printed on low-reflective art paper
• Spacious A3 size (no more staples across the centre)
• A better calendar but held at last year’s price!
Stocks are limited, so order today!

You can but the calendar from me, from various other local Representatives of the Society, and online here.

Price: £7.95 incl. postage

FSSP Silent Advent Retreat, 2-4 December

2011-10-27T13:04:00.003+01:00

PLEASE BOOK TODAY:

Advent Weekend of silent recollection: 2-4 December 2011. Led by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP.

Location: Cold Ash Pastoral Centre, The Ridge, Thatcham, RG18 9HU, England.

Cost per person full board single room: £120 (discount rate for full time students: £100).

Theme: ‘The Church, fulfilling the Incarnation.'

Programme: Spiritual conferences, Eucharistic adoration and Holy Mass in the EF each of the three days (i.e. Friday, Saturday and Sunday).

Booking: Please send us the £120 cheque made payable to FSSP ENGLAND (includes a non refundable £30 deposit).

Rev. Fr Armand de
Malleray, FSSP
St John Fisher
House, 17 Eastern Avenue,
Reading, RG1 5RU,
England
Tel: 0118 966
5284; Email: malleray@fssp.org

Priest-training conference 2012: Abergavenny

2011-10-26T19:19:00.004+01:00

Training Conference for Priests and Servers
Abervagenny
Mon 16th to Thurs 19th April 2012

The Latin Mass Society will be holding its eighth training conference on the older form of the Mass from 16th to 19th April 2012. With the assistance of Fr Thomas Regan OSB, it will be held at the Church of Our Lady and St Michael at Abergavenny in Wales. Accommodation will be across the road from the church, in a former convent which has been converted into a very pleasant conference centre. Abergavenny is not far from the English border and is conveniently accessed by road from the English Midlands. Abergavenny mainline station is just over two hours from London and Birmingham and around two and half hours from Manchester.

Tuition, which will be arranged in small groups, and will be tailored to suit the needs of each participant. In the case of clergy, it will be given by priests well experienced in the forma extraordinaria. It is expected that there will be groups specialising in Low Mass, Missa Cantata and Missa Solemnis.

The fee for attending will be £120, although there will be a concessionary rate of £60 for those unable to afford the full fee.

Application forms can be downloaded from the Latin Mass Society website.

The organiser is Paul Waddington:

paul@gooleboathouse.co.uk

View Larger Map

Oxford Pilgrimage: Procession

2011-10-25T13:54:00.002+01:00

Following my post about the Mass here.

After a break for lunch, the pilgrims reassembled in Cornmarket for the procession, an integral part of the pilgrimage since its inception. We gathered outside St Michael at the North Gate, the oldest church in Oxford with a Saxon tower, from which (according to legend, at any rate) Archbishop Cranmer watched Latimer and Ridley being burnt at the stake. Next to this tower was the Bocardo prison, where the laymen martyred in 1589, Bl Thomas Belson and Bl Humphrey Prichard, were held the night before their execution (the priests were held in the Castle). The priests, Bl George Nichols and Bl Richard Yaxley, would have joined the others here to go in a grim procession to the place of execution, the Town Gallows. We follow that route, in a spirit of thanksgiving for their courage and witness to the Faith, and for the glory they gave God on that day.

We set off, with Fr Thomas Crean OP. A processional cross (from Blackfriars) goes first, followed by the newly blessed processional statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, the LMS banner and the Juventutem flag. Then Fr Thomas, the Schola Abelis, and the rest of the Faithful. There were about 65 of us in the procession (there were about 90 at Mass).

We passed a regular animal-rights protest. 'Oxford University tortures animals'. Well I suppose that's a step up from the torture of Catholics! University authorities were involved in the prosecution of the martyrs of 1589, and even more so in the legal process of Bl George Napier, who was martyred in Oxford in 1610. Bl Thomas Belson was an alumnus of Mary Hall, since absorbed by Oriel, and Bl George Nichols was an alumnus of Brasenose.

We also passed groups of students going to graduation ceremonies, and groups of tourists.

We stop at the site of the martyrdoms. Among the scaffolding on the end house the plaque blessed in 2008, marking the approximate site, can be seen. Fr Thomas read the Collect of the Mass of the Martyrs of Oxford University.

Whereas the Catholic martyrs died on the ordinary public scaffolds of the town, Latimer and Ridley, and then Cranmer, died on a specially constructed pyre in the town ditch. The spot is marked by a cobblestone cross in Broad Street, which we crossed on our route; here are two or my children on it on our return journey.

We returned past the Protestant 'Martyrs' Memorial' and the Ashmolean.

Fr Thomas gave us Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. This was accompanied by the Schola Abelis, and concluded the Pilgrimage.

The weather was glorious and the procession was very enjoyable. We sang the Great Litany, the Te Deum, Faith of Our Fathers and Firmly I Believe and Truly, and finally the Litany of Loreto (of Our Lady). It is a bit shorter than the procession to the other site of martyrdom, in the Castle, where on the return journey we can fit in a couple more hymns!

Well done to everyone who turned out to make the point that people died in Oxford for England's ancient and true Faith, for unity with the Pope in Rome, and for Our Lady. Blessed Martyrs of Oxford, pray for us!

The equivalent date in 2012 is Saturday 20th October.

Oxford Pilgrimage photos: Mass

2011-10-24T18:49:00.006+01:00

On Saturday we had the LMS Oxford Pilgrimage, with a Solemn Mass in the Dominican Rite. The celebrant was Fr Richard Conrad OP, the deacon Fr Thomas Crean OP, and subdeacon Br Gregory Pearson OP. In accordance with Dominican custom, there was no MC. The acolytes were Dominican students of the Oxford community.

This Mass did not disapoint. The ceremonies were performed with great precision and harmony, and it was truly wonderful. There were a great many differences between the Dominican and Roman Rites in Solemn Mass, which are fascinating; many of the Dominican usages reflect practices which were common also to Gallican and Sarum Rites, and would have been familiar in Medieval England.

The Rite has a special beauty of its own. I particularly like the way the acolytes interact with the Sacred Ministers, as above and elsewhere.

During the Epistle, the celebrant and deacon are given a piece of fabric to rest their hands on. I have only seen this before at a Pontifical Mass.

Preparing for the Gospel.

The Gospel

The Kiss of Peace, using a silver Pax.

Ecce Agnus Dei, with a houseling cloth.

When the celebrant turns to address the congregation, as above, the deacon lifts the bottom of his chasuble.

At the end of Mass the celebrant blessed a processional statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, which we used in the procession.

More photos here

The Pilgrimage was wonderful, and I will write more soon. In the meantime, have a look at the Reluctant Sinner, and the Clever Boy, who were there; so, in fact, were Juventutem London and Juventutem Oxford!

Don't miss the Oxford Pilgrimage tomorrow!

2011-10-21T11:54:00.002+01:00

Saturday 22nd October is the Oxford Pilgrimage -

11am Solemn Mass in Blackfriars

2pm Procession from St Michael at the North Gate, Cornmarket, to the site of the martyrdoms of 1589, and back to Blackfriars.

3pm Benediction in Blackfriars.

Please support the pilgrimage, which is a great witness to the Faith in Oxford.

Highlights this year: the Dominican Solemn Mass, which we've never had before at the Pilgrimage. This will be accompanied with Polyphony and Chant by the Schola Abelis.

The preacher will be Fr Guy Nichols of the Birmingham Oratory.

The procession and Benediction will be led by Fr Thomas Crean OP.

Jobs in the LMS Office

2011-10-19T09:28:00.003+01:00

We are reorganising the staffing structure in the Office, and are advertising two position, one full-time and one part-time. Would you like to work for the Latin Mass Society? There are also positions for volunteers - see the 'current vacencies' page of our website.

Here's the notice:

SALARIED VACANCIES

Office Co-ordinator (Full-time post)

(posted 13 October 2011)
The Office Co-ordinator will be responsible for the smooth running of many of our office’s day-to-day activities, and includes contact with our members and priestly supporters. General IT skills essential, as is a good knowledge of the Traditional Catholic environment. Full-time position. Deadline for applications: Sunday, 20 November. Download a full job description here.

Financial Administrator (Part-time post)

(posted 13 October 2011)
The Financial Administrator will be responsible for ensuring accurate maintenance of the LMS’s financial records. Experience of Sageline 50 essential. Part-time position (2 days/week). Deadline for applications: Sunday, 20 November. Download a full job description here.

LMS Pilgrimage to Aylesford

2011-10-17T11:03:00.006+01:00

On Saturday the LMS Pilgrimage to Aylesford took place, and I was there. It hasn't happened for a couple of years, and has been revived by the new(ish) LMS Rep for Southwark North, Matthew Schellhorn. Fr Timothy Finigan celebrated a Sung Mass in the Relic Chapel at the Priory, gave a very edifying talk about the Four Last Things, gave us Benediction and blessed Brown Scapulars. A packed coach came from London, and in all over 130 people attended Mass. The Relic Chapel, where St Simon Stock's skull is kept (in the tall ceramic structure behind the altar), was full, including the Reluctant Sinner, the Mulier Fortis, Smeaton's Corner and Juventutem London.

Aylesford is the place where St Simon had his famous vision of Our Lady, who encouraged him - the Carmelites had recently been ejected from their historic centre, Mount Carmel in the Holy Land - and gave him the promises associated with the Brown Scapular. So Aylesford is an important shrine both to Our Lady and St Simon Stock, and is the world centre for the Brown Scapular, worn by millions of Catholics all over the world - and so popular among Traditionalists that it forms almost a (usually hidden) uniform. It was recommended by Our Lady again at Fatima.

Music was provided by the superb newly formed choir, Cantus Magnus, which sings at the Juventutem London Masses. Here are the polyphonists being led by Matthew Schellhorn. They sang Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame the earliest complete polyphonic setting of Mass by a single composer.

(Fr Tim sprinkling new scapular-wearers with holy water.)

Aylesford Priory is extremely impressive. Here is the main chapel.

The High Altar faces an open-air church, with chapels of varying sizes all around it. There is a Retreat Centre, tea shop and so on. There is a Rosary Walk with charming ceramic representations of each mystery.

The Priory was of course dissolved at the Reformation, but some of the buildings were incorporated into a Manor house, and the Carmelites got the site back in 1949. They completed the complex of chapels, with a vast amount of art in them, in time for the Shrine to be rededicated in 1965. (See the History page of the Aylesford website for more information.) There are many very interesting things to see: a side chapel to the Relic Chapel, for example, is dedicated to the English Martyrs: here is the Tyburn Tree.

The weather was glorious, and the place is beautiful, peaceful, and prayerful. If you missed it, I expect it will be at the same time of year in 2012!

(The Priory cloister.)

More photos.

LMS Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Knoydart

2011-10-14T11:03:00.001+01:00

Ok so it was just me and my 8-year old daughter while on holiday... but it was a real pilgrimage, it is about an hour's walk from the nearest bit of road, even at low tide. When the tide is low you risk your neck scrambling over the rocks; when the tide is high it is a much longer scramble over bog and hill. There was no way we could take my younger children.

This very striking statue of Our Lady welcomes the boats into Loch Nevis, a sea loch near Mallaig in the West Highlands of Scotland. Going by boat by this route is the main, for most people the only, way to the Knoydart penninsula, and the statue was erected when the penninsula was owned by the Catholic MP, Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre, at the instigation of his wife (as this web page suggests). He owned the place from 1952 to 1972, and is buried there. The statue dates from the earlier part of his period of ownership, I don't know the exact date. I was pleased to see signs of recent maintenance on the plinth, no doubt carried out by the current owners, the Knoydart Foundation. The statue has become an important landmark.

The day was glorious and the views from the the statue's headland were breathtaking. This is looking into Loch Nevis.

Every inch of the West Highlands has a story to tell about Bonnie Prince Charlie, and as he hid out here for quite a while after his defeat at Culloden, before escaping to France, this is not surprising. This island, not far from Our Lady's statue, is said to have been a place where he stayed the night.

There are a few more photos here.

Talking the talk

2011-10-11T18:01:00.003+01:00

I am giving a talk tomorrow evening (12th Oct, 7pm) to the Cardiff University Students for Life group: see the Facebook event.

It is my second trip to address the very active pro-life group there and I am looking forward to it. My talk is entitled 'Mercy, Murder, and Euthanasia', and will be in the Large Chemistry Lecture Theatre at the University.

On Tuesday Oct 25th October 7.30pm I am giving a talk to the 'Inn Catholics': 'A Political Future for England - Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Common Good', at the Star Tavern, Belgrave Mews West, London, SW1X 8HT.

There is no entrance fee (it says 'Voluntary contributions welcome'). The Inn Catholics, an informal group meeting to hear a talk in the convivial atmosphere of a pub, has recently been revived and was addressed last by Fr Tim Finnigan. See their blog.

On Monday 14th November at 6pm I am giving a talk to the pupils of the Oratory School, 'Can Faith be Reasonable?'. I was recently at the Oratory School for the Evangelium Conference (where, inevitably, I gave a couple of talks); it is also the venue for the St Catherine's Trust Family Retreat. This will be my first visit to see the school actually functioning as a school, and I look forward to meeting some of the boys!

This is what happens when everyone gets going again after the Summer holidays, I fear: life gets very busy. I'm not complaining, however, I like the sound of my own voice and I agree to give talks whenever I can - on bioethical issues, faith and reason, the LMS, or pretty much anything. Here I am in full flow.

Rosary Crusade of Reparation

2011-10-09T07:48:00.002+01:00

A wonderful day. Join us next year!

More photos.

Attacks on the 1969 Mass

2011-10-08T18:34:00.006+01:00

I have just blogged about Dom Sebastian Moore OSB complaining about 'calix' being translated 'chalice'; in the background is the issue that the Roman Canon actually says 'praeclarum calicem' - 'precious chalice' - and the translation Fr Moore prefers simply ignored the 'precious' bit and use the most prosaic word possible to render 'calix'. It similarly ignored the 'holy and venerable hands' which, in the Roman Canon, comes next.

What is at the bottom of this is, as I have said, an attack on the Roman Canon itself: the most important liturgical prayer of the Latin Church. The text of the new Novus Ordo missal is not an immediate issue for me or the Latin Mass Society, but the Roman Canon certainly is.

Fr Andrew Cameron-Mowat SJ is pulling the same trick, and it is clear this time. He likes the old translation of

'Domine non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tanto dic verbo et sanabitur anima mea'

simply as

'Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.'

The new translation says

'Lord I am not worthy to receive you under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.'

His arguments evade the fact that the words 'under my roof' are simply a translation of the Latin words 'sub tectum meum'. Leave aside, for a moment, the issue of whether we want a more explicit reference to Matthew 8:8, or if that is too complicated, or indeed whether the faithful are too stupid to understand difficult words like 'soul'. The question is: do you want a translation of the Mass at all? The 1973 text simply does not translate the words 'sub tectum meum'. As a translation, it is a failure.

With that in mind, we come back to Cameron-Mowatt's arguments. These aren't arguments about felicity or fidelity of translation. They are arguments that this ancient Mass text (as Cameron-Mowatt observes, this particular Latin text is unchanged from the 1962 Missal) was liturgically defective, and that the 1973 translation was an improvement, not in style but in substance. It is interesting to see that he says that the text may have been appropriate in the context of a liturgical practice in which the faithful received communion only infrequently, so it would not have been defective in 1570, but was in 1970. (His argument as to why that is does not seem very clear to me, but let it pass.)

Obviously the 1969 Mass text, what was called the 'Missa Normativa' at the time, in Latin, was reformed in the context of the modern practice of frequent communion, and retained the full version of this particular text, including 'sub tectum meum'. Fr Cameron-Mowatt thinks that this was a mistake.

From time to time traditionalists are asked: do you attack the 1969 Mass? Do you accept its theological merits? Speaking for myself, and as a matter of LMS policy, the answer is: our concern is to do as the Holy Father has requested, which is to give a place of honour in the Church to the 'riches' represented by the Church's ancient liturgical tradition, not to engage in polemics about the reformed Missal. But here is someone, Fr Cameron-Mowatt SJ, who really is attacking the theological aptness of the Missa Normativa, and doing so from a liberal direction. Less explicitly, Fr Sebastian Moore is doing the same thing, and so are a whole gang of liturgists on the 'Pray Tell' blog and elsewhere, who are kicking up a stink about the new translation. In their view, clearly, Bugnini and his collaborators who put together the Latin text of the Novus Ordo got it badly wrong.

They were wrong to include the phrase 'pro multis'; they were wrong to include 'praeclarem calicem' (and maybe even the whole Roman Canon, as an option); they were wrong to include 'sub tectum meum' and to use the word 'anima' (soul); and so on in case after case. They were wrong in precisely those cases, I suppose, that they retained elements of previous editions of the Roman Missal in the new one. Insofar as there was continuity, there was error.

I begin to feel sorry for Archbishop Bugnini. Who is going to speak up for him, I wonder? But the bigger picture is that these liturgists are attacking the entire liturgical tradition of the Latin Church, even as represented by the post-conciliar editions of the Roman Missal. This is a fact which should be exposed.

(Pictures: Fr Andrew Cameron-Mowatt SJ; Archbishop Annibale Buggnini. In between: Christ hearing the petition of the Centurion to heal his servant, by Veronese.)

Schola Abelis at Freshers' Fair

2011-10-08T11:45:00.002+01:00

We have finished Freshers' Fair and are now auditioning prospective singers. Please pray for a successful year for the Schola Abelis, the OU Gregorian Chant Society!

Is the Roman Canon vulgar?

2011-10-07T21:50:00.004+01:00

This is a question posed, by implication, by Dom Sebastian Moore OSB, in a letter published in The Tablet last weekend (1st October).

The substitution of the word “chalice” for “cup” in the Eucharistic Prayer has already been noted. The unconscious vulgarity of this change, at the most dramatic moment in the whole liturgy, is horrifying, as though the dignity of the word “cup” were not upheld by the hands that held it and passed it round, and to “improve” on this is to make of another good word a genteelism which betrays the mentality of the translator – and three times! It confirms all that we now know, thanks to The Tablet’s preparatory articles, about the process whereby this translation was arrived at.

(Dom) Sebastian Moore OSB
Downside Abbey, Somerset

(That's his photo, from his blog.) They have published my reply:

Dom Sebastian Moore repeats yet again in your letters pages (1st October) the suggestion that the use of the word 'chalice' in the new translation of the Missal is wrong. It would be astonishing if he or anyone could seriously claim that 'he took the cup' is an accurate translation of 'accipens et hunc praeclarum calicem in sanctas ac venerabiles manus suas'. If the authors of the Roman Canon had wished to avoid what Fr Moore regards as 'vulgar' they would certainly not have used such flowery language, and substituted a more prosaic word like 'poculum' ('cup') for 'calix'.

It is clear that Fr Moore and your other correspondents are not objecting to the new translation at all, but to the Latin original. This has been used continuously by the Roman church since the time of Pope St Gelasius I, who died in the year 496. Alas, I think the consultation period may have closed.

Yours faithfully,
Joseph Shaw
Chairman, The Latin Mass Society

It makes no sense to suggest that the elevated language of the new missal translation is wrong but the even more elevated language of the original Latin is ok. As well as its frequent doubled adjectives ('holy and venerable') and other poetic tricks the Latin makes free use, for example, of archaism, which has not been allowed in the translation, exotic foreign words, and words only ever used in the context of Christian Latin. If the new translation is vulgar, the Roman canon must be utterly bourgeois.

The idea that only 'nobly simple' things avoid vulgarity, which rejects with disgust not only the Roccoco but the Gothic, which prefers the monotone to the melisma, is thankfully a fad passing away with Fr Moore's generation. It is small minded, petty, and parochial. What person of taste can tolerate only one style, and one, indeed, of only a handful of artists working in only a few decades corresponding to the formative period of their own lives?

Fr Moore's generation had their fun razing irreplaceable altars and dynamiting exquisite churches which they were incapable of understanding. He should allow the painful work of restoration go on without further interference.

Mgr Pozzo on the importance of the 'Old Rite'

2011-10-05T12:26:00.003+01:00

Ht Fr Tim

Full transcript (in English translation) of the interview Mgr Pozzo has given here.

"Because the ancient rite of the Mass makes explicit and highlights certain values and certain fundamental aspects of the liturgy that deserve to be maintained, and I am not speaking only about the Latin or Gregorian chant, I am speaking about the sense of mystery, of the sacred, the sense of the Mass as a sacrifice, the real and substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the fact that there are great moments of interior recollection, interior participation in the divine liturgy. All these are fundamental elements which are particularly highlighted in the ancient rite of the Mass. I am not saying that these elements do not exist in the Mass of Paul VI's reform, but I am saying that they are highlighted much more and this can enrich even those who celebrate or participate in the ordinary form of the Mass."

Fr Tim notes in parenthesis:
(The expression in the first sentence is "la Messa nel rito antico" - "Mass in the old rite" would be simplest literal English translation. This expression, used by the Secretary of Ecclesia Dei, has also been used by Pope Benedict. It is not a naughty expression.)

Letter of the week, from the Catholic Herald

2011-10-02T10:00:00.002+01:00

There are some good letters in the Catholic Herald this weekend; this one I thought worth re-typing to make it available to a wider audience. The Editors have given it the title: 'I am a tortured liberal but I am hoping for more Latin in the liturgy.'

Sir,

I write as a "tortured liberal" Catholic ("progressive" on most of the predictable issues). Yet I recently found myself joining both the Latin Mass Society (LMS) and the Association for Latin Liturgy (ALL), in exasperation at our bishops' response earlier this year to Universae Ecclesiae, following that made to Summorum Pontificum in 2007.

Apparently, current provision of the Extraordinary Form (EF) needs no expansion and curriculum pressure in seminaries precludes accommodating the requested formation in Latin and the EF. Is this really the "generous" welcome these documents ask of our hierarchy?

I have concluded that it is only by supporting organisations such as the LMS and the ALL that the Holy Father's explicit wish to restore and extend the use of Latin in the liturgy has any hope of making progress. These bodies' EF and Ordinary Form Masses, other services, with the courses in chant, formation for priests, servers and faithful in the Mass and the Latin language, all seem to chime with the current liturgical renewal and reinforcement of Catholic identity agenda. Indeed, one might expect our dioceses to be undertaking such initiatives.

I recently attended two EF Masses at St James's, Spanish Place, after an absence of nine or 10 months. I estimate that the congregation had doubled in that time, comprising a wide range of age, class and ethnicity: someone is clearly doing something right here.

The Tablet's coverage of World Youth Day in Madrid noted that the Pope celebrated most or all of his Masses in Latin, but that his youthful congregations were largely unable to deliver their responses. His Holiness seems to expect young Catholics to cope with the liturgy in Latin, so I wonder what strategies the Hierarchy has in mind to enable them to do so.

At the time of Summorum Pontificum Pope Benedict expressed the hope that the two forms of the Roman Rite would come to "learn from each other". I would like to know how it is planned to take this cross-fertilisation process forward in England and Wales.

The English and Welsh bishops have a stated view (from 1966) on the position of Latin in the post-conciliar Church: "Every encouragement should be given to reciting or saying the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin ... definite steps must be taken to see that knowledge of the Latin Mass is not lost... The use of Latin will be encouraged in the new Mass as it has been in the old; Latin expresses the nature of the Church as international and timeless."

How do our current bishops prosecute this agenda?

Peter Mahoney

Rosary Crusade of Reparation, October 8th

2011-10-01T10:04:00.000+01:00

“You have seen Hell where the Souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the World Devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say is done, many Souls will be saved and there will be peace.” Our Lady’s Words to Lucia 13th July 1917

The 27th Annual National Rosary Crusade of Reparation
Saturday 8th October 2011
Assemble by 1.45 pm outside Westminster Cathedral (Ambrosden Avenue)
Nearest Underground: Victoria
Procession to Brompton Oratory, Brompton Road, London, SW7
Nearest Underground : South Kensington

Led by:
The Rt. Revd. Monsignor
Keith Newton
Protonotary Apostolic
and Ordinary of
The Ordinariate of
Our Lady of Walsingham

Procession with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima to Brompton Oratory praying the Rosary en-route

Consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary

Scapular Enrolment

Solemn Benediction

End about 5.00 pm (Anticipated Mass of Sunday at 6.00 pm)

Spiritual Director: the Revd. Ronald Creighton-Jobe, Cong. Orat.

For Information Contact:
Francis Carey (01494) 729223 — Mathias Menezes (020) 8764 0262 or 07950 384515

or by post: 27 First Avenue, Amersham, Bucks., HP7 9BL

Web: www.rosarycrusadeofreparation.blogspot.com

Public Procession of Reparation for Sins Committed Against The Immaculate Heart

Our Lady of Walsingham and the doves

2011-09-30T11:38:00.004+01:00

I am catching up with the blogs (having been away from proper internet access for a while) and I don't want to let this post by the Reluctant Sinner to pass without comment, since it relates to Walsingham, to which I've been on pilgrimage recently myself.

It seems that, in a remarkable parallel to events surrounding the crowning of the shrine image of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, when the shrine image of Our Lady of Walsingham was crowned in 1954 two white doves settled on the statue and remained perched there for its journey from the site of the Holy House and Abbey in Walsingham to its permanent home in the Slipper Chapel. It was captured by Pathe News on film.

This is not a very big miracle; we might call it a consolation. If we take it seriously at all it is a mark of divine favour, certainly not one of dogmatic authority but there it is, for each person to judge as he sees fit. I think it is interesting not only as an endorsement of the restored cultus and shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham but in connection with the coronation of the statue itself, undertaken by special mandate of the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, on the Marian Year he had declared. The involvement of Popes and of our own bishops in approving, commending, and honouring shrines is something of great importance; it is not an irrelevant rigmarole. We don't make our own religion, it is in union with our bishops and the Pope and in continuity with past generations.

Other officially crowned statues of Our Lady I have seen include the statue of Our Lady of Consolation at West Grinstead in Sussex, which I think was the first such statue in England, Our Lady of Caversham outside Reading and of Our Lady of Willesden in London. There are Latin Mass Society pilgrimages to each of these; the one to Willesden is coming up (29th October). It would be good to see a list of officially approved shrines in the Catholic Directory; there seems to be no published list of them.

Eat yer heart out Fr Z!

2011-09-29T15:16:00.001+01:00

I eat this breakfast twice a year: on my outward and return journeys to where I go on holiday.

So look out, world! I'm coming back.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Una Voce International: Four New Members

2011-09-29T08:31:00.001+01:00

A very encouraging press release from FIUV, the International Federation Una Voce.

28 Sep 2011
The International Federation Una Voce Welcomes Four New Members.

The International Federation Una Voce is pleased to announce the admission of four new members. The Federation Council has approved applications from:

Una Voce Albaruthenia (Belarus),
Una Voce Natal (Brazil),
Una Voce Cuba,
Una Voce Ucraina (Ukraine).

Since the promulgation of the motu prorio Summorum Pontificum in July 2007 the Federation has admitted twelve new associations: from Malta, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile - Casablanca, Philippines, Japan, Portugal, and now the four associations named above. We are also in active discussions with another five groups in Latin America and two in Asia. What is especially encouraging is that all these groups are being formed and led by energetic young people who have found in the traditional liturgy a spirituality they have not been able to find elsewhere. This is our hope for the future in that young lay people will be working with young clergy and religious to ensure that the traditions of the Church will be preserved and fostered.

The first President of the International Federation Una Voce, Dr Eric de Saventhem, speaking in New York in June 1970, said that the suppression of the traditional Mass had been achieved de facto only and not de jure. It would be unthinkable, he said, for the older form of Mass to be forbidden as one would have to argue that it had been wrong or bad - either doctrinally or pastorally. He thought it perfectly legitimate to ask that the new Ordo Missae should be offered as an additional, alternative way, of celebrating Mass. This was an argument that all the leaders of the International Federation have used regularly when in Rome. The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum has confirmed what Dr de Saventhem said nearly forty years earlier. In his talk he also said:

"A renaissance will come: asceticism and adoration as the mainspring of direct total dedication to Christ will return. Confraternities of priests, vowed to celibacy and to an intense life of prayer and meditation will be formed. Religious will regroup themselves into houses of "strict observance." A new form of "Liturgical Movement" will come into being, led by young priests and attracting mainly young people, in protest against the flat, prosaic, philistine or delirious liturgies which will soon overgrow and finally smother even the recently revised rites.

It is vitally important that these new priests and religious, these new young people with ardent hearts, should find -- if only in a corner of the rambling mansion of the Church -- the treasure of a truly sacred liturgy still glowing softly in the night. And it is our task - since we have been given the grace to appreciate the value of this heritage -- to preserve it from spoliation, from becoming buried out of sight, despised and therefore lost forever. It is our duty to keep it alive: by our own loving attachment, by our support for the priests who make it shine in our churches, by our apostolate at all levels of persuasion."

Everything that Dr de Saventhem prophesied has come to pass. The revised rite of 1970 has indeed been overgrown and smothered by flat and delirious liturgies. For forty years the members of the International Federation have worked unceasingly to keep alive "the truly sacred liturgy" and to prevent it being "buried out of sight, despised, and therefore lost forever". The enquiries being received by the Federation are coming mainly from young people who are not attracted or inspired by these "flat, prosaic, philistine or delirious liturgies" and are welcoming and embracing the venerable usus antiquior of their forefathers. The International Federation Una Voce will continue unceasingly in its work to attract new members and help restore and spread the usus antiquior and the venerable and ancient liturgy of our forbears to our altars.

Leo Darroch, President - Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce.

28th September 2011.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

'Firmly I Believe and Truly' Ed Fr John Saward et al

2011-09-28T10:24:00.000+01:00

Last night was the book launch of 'Firmly I Believe and Truly' edited by Fr John Saward, John Morrill, and Michael Tomko. Fr Saward is familiar to readers of this blog as a great friend of Tradition in Oxford; his small parish church of SS Gregory & Augustine in North Oxford sees a great many traditional Masses, many of them sung. He is the author of many books, and the translator of the English edition of Pope Benedict's The Spirit of the Liturgy.

This new book is an anthology of English Catholic writers, and it sounds fascinating. It demonstrates the continuity, breadth and depth of English Catholicism, and the absurdity of the idea that Catholicism is somehow foreign to England, or not English enough ever to be the religion of this nation once more, as it was for a millenium.

I paste in below some of the publisher's blurb; HERE is where to buy it: at a discount!

'Firmly I Believe and Truly'

Brings together a diverse array of writers from the last five hundred years to celebrate the English Roman Catholic tradition
Includes authors who maintain a high profile today and reintroduces key figures whose writings have recently been neglected
Provides authoritative introductions to each author
Chronologically ordered with a clear three part structure to aid navigation
Thoughtfully illustrated with images relevant to each part of the anthology

An Anthology of Writings from 1483 to 1999

Firmly I Believe and Truly celebrates the depth and breadth of the spiritual, literary, and intellectual heritage of the Post-Reformation English Roman Catholic tradition in an anthology of writings that span a five hundred year period between William Caxton and Cardinal Hume. Intended as a rich resource for all with an interest in Roman Catholicism, the writings have been carefully selected and edited by a team of scholars with historical, theological, and literary expertise. Each author is introduced to provide context for the included extracts and the chronological arrangement of the anthology makes the volume easy to use whilst creating a fascinating overview of the modern era in English Catholic thought. The extracts comprise a wide variety writing genres; sermons, prayers, poetry, diaries, novels, theology, apologetics, works of controversy, devotional literature, biographies, drama, and essays. Includes writings by:
John Colet, John Fisher, Thomas More, Robert Southwell, Philip Howard, Anne Askew, Edmund Campion, John Gother, John Dryden, Mary Barker, Alexander Pope, Richard Challoner, Alban Butler, John Milner, Elizabeth Inchbald, Nicholas Wiseman, Margaret Mary Hallahan, A. W. N. Pugin, John Henry Newman, Henry Edward Manning, Frederick William Faber, Bertrand Wilberforce, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Vincent McNabb, Hilaire Belloc, Maurice Baring, G. K. Chesterton, R. A. Knox, J. R. R. Tolkien, Caryll Houselander, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, John Bradburne, Cardinal Hume

Readership: People of all Christian traditions who want to gain a deeper understanding of the roots of the Catholic faith and heritage. Scholars in the fields of theology, history, and literature.

Shameless plug for the 'Roman Forum'

2011-09-22T21:44:00.003+01:00

If you don't know the Roman Forum, then you should find out about them, listen to their downloadable MP3s and, if possible, attend their events. I am envious of the intellectual activity they have been able to generate; I wish we could do some of this here in the UK. I admire Dr Rao and his work enormously.

Here is a plug for their new season's activities, and an appeal for funds, from Dr Rao himself.

---------------------------------

The Roman Forum
11 Carmine St., Apt. 2C
New York, New York 10014
www.romanforum.org

September, 2011

Dear Friends:

The Sack of Rome! Most people think of this in conjunction with barbarian invasions, although the worst assault on the Eternal City actually took place in the Sixteenth Century, when commanders of a “Christian” army justified their soldiers murdering, burning, and plundering the capital of Christendom as divine chastisement for the sins of the Papacy. Despite this horror, it still required a number of years, many more setbacks, and the election of another successor to St. Peter, Paul III, before the Church awoke from her “dogmatic slumbers” to pursue the magnificent work of the Tridentine Reform in earnest. She did this not by choosing “Pope Luther”, as the troops punishing Clement VII in 1527 demanded, but by going back to the sources of the Faith. In returning to Tradition, she also created something new as well: Baroque
Civilization.

The Sack of the final remnants of Christian Civilization in all its forms! That is what we are witnessing in our own time. Although we already have a Pontiff eager to stem such destruction, there are many obstacles, inside and outside the Church, making any progress in doing so ephemeral. Why? One major reason is because we believers are not yet plumbing the fullness of the Catholic Tradition for the answers to dilemmas that could lead to the creation of a fresh Christian Culture. Instead, we continue to listen to liberal, conservative, neo-conservative, and libertarian teachers, providing them soldiers for the Sack of Christian Civilization in the process. The Roman Forum’s mission is that of urging Catholics to flee ideology and open their minds to a return to the complete Christian Tradition; a Tradition that also provides a reliable road map through new, unchartered territory; a road map “back to the future”. How does it fulfill this task?

1) First of all, through our New York City Church History Lectures.

2) Through our Modern Image and Catholic Truth Series.

3) Through our Summer Symposium on Lake Garda, Italy. For two weeks in the summer, a small Italian resort, Gardone Riviera, on Lake Garda, the largest and most beautiful lake in Italy, is literally transformed into an international Catholic village, with daily traditional masses, lectures, camaraderie, superb food and wine, and day trips to surrounding sites, such as Venice and Trent. For participants, many of whom come back year after year and feel like family, it is a rare and wonderful opportunity to experience Catholic life on the continent where Catholic culture first fully came to flower. The Summer Symposium hosts a large international faculty, which has included Dale Ahlquist (G.K. Chesterton Society of America), Patrick Brennan (U. of Villanova), Christopher Ferrara (American Catholic Lawyers Association), Fr. Brian Harrison (Catholic U. of Puerto Rico, Emeritus), James Kalb (author of The Tyranny of Liberalism), Michael Matt (editor of The Remnant), Brian McCall (U. of Oklahoma), John Médaille (U. of Dallas), Fr. Richard Munkelt (Fairfield U.), Fr. Gregory Prendergraft (FSSP), Duncan Stroik (Notre Dame U.), Alice von Hildebrand (Hunter College, Emeritus), David White (US Naval Academy, Emeritus), and myself from the United States; Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula (Human Life International, Rome) and Danilo Castellano (U. of Udine) from Italy; James Bogle (Catholic lawyer, activist, and writer) from the United Kingdom; Miguel Ayuso-Torres (U. of Madrid) from Spain; Thomas Stark (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule, St. Pölten), from Austria; David Berlinski (Discovery Institute) and Bernard Dumont (editor of Catholica) from France; and Taivo Niitvaagi (Hereditas Foundation) from Estonia. The late, prolific, traditionalist author Michael Davies, from the UK, and my predecessor as chairman of the Roman Forum, the late William Marra (Fordham U.), were honored speakers for many years. Faculty and students are served spiritually by a large number of secular and religious clergy.

Next year’s Summer Symposium will be a particularly splendid one, marking our twentieth anniversary in Gardone Riviera. Having completed our cycle of historical studies, we will begin our activities in mid-June with a Tour of Greece, the main secular font of Western Civilization. We will then sail to Venice. After several days in Venice, we will move to Gardone at the end of June and early July for our eleven-day academic program. Gardone, 2012, entitled Either
Catholic Political and Social Doctrine---Or the Sack of All Civilized Order, obviously takes its theme from the situation discussed at the beginning of this letter. Please consult our website
(www.romanforum.org) and that of The Remnant Newspaper (www.remnantnewspaper.com) for more complete information on the Greece and Venice Tour, the 2012 Summer Symposium, as well as other future events, like our annual New Year’s Eve Dinner Dance.

4) Through our Lecture Downloads. 2010-2011 Summer Symposium Lectures are available through The Remnant Newspaper. Almost all of the lectures of our History of Christianity program from 1993-2010 can be downloaded to your computer for only one dollar per lecture or purchased on audiotape at www.keepthefaith.org.

In order to undertake these projects properly, the Roman Forum needs an annual budget of $50,000. Where do these funds go? Mailings, advertising, books, storage space for them, and use of conference halls alone now cost us at least $15,000 per year. More importantly, most college students, priests, and seminarians hoping to attend the Summer Symposium cannot be present without some financial assistance. Although no one on the teaching faculty receives any compensation for his work there, the daily expenses of all those delivering papers in Gardone
must also be covered. Aiding both speakers and participants therefore takes up almost all of the rest of our annual budget.

But why should we place such an emphasis upon this Summer Symposium? Dr. Ayuso-Torres summarized the chief reason in a lecture in Gardone in 2008: “Unless we traditionalists learn to appreciate the universal nature of the Catholic vision and fight for its general recognition and
victory, we will all rest contented with our own little parochial piece of that heritage, and destroy the entirety in the process”. My Remnant article on this subject, entitled Are Beauty, Camaraderie, and Talk Really Expendable? (see jcrao.freeshell.org) underlines the same point.
Providing scholarships for such a program to priests, professors, and students can be expensive---but its incalculable fruits will be more and more seen in preaching, teaching, and writing in the years to come.

The Roman Forum may not be able to promise immediate political benefits, but we work with the conviction that what we are doing is being done to good long-term and lasting spiritual and educational effect. To show you our appreciation, we have arranged that the intentions of our benefactors be remembered once a month at a traditional Mass offered in Rome by our chaplain, Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula. With the acknowledgment of your donation, of any size, you will receive a note confirming that you have been enrolled in these Masses. I thank you in advance for your generosity.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

John C. Rao, Chairman, D. Phil. Oxford
Assoc. Prof. of History, St. John's University

The LMS' Patron Saints, and the new banner

2011-09-20T10:20:00.003+01:00

The LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham was the first outing of a newly made banner. And it was the first time the LMS has commissioned something from the Guild of St Clare, a recently formed group of Catholic needleworkers committed to liturgical and domestic needlecraft in the context of the Traditional Catholic life.

As well as paying for the materials, in recognition of the work done on the banner the LMS will set aside money for the Guild to spend on training. They can either pay an expert in a particular field of needlecraft to spend a day with them, or go as a group to a course with the Royal School of Needlework. Over time they will no doubt use both approaches. The skill at the top of their priorities is Goldwork, the use of gold and silver thread, which will be essential for the repair of fine vestments.

The basic idea of the banner was specified by the LMS, but it was designed and made entirely by adult members of the Guild's Oxford branch. The Oxford branch also has a children's section; there are in addition branches in London and Birmingham. Anyone interested in joining, including setting up a new branch in another city, or in commissioning the Guild to make or repair something should email the Guild. Different branches of the Guild have already repaired vestments for several priests.

The banner shows the Latin Mass Society's two patron saints, St Margaret Clitherow and St Richard Gwyn. St Margaret was recently honoured with an LMS Pilgrimage to York, where she was crushed to death with weights for sheltering priests in 1586. St Richard Gwyn (or White, a translation of his Welsh names into English), after studying in Oxford, Cambridge, and Douai, was a school teacher in Wales. Like St Margaret he was married with several children. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in Wrexham in 1584. There has also been an LMS pilgrimage to St Richard's site of martyrdom.

Both were canonised in 1970, with the '40 Martyrs of England and Wales', by Pope Paul VI. The LMS's patron saints were chosen quite recently, in 2008. They represent the tradition of the lay apostolate, helping priests, passing on the faith, and giving charity to neighbours, in the context of family life, in both England and Wales.

The banner became completely drenched on the pilgrimage; although a clear plastic cover was prepared for it, it was never in the right place at the right time to be used. The banner stood up well to this experience, and is little the worse for wear. We will however improve on the mechanism holding it up, which was put together at very short notice and is rather basic.

There's a set of photos of the making of the banner here; you can see it in action, on the Walsingham Pilgrimage, here (and in lots of other places!)

Cardinal Hume and the Popes on Latin

2011-09-18T09:50:00.005+01:00

I recently came across this inspiring little quotation from the late Basil, Cardinal Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, sometime Abbot of Ampleforth. I can't find it on the internet, I assume it's come from one of his books or talks.

'It does not matter, to my mind at any rate, whether we sing in Latin or in the vernacular, but it does matter that our worship be done with dignity and reverence.'

This is a puzzling statement. It seems to have the same logical form as this:

'It doesn't matter how fast you drive, as long you drive safely.'

It denies what no-one claims, that Latin is the only determinant of the dignity and reverence of worship (that it is a necessary and sufficient condition), just as no one claims that speed is the only determinant of safe driving. But it presents this thwacking of a straw man in such as way as to imply something quite different: that Latin makes no contribution to dignity and reverence in worship (like the claim that speed is irrelevant to road safety). 'It does not matter...'? The quoted statement airly dismisses the possibility as not worth considering: our attention is drawn away from the irrelevant issue, Latin, to the relevant issue, dignity and reverence. Can we conclude that Latin is irrelevant to dignity and reverence, from the statement? Not strictly logically, but somehow the view that it is relevant is made to seem silly. This is a rhetorical trick.

What did Bl Pope John XXIII say about Latin? He wrote an Apostolic Constitution on the subject in 1962, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, 'Veterum Sapientia'. Here are some choice quotes:

On ancient languages in general: By their use in sacred liturgies and in versions of Holy Scripture, they have remained in force in certain regions even to the present day, bearing constant witness to the living voice of antiquity.

On Latin specifically (quoting Pius XI, here and later): Its "concise, varied and harmonious style, full of majesty and dignity" makes for singular clarity and impressiveness of expression. ...

Finally, the Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular. ...

In addition, the Latin language "can be called truly catholic." It has been consecrated through constant use by the Apostolic See, the mother and teacher of all Churches, and must be esteemed "a treasure ... of incomparable worth.". It is a general passport to the proper understanding of the Christian writers of antiquity and the documents of the Church's teaching. It is also a most effective bond, binding the Church of today with that of the past and of the future in wonderful continuity. ...

The employment of Latin has recently been contested in many quarters, and many are asking what the mind of the Apostolic See is in this matter. We have therefore decided to issue the timely directives contained in this document, so as to ensure that the ancient and uninterrupted use of Latin be maintained and, where necessary, restored.

So you might say that the use of Latin would be a way of making an act or worship more dignified, more reverent, for at least four reasons: through its inherent 'majesty', its connection with antiquity, its universality, and its consecration by long use by the Church.

Cardinal Hume could not have failed to have been familiar with this document. But he chose, not only to ignore it, but by implication to ridicule the views of people who took the immemorial teaching of the Church on the subject of liturgical language, which it reiterates, seriously.

Also tossed aside by Cardinal Hume are the views of Pope Paul VI. As I have recently reported on this blog, his neglected Instruction Sacrificium Laudis of 1966 both begged and commanded religious superiors to retain Latin and the fullness of their traditional offices. On Latin, he wrote in particular:

For this language is, within the Latin Church, an abundant well-spring of Christian civilisation and a very rich treasure-trove of devotion.

Oh, but 'It does not matter': to your mind, Cardinal Hume, not to that of the Popes.

Mediocrity and Elitism

2011-09-16T10:46:00.001+01:00

Many people following my recent series of posts - probably not the sort of people who read this blog very much, so this is perhaps a theoretical claim - would say that the pursuit of excellence, in liturgical art, architecture, in the intellectual sphere, and in everything else that pertains to Catholic life is elitist, and therefore bad. Many such people would add, when it was pointed out that the Church has historically always promoted such excellence, that this was still bad, and all done away with by Vatican II.

Well Vatican II did no such thing, of course, and the immemorial tradition of the Church still has something to teach us. As I have said before, however, the central motivation of the advocates of mediocrity, in my view, is to make available to a larger percentage of the typical congregation the opportunity to make a contribution to the the parish in the fields of music, art, liturgy, catechesis, and anything else which might be up for grabs. If these things are run by properly qualified people exercising strict quality control, they will exclude a good number of people from being directly involved. So take away the quality control, sack the qualified overseers, and get as many people signed up as possible. To repeat, this attitude arises from two things: a failure to value the spiritual participation of an ordinary parishioner worshiping in his pew, and the collapse, in most parishes, of the sodalities and guilds engaged in spiritual and especially practical charitable work in which everyone can, if they wish, find a valued place. In regard to the first point, this is, then, a reflection of a misguided attitude to the liturgy.

So that's where the attitude comes from; this post is about an aspect of its consequences which I have not yet discussed. The goal is to bring as many people as possible into 'parish ministries' without regard to their training or talent. The various tasks exist not because of the importance of the product (the music, the liturgy, the RCIA class) but because of the importance of the office holder. The person having responsibility for the music ceases to be an artisan, who would expected to be booted out if the standard slipped. He becomes instead a primadonna, whose office is an attempt to give him a feeling of being valued.

If that is the point of having parish ministries, then the distinction between those who are 'involved in the parish' and those who are not ceases to be an accident of vocation, training, and talent, but becomes a matter of status. The people 'involved in the parish' are the important people, the valued people, the people who are really participating: for that is the point of the parish ministries, to enable greater 'participation'. The reality, that it is the holiest members of the congregation are the ones who are participating most intensely in the parish's spiritual life, and that you will never know who they are, is forgotten. It is replaced by a very visible distinction between an elite group, separated from the majority of the congregation, since you can never get the majority of a parish into the choir or parish liturgy committee, however extravagantly they have grown. (The creation of herds of lay readers and EMHCs is clearly an attempt to overcome this problem, but a large number of Catholics are not sufficiently regular at a given Mass at a given church to be included in the mind-bogglingly expansive rotas which are produced.) This elite is itself hierarchically organised, into leaders, committee chairmen, coordinators and so on, a hierarchy which is perceived to be a hierarchy, not of skill, but of esteem.

This is the elitism of mediocrity.

The charge of elitism, in a negative sense, made against parishes where efforts are made to foster excellence is based, I think, on a confusion. It is assumed that in a parish aiming at excellence people performing important tasks, like singing and serving, there is the same elitist attitude as in a parish aiming at mediocrity, the only difference being that in the former the number of 'involved' people is probably smaller and it is acceptable to tell people that they are not up to scratch for a given task. But where it is crystal clear that people are only in a choir because they can pitch a note, then you are less, not more, likely to understand that they are not regarded as a better than everyone else in any other way. It is not because they are more zealous, because they are regarded as 'good people', or because it has become an unwritten rule not to offend them: no, it is because they can pitch a note. No one can object to an elite of singers who are simply the people in the parish who can sing: what is problematic is an arbitrarily selected elite who are regarded as superior to everyone else, despite the fact that in many cases they can't sing. With parish ministries, it is when you remove the connection with skills, and make it a matter of 'participation', that you create a situation of elitism in the negative sense.

This is very evident in much parish life today. In many parishes the system has collapsed, or the number of active parishioners is so small that the issue does not arise. But in large, active and successful parishes which have a policy of mediocrity, you can see it in technicolor. The priest is surrounded by a sort of Praetorian Guard of assistants, who occupy positions designed solely to flatter the occupants into thinking they are making a contribution, regardless of the value of that contribution. This Praetorian Guard often has a very special privilege, which is access to the Parish Priest, a privilege denied to others. If any ordinary member of the congregation were to say something to the Parish Priest about any aspect of parish life he will be told not to bother the PP but address his concerns to the head of the relevant branch of the parish bureaucracy. Only those office-holders are allowed to discuss things with the PP - the poor man, of course, being cut off from the views of the ordinary pew-sitters, but surrounded by a group of people whose only qualification for their jobs is a pair of sharp elbows.

Once, when I was an undergraduate, I attended a Mass in the Oxford Chaplaincy where the organ was played continuously through the consecration. I didn't know much about liturgy in those days, but it struck me as very odd, and I asked the celebrant about it. He referred me to the head Chaplain. The head Chaplain eventually responded by saying that the music was organised by a particular lady. 'I am not going to demotivate her by criticising what has done' he said. Well, I was certainly demotivated from attending Mass at the Chaplaincy again.

So there you have it: the majority of the congregation are ignored for the benefit of a privileged elite, a clericalised minority. The majority is regarded as canon-fodder for the experiments, not of the priest, but of this elite. The majority is regarded as less important, less central to the life of the parish, less Catholic. The elite are the important people, the people with the ear of the priest, and perhaps the bishop too. And heaven forbid that priest, bishop, or for that matter Pope, should contradict them.

Here are a couple of quotations from Redemptionis Sacramentum. Paragraph 40:
Nevertheless, from the fact that the liturgical celebration obviously entails activity, it does not follow that everyone must necessarily have something concrete to do beyond the actions and gestures, as if a certain specific liturgical ministry must necessarily be given to the individuals to be carried out by them. Instead, catechetical instruction should strive diligently to correct those widespread superficial notions and practices often seen in recent years in this regard, and ever to instill anew in all of Christ’s faithful that sense of deep wonder before the greatness of the mystery of faith that is the Eucharist....

Para 45: To be avoided is the danger of obscuring the complementary relationship between the action of clerics and that of laypersons, in such a way that the ministry of laypersons undergoes what might be called a certain “clericalization”, while the sacred ministers inappropriately assume those things that are proper to the life and activity of the lay faithful.

Here's Michael Voris on the problem of 'minstries' in parish life.

I'm not sure about the US-style 'direct action' he recommends at the end, but you can understand the frustration.

See also my post about the Traditional Mass and the charge of 'clericalism'.

Walsingham Pilgrimage Early Bird offer expires tomorrow!

2011-09-14T08:40:00.000+01:00

You can sign up for the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham at this year's prices on our 'Early Bird' offer, today: the offer expires tomorrow. You only need to pay a deposit. There are discounts for students and LMS members.

This is a wonderful event: build it into your diaries now!

Mediocrity and Evangelisation

2011-09-12T21:27:00.001+01:00

In my last two posts I've been saying that a critical attitude is essential to any enterprise. Anyone hoping to achieve anything worthwhile needs relentless criticism to succeed. This might sound paradoxical but it is true: everywhere you find excellence you find a culture of forthright criticism.

A culture in which criticism is not encouraged is soon swamped by mediocrity. Some people, as I described in my last post, actually like mediocrity, since it allows a diffusion of tasks related to the church to people with no aptitude or training in specialist fields from theology to playing the organ. The performance of such tasks is seen as the most important way of participating in parish life, where spiritual participation in the liturgy, prayer in common, and organised practical work in sodalities and guilds is either devalued or unavailable.

A parish in which mediocrity is triumphant is clearly not going to impress visitors with its music or art, with the disciplined harmony of its altar service or the confidence and expertise of its catechists. Plenty of people will react to this by saying that the visitor needs to look beyond the lack of resources to see the zeal of the people. This misses the point: I'm not talking about a lack of resources, but a culture in which mediocrity is king. When you look beyond the drab exterior of such a parish you don't see people trying as hard as they can, but of people accepting second best. You don't see the best person available doing each task, but a heaving pyramid of sharp-elbowed busy-bodies.

Resources are sometimes hard to find. The reason, however, that there is so little in the way of worthy furnishings and fittings in so many churches is not because they are unaffordable, even if they are, but because they were deliberately removed, sold or destroyed, in the 1960s and '70s, and sometimes more recently. The reason why so few parishes have a good musical tradition is not because it is so hard to create, though it is, but because polyphonic and chant groups were disbanded in the 1960s and '70s, and again sometimes later too. In both cases what was fine, worthy, traditional, and helpful to devotion was deliberately destroyed in favour of the mediocre, for the reasons just described.

One problem with mediocrity which I have not yet touched on is that it drives away talented people. People of musical, artistic or intellectual sensitivity quickly realise they are not welcome, and they flee.

If they flee from the Church as a whole then of course they are wrong to do so: the Church is the Ark of Salvation. We are used, however, to looking at things from the other way round, so let's not blame the ones fleeing but consider how we have failed to help them see the beauty and truth of the Faith.

Talented people who see mediocrity raised on high, praised, and shoved under everyone's nose, can feel very uncomfortable. It indicates to them that the people in this church have no intellectual or artistic tradition, that this faith is anti-intellectual and anti-artistic, as many Christian groups are. It indicates that while they are valued in their own fields, they will not be valued here. Mediocrity is counter-evangelical.

I think most people can tell when a parish fails to rise to great heights of artistry through sheer lack of resources. The state of the building and nature of the parishioners will tell you enough. Such a situation, where poverty is matched with zeal, has made many Catholic artists want to contribute to community life at their own cost, as an act of charity. When artistic mediocrity is matched with pile carpets, expensive sound-systems and a well-heeled congregation, then you know that it is ideological.

(Picture: Michelangelo in his studio, by Delacroix.)

When you start the work of restoration, when you really do want to create something worthwhile with limited resources, then it can be very hard work. Talented people can be very hard to find; when they exist, they are busy and frequently have to move on. I have assisted at many, many Masses where the standard of singing - including my own singing - was not up to scratch, where the serving was inexpert, and where the physical environment was frankly unworthy. I like to remember, in this regard, the years the Traditional Mass was offered, with the full permission of Archbishop Nichols, in a sports hall, because no church was available: see the picture above. You struggle on, and hope you can improve and with time gather more and better resources. I appreciate the difficulties of such situations, and it is certainly not the case that I, or others attached to the Traditional Mass, are not interested in going to Mass where it is offered in a humble setting by people doing their small best (see my response to this absurd charge here). What would be crazy, and not charitable at all, is to pretend that the difficulties of these situations aren't difficulties, and that everything is always wonderful. But the point I am making now is that one of the reasons this is such hard work is because talented people are actually driven away from the Church by the cult of mediocrity. Mediocrity, like excellence, fosters the conditions of its own continuation. Each becomes embedded, mediocrity attracting the mediocre, and excellence attracting those capable of excellence. It is hard to improve parish A because the culture of parishes B to Z has convinced the local population that excellence is foreign to Catholic worship.

And so we have the situation in which people who want to sing, for example, or are interested in fine church furnishings, or even dignified ceremonial, will look to the Anglicans and not to the Catholics. Anglican Cathedrals and centres of High Anglicanism have maintained choirs and all the other things to a much greater degree than Catholic churches. Anglicans were not unaffected by the cult of mediocrity in the 20th Century but more survived. One of the the things we aimed to do by introducing polyphony to the Schola Abelis I set up in Oxford for the Traditional Mass was to provide an outlet in Catholic worship for singers otherwise attached to college choirs singing Anglican Evensong and to the High Anglican centre, Pusey House. Some of these singers are in fact Catholic, but generally speaking they have no opportunity to develop their skills in a Catholic context.

The Anglican Ordinariate is a great opportunity in this regard, and in Oxford it has stimulated the creation of a new group to sing polyphony, the Newman Consort, founded by people associated with the Ordinariate. Doing these things is, however, a constant grind: excellence does not come easily. It is made that much harder when Catholics insist that it is not only not worth the effort, but actually a bad thing.

Is it really necessary to point out the achievements of Catholic culture in order to convince people that fine music, architecture and everything else is appropriate to Catholic worship? The High Anglican experiment was, of course, an exercise in bringing into Anglicanism things which were Catholic - Catholic music, Catholic vestments, Catholic ceremonies. For Catholics to reject these things is an exercise in self-hatred.

What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behoves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place. Pope Benedict XVI

But I need to address one final point: excellence and mediocrity and the issues of elitism and clericalism. I will do that, in the post after next.

Criticism and Mediocrity

2011-09-10T10:13:00.001+01:00

This may sound harsh, but following on from my last post I am convinced that the major reason so many people in the Church jump up and down with annoyance and accusations of lack of charity whenever someone voices criticisms is a love of, or at least a deep desire to tolerate, mediocrity.

Some geniuses have been thin-skinned but excellence of all kinds requires criticism. Students in Oxford would learn nothing if their work was not criticised. Performing artists need to know the difference between a good performance and a bad one: they need to hear more than just 'Oh that was marvellous darling!!' every single time.

I'm not talking about vulgar abuse, which as I said in my last post should be swiftly deleted from coments boxes, and simply ignored when the abuser has his own blog. By contrast, criticism can be fair or unfair, it can be accurate or misguided, but all of it tells us about how what are doing comes across, what misunderstandings we need to guard against, which techniques we are using work on a particular audience, and what we have missed.

Great centres of artistic and academic excellence are centres of insistent and fearless criticism. It can hurt but you learn to live with it and you improve, or maybe you stop wasting your time and try something else. Working without anyone to criticise is extremely difficult: you can run off into highly elaborated schemes based on flawed foundations and waste years of work. Criticism of practical projects is particularly important because no one has a mastery of all the aspects of a big project and critics can offer much-needed expertise, or at least point in the direction where more attention is needed.

Fundamental criticisms, when one finds one's very basic assumptions are being questioned, are essential to avoid 'group think': the situation in which a group of people who share fundamental attitudes also share blind spots about potential pitfalls or objections. Organisations which foster innovation have got to tolerate criticism at every level of generality, ends as well as means.

Being open with criticism is not necessarily correlated with being unwilling to help with a project. Indeed in my experience they are inversely related. After all, criticism is a form of help: it is spending time thinking about a proposal and coming up with objections to it. I have tried and in some cases succeeded in getting many projects off the ground in the Catholic context and it is not the people who think carefully about a proposal and ask 'have you thought of X?' or 'what are you going to do about Y?' who are the problem; it is the people who say 'that sounds nice' but then refuse to help. Worst of all are the people with grave misgivings who are too frighttened of a confrontation to articulate them: in some cases they could be cleared up by explanation, in other cases the project needs to be adapted. Certainly, when people bring me worthwhile proposals I aim to give, insofar as I can, both attentive criticism and practical help.

So why are people so against criticisms, and so critical of critics? It is partly because they are in state of 'group think' themselves: they think their position in their group is imperilled by criticising a pet project, and is reinforced by rejecting the criticisms of others. Rational considerations are rejected in favour of social ones. But a major reason is that the mediocrity which results from accepting everything uncritically is actually regarded as a good thing.

It is regarded as a good thing because an intellectual and artistic engagement with the Church is regarded as an important form of 'participation', and the great majority of people are not cut out for intellectual and artistic endeavour of great value. Worthwhile art and serious intellectual output is the result of many years of specialist training and practice, as well as native talent, and this is obviously something very few people have. Only at the level of mediocrity can you have members of the parish without serious training creating visual religious art or leading liturgical music, or leading the RCIA course or contributing to discussion groups about Church teaching. And these kinds of participations in parish life are regarded as terribly important; by no means should the parish amateurs be displaced by, or placed under the supervision of, professionals.

Why, one may ask, would any Catholic think that it was important for their (or their children's) ghastly artistic creations to disfigure the church's walls, for their cracked voices to pain the congregation's ears in the liturgy, or for their half-baked ideas about faith and reason to be taken seriously by other members of a discussion group, or, heaven forbid, catechumens? A good question, but notice that they do think so: and they can get very shirty if they sense you don't agree. It seems to be their right to do these things; this is their contribution to the parish. The implication is that if you stop them doing these things you leave them without an outlet for their devotion.

One purported justification of mediocrity is the Protestant-Romantic idea that the product of deeply-felt passion and spontaneity is actually of greater worth than the product of training and skill. This of course is deeply at odds with the Catholic artistic and intellectual traditions, but it is a widespread notion. With this you just have to be tough: you as an individual may be offering all you have to God, but that doesn't mean it is the best we as a community can offer Him.

Another justification, and this is the more important, is that the ordinary parishoner's spiritual participation in the liturgy is no longer understood or valued by many Catholics, and appropriate outlets for Catholics without special artistic or intellectual skills have largely been destroyed: the guilds and sodalities which used to characterise parish life, particularly those devoted to the corporal acts of mercy. All that is left is apologetics and catechesis, and artistic contributions to the liturgy.

Of course I'm all for as many Catholics as possible learning about the Faith and learning about singing and art, but we have the situation today in which catechesis, as well as music in the liturgy, seems too often to be directed by people without serious knowledge or training: the well known stereotype of the modern Church, the lay RCIA director, being something to bring a chill to every spine.

I was delighted to find this last image on the web: 'Mediocrity Empowers'. That is absolutely right. To be crass about it, we desperately need to disempower the people who have been empowered by mediocrity. We also need to have more training in music, art, and theology and other subjects, and this is perhaps beginning to happen. But the people with real skills can actually be feared and hated, because they spell the end of the tyranny of mediocrity, and the return of criticism.

Catholics don't need less mutual criticism, they need more - far more. Far too many people, particularly good-natured priests, feel they need to endure the second-rate to avoid hurting anyone's feelings. This policy is understandable but it is disastrous, since it quickly leads to the tyranny of the mediocre and the loss to the Church of the genuinely talented. Now I've got going on this theme, I'll post about this last point tomorrow: how the mediocre drives out the excellent.

On being critical

2011-09-08T10:49:00.001+01:00

"If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand." (Ezekial 3:18)

When I posted my reaction to Michael Voris, I said that since I thought he was basically a Good Thing I would show my appreciation by criticising what I took to be the main point of his talk. I wasn't joking: since I am basically well disposed to what he had to say, it is useful to him (in the unlikely event that he reads it) and to others to make a critique of what he said. In fact I thought his message should have been more nuanced and balanced.

Inevitably I was criticised myself in the com-box by some of his many fans - since this blog is pretty obscure I got off lightly, I know others who've criticised Voris have been deluged. These fans say that I shouldn't criticise Voris for the very reason that I think that it is important to criticise him: that is, because despite his limitations he is basically a Good Thing.

Presumably Voris himself agrees with me, since he is famous for being critical, and indeed for criticising not just the lunatic fringe liberals but apparently conservative groups like the Knights of St Columbus. Those fans of his, who infest the com-boxes of bloggers who dare say anything critical of Voris, don't seem to be alive to the irony of attempting to silence criticism of a man whose entire apostolate is based on the justification and indeed necessity of criticing fellow Catholics. If we shouldn't criticise Voris, then a fortiori Voris shouldn't criticise anyone else, especially bishops. If these fans had any sense, they'd welcome criticism of Voris in the spirit of a healthy and charitable debate.

The bigger question is whether a healthy and charitable debate is indeed an ideal, or whether we Catholics should be stifling public criticisms of each other in the interest of presenting a united front, or (where applicable) respect and obedience of legitimate authority, or simply because we think that charitable debate is impossible and we want to avoid acrimony and divisiveness. Let me address these objections in turn.

1. If we criticise fellow Catholics, we give scandal to non-Catholics.
This may indeed happen, but it is a far greater scandal to non-Catholics to see a public sinner or dissident being treated as if nothing were amiss by his fellow Catholics. When theologians who publicly dissent from Catholic teaching, or politicians who vote for abortion, are feted in Catholic institutions and lauded on Catholic blogs this very clearly and directly undermines the witness of the Church to the truth of her teaching. St Paul repeatedly says that the Christian community should ostracise and eject such people (2 Thess. 3:14; 1 Cor. 5:13; 1 Tim. 1:20). A community united by a set of beliefs will simply cease to exist if it tolerates as fully-paid up members those who do not share the beliefs.

Catholic bloggers are not the most important line of defence here - it is for bishops to reprove formally, and ultimately to excommunicate - but they do have obligations. They should not contribute to the idea that people are model Catholics because (like the Kennedy clan, for example) they are so rich or well-connected or otherwise influential that everyone is too frightened to point out that they have departed from the Faith. A vigorous rejection by a wide range of Catholic voices of the views of dissident Catholics is the best possible witness we can give to non-Catholics, given that we can't make the dissidents disappear.

2. Criticism is incompatible with respect and obedience to legitimate authority.
St Paul criticised St Peter; St Catherine of Siena criticised a series of popes. This is certainly something which has to be done with great care, and I'm not recommending it, at least in normal circumstances (normal for today, I mean). It can easily be counter productive, for one thing. But criticising those in authority is certainly not ruled out in principle by obligations of respect and obedience. Our bishops give us very clear teaching on this, by (rightly) criticising the civil authorities. We owe the civil authorities respect and obedience. We can still criticise them, and indeed we often must. However, it is usually enough to criticise ideas rather than individuals, if we want to avoid the impression of disrespect for those in authority. The point should never be a personal attack, but a point of principle.

'Conservative' Catholics and liberal Catholics sometimes seem to share a blindness to the distinction between dogmatic and prudential matters, and also to between authoritative public teaching and off-the-cuff or private statements. On issues of faith and morals, authoritative statements by those in the Church with authority to teach have prima facie force and should be accepted by the faithful, although the faithful can't be expected to accept contradictory statements, as would happen if a priest or bishop contradicted another authoritative statement. And here it should be noted that the docility of the faithful is as much, indeed more, to be measured by their acceptance of the decrees of Lateran IV or the Athanasian Creed as by the latest pastoral letter from their local ordinary. On prudential issues, matters of policy, tradition has a lot to say and priests and bishops have the grace of their offices in governing their flocks, but they are not preserved from error and debate may be an essential part of getting things right. (Also see my series about obedience.)

3. Charitable criticism is impossible so we should have no criticism at all.
It is certainly a problem for bloggers that sweet reason can be overwhelmed by the 'crazies'. The internet, it can seem, belongs to those who are least averse to staying up all night ranting. I actually think that this is a passing phenomenon: increasingly blogs are refusing to accept anonymous comments and swift moderation should mean that rants are online, attached to respectable blogs, for a very short space of time. The most widely read sites are the ones which are reasonably sane and the internet makes it easy to show that really crazy ideas contradict on-line Church documents and the like.

The other thing we all need to get used to is the instant publication of our views. The internet is a hasty forum and people blurt things out in a way they might in a saloon-bar discussion, and it is there for the whole world to see forever. I have said it before, we have to accept that the blogs are more like people sitting round in a pub than a carefully researched monograph; while being careful ourselves we shouldn't get too upset when other people seem to fly off the handle. Certainly we shouldn't forget the advantages of the medium: the instant correctability, the ability to link to photographic or video evidence or textual sources, the linking up with scholars and specialists as well as ordinary Catholics.

Debate about the application of the Church's teaching to new situations, and to prudential matters, has always taken place in the Church, and it is not only inevitable but frequently very important. When St Bernard of Clairvaux said that St Peter the Venerable was wicked from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, or when A.W. Pugin said that the classical style of architecture was unfit for Christian worship, they were getting a bit too excited. But you can't stop them, and you shouldn't want to stop them, engaging in criticism and debate. What we might want to do is make the debate more calm and charitable.

There is an deeper issue here, however, and that is mediocrity. The love of mediocrity leads to a hatred of criticism; I actually think this is a more important motive in the attempt to stifle criticism than concerns about giving scandal and charity. I'll post about this next.

Pictures: Voris, St Catherine, St Bernard.

Lanherne Convent appeal

2011-09-06T10:15:00.000+01:00

I too have received the same e-mail as Fr Sean and Fr Ray Blake.

The Sisters of the Immaculate at Lanherne have for ten years occupied a convent owned by the Carmelites. This is not odd for them as they are unable to own property. However the Carmelites have announced that they wish to put the convent on the open market, unless... well, unless the Sisters can come up with something.

They are a thriving community who use Traditional Mass the 1962 Breviary. They are a sister order to the Friars of the Immaculate, who have a base in Stoke and two of whom accompanied the LMS Pilgrimage to Walsingham.

Please pray for a solution to be found. The community is unique in the British Isles and if they lose the convent they will have to return to Italy. The order, and the community at Lanherne, is international.

If we English Catholics can't find a home for these sisters who want to devote their entire lives to praying for us, then I say we do not deserve the conversion of England for which we all long.

John Medlin, Editor of Mass of Ages, retires

2011-09-04T10:21:00.002+01:00

John Medlin, stading behind the chap in the cassock.

The other day I attended a quiet dinner in London to conclude John Medlin's last day at work for the Latin Mass Society. It was a very pleasant evening. John is planning a move to Penzance. Despite the distance I don't think we've heard the last of him!

John was taken on to edit the Latin Mass Society's magazine; his first issue came out in May 2003, with a daringly modern font and a change of name: no longer the 'LMS Newsletter, but a a magazine in the proper sense, 'Mass of Ages'. His last edition is the current one, August 2011: with four a year, he's produced forty five issues over 11 years. He expanded the use of colour, introduced paid-for adverts, and improved both the format and the content of the magazine.

For most of the time of his employment by the LMS he combined Editing the magazine with being 'General Manager'. Neither post existed, at least as a paid position, before he took them on. This really established the LMS as an organisation on a level with many medium-sized charities, able to organise major events and engage with the wider world through a magazine available to non-members through bookshops and other outlets, such as the St Paul's Bookshop and the CTS bookshop in Westminster.

It is always telling when one member of staff has to be replaced with two: John's workload was enormous and the range of skills needed extremely wide. We are very happy to have had our new General Manager, Mike Lord, well established before John left the office; the new editor, Gregory Murphy, will be producing the next issue of Mass of Ages, to come out in early November.

Many thanks to John Medlin, the Latin Mass Society's first professional magazine editor and General Manager. We all wish him a very happy and active retirement!

Oxburgh Hall's Priest hole

2011-09-02T10:00:00.001+01:00

Stop press: the is a very amusing account of the pilgrimage starting on the Juventutem London blog. Other accounts can be seen on the Bones, Catholic Youth and the Chaplain Abroad, and soon on Smeaton's Corner.

The results of the Protestant Revolt are all about us on the pilgrimage to Walsingham. We walk from the impressive and uncorrupt hand of the great Abbess St Ethelburga (d. 664) in Ely to the site of the replica Holy House built in Walsingham as a result of Lady Richeldis' vision in 1061. Catholicism had no shallow roots in East Anglia, and some of the most impressive late Medieval churches, with intact Rood Screens, are to be found in Norfolk. We stopped to pray at the ruins of the Augustinian Priory of St Mary and All Saints at East Acre, surrendered to the King 1538: the first monastic 'surrender'. It was founded in the reign of William II (i.e. late 12th Century).

The highlight of the second day's walk, however, relates more to the Catholic response to the Reformation, the wonderful, moated, Oxburgh Hall.

The Bedingfeld family always kept the Faith, and hung washing out on the garden hedges to indicate a priest was about to say Mass in the house. When it was safe to do so, they built a free-standing chapel, in the Gothic style, in the grounds, and it is there we had Mass. It has a wonderful Altarpiece, of 16th Century German workmanship.

After Mass the Bedingfelds gave us tea and coffee in their kitchen and allowed us to look at, and climb into, their priest hole. It is cleverly contrived under the gardrobe (the loo) next to a bedroom. Once you get in there is space for three people and more, with alcoves where you could put objects needing to be hidden or food. It is quite tricky to get in and out.

From the outside, looking in.

A visitor climbing out.

View from the inside, someone (with tatoos on his ankles - who can it be?) climbing in.

Here's the hole with a priest in it - our chaplain, Fr Bede Rowe.

It is difficult to give an impression of it with a camera, but after squeezing under the loo and round a bend you emerge into an open space. Records of who used it, and with what success, were not, for obvious reason, kept, but no priest appears to have been captured at Oxburgh, so we may assume that the priest hole served its purpose well. The identity of the builder again cannot be established with certainty but the greatest priest-hole maker was the heroic Jesuit lay brother and martyr, St Nicholas Owen, who was born in Oxford a stone's throw from the Castle, and was tortured to death in the Tower of London in 1606. St Nicholas took his secrets with him to the grave, and priest holes are still found in Catholic houses to this day, where they had been forgotten about for centuries. Owen did all his work alone, often under cover of darkness, and was clearly a brilliant workman.

We are very grateful to Henry and Mary Bedingfeld for their kindness and hospitality. The house, which is owned by the National Trust (with the Bedingfelds living in part of it) is open to the public, and is well worth a visit.

Sign up for Walsingham 2012!

2011-09-01T07:47:00.006+01:00

The Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham was such a success that we want to build on it without delay. We are already thinking about how it can be made even better, and we are offering this year's pilgrims, and the general public, the opportunity to sign up now for next year's event (24-26 August 2012) at this year's prices, our 'Early Bird Offer', which runs until 15th September. I don't know how much the price is likely to go up, but this year's prices are rock bottom. We provide dinner and breakfast from Thursday evening to Sunday morning, we arrange accommodation, we provide the back up transport, and daily Sung Mass, for a unique event in the Catholic calendar.

This year, and I assume next year too, the men were in tents two nights and a school hall one night, and the ladies used mats and sleeping bags on the floor of various halls all three nights. Our heavy bags, tents and so on were taken by car to the next evening's stop. Transport from and back to London should be available. Transport from other parts of the country is often easy to arrange, with car sharing with other pilgrims.

There is no reason why this shouldn't be a really big event, and a great witness to the Faith.

Don't get left behind!

What is it really like? Walking all day is quite hard work, but the distances are not as extreme as on the Chartres Pilgrimage, where pilgrims plod for up 30 miles in a day. To Walsingham we go about 20 miles on the full days; the last day is much shorter, arriving at the Shrine in the middle of the day. Walking is on (nearly all very quiet) roads and good paths; there is no rough ground and no stony hills to climb. Norfolk is famously flat, with nothing but very gentle slopes towards the end: ideal for the pilgrim. We walk through countryside and villages, past a great many medieval churches and the wonderful historic flint houses of the area. We pray the Rosary, singing it in Latin, French and English, we sing the Litanies - the Great Litany, the Litany of Loreto, the Litany of St Joseph - we sing lots of hymns and some fun secular songs. We have meditations as we go along and periods of silence or quiet talk. There are opportunities for confession and spiritual direction with our chaplain. And every day there is Mass, sung and served by members of the pilgrimage, and to a high standard too.

I am always amazed at the stamina of young people, who seem to be able to do the walk without any kind of preparation. Speaking for myself, at the end of my 30s, I went to some lengths to get into shape, taking long walks over the summer, and this stood me in good stead. Some of the pilgrims had to take to the support vehicles, but only a few. Essential are good shoes or boots, which won't rub and give you blisters, will give you ankle support if you need it, and will keep out water. Having said that some people walked in sandals, which also seemed to work well.

If you've not done this sort of thing before, don't be frightened, it is not too cruel on the legs and it is great fun. If you have done this kind of thing before, then the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham is one of the best ways of doing it, from the point of view of the importance of the Shrine, the liturgy, and the company. So sign up now!

Where is the barrier, Mr Mickens?

2011-08-30T15:40:00.005+01:00

Catching up on the weekend press I see that Robert 'Bobbie' Mickens, the Tablet Rome Correspondant who wept when Pope Benedict was elected, was at World Youth Day - or so he says. He reports on the confrontation between WYD 'kids' and the anti-clerical protesters. ('Kids'? The age range is 18-35, but anyone under 50 probably seems a child to the typical Tablet reader.) After an initial exchange of slogans between the two groups, he writes, 'Police ordered the Catholic kids to keep moving and most did. But some of the more zealous decided to continue giving 'witness'. The protesters responded with insults as the kids continued their chants. A small group even knelt down and began praying the Rosary. ... The Catholic youngsters obviously felt that they were being heroic in defending their faith, albeit from behind a barrier.'

I quote this spiteful description because of the identifiable falsehood: as we've all seen from the photos, there was no barrier. Either Mickens was making it up, or (more likely) he was relying on a garbled second hand version. What is clear, however, is that he didn't bother talking to any of the 'kids' involved or looking at the pictures on the Internet, which went up within hours of the events they captured.
Where is the barrier, Mr Mickens?

What a terrible thing photography and the Internet are for liberal fantasists like Robert Mickens. We don't have to take their word for anything any more.

There should be a short article on this confrontation in the next Mass of Ages giving the story from the horses' mouth - from the young chap in the middle of the photo.

LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham: photo essay

2011-08-30T09:50:00.006+01:00

The last minute preparations included the completion of a new banner by the ladies of the Oxford branch of the Guild of St Clare. (More on the Guild blog.)

Sung Mass in the Catholic parish church in Ely, St Ethelreda's, early in the morning on Friday. Fr Shyrane, the parish priest, is extraordinarily welcoming to the many pilgrims who pass through. We had our dinner on Thursday night and breakfast after Mass in the Presbytery, and most of the ladies slept on the floor. The men were in tents in a camp site outside Ely.

After Mass Fr Bede Rowe, our chaplain, blessed the banner, and gave the blessing used at the Christus Rex pilgrimage in Australia, of the pilgrims' 'staves and scrips' (our sticks and daysacs) and of the pilgrims themselves.

The banner has its first outing, on the way from St Ethelreda's to Ely Cathedral.

Ely Cathedral, a medieval masterpiece. We prayed there for the healing of schism.

Shortly after leaving Ely it began to rain intermittently, including some quite heavy rain. The banner is being carried by Br Julian of the Friars of the Immaculate, based at their community in Stoke on Trent. Also with us from that community was Br Pietro, an excellent singer, an Italian who has been in England only a month. We were very privileged to have them with us.

Dinner in a school where we stayed Friday night. Paul Waddington and Lucy Shaw were in charge of providing the food; we did very well. In the school we were all able to sleep under cover, in various rooms and corridors.

After a short walk we had a Sung Mass in the chapel at Oxburgh Hall, at 9am. We were joined by a number of local LMS supporters.

Walking on from Oxburgh, after a cup of tea very kindly supplied by the Bedingfelds, and a look at the very interesting priest-hole - I'll blog about that separately. It was much brighter, and despite thunder and lightning at one point the rain was limited to showers, with a couple of impressive rainbows during the day.

At a pre-Reformation Priory we said prayers for the dead.

Saturday night we were in a village hall, where some very kind local ladies prepared a meal for us. The men were again in tents outside, about a dozen tents, mostly one-man 'pop up' tents, with the ladies on the floor in the hall. Before bed we venerated a relic of the True Cross, which one of the pilgrims had brought with him.

Sunday morning, a fairly short walk to Walsingham.

Arrival at the Slipper Chapel, the Catholic shrine, part of the medieval shrine complex: it is where pilgrims left their shoes for the Holy Mile to the Holy House in Walsingham itself.

Sung Mass in the modern Reconciliation Chapel.

Our numbers now include not only the walking pilgrims and our various support drivers but a coach-load from London, many other LMS supporters from around the country and a number of young people taking part in the Youth 2000 weekend taking place. Y2000 is such a big event that they have their services in vast tents in the field opposite the Slipper Chapel, so it didn't prevent us from booking the Reconciliation Chapel for Mass at 2pm.

We processed from the Reconciliation Chapel to the site of the Holy House in the grounds of the medieval Abbey. Here we sang the Te Deum and had a final blessing from Fr Bede.

The site of the Holy House.

An impromtu survivors' photo.

The full set of photos.

Walsingham photos: uploading now

2011-08-29T21:31:00.002+01:00

I've been processing the photos taken with my proper cameras and they are uploading now; I'll post about the Pilgrimage tomorrow, but you can see the photos here.

Mass in the Parish Church of St Ethelreda in Ely, the in the early morning of the first day of the pilgrimage.

Walsingham: Conclusion

2011-08-29T10:23:00.001+01:00

After a long morning's walk we made it to the Slipper Chapel, the Catholic shrine, in good time at 12.30. We had prayers outside the tiny historic chapel, where medieval pilgrims left their shoes to walk the Holy Mile to the Holy House in Walsingham. We were able to visit the chapel individually and prepare for Mass.

Fr Rowe celebrated a Missa Cantata for us at 2pm, with the Asperges, a Votive Mass of Our Lady since it it a recognised shrine. This was in the large, modern 'Chapel of Reconcilation', and was extremely well attended. In addition to our thirty foot pilgrims and about a dozen 'camp followers', there was a coachful from London, others from around the country and visitors from the 'Youth 2000' event taking place over the weekend.

After Mass we processed to the site of the Holy House and sang the Te Deum with 130 people.

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Walsingham Day 3

2011-08-28T10:23:00.001+01:00

Yesterday continued with showers, but with a lot of warm sunshine as well. We stopped to pray for the dead in the ruins of a pre-reformation Priory: we sang the Dies Irae and De Profundis, and Fr Rowe led us with prayers.

It was a long afternoon's walk - after a long morning's walk! We persevered with almost continuous singing, which is the key to keeping up morale, though my voice is suffering a bit this morning.

We arrived at last at Harpley Village Hall, and after a meal prepared by some very kind local ladies we visited the Crown pub and had a very jolly evening.

As one of our English Catholic poets (Dryden) put it

Drinking is a soldier's pleasure
Rich the treasure
Sweet the pleasure
Sweet is pleasure after pain.

We are now well on our way on our last leg to Walsingham, having a break in East Rudham, whose village sign has a picture of pilgrims making their way to Walsingham.

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Walsingham Day 2: lunch

2011-08-27T14:59:00.001+01:00

We have had a beautiful Sung Mass in the private chapel of the Bedingfeld family at Oxburgh Hall, and after a cup of tea and a look at their priest hole (hidden under the loo ensuite to the 'Kings Bedroom) we have had a long walk to get to Narbrough.

The weather has been much better today - a few light showers but also a lot of sun. After lunch we'll be walking to Hartley for the night.

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Walsingham Day 2

2011-08-27T07:13:00.001+01:00

We had intermittent

rain all day yesterday, but after a vast number of hymns and singing the while Rosary is Latin and French we arrived rather damp at our stop for the night, a school.

We are now setting off for Oxburgh Hall, where we are having Mass.

So we are off! Singing the Great Litany.

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Walsingham Day 1

2011-08-26T09:19:00.001+01:00

After rising in the dark and in torrential rain, we have had Sung Mass, breakfast, blessing of our 'scrips and staves', and have prayed for the healing of schism in Ely Cathedral. Fr Bede Rowe also blessed our

new banner.

It has stopped raining and brightened up. We are now off,

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Walsingham Pilgrimage Day 0

2011-08-25T22:21:00.001+01:00

We've all arrived in Ely, pitched our tents and had dinner in the presbytery of the Catholic parish church, St Ethelreda's.

There are far more of us than last year, about 30, so the ladies have the use of the presbytery floors and the men are in a camping site.

Dinner presented some difficulties because we couldn't get the oven to work; however we overcame and had a very agreeable and sociable meal.

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Michael Voris in the flesh

2011-08-25T09:56:00.006+01:00

So now I've seen him. You pick up a lot more from seeing someone without the mediation of an internet video, and editing. Voris is just as energetic as he seems on his website, but not as carefully scripted.

Michael Voris is not a particularly good speaker. I don't say this as a criticism, it is just a fact; we all have different talents. I've given lots of talks and my concern is always to make a coherent, structured case; I don't know if I always succeed, but for all his charisma Michael Voris didn't. His talk meandered; at one point he made an aside and never got back onto the main point, as far as I could tell. Nevertheless he had lots of interesting things to say. He spoke without notes, with urgency, making points of principle and relaying some helpful and amusing anecdotes.

He is clearly not theologically trained. A number of times I thought: 'No, that not quite the right way to make that point': he's no heretic, but gets betrayed into saying things which aren't exactly right, he doesn't always use the right terms or express things in the right way. He said all the other sacraments exist for the sake of the Eucharist: no, that's not quite right. They exist for our salvation. Baptism shouldn't be subordinated to the Eucharist; one could as easily say the Eucharist exists for the sake of Baptist, for the sake of the Christian people brought into existence by Baptism. (And how does Matrimony fit in?) However he was making a point about the importance of the Eucharist; we knew what he was driving at and I'm not going to be reporting him to the CDF.

The fact is that the people who are theologically trained, or most of them, have left it to an enthusiastic auto-didact like Michael Voris to defend the faith, in its fullness, in an appealing way to a mass audience, addressing issues of immediate concern and relevance. Yes this has often happened in the Church before. The theologians, priests and bishops who don't like Voris' style should get off their backsides and do what he is doing, better. Frankly Voris is a hero for taking on this apostolate, all the more because of his limitations; that doesn't mean he shouldn't be criticised, but he should also be appreciated.

The overall impression was good. The audience loved it. And to show my appreciation I'm going to criticise (yes, that's my way of showing appreciation) what I take to be his central point: that we should all focus all of our energy on 'being Catholic', to the exclusion of things like (his examples) stamp collecting or football.

I wish more Catholics spent less time on frivolous matters, but there is an opposite worry too: that of religious mania, obsessiveness. As Catholics we see the value of artistic and cultural things, of friendship, and of simply playing games, in themselves. They aren't the most important things, but neither are they excluded from a well-lived life. It is interesting and can be useful to relate these things to Catholic history or culture where applicable, but we don't need to do that in order to justify them. Michael Davies used to say (I think I read this somewhere, someone who knew him can correct me) that Traditionalists needed sometimes to take some time off. Davies was a rugby fan. It is actually necessary for our mental health that we aren't always wound up in a state of religious enthusiasm--even if we do try to be aware, always, of the presence of God. We shouldn't see the state of spiritual fervour as an ideal to which we only sometimes attain, but as a part of a life of varied mental states, a life which includes playing with our children, reading a trashy novel, going for a walk, having a cup of tea... and maybe even collecting stamps.

As I say, I wish more Catholics put aside their video games or gossip columns to read up on the faith, to attend devotions, to get involved in Catholic activities of all kinds. But there is a different message to be given to the kind of people who were attending Michael Voris' talk last night, the 'generous souls'. As Voris said, Catholics believe in the goodness and the salvation of the body as well as of the soul. Live a complete life; religious observance and Catholic activism may be the most important things in your life, but they shouldn't be the only things. Otherwise, you'll get burnt out and then you'll be no use to anyone. Yup, religious mania can be a danger to the Faith: your own, and other people's.

This is difficult today because everyone under the age of 60, if they care about their faith, is desperately trying to catch up on the religious formation they did not have as children and young adults; and the situation in the Church and the World is just so bad it can feel like living in a war zone. Do you take time off for pleasant excursions when the enemy is fighting their way in to your front room? Well, if you know the war is going to last at least for the rest of your life you have got to.

So! Talking of devotional activities, I'm now off to Walsingham. Look out for my live blogging from the road.

Michael Voris in London tomorrow!

2011-08-23T18:29:00.006+01:00

I've listened to a few of his video broadcasts and I must say I'm fascinated to see him in the toupée - I mean in the flesh!

Oddly enough I saw a picture of him on a recent visit to Warwick Castle. They called him Prince Toby for some reason - it was in part of the castle dedicated to entertaining children. He looked a little younger.He'd like Warwick Castle, in fact, judging from this photo of him.
Well done to Smeaton's Corner for arranging the event - go to him to get a ticket.

LMS Press Release on WYD

2011-08-23T09:57:00.006+01:00

Our scheme to sponsor pilgrims to join the Juventutem group at World Youth Day was extremely successful, and had to be expanded because of the demand; in the end we sponsored 22 young people from England and Wales. See our press release here. Here are some of the pilgrims.

I also spotted one in a photo on Fr Z's blog. (Update: for some reason the photo has disapeared from Fr Z but can be found on the Free Republic site.)

Not surprisingly, to those who know him (he attends the Traditional Mass at the Oxford Oratory) he seems to have found himself at the centre of the counter-protest made by WYD pilgrims against the half-witted secularists. He's the chap in the light brown shirt to the left of the flag.

Juventutem at World Youth Day

2011-08-21T10:00:00.001+01:00

Here is a photo from Rorate Caeli, which has been carrying some reports.

Yet more photos of Chartres

2011-08-20T10:21:00.000+01:00

These are taken by a British pilgrim so they show the UK chapters particularly. You can see them here.

They are a particular 'must' for fans of Fr Alexander Redman. Here he is disguised as a Frenchman, next to Fr Bede Rowe. It seems Fr Rowe is already looking after the Chavagnes boys, to whom he will be School Chaplain from September.

Anyone (like me) who was left behind can still sign up for the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham. See the side bar. We can't promise it will be quite as gruelling as the Chartres Pilgrimage but it will be fun all the same.

Fr Martin Edwards.

Feast of the Assumption in Oxford

2011-08-19T14:09:00.006+01:00

For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. Pius XII, 1st November 1950.

We celebrated this great feast with a Missa Cantata in SS Gregory & Augustine; for the first time the Schola Abelis has been functioning this far into the Long Vacation, and was able to accompany it - including with Polyphony. Here is a Gloria by Morales, Missa de beata virgine
.

Processing videos forces me to blog in arreas, so I hope readers enjoy them. Have a look at the post on the Schola's blog, and see more photos of the Mass here.

The Spirit of '58

2011-08-18T10:16:00.004+01:00

There is a very interesting discussion over on Rorate Caeli about the participation of the faithful in Traditional Low Masses. In the rules in force in 1962, reference is made to a document of 1958, Musica Sacra, which gives a series of options for different forms of participation, not only in terms of music but also in terms of the faithful making responses at Low Mass. The difficulty is that these recommendations were new, in 1958, and were overtaken by events only a few years later. They can hardly be presented as the timeless wisdom of the Church, indeed, they are clearly experimental. Many people attached to the 'former liturgical traditions' in the English-speaking world have a very strong preference for the most basic option, which was the norm before 1958 (at least in the English-speaking world): silence from the congregation. The dialogue is conducted by the priest and the server alone.

In my (considerable) experience of the Latin Novus Ordo, I was always conscious of the limitations on what the congregation could really manage: the odd 'Amen' is fine, but asking them to say 'Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis, ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui, ad utilitatem quoque nostram, totiusque Ecclesiae suae sanctae' (which the rubrics of the Novus Ordo does ask them to say) is just silly. They simply can't do it. Even if they knew the words, which few of them do, or were comfortable reading Latin aloud, which few of them are, a block of text as long as that recited by a good number of people might start together but will sound like a swarm of bees long before the end. The only way to avoid this would be to do with the congregation what we do with the servers: drill them.

Musica Sacra goes further, however: the most advanced option includes the congregation reciting the propers (the changing parts of the Mass, such as the Introit) as well as responses (in Latin, obviously). The idea that they could declaim these even longer texts, which are different every day, is absurd, unless, in a seminary or monastery, the congregation is again seriously drilled.

Do I need to point out that drilling people in their responses (said or sung) at Mass is patronising, embarrassing and lame? If they can't pick them up naturally, perhaps with the help of a handout, forget it.

The less advanced options allow the congregation to say only the simpler responses, but at this point the whole thing becomes complicated. Which responses? Are there natural distinctions between the parts of the Mass in which the congregation is responding and parts in which it is not? (No. The longest is the Confiteor, which comes in the middle of a lot of easy ones.) Is the distinction marked in missals? (No.)

It is obviously true that the 'dialogue Mass' can function when people have got a handle on what is expected of them, and that itself can be established by custom. It takes place in many parts of the world and people seem content with it. Like the document Musica Sacra itself, however, it does embed the unfortunate idea, which is at the heart of the debate about 'participatio actuosa', that the interior participation of members of the congregation is aided by them making a conscious effort to perform an outward task connected with the Mass. It is an unfortunate idea because it has a certain plausibility, but is false. It seems plausible to suppose that if the congregation is saying aloud 'Et cum spiritu sancto' or singing the Gloria they haven't gone to sleep but are actively engaged with the progress of the ritual. It is false, however, because (unless, perhaps, it has become second nature) reading the responses or the music from a book or sheet or for that matter remembering them is an intellectual task, and this task is not the same as the spiritual task of engaging in the Mass. As such it is a distraction from real, that is interior, participation.

To see that this is so consider the more involved kinds of participation, that of serving or singing at Mass. I know from my own experience, and it is certainly not only my experience, that trying to avoid making a mistake in serving or singing requires concentration. What you are concentrating on, as you kneel by the priest as a server, is 'Is it time to lift the chasuble?' 'Is it time to ring the bell?' 'I must stand up and go to the credence table in a moment'. If you are not concentrating on those things you will make a mistake. When you are singing you are focusing intensely on the music, listening to your fellow singers, looking at the conductor, and often keeping an eye on what is going on in the sanctuary. Either that or, again, you are going to make a mistake. In each case you have to fit your spiritual participation in round your ritual or artistic task.

Singing and serving are wonderful ways to assist at Mass, because they are ways of 'assisting' in the most obvious English sense. The intellectual or artistic effort you are making is something necessary to the Mass and you are offering it to God for His glory. It is a great privilege to be able to make this kind of contribution to the sacred mysteries. From the point of view of spiritual participation, of offering oneself with the Body and Blood of Our Lord offered by the priest to the Father, they are, however, distracting. Few servers and singers don't prefer, from time to time, to attend Mass as a simple member of the congregation. In the old days people would routinely attend Low Mass before attending Sung or Solemn Mass on a Sunday; you would be able to participate in different ways at each one.

It is just my opinion, but I agree with those criticised as 'neo-trads' who prefer the silent Low Mass. Don't try to make the congregation do what trained singers and servers do: let them participate in their own way, in their own time, and if they prefer with their own, interior, words.

Here's an aposite quotation from C.S. Lewis.
There is really some excuse for the man who said, "I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks."

Low Mass at the Holy Name, Manchester, celebrated by Fr Ray Matus. (More photos.)

What I've been missing

2011-08-17T10:31:00.001+01:00

I put up a lot of photos of a lot of different events on this blog but I don't go even to half of the big events organised by the Latin Mass Society and our friends. Here are a few of the things I've missed over the Summer so far: click on the links for more photographs.

Solemn Mass for the LMS Pilgrimage to Holywell, Wales.

Missa Cantata at the LMS Pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Taper, Cardigan.

Pilgrimage of the Sodality of the Five Wounds to the Shrine of the English Martyrs, Tyburn Convent

Solemn Requiem for the former LMS MC, Arthur Crumley.

Later this month I'll be on the LMS Walsingham Pilgrimage (26-28th August); I'll be missing (due to a timetable clash) the LMS Pilgrimage to Glastonbury (3rd Sept); I do plan to attend the LMS Pilgrimage to Aylsford (15th October).

Liturgical conflict in Bristol

2011-08-16T10:03:00.003+01:00

There is an interesting letter in the Catholic Herald this week (12th August), by a certain Brendan McBride, rejoicing in the loss of the Church's liturgical traditions.

'I was born and brought up when the priest said Mass with his back to me in a language I did not understand. Women covered their heads in church and no girl altar servers were allowed. To receive Communion I had to kneel at a barrier between me and the sanctuary and stick out my tongue. In those days the priest and the people inhabited different sacramental worlds; thank God such days have gone.'

He goes on to describe the Mass he attends in Bristol (ie presumably Clifton) Cathedral. Of the celebrant:

'We see his smile when calling us to prayer, and he sees ours when we respond. The altar is wide open and at Gospel time the younger children scamper up the steps to sit beside him--he is wonderful with children--while he tells them Bible stories...'

There are altar girls and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. The writer practices intinction: 'I take the Host in my hand and dip it in the chalice wine.'

It's all down to Vatican II, which 'recovered for us all the simplicity of the communial meal that He institured, one in which He gathers His friends to Himself as He did the night before He died. Communion with Him is not an occasion of adoration, nor one calling for "an atmosphere of focus, solemnity and mystery", but for intimacy and the happiness it brings.' He is very grateful to Bl Pope John XXIII, surprisingly, since the poor man would have been even more horrified than most of the Council Fathers at the liturgy Mr McBride descibes.

Not everyone in Bristol is taking the love-feast so well. This week's Universe (14th August) carries a letter given the title ' 'Unpleasantries' of the Sign of Peace', from A.W. Whaits, Bristol.

Whoever dreamt up the sugary sign of peace seems to have been naively oblivious to some unpleasant practicalities.

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.'

One man's 'intimacy, and the happiness it brings' is another man's invasion of personal space. I wonder if these two individuals have ever sat beside each other in the pew, and what happened at the kiss of peace.

Leaving aside the question of liturgical law, the real problem with Mr McBride's liturgy is that it depends, for its success, on a number of things which are not widely available.

First, architecture. Clifton Cathedral is famous for its modernist architecture; it was built for the liturgy McBride describes, but very, very few Catholic churches were. So while Clifton Cathedral is not to everyone's taste it has a coherence and integrity which few Catholic places of worship have, once they have been smashed up and rearranged in an attempt to create an atmosphere for which they are utterly unsuited.

Second, clergy. The Dean of Clifton Cathedral is 'wonderful with children'. That is very nice to hear. 'Wonderful' implies 'far above average'. Half our Catholic clergy are, by definition, below average in their ability to deal with children. (Only children themselves have the privilege of being 100% above average.) So what are they supposed to do? The liturgy described by McBride clearly depends on the Dean's remarkable personal qualities. Without them, it would fall flat.

Third, the faithful. Bristol is a populous city and the Cathdral's distinctive liturgy no doubt draws a good congregation from accross the city. People who like it must seek it out. I am happy for them. But what about priests who have to serve all the Catholics in their parishes? Not just the smiley ones who love touchy-feely services, but the curmugeons like A.W. Whaits. Even Clifton Cathedral's Dean might find his talents stretched to inject enthusiasm into a congregation made up, like the general Catholic population, 50% people coming out of habit, with little clue about what is going on, 30% curmudgeons going with gritted teath, and 20% liberal enthusiasts. We've all seen priests try to deal with this kind of congregation, and it can be a painful experience for all concerned.

The hyper-liberal liturgical experiment is something which by the very nature of things can work (at least superficially) very well in certain settings, but simply cannot be replicated across the country. The attempt by bishops and individual priests to impose it in the wrong conditions has had disasterous consequences. But in the liturgical orthodoxy of the last generation, they had nothing else to try.

But now things are changing.

First Mass of Fr Matthew McCarthy FSSP in the chapel of the Carmelite Convent of Jesus Mary & Joseph at Valpariso, Nebraska. More photos. The Chapel and convent are new; the priest is newly ordained, the chapel is full of families with young children, the convent is full of young nuns, all committed to the Traditional Mass.

Just for fun, here's a taste of the kind of liturgy Pope John XXIII used to preside over.