Some Spring and Summer events

Details are being confirmed for a number of Latin Mass Society events, so here is a little reminder. Click on the links for more information. Click on the photos for more photos - from previous years.

30 April 2016 (Saturday) LMS Pilgrimage to York

In honour of St Margaret Clitherow, one the LMS' two patron saints. Mass in the York Oratory, and a procession past her house to her place of execution, and back for Benediction.




14 May 2016 (Saturday) LMS One-Day Conference on the Family

With Fr Serafino Lanzetta, John Smeaton, Edmund Adamus, Prior Cassian Folsom of Norcia, and Joseph Shaw, an opportunity to reflect on the Family and the Church in light of Amoris laetitia. Tickets can be purchased on the day, but booking in advance encouraged, and essential if you want to get lunch in the venue.

Amoris laetitia: a preliminary conclusion

High Mass of Requiem at the LMS Priest Training Conference, Prior Park.

I've done a series of posts about the Exhortation now, focusing on particular passages. I must confess that it has not conformed to my expectations, and I suspect those of many, if not most, people. I had been expecting a more explicit addressing of the pastoral issues which have been so discussed in the last two years or so, with some practical guidance for priests, for example, about offering Holy Communion to couples in illicit unions. Instead, it has offered us a lot of discussion at a slightly more abstract level, and explicitly refused to make new rules, instead drawing our attention to a number of relevant factors, without telling us how to weigh those factors against each other.

It was predictable that different people would point to different passages and claim victory for different views. However, Pope Francis has deprived liberals (and depressed conservatives) of any passages (at least, which I have as yet got into focus) which say simply and clearly even that pastoral practice should change in a particular direction. The other thing he had not done is what we had at the end of the last Synod, which was a condemnation of the excesses of both sides of the debate.

As far as these more abstract discussions go, among a lot of other things, some very helpful, we have passages which take seriously some of the arguments made by Cardinal Kasper about the difficult situation some people find themselves in.

Amoris laetitia footnote 329: on the moral necessity of adultery

Gestures pointing towards the reality of Christ's presence in the Blessed Sacrament. At LMS
priest training conference, Prior Park.

Section 298, with footnote 329, warrants comment. Here is the text.

The divorced who have entered a new union, for example, can find themselves in a variety of situations, which should not be pigeonholed or fit into overly rigid classifications leaving no room for a suitable personal and pastoral discernment. One thing is a second union consolidated over time, with new children, proven fidelity, generous self giving, Christian commitment, a consciousness of its irregularity and of the great difficulty of going back without feeling in conscience that one would fall into new sins. The Church acknowledges situations “where, for serious reasons, such as the children’s upbringing, a man and woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate”. 

Note (329): JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (22 November 1981), 84: AAS 74 (1982), 186. In such situations, many people, knowing and accepting the possibility of living “as brothers and sisters” which the Church offers them, point out that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, “it often happens that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the children suffers” (SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 51)

First, let's see what is being referred to.

Amoris laetitia: that footnote 351

Fr Jean Marie F.SS.R. performs the Ritus Aspersionis. Outside Eastertide, the accompanying
chant is about how we want to washed 'whiter than snow.' In Eastertide, the focus is on the
flow of this cleansing water, from the side of Christ on the Cross.

A passage making the same kind of point as the one I discussed in my last post is embellished with a footnote which has raised eyebrows - and was flagged up in the press conference. It is part of section 305.

Because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end.

Note (351): In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments. Hence, “I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber, but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium [24 November 2013], 44: AAS 105 [2013], 1038). I would also point out that the Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak” (ibid. , 47: 1039).

While this might not be as clear as one might like, I don't see what the fuss is about here.

Pope Francis on Fatherhood and authority

Children in Mass at the recent Family Retreat,

Since the Post-Synodal Exhortation Amoris laetitia is not the bombshell many were assuming, confining itself, on the 'hot button' issues, to what appears to be a restatment of the status quo (priests have to assess matters case by case, Holy Communion is not a reward for perfection etc. etc.), here is something which other news sources may neglect, but which was mentioned briefly in the Press Conference: the Holy Father has a surprising amount to say about Fathers. Surprising only because it is a subject, as I have lamented on this blog, which has been somewhat neglected in the Church. So here is a long quotation, sections 175-177. (Mothers are discussed in the immediately preceding sections. I don't include the footnotes, which refer to the sources of the internal quotations: mostly speeches of Pope Francis himself.) The full text is here (h-t Edward Pentin).

New Catholic School in Bedfordshire

I've been asked to post this, which seems worth investigating. They are having an Open Day on 23rd April. 

A group of Catholic parents and educators are setting up a school to provide excellent, affordable Catholic education in a rural setting. They aim to start with a small class of Reception / Year 1 pupils in September. You can read more about the initiative here: www.stjosepheducation.co.uk, or else a recent article about it is here.

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Photos from the Family Retreat

The St Catherine's Trust Family Retreat, with the Gregorian Chant Network Chant Course, both sponsored by the Latin Mass Society, were attended by more than ninety people over Low Sunday Weekend.

The two events took place at Ratcliffe College in Leicestershire. The retreat was led by two young priests from the remote but international Golgotha Monastery on Papa Stronsay in the Orkneys, the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, who follow the Rule of St Alphonsus. With the accompaniment of the Traditional Latin Mass, Fr Magdala Maria F.SS.R, who hails from India, and Fr Jean Marie, who was born in Samoa and grew up in Australia, gave talks and led devotions for the families present, who included children of all ages.