'Traddie ladies' in the next Mass of Ages

The next edition of Mass of Ages is in the presses, and you can read online one of the articles: a conversation between a number of ladies attached to the Traditional Mass, online, here.

There are interesting discussions about mantillas, trouser-wearing, and stereotypes. (I've recently said a lot about head-coverings in church: see here.)

Regular readers of this blog may remember the bizarre attack on women who attend the Traditional Mass by Professor Tracey Rowland, to which I responded here and on Rorate Caeli. Rowland was talking about a sterotype which really exists only in her mind, but I think it worries a section of Catholic opinion that some women might sacrifice their social conformism, in a visible way, in terms of clothes, as part of their response to the Faith. This makes some people very uncomfortable.

Loftus: does 'e tell it like it is?

The Sacrifice that reconciles God and Man

Mgr Basil Loftus' striptease of the Faith - discarding a discipline here, a doctrine there - is a remarkable spectacle. He has convinced himself that things are going his way so his spiritual nakedness is revealed more and more. Here are some gems from his Catholic Times column of 24th April 2015.

His grasp of Church politics must surely appal those he claims to support.

Religious Orders which abused the 'Tridentine' rite of Mass, in order to make political rather than liturgical points, found themselves [under Pope Francis] in special measures. Bishops who were deemed toi be imprudent and over-zealous in welcoming to their dioceses priests and religious opposed to Vatican II were sharply called to order, and their ringleader, Mario Oliveri, in the Italian diocese of Albenga-Imperia, was stripped of all his episcopal powers.

Mass for the Persecuted: Juventutem London

On Friday I attended the first of our planned series of Masses for persecuted Christians; it fell on the anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide.



It was celebrated by Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP, with the assistance of Fr Patrick Hawyard and Fr Scott Anderson of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, for the London Juventutem group: it was one of their monthly masses, on the last Friday of the month in St Mary Moorfields, Eldon Street, in the City.



These are my own photos; the full set is here.
A member of the Juventutem group was taking photos which can be seen here, and their blog here.

The Traditional Mass and Africa

Today I am publishing a Position Paper for the FIUV on the Traditional Mass in Africa - subsaharan Africa. Go over to Rorate Caeli to read it. Here I am going to add a little extra commentary.

I am sure there will not be lacking people who will tell us earnestly that the Traditional Mass is not appropriate for conditions in Africa, because the Traditional Mass represents a form of religious culture - European religious culture - which is alien and incomprehensible to Africans, by contrast with the Novus Ordo.

It is true that the Traditional Mass was formed in Europe, but the progressives don't seem to have noticed that the same is true of the Novus Ordo. The difference is that the Traditional Mass formed in Europe a long time ago. How does this difference cash out?

Well, the late Antique and early Medieval Europe which produced the EF had a great respect for the supernatural; it had a great sensitivity to the reality of the sacred, of sin, and of evil - including of witchcraft; it was comfortable with ritual; and it was concerned with tradition, the ways of one's ancestors.

The Novus Ordo is a product of a culture which is uncomfortable with the supernatural, and with ritual; a culture which regards liberation from tradition, from the ways of one's ancestors, as the key to authenticity and freedom (whateve that means); which cannot bear to think about the reality of sin; and which regards evil, and witchcraft, as a joke.

So, obviously, the Novus Ordo is bound to be more suited to the cultural conditions of Africa... right?

Juventutem London: Mass for Persecuted Christians

Friday 24th April, 7:30pm

St Mary Moorfields Church, London EC2M 7LS (click for a map)

Reposted. This also coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the Latin Mass Society's first public meeting. The following is an extract from an unpublished history of the Society's early years.

[T]he Society’s first Press Officer, Kathleen Hindmarsh, clarified its aims: 

The society will exist to ensure the preservation of the Latin Low, and Sung Mass forms, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, relating to the Latin rite. It is associated in its basic aim—that of preserving the Latin liturgy—with the Una Voce Society of Europe, and the Catholic Traditionalist movement of America, although the peripheral aims of the three societies are not necessarily identical.

The meeting was attended by over 400. Sir Arnold Lunn, who had agreed to act as the Society’s first President, said: ‘We want the Latin Mass, which we regard as the norm. We see the vernacular as an extra…, a melancholy and regrettable concession to human frailty.’ The Tablet reported:

Many of the comments and questions showed an understandable but distressing bitterness and bewilderment: the less rational voiced a fear of schism and even a suspicion that some fifth column was conspiring to destroy the Church from within. As any anthropologist could have predicted, the sudden compulsory abandonment of a sacred collective art-form, an ancient and accepted matrix of devotion, is bound to leave high, dry and desolate both those brought up to it and those who have discovered in it a living and continuing symbol of supernatural, supernational, changeless and eternal faith. An excellent young chairman ruled the storm, advocating charity and gently reiterating that the society was not another Pilgrimage of Grace. 

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High Mass with Polyphony for Persecuted Christians,

on the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Support the work of the LMS by becoming an 'Anniversary Supporter'.

LMS Priest Training in Prior Park: photos

I attended part of the Latin Mass Society's Priest and Server Training Conference which took place last week at Prior Park, the Catholic public school on the outskirts of Bath.



Bishop Bains' magnificent neo-classical Chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows, with its side chapels, made a superb backdrop for the liturgies and training of the week. For the slightly complicated history of the complex see here. Here are some photos.

Michael Voris is coming to London

I've been asked to pass this on. While I certainly don't agree with everything he says, Michael Voris is an important voice for traditionally-minded Catholics, and this event is FREE.

It is at the Regent Hall, Oxford Street, in London, at 7pm on Friday 1st May.

Get your free e-ticket here.

Support the work of the LMS by becoming an 'Anniversary Supporter'.