Oxford Pilgrimage 2023: photos

Another successful Oxford Pilgrimage, thanks to the Dominican community and some hardy pilgrims, willing to run the gauntlet of tourists, shoppers and students to retrace the steps of the martyrs, dragged on hurdles from the Bocardo prison (next to St Michael's at the North Gate in Cornmarket) to Hangman's Corner, the far end of Holywell Street. It was particularly good to see plenty of students this year.

Click on the photos to see the whole album.

Oxford Pilgrimage Saturday 21

High Mass in the Dominican Rite in the Priory Church of the Holy Spirit, Blackfriars

St Giles, OX1 3LY, at 11am. Accompanied by polyphony from the Newman Consort.

This is followed, after a break for lunch, by a procession to one of the sites of Martyrdom in the city at 2pm. This is followed by Benediction at Blackfriars.

Do join us! We even have a gallows at the site of the martyrdoms.

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Westminster Cathedral: in Crisis magazine

The Kiss of Peace at a Pontifical Mass following the LMS AGM in 2019

I have written more about this, in Crisis Magazine. Some key paragraphs:

"The Cathedral was packed with people, many standing all down the aisles, in the galleries, and at the back of the Church. It was a most impressive celebration and astonished the foreign visitors by the beauty of the church, the music, and the intense devotion of the congregation. We could not have hoped for a more triumphant assembly.… There were representatives from Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland and other places."

This is a description by Geoffrey Houghton-Brown, my predecessor as Chairman of the Latin Mass Society, of the first Traditional Mass to be celebrated in Westminster Cathedral after the liturgical reform, on Saturday, June 17, 1972. 

...

One of the many puzzles of Traditionis Custodes and subsequent documents is whether it is seeking to marginalize traditional Catholics or to integrate them. The radicalization of traditional Catholics that it condemns, fairly or not, is the predictable result of marginalization. The “parallel Church,” which it decries, develops when one group suffers marginalization. But the solution being put forward is also marginalization.

...

The policy of Traditionis Custodes is not a policy founded on hope, like Pope Benedict’s hope for the enrichment of the Church by the ancient liturgy. It is, instead, fearful of the future, fearful of young Catholics and the changes they may bring. It is a policy that “stands athwart history yelling Stop.”

Read the whole article there.

Preparing to process out of the sacristy, Annual Requiem 2016. Photo by John Aron.

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Westminster Cathedral and the Traditional Mass: in the Catholic Herald

The Annual Requiem in 2016. I'd forgotten I'd been on the serving team on that occasion.
Photo by John Aron.

The Catholic Herald has published a short piece by me reflecting on the cancellation of our Annual Requiem. It begins:

The Latin Mass Society has been informed that the Traditional Latin Mass may no longer be celebrated at the High Altar of Westminster Cathedral, as is has been twice a year since 1972. With a break for Covid, there have therefore been about 100 such Masses over fifty years. The next one would have been a Requiem Mass on 4 November.

A monthly Low Mass will continue, on First Saturdays in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, but these two annual Masses are regarded as being for the Latin Mass Society, and therefore not part of the Cathedral’s pastoral provision. Many Catholic associations have Masses in the Cathedral, and over many years these ones have, indeed, served as the Society’s Annual Requiem and the Mass for our Annual General Meeting. Nevertheless, they had the same origin as the monthly Masses, as part of Cardinal Heenan’s response to the “English Indult” for the Traditional Mass, which he personally sought and gained from Pope Paul VI.

Read the whole thing there.

 

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Pilgrimage, suffering, and sacred geography: for 1Peter5

LMS Procession through the streets of Little Walsingham, in the rain.

My latest for 1Peter5. It begins:

I recently walked the 76 miles from Cambridge to Walsingham in Norfolk, via Ely, over four days, a walk organised by the Latin Mass Society. I met most of my fellow pilgrims—for that was what they were—after the first leg, and walked with them for the remaining 57 mile: 200 people slogging along paths and roads, or looking after the walkers as drivers or cooks. Some of the young men never seemed to lose their bounce, but I think for everyone at certain points, and for a lot of us for a lot of the time, the element of suffering, of penance, dominated our feelings. After a certain point you can keep walking in a mechanical way, despite the discomfort of your feet or legs, but the discomfort remains.

LMS Annual Requiem in Westminster Cathedral Cancelled

LMS Annual Requiem 2018, celebrated by
the retired Bishop Patrick Campbell, in Westminster Cathedral.

28^th September 2023

The Latin Mass Society has been informed that the Annual Requiem (sung, 1962 Missal) scheduled to take place at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 4th November at 2:30pm will not take place.

The 1962 Missal will continue to be used in the Cathedral on First Saturdays at 4pm (Low Mass), including Saturday 4th November. A Sung Requiem Mass for deceased members and benefactors of the society will take place at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane on the following Monday, 6th November, at 6:30pm, accompanied by the Southwell Consort.

The Annual Requiem has taken place in consultation with the Latin Mass Society since Cardinal Heenan gained the 1971 ‘English Indult’. The series of monthly Low Masses were established at the same time. The Latin Mass Society lays a wreath on the tomb of Cardinal Heenan annually, in thanksgiving for his intervention, and this tradition will continue.

Annual Mass in Snave: photos

Yesterday say the eighth annual LMS Mass in St Augustine's, Snave (bearing in mind a break for Covid). St Augustine's is one of fourteen churches in the care of the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust. While the others continue as Anglican Parish churches, this does not, and has only two services a year: a Harvest thanksgiving/ evensong, and this Missa Cantata organised by the Latin Mass Society Local Representative, Marygold Turner.