Mass of Ages Spring 2016

Mass of Ages The quarterly magazine of the Latin Mass Society

Issue 187 – Spring 2016

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE Also in this issue: Traditional Catholicism in China Can Catholics be Feminists?

The FSSP settle in to Warrington Tim Stanley on Masculine Christianity Mary O’Regan on the Easter Rising Fr Bede Rowe on Praying for the Jews

CONTENTS

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Lenten Evangelisation

CONTENTS COMMENT 2

Introduction

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Chairman’s Message

10

Masculine Christianity: Tim Stanley

14

My First Latin Mass: Tim Ruocco

15

Letters to the Editor

18

The Easter Rising: Mary O’Regan

19

Praying for the Jews: Fr Bede Rowe

20

Roman Correspondent: Alberto Carosa

21

Posture and Gesture: Stan Metheny

44

Bread and Circuses: The Lone Veiler

47

Turning Pennies into Pounds: Macklin Street

NEWS & FEATURES 4

LMS Jubilee Celebrations with Cardinal Burke

6, 7, 8 & 16

In Depth Interview with Cardinal Burke

11 & 25

Traditional Catholicism in China: Catharina Chen

12 & 13

FSSP in Warrington: Fr Armand de Malleray

16

In Illo Tempore

17

Liturgical Calendar & Crossword

22 & 23

Art & Devotion: The Annunciation

42 & 43

Warwick Street: Paul Waddington

45

Catholic and Feminist? Daniel Blackman

34 & 46

Book Reviews

DIOCESAN REPORTS & EVENTS 24 & 25

LMS Notable Events and Year Planner

27-34

Diocesan Reports

MASS LISTINGS 35-41

Mass Listings (Spring 2016)

DISCLAIMER: Please note that the views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Latin Mass Society or the Editorial Board.

Great care is taken to credit photographs and seek permission before publishing, though this is not always possible. If you have a query regarding copyright, please contact the Editor. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission.

M

y doctor tells me that I like food too much, and that dieting should be one of my main priorities. He has a point. I should cut down on the tastier delights of this world. But the whole concept of ‘going on a diet’ turns me off.

Lent, though, has the opposite effect on me – I really look forward to it. Of course, the Lenten fast is not a diet, but rather a penitential act – one in which we are asked not to put on a gloomy face but to joyfully pour oil on our heads (cf Mt 6). Therefore, abstaining from certain foods for the 40 days that lead up to Easter should also entail cultivating an inner joyfulness. And what better time than Lent to work on those joyful things that lead to a growth in the spiritual life and a certain detachment from this world: holy fasts, works of mercy and an increase in prayer?

Unlike secular dieting, which can undoubtedly be good for us, the penances of Lent, when done in the spirit of the Gospel, also bring immeasurable delight and health to the soul. It was St Thomas More who said that we cannot go “to Heaven on feather beds”, and he was right. Holiness does not usually come to those who take the broad road. It is the narrow gateway onto the way of the Cross that normally leads to a saintly life. Easier said than done, of course, but what a challenge and an opportunity! Making the most of the holy season of Lent is therefore a chance not to be missed.

In this issue of Mass of Ages, Tim Stanley discusses the need for western Christians to be more ‘masculine’ – more like the Russian Orthodox, who are not afraid to view their faith as a test of strength. Like the Orthodox with their ‘ice baptisms’ and solid Lenten penances, the Muslim religion attracts many converts, impressed by the harsh fast of Ramadan – it seems people enjoy a challenge. Sadly, it also seems that western Christians prefer a cosy faith – giving up the odd Digestive biscuit for Lent is not really that impressive.

When the Bishops of England and Wales reintroduced the Friday abstinence, their intended goal was for Catholics to make a “common act of witness”. With all the talk of a ‘New Evangelisation’, could the Lenten fast therefore be a missionary trick we’ve been missing? Secular diets turn many people off, but fasting, with its spiritual emphasis and benefits, still speaks profoundly to the human heart, which rests not until it has found itself in the arms of the Crucified one.

Dylan Parry

The Latin Mass Society 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH Tel: 020-7404 7284 editor@lms.org.uk PATRONS: Sir Adrian Fitzgerald Bt, Lord (Brian) Gill, Sir James MacMillan CBE, Colin Mawby KSG, Charles Moore COMMITTEE: Dr Joseph Shaw – Chairman; Paul Waddington – Treasurer; David Forster – Secretary; Paul Beardsmore – Vice President; James Bogle; Michael Carroll; Kevin Jones; David Lloyd Stefano Mazzeo; Roger Wemyss Brooks;

Front cover picture: HE Cardinal Burke © Dylan Parry/Mass of Ages

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Mass of Ages No. 187

Registered UK Charity No. 248388

Due to the considerable volume of e-mails received at Mass of Ages, it is regrettably not always possible to provide a reply.

MASS OF AGES: Managing Editor: Dylan Parry Design: GADS Ltd Printers: Cambrian Printers Ltd

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

Healthy Ferment of Activity Dr Joseph Shaw

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elcome to a new year of Mass of Ages, and a new season of Latin Mass Society events.

This year the St Catherine’s Trust Family Retreat is back, after an absence of two years due to difficulties securing a suitable venue.

Long-term supporters will remember the Family Retreat, which has gathered up to about 150 people from all over England and Wales and Scotland for a weekend of devotions, spiritual conferences, and the Traditional liturgy, without anyone having to leave their children behind. This year it will be led by two young priests of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer from Papa Stronsay, and will take place in Ratcliffe College outside Leicester, from 1-3rd April. A flyer enclosed with this edition of Mass of Ages gives more details, or see the St Catherine’s Trust website, www.stcatherinestrust.org. For the first time, families and young people can save money if they want to bring a tent or a caravan.

Running alongside the Retreat is the Gregorian Chant Network’s Chant Training Weekend. The composer Colin Mawby, one of the Society’s Patrons, and Christopher Hodkinson of the Schola Gregoriana, are the tutors; prices for the course are steeply discounted (thanks to the Latin Mass Society’s support) for multiple members of the same choir or schola. If three or more members of a choir attend a training course such as this, there is a far greater chance that what they have leant will feed into how the choir as a whole sings. LMS members also benefit from a discount.

Immediately after the Family Retreat and Chant Course, 4th-7th April, our annual Priest Training Conference will take place, at Prior Park. This is a great opportunity for priests, deacons, seminarians, and servers to learn from scratch or polish up their skills, whether in relation to Low Mass, High Mass, or Benediction. It is also a great chance to meet other traditionally-minded clerics and laymen, spend time with them and worship with them, in one of the most lovely Catholic locations in England. The view from Prior Park over the city of Bath is worth the train-fare on its own!

On Saturday 14th May we will be having our biennial OneDay Conference in London, featuring Dom Cassian Folsom, the Prior of the Norcia Benedictines, John Smeaton, Director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, Fr Serafino Lanzetta of the newly established Franciscan Friars at Gosport, Edmund Adamus, and myself, on the theme of the Family.

Book your place through the office, by phone or online.

In the Summer, the St Catherine’s Trust Summer School will take place, on the 24th to 31st July: see the SCT website. There is no charge for attending, so there is really no excuse for not benefiting from this unique institution, for children aged 11 to 18. Daily Mass, Rosary, and Compline frame days devoted to learning about the Faith, Catholic history and culture, outside activities and trips to places of local interest. The Summer School has been going since 2005, with Fr Andrew Southwell as Chaplain; I am myself the principal organiser, and it has been

one of the most rewarding and spiritually fruitful events I have been involved in.

The annual Latin Course takes place in the same venue, Pantasaph in North Wales, with separate accommodation at the Pilgrims’ Guest House in Holywell. This is a unique opportunity for adults to learn or brush up their Latin, whether they be seminarians, priests who want to learn the Extraordinary Form, students, or just people who want to engage more closely with the liturgical texts, teaching documents, and spiritual literature of our great tradition. It is led as usual by the well-known Fr John Hunwicke of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and the young Fr Richard Baily of the Manchester Oratory.

This is followed rapidly by the Latin Mass Society’s Walsingham Pilgrimage, 25 August - Sunday, 28 August, when we walk the 55 or so miles from Ely to Walsingham. Booking is open for this wonderful, uplifting event, which is better every year.

The Latin Mass Society can be pretty proud of this line-up of events, each of which require a great deal of organisation, and the active assistance of multiple volunteers, which offer events tailored to every age group, to clergy and laity, and all over the country. In addition to these there are major local pilgrimages, to York (30th April), Holywell (3rd June), Tyburn (29th August), Glastonbury and Brinkburn (10th September), and many others. This year, as every year, the Society is a healthy ferment of activity, of devotion and spirituality, education and training.

It all comes together because of the many wonderful people who help us, and the financial stability which our members give us, through their subscriptions, donations, and bequests.

So I would like to end with a big ‘thank you’ to the readers of Mass of Ages, for being part of this movement, which is doing so much, in so many ways and in so many places, for the conversion of England: one heart, and one family, at a time.

“I haven’t seen one of those for years. Easy to see whose side he’s on.”

Cracks in the Curia (1972), by Br Choleric (Dom Hubert van Zeller)

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jubilee celebrations

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Record Numbers Attend Jubilee Celebrations Cardinal Burke celebrates Mass and Confirmations in London Clare Stevens

© Joseph Shaw

Cardinal Burke, invited by the LMS as part of its 50th anniversary, also celebrated Low Mass at the London Oratory on Sunday and addressed the Annual Conference of the Centre International d’Etudes Liturgiques (CIEL UK).

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© Daniel Blackman

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ecord numbers attended Latin Mass Society events in London on the weekend at which Cardinal Raymond Burke was a special guest, 14-15 November 2015.

More than 300 gathered for confirmations in the Traditional Rite at St James’s, Spanish Place on Saturday at which 36 people (both adults and children) were confirmed by the Cardinal.

Later that afternoon over 500 attended a Pontifical Requiem Mass in Westminster Cathedral. Prior to the Mass, a wreath was laid at the tomb of Cardinal Heenan in thanksgiving for his part in helping to preserve the Traditional Latin Mass in England and Wales.

“It was a wonderful, very memorable experience and our sons all enjoyed it,” said Claire, “As confirmations in the Traditional Latin Rite don’t happen very often we took the opportunity to have all four sons confirmed at once.”

LMS Chairman Joseph Shaw said: “For our 50th anniversary year, the Latin Mass Society was very honoured to have Cardinal Burke as our guest in London, where he conferred the sacrament of Confirmation, celebrated our annual Requiem Mass in Westminster Cathedral, and gave a number of addresses.

“Cardinal Burke’s fidelity to the teaching and discipline of the Church is an inspiration to Catholics all over the world, and all the public events he took part in were very well attended.

We are grateful also to Cardinal Nichols for his hospitality in allowing Cardinal Burke to offer Mass and celebrate the sacrament of confirmation in his diocese.”

© Daniel Blackman

© Daniel Blackman

Claire and Robert Buscombe, from Newquay in Cornwall, took their four sons, aged between nine and 14, to be confirmed. They travelled to London in a party of 17 including family, friends and sponsors, for the confirmation and stayed for the Requiem Mass.

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

NEWS

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INTERVIEW

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Family, Liturgy and the Papacy An exclusive interview with Cardinal Burke During his visit to London at the invitation of the Latin Mass Society and CIEL UK, His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke kindly agreed to be interviewed for Mass of Ages by Dylan Parry.

It was the only interview granted during his stay.

The recent Synod on the Family seems to have caused some confusion, and many Catholics don’t really understand what it was all about. Could you explain to us, in your view, what was the reason for the Synod and what were its conclusions?

Should Catholics be worried, or has nothing changed?

The purpose of the Synod as it’s defined by canon law is to bring together bishops from all around the world to assist the Pope in safeguarding and promoting Christian doctrine and consolidating the discipline, which is intimately connected with the doctrine. So, the Synod was called to address the challenges facing the family today and had as its goal to encourage and confirm those who are living faithfully the vocation to marriage.

At the same time it was to look at ways to assist those who are struggling in their marriage, or even those whose marriage had failed and ended up in a civil divorce.

What became clearly a major focus of the Synod was the question of those who are divorced and who have attempted to marry whilst still being bound to another partner in marriage, which is a public state of adultery according to natural law and in the Church’s constant teaching and practice.

Now that question was raised already before the Synod, in an Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals in February 2014. Pope Francis wanted to prepare for the Synod by having this Consistory, and asked Cardinal Walter Kasper to give a presentation. In that lengthy presentation, the Cardinal suggested that there could be a way for the divorced and remarried to receive the sacraments.

A very strong debate followed immediately and then in various quarters the Church’s constant teaching and discipline was defended and many excellent things were written and published in that regard.

You co-authored a rather famous book in that regard.

Yes, The Remaining in the Truth of Christ, which was written as a help to the Synod Fathers…

Now I took part in the Synod in October 2014. We were criticised, those of us who had insisted very much on defending the teaching of the Church. Our critics said that the Synod wasn’t about that and was dealing with wider issues. But in the end that became a key part of the Synod.

It’s very important to understand that when one touches the exclusion from the sacraments because of [those who are married] living in a public state of grave sin, one then touches upon any exclusion because of living in a public state of grave sin. So, it came to be in October 2014 that the question was

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raised about those who were living publicly in a homosexual liaison, and those who were co-habiting as husband and wife even though they weren’t married. This caused an immediate alarm amongst the Synod Fathers, who said ‘What are we talking about here?’ It became clear that in all of this discussion, what was being called into question was the Church’s moral teaching on human sexuality. The report after the first week of the Synod in October 2014 was not a report at all but was a manifesto for this new approach to the Church’s moral teaching.

Then, in the latest Synod, of which I cannot really speak as I wasn’t a member of it, it was said that the question of the admission of the divorced and remarried was not the thrust of the Synod. But now, just in these days, Fr Antonio Spadaro, who was a Synod member on the commission for the writing of the final document and so forth, wrote an article in La Civiltà Cattolica, which has always been considered to be a sound instrument of communication of the Holy See, which said very clearly that what the Synod in October 2014 didn’t accomplish, this Synod did. The first laid the foundations for the reception of Communion and the other sacraments by those living in irregular matrimonial unions. He also goes through this whole confused argument about a ‘penitential way’ and ‘internal forum solution’ to say that now the way is open for all this.

So I believe that Catholics should be very concerned. If, in fact, the Synod is taking this position, then it has departed from Catholic teaching in a very fundamental matter. The teaching of the indissolubility of marriage is based on the very words of Our Lord in the Gospel.

What do you suggest Catholics do if this happens?

I think Catholics should simply say that ‘I cannot accept this teaching as it goes against what the Church has always taught and practiced.’ I don’t think that Catholics should permit themselves to be driven away from the Church by those who are not upholding the Church’s teaching.

Like St Thomas More’s ‘general counsel of Christendom’?

That’s right. I think the transcript of his trial exists, and someone put it to him that “ll these bishops and abbots have agreed with the king.” nd he said, “You have all your bishops and abbots but I have more than a thousand years of the teachings of the Councils and the witness of the saints for my part.” That’s what we have, too.

Certain paragraphs in the final document seem to be ambiguous. Do you think there is an inherent danger in ambiguity?

I stated so already in a text that was published by the National Catholic Register that these paragraphs are very troublesome.

They cite Church documents in a way that give an impression that they state exactly the opposite of what in fact they do state.

For instance, Familiaris Consortio… In any case, now what the article of Fr Spadaro makes clear is that ambiguity is directed towards an opening to giving the sacraments to those who are divorced and remarried. In fact, after the Synod, Synod Fathers like Cardinal Pell and others said, “We were able to maintain and uphold the Church’s teaching practice.” They even said that those paragraphs don’t say what you think they do. But in fact it now seems, to the extent that Fr Spadaro is a spokesman for the Synod, that this is what in fact was in mind.

As a former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, what are your thoughts about the Holy Father’s recent reforms of the laws surrounding the annulment process? Do they imply a change in the process? As an eminent canonist, I think it’s important to hear what you have to say about this.

The reforms are radical and they are a radical departure from what has been the consistent practice with regard the examination of a claim of nullity of marriage.

How is that?

For example, they permit that the declaration of nullity of marriage be executive after only being heard in one instance.

What we must remember is that in many places, ‘one instance’ is ‘one judge’. In the past, it was always required that there be a college of judges, at least three judges. Now, in many places it’s possible that these cases are heard by one judge and so we have

INTERVIEW a situation now that a marriage could be declared null on the basis of a single man’s judgement. And that’s unheard of in the Church. Even though it was Pope Benedict XIV who introduced the mandatory second instance before a final decision, before that time marriages were judged by a college of judges. So if there was a declaration of nullity, it was the judgement of three or more judges. So, that is a very radical departure.

Then there is the question of insisting that bishops themselves judge marriage nullity cases. The Church has always understood that the bishop is the first judge in the diocese. But because these judgements are very complex and difficult, he would send priests and laypeople to study canon law in order that they would be prepared to judge these cases for him. So, bishops would set up a tribunal with a judicial vicar who would exercise vicariously his judicial power. Now, and some bishops have told me this, faithful are coming to them demanding that they judge their case and do it within 45 days. Some bishops have said “I’m not prepared to judge a marriage nullity case, that’s why I send priests to study canon law.” Many bishops are not canon lawyers and there is nothing wrong with that, but they shouldn’t be asked to do things they haven’t been prepared to do. My response to bishops who have said “I’m not capable of doing it” has been to say: “Don’t do it. The law cannot oblige you to do something you are not capable of doing. So if a member of the faithful comes to you and demands a judgement in 45 days, then you should simply say to them, ‘I am not able to give that judgement and therefore I am referring your case to the tribunal.’”

Then there is this whole question of so-called ‘easy cases’, I can’t remember the exact term they use, but supposed petitions for declarations of nullity which are clearly justified. But in my experience, those cases are relatively few. One gets the impression from the new discipline that these cases are many.

© Daniel Blackman

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

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INTERVIEW What about the suggestion made by some clerics that it is often the case that young couples nowadays don’t have the maturity or knowledge to contract a valid marriage?

I’ve heard it said that up to 50% of all marriages are null because the couples don’t understand what a marriage is.

But, first of all, nature itself teaches us what marriage is. The argument is that divorce is so commonplace in our culture that young people grow up with the idea that it is part of marriage. On the contrary, nature itself leads a young person to desire a life-long, faithful and procreative union. Secondly, the whole marriage preparation and the rite of marriage itself underline these three qualities over and over. It would be a very strange thing if someone were to go through the rite of marriage and not understand that they were entering a life-long, faithful and procreative union.

So, that kind of argument is not very correct and is very dangerous, because what happens is that many marriages break up because of sin. In other words, one or other of the parties is unfaithful. They come along and want to have the so-called new marriage – which isn’t a marriage at all – recognized by the Church. And so they say “I didn’t know what I was doing.” Well, that they need to prove. That’s why we have a marriage nullity process. Otherwise, if you simply grant an annulment to everyone who comes along and says “I didn’t understand”, you end up with a situation which has been called, not without justification, ‘Catholic divorce.’ We had it in the USA, because from 1971 till 1983 we had this situation in which the second instance was regularly dispensed and declarations of nullity were granted in their thousands. In the popular estimation, the Catholic Church had simply accepted divorce. It was still claiming the indissolubility of marriage, but in fact was granting these declarations of nullity so freely that it was clear that the Church didn’t believe that anymore.

Pope Benedict said that Traditional Catholics were often made to feel unwelcome in the post-Conciliar Church. Since his Pontificate, and during this current Pontificate, do you think things have improved for Traditional Catholics?

I think definitely so. Already, under Pope John Paul II with his motu proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta there was a strong effort on the part of the Roman Pontiff to make those who were promoting the traditional liturgy fully welcome and fully accepted in the Church.

Then Pope Benedict XVI by his historic motu proprio Summorum Pontificum made it very clear that the Traditional Mass, what we now call the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, was still recognised by the Church in all its beauty. It also made it clear that the celebration of Mass according to this Form should be granted liberally. I think, for instance, in the United States that Summorum Pontificum has led to a general acceptance of Traditional Catholics.

Recently ordained priests and young men entering seminaries in Europe and North America seem to be very open to traditional forms of Catholicism. In a generation or two it might be that Traditional priests will be in the majority.

Do you think that the Old Mass will see a complete revival in its fortunes, so to speak? Maybe in a couple of generations the ‘Extraordinary Form’ won’t be that ‘extraordinary’ after all?

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ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016 I see this, too. I know so many seminarians and young priests who are very attached to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, and their numbers are increasing. I think that already it is becoming more and more common. Also, I think we ought to remember that ‘Ordinary’ and ‘Extraordinary’ are terms that are used, but the two Rites are on an equal footing. Pope Benedict XVI expressed the hope that the celebration of both Rites would lead to a mutual enrichment. So I think you’re quite correct, and we will see this more and more.

The media often portray you as a man at odds with the current Pontificate. It must be frustrating to be portrayed in this way?

It is very frustrating, particularly for a person like myself who has given his life to the Church and who has always been loyal to the Apostolic See and to the Roman Pontiff, and I will always be that. I will never change. To suggest that I am the enemy of the Pope and that I am somehow working against the Pope is very sad for me.

Is it hurtful?

Yes, it is hurtful. Of course it is. As I have said to the Holy Father himself, as a Cardinal – one of those called to be a principal adviser to the Pope – the only way I can be of service to him is to tell him the truth as I understand it and to assist him in that way. And the Holy Father himself has assured me that that’s what he wants.

I think he appreciates honest advice?

Yes, he’s always urging people to speak the truth. You won’t find a single statement of mine in which I am speaking against the Holy Father. I just don’t do that.

One Synod Father – one of the Cardinals during the October 2014 Synod – said to me “What is going on? Those of us who are defending what the Church has always taught and practiced are being called enemies of the Pope.” I think this is a tactic used by those who want to advance a certain agenda. They do that by putting a label on those who are resisting their agenda, saying that they are enemies of the Pope. I’m not an enemy of the Pope and never will be.

The Pope is quite colorful and avuncular, loved by millions, but commentators have noted that he sometimes uses extraordinary language. I remember when he addressed the “15 Ailments of the Curia” – using phrases such as “spiritual Alzheimer’s” or “existential schizophrenia.” What do you make of these phrases? Are they things that you appreciate or find helpful?

It’s clear from observing the Holy Father that he likes to use this kind of language. It’s a bit unusual, colloquial, and catchy.

The danger of it is that because of who he is, the Supreme Pontiff and Bishop of the Universal Church, this language can be taken and used against the Church. This is certainly not the Holy Father’s intention. So, I think perhaps that’s one thing – and people have pointed this out to him – where he could be more attentive to resist that desire to speak in this way as it does cause confusion. I think, for example, of the famous phrase “Who am I to judge?” and how that’s been misused to insinuate that the Church’s teaching about the intrinsic disorder of homosexual acts has changed.

Continued on page 16

COMMENT

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Masculine Christianity Recovering the sense of Catholicism as a test of strength Tim Stanley

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Rite has gone hand-in-hand with a return to practices just as sinewy as Orthodoxy. Aestheticism is a test of will and physical strength. To go 40 days and nights without, say, meat or sugar or booze can mean pushing the body in extraordinary ways. Then there’s the pilgrimage, which begins with a confident march and ends as a delirious crawl.

The prissy might find this embarrassing. Protestants might scoff at outward displays of faith. But physical effort is front and centre of the Christian narrative. In Rome, you can still get a plenary indulgence for ascending the Scala Sancta on your knees – the steps that Jesus climbed on his way to trial. The Word was made flesh and the flesh suffered. The desire of worshippers to suffer too is natural and can be wonderful, so long as the goal is to bring the mind closer to God. Everything must have its proper intention. Mass is not party time for masochists.

Things must not be allowed to get out of hand. Last year in Ireland, Fr Pierre “Jalapeno” Pepper, who once played

© Sergey Ponomarev / AP / Press Association Images

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was impressed by photographs of this year’s orthodox epiphany celebrations. They show a Christianity that’s unashamedly masculine. Oh, there’s nothing wrong with staying in touch with the feminine side of our faith: the way that the English cram the ‘Ave Maria’ into every Catholic event is endearing. Our Mother Church is kept alive by the attentions of thousands of nuns and female volunteers, and we’re in the middle of recognising the sainthood of the wonderful Mother Teresa.

But those scenes from the East are something else. A section of ice covering a frozen river is cut out and the men dive in, recreating the baptism of Jesus. When feasible, the priest might throw a cross into the water so that someone can try to retrieve it. The first man to do so receives a special blessing.

Women take part in the ceremonies, too, but what’s striking is the masculinity of it – the test of strength. Orthodoxy has physical qualities that I’m envious of as a Catholic. The fat, ornate icons. The bearded priests. And shivering blue Russians sliding across the ice.

We need to recover the sense of Catholicism as a test of strength. It lingers on in Latin culture – imagine the Pope threatening to punch someone for insulting his mother. But just as Vatican II reemphasises the humility of the faithful and recognises the need for patient dialogue, so we’ve risked losing some of our dynamism. Yes, Jesus teaches us to turn the other cheek. But he also comes “to bring the sword”. The Bible talks openly, not shyly, about sex and war and even drunkenness. And the saints are people of action. Joan of Arc led an army. St Michael thrusts Satan into Hell.

How do we translate this energy into modern worship? I, of course, have a bias towards the Old Rite. Its elaborate nature sparks the senses.

The proliferation of altar servers encourages the idea that it’s perfectly normal for boys and young men to be interested in religion. The fawning over each other at the peace is removed; the music is enveloping and stirring. There’s plenty of kneeling, which is good because church should not be a comfortable experience (you can sleep at home). And the revival of the Old

professional football, caused a stir when he took to the boxing ring in a charity fight with parishioners. Pugilism is not necessarily the way forward, but asserting the idea that clergy is a very manly vocation cannot be a bad thing. Not for nothing is the priest called “father” – with all the respect and awe that the word implies.

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

CHINA

Traditional Catholicism in China A revival of the Old Rite in Beijing Catharina Chen

In December, Dr Joseph Shaw met with Fr Cyril Law, Catharina Chen and Dylan Parry to discuss the Traditional Mass in China, as well as the situation the Church currently faces in that country.

During the meeting, Catharina Chen described the founding of a group for young Traditional Catholics in Beijing. Here, she takes up the story… equivalent of a hybrid between Facebook and WhatsApp).

This group contained about 10 young Catholics based in Beijing who shared a love for Tradition. And so, it was in this very personal setting, that the group’s members spent an entire evening celebrating our common appreciation of the Traditional Catholicism. We decided to make the group permanent and not just an online community. As a result, we decided to meet in order to do some things together, among them was the promotion of, and support for, the Traditional Mass. This has now become one of our major objectives.

© Lu-Nan/Magnum Photos

Common misconceptions

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e tend to strive to look after things with our own strength, and panic or sometimes even become almost devastated when things do not go the way we planned. Although our Christian faith assures us that we shall never be left alone in this perilous world, and countless miracles (the vast majority of them never recognised) happen throughout our lives, we, as Catholics, must always be reminded that God, who is omnipotent, shall provide for the needs of His flock. In the past year or so, I have been most privileged to be among a group of young people who are attached to the more traditional side of the Catholic faith in Beijing. Within this group the workings of God’s providence may be overtly seen – in every step we have taken, evidence of His guiding hand has been discerned.

The existence of the group, above all else, was beyond the expectation of anyone. After two previous attempts to bring like-minded young Catholics in Beijing together had failed miserably, I had given up any ideas of doing so. Then, by pure chance, I encountered and got to know a young man who had himself discovered the beauty of the ancient liturgy and was led into Christianity by it. As we chatted, he told me that he thought there was no one else around who would also be attached to Traditional Catholicism (which is sadly the case for many), so I decided to introduce him to a few others that I knew, and created a group on WeChat (the Chinese

There are often some common misconceptions regarding the Traditional Mass in China, especially among those from outside the country. So I would like to provide some background information as to the situation in China. Due to well-known political reasons, the Catholic Church in China has been much isolated from the rest of the Universal Church, and, as a result of this, the post-Vatican II liturgical reforms did not occur there until much later. The Novus Ordo Mass first started to appear in larger Chinese cities in around 1993, while in more remote areas (such as Inner Mongolia) it took another few years before it was implemented. From the late 1990s onwards, the New Rite has been the dominant form of Mass in both ‘Patriotic’ and ‘Underground’ churches, while in exceptional circumstances, a few Extraordinary Form Masses continue to be celebrated in various parts of the country.

More specifically, regarding the situation in Beijing, the last of the remaining Old Rite Masses disappeared less than 10 years ago (they tended to be the early morning Masses on certain weekdays), as the new generation of priests were not trained to celebrate it. In fact, from what I was told by a priest ordained in 1995, his seminary class was the last to have been taught Latin properly. There currently remains one Low Mass celebrated daily at the Cathedral, very early in the morning – 5:40am during the week and 6.00am on Sundays.

This Mass survived as it is celebrated by a very elderly priest who does not know how to say the New Mass. This very holy priest – currently in his nineties – refused to retire, as with no potential successor, he feared that the Latin Mass would become extinct were he not able to keep it on the altar.

On a Saturday evening, shortly after our online chat, three of us who were in the initial group ran into each other at the Cathedral – this was very unexpected as the Sunday Vigil Continued on page 25

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WARRINGTON

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Traditional Catholicism Meets Traditional Mushy Peas The FSSP settle in to Warrington Last November, the splendid priory church of St Mary’s, Warrington was entrusted to members of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter by Archbishop Malcolm McMahon OP (Archbishop of Liverpool).

In this interview for Mass of Ages, Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, the Rector of the newly established shrine church of St Mary, discusses his new ministry in the North.

However, it was still a momentous change and everybody prayed hard to God for fears to be alleviated and the riches of traditional worship to be welcomed. We facilitated the change in various ways, such as producing a weekly sheet with the epistles and gospels in English, meeting with the congregation after every Mass, translating the readings from the pulpit, giving a short homily every day (not in Greek!), holding formal conferences on the spirituality of Holy Mass, using a lapel microphone during Holy Mass, selling bulk orders of Baronius hand missals and of the CTS Latin Mass booklet, and making good use of the recent LMS missalettes, gratefully received. We are very glad that the congregation has remained stable with 120 attending our 11.00am Sunday morning Mass and nearly 40 every weekday at 12.10pm.

Photos: © Joseph Shaw

As a shrine, what else do you provide?

When did you move to Warrington?

We arrived on 17 November. Archbishop McMahon announced last summer his decision to entrust the beautiful church of St Mary’s to our Fraternity. It was a complex legal process, involving Ampleforth Abbey Trust, as the original owner of the church and priory, the Archdiocese of Liverpool as the body which is canonically in charge of St Mary’s parish, and FSSP England as the charity becoming the new legal owner.

After several months of hard work and nearly £8,844.40 in legal fees – any help to cover these costs would be gratefully received – the process was happily completed. We were particularly honoured by the presence of Archbishop McMahon, OP and of Abbot Madden, OSB at our inauguration Mass on 21 November, Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady.

The church was quite full for the occasion and our choir sang superb polyphonic music. Dr Joseph Shaw and Paul Waddington, respectively LMS Chairman and Treasurer, were also present, as well as many LMS friends and supporters from far and wide.

How have the members of the local congregation taken to the Old Rite?

Surprisingly well, thank God! Switching overnight from Ordinary to Extraordinary Form was a rather daring precedent.

Of course, the people had been informed months in advance by the Archbishop, and I had travelled from Reading to Warrington in August and October to meet with them and answer any queries.

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In response to the invitation of Pope Francis to confessors for the Year of Mercy, I sit in the confessional 30 minutes before every Mass, every day. The fact I am not left idle shows the good level of piety among the laity. Like Holy Mass, this ministry of reconciliation takes place absolutely every day without any exception, and even twice a day when we offer a second Mass on main feast days, and now every Sunday at 6.00pm as well.

We also have daily Holy Rosary led by our seminarians, as well as the Angelus, both in English. Every Saturday from 10.00am to 12noon we offer Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction. In due course, we plan to invite those who wish to take part in the Divine Office with us, since Deacon James Mawdsley, Marcus Williams and I pray Lauds and Compline in common every day in the beautiful Benedictine choir stalls.

We also provide weekly training for our altar servers, spiritual direction, and twice a week our talented Music Director gathers up to 40 singers, most of them members of our congregation, for polyphonic and Gregorian chant rehearsals.

In addition, we are able and willing to answer requests for communion for the sick, sacramental preparation, instruction of converts, youth and pro-life ministry or simply pastoral visits to people’s homes.

Are you looking to the future with confidence, then?

These are still early days for us newcomers and to be frank, without your help we will not meet the running costs.

In Warrington, though, various objective conditions suggest that the Roman traditions we cherish can bear very good fruit, please God. For the first time in this country, a church is legally owned and exclusively served by Extraordinary Form clergy, with a permanent mandate from an Archbishop to answer the needs of all those who ask, without restriction. Endowed with a renowned choir (whose Patron, Sir James MacMillan, we share with the LMS), St Mary’s is one of the finest Pugin churches.

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

WARRINGTON

It is canonically established as a shrine and chaplaincy, conveniently located in the town centre and easily accessed by rail and road (under half an hour from both Liverpool and Manchester). The local parish priest is very supportive and the diocesan clergy friendly. With 10 men from England and Wales preparing for the priesthood with our Fraternity, we should have no problem staffing St Mary’s.

Two couples visiting from North London and Wales have already told us of their intention to move to Warrington by the summer and I will not deter them! However, selling your house is no prerequisite for a visit here, and we will welcome you wholeheartedly as you pop in for a friendly chat – with traditional mushy peas!

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FIRST MASS

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

This Silence was Different My First Latin Mass Tim Ruocco

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deeper, more reverential. In some ways, though, it was also the only time that I felt an active link with the Mass – not only as an observer.

I can see why some would be put off by the apparent lack of participation by the congregation, but I felt that the Old Rite allows worshippers to really connect spiritually with the sacrifice of the Mass through quiet thought, reflection and prayer. Maybe this ‘inner participation’ is a deeper form of participation than many of us have been led to believe?

Walking out of the church I mentally revisited the vision I had upon entering. I felt almost uplifted with a sense of peace and it was as if I had been allowed an allotted time in a busy day to truly let myself breathe in and enter a place where my sole purpose was to think about God. I was amazed at how silence could actually speak so much in terms of surrendering one’s mind to prayer to the Lord. The Latin Mass, especially a Low Mass, therefore dramatically exceeded my expectations.

Tim Ruocco is a freelance journalist and writer. He recently graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London.

© Wikimedia

A

s I walked up to St Mary Magdalene’s church in Brighton I did not know what to expect. Despite being brought up in the Catholic faith, I had never attended a Latin Mass.

I barely had any grasp of Latin to be completely honest, and so I took time to pause before entering – imagining what was going to be in store.

Before I made the journey from London to Brighton, I had researched the different forms of the Mass, especially the difference between what are known as Low and High Masses. The former, which I was about to attend, provided great interest for me personally. It seemed like something that would appeal to me and I was particularly interested by the fact that the congregation does not participate in the same way as in the Ordinary Form of the Mass.

I have always had a passion for the past and hoped that this Mass would open a doorway for me into the history of the Catholic Church, and the way in which Masses were celebrated before Vatican II. This was an opportunity to be transported back in time, as it were. For some reason, I expected to see more in the congregation – there were only about seven when I arrived. But I guess that this sort of attendance is relatively normal for weekday Masses.

Upon entering the church, I was greeted with complete silence; a sound not so unassuming for a place of worship and prayer, but this silence was different. There was an aura of peace and calm that filled me from head to toe and, as I sat down on a pew, I was overcome with a sense of spirituality I had never felt before. A few lit candles gave the only light, which meant that the church was illumined in a sombre glow, which added to the sense of mystery, serenity and peace.

The Mass was offered in a side chapel. The priest and solitary server entered almost unnoticed had it not been for the chiming of a bell. This particular Mass was for the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels and as I followed the translation I had with me I could not help but notice that I really was observing something holy – heavenly, even. In some sense it all felt remote, beyond me, despite happening before my very eyes.

This may have been down to the fact that far more seemed to depend on the priest alone – his intercessions before God were made through low and sometimes muffled tones.

The fact that it was very difficult to hear what the priest was saying is typical of a Low Mass. He also faced the Lord, as opposed to the congregation, which was unfamiliar for me– having been raised to see the priest facing the people. But I realised that this liturgical orientation allowed me to experience the way in which God’s love filled the church in terms of mystery and atmosphere, rather than through the hearing of the words of scripture or engaging with a ‘presider’. It was only when we were called for Communion that the almost hypnotic feeling broke. Yet, receiving Communion, kneeling and on the tongue, added to the sense that this Mass was different –

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

LETTERS

Letters to the Editor Personal parishes or shrines?

A Tasteless Requiem?

Sir,

Sir,

I refer to the article “Why a Shrine? Special churches for the Extraordinary Form” in last winter’s issue of Mass of Ages and strongly support the thesis that each church dedicated to the Extraordinary Form should be given the status of shrine.

In the Code of Canon Law we read that shrines exist so that the “means of salvation are to be supplied more abundantly”, for the “suitable promotion of liturgical life”, and the “cultivation of approved forms of popular piety”. No doubt the attributes fit exactly the churches dedicated to the Extraordinary Form. The other reasons listed in Neil Addison’s article are, however, to a large extent invalid.

The status of ‘shrine’ does not exclude the status of ‘parish church’. There are plenty of parish churches with the shrine status. The churches of ‘personal parishes’ can also hold the status of a ‘shrine’.

Personal parishes are not usually related to Eastern Rites, as Neil Addison suggests. There are personal parishes erected for university students, artists or specific language groups, for example. The largest number of them are erected within military ordinariates. All these parishes use the Novus Ordo.

It is not true that when you join a personal parish for the Extraordinary Form you stop being a parishioner of your territorial parish. There is so called cumulative jurisdiction, which means you are de iure the parishioner of both parishes.

In particular, it means that both pastors have jurisdiction to bless your marriage. It is, however, true that you stop being de facto parishioner of your territorial Novus Ordo parish if you regularly go to a church with the Old Mass.

The canon law definition of the shrine suggests it is the place where “numerous members of the faithful make pilgrimage.”

From that perspective, if the church is for pilgrimages, then I don’t think it is the right fit for regular Sunday churchgoers.

If such a church really has a fixed congregation then it is de facto a parish, since it meets the first part of the definition of a parish: “A certain community of the Christian faithful stably constituted in a particular church” (Code of Canon Law).

The article suggests that personal parishes would create “undesirable divisions between Extraordinary Form and Ordinary Form Catholics”. If there is such a division it doesn’t come from the personal parish status but from the Rite. In my opinion the status of personal parish can only help fix the division.

I assume that Mr Addison’s intention is to secure peaceful coexistence of both forms of the Roman Rite. That’s exactly the reason why it might be better to promote the idea of personal parishes for the Extraordinary Form. The pastor of a personal parish for the Extraordinary Form has a jurisdiction – the right to offer all the Extraordinary Form sacraments to his parishioners – without any special permission from their territorial pastors… In my opinion one of the key root causes of divisions is the lack of sensitivity among Novus Ordo pastors for pastoral needs of the faithful attached to the Old Mass.

Personal parishes for the Extraordinary Form with their own pastors is a simple cure for this problem.

Marcin Gola

Una Voce Polonia

The cause of the Traditional Mass can only be harmed by associating it with the attempted rehabilitation of England’s most hated king (“Solemn Requiem for Soul of Richard III”, Mass of Ages, Winter 2015).

Some motives for the reinterment jamboree are clear: the mystique of monarchy, more tourists for Leicester and, above all, the cult of sentimentality, fostered by TV shows with their ‘personal journeys’ and compulsory tears. As Jeremy Boot himself notes, “…many found themselves unaccountably moved and even tearful at the whole event.”

Accepting that Shakespeare’s play is Tudor propaganda, it scarcely excuses ignoring the fate of the princes in the Tower. Refusal to accept Richard’s probable guilt despite the overwhelming evidence seems perverse. His contemporary Pope Julius II condemned prayers for the damned. Although self-servingly aimed at his Borgia rival, he had a point. To hold a Requiem Mass for Richard III appears tasteless if not sacrilegious.

Victor Haberlin Stratford, London

A paean to Eros Sir,

In her review of Takedown (Mass of Ages, Winter 2015), Harriet Murphy described Theology of the Body as part of an authentic development ‘around doctrine’ in the sense meant

by Cardinal Newman.

In his mastery book, The Family Under Attack, Don Pietro Leone shows that, in its principal positions, Theology of the Body does not represent development of Catholic teaching (in the sense of a clarification or deepening of that teaching), but rather a rupture with it. He concludes his detailed analysis thus: “[We] see clearly that Theology of the Body is a personalist, phenomenological system. As such it is concerned with the subjective realms, such as the person and love and neglects the objective realm, be is Catholic dogma… or be it the perennial or scholastic theology, philosophy or morality (as with the distinctions between the different forms of love). The outcome is a shift from the virtue of love to the passion of love, and in the final analysis, from sanctity to sexuality.

“In this lack of Catholicity, Theology of the Body, although presented as the praise of Catholic conjugal love, becomes instead a paean to Eros, with greater resonance for the World than for the Church.”

Tim Williams

Hayle, Cornwall

To submit a letter or article for publication in the next edition, please write to the the Editor before Friday 18 March using the email and / or postal address found on page 2.

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INTERVIEW / IN ILLO TEMPORE

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Continued from page 8

I think the media can twist any Pontiff ’s words. They did the same with Pope Benedict.

Sure, it’s true. People who weren’t too fond of the Church used the 15, or I think it was 18, ailments of the Curia to say, “You see how sick and corrupt the Church is.”

Maybe it’s language similar to that used by Our Lord?

Our Lord would be firm with the Apostles. When Peter said to him “You’re not going to suffer and die”, he said: “Get behind me Satan.” He could be very firm, but for the most part he kept the Apostles very close to himself and encouraged them in every way. He said to Peter that when he was going to be older another person would dress him and lead him to places he would rather not go – but that was said with a great deal of love and tenderness.

The same thing when St Thomas doubted the Resurrection.

So, no doubt people sometimes get the impression that the Pope is very upset with priests, bishops and even cardinals.

Someone once explained it to me that being a Jesuit, some of this language is typical of the type used on retreats or conferences Jesuits give to priests – when they challenge the clergy.

© Daniel Blackman

I asked a young friend of mine, whom I know admires you, what he would ask you if he had the opportunity to interview you in this way. He said he would like to know what advice you would give to those wishing to achieve sanctity here and now in the 21st century. So, Your Eminence, how does one become a saint, and achieve holiness in this life?

Well the principal means is the sacraments and, above all, the Holy Mass. If one wants to become a saint, one should deepen one’s understanding of, and participation, in the sacramental life of the Church. He should make his life liturgical, in the sense of that holiness that we encounter in its perfection in the Mass – in other words, we encounter Jesus himself and the whole good of our salvation in the Mass. To carry that with us, as the priest says at the end of Mass, “Go forth, the Mass is ended.” The focus of our lives should be the Holy Eucharist and then we bring from it that holiness which should per-meate every aspect of our lives. Then after this comes the prayer life and the devotional life, by which we live continuously the mystery of the faith that we experience in the Holy Mass. So that would be my number one exhortation.

We are grateful to the Provost and Fathers of the London Oratory for helping with this interview.

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In Illo Tempore

P

eople adapt quickly to revolutions. Fifty, forty, ten or even five years ago, who would have thought that this country would now have ‘same-sex marriage’? Where did this innovation come from, how did the traditional understanding of marriage disappear so quickly?

Some would argue that the same is true when we consider how the radical liturgical changes of the 1960s and early ’70s became the ‘norm’ so quickly for many Catholics. Did people ever stop to wonder what had happened, where had the Latin Mass gone?

According to the February 1976 LMS News Bulletin (No 27), it seems that the BBC was broadcasting a series of “Tridentine Masses”, so as to “reconstruct the Tridentine Mass for the major feasts of the Church year” – this was apparently done as a quaint historical experiment.

The next in the series of Masses, in which “the Propers are sung to the music of William Byrd… and the Ordinary to settings by Byrd and his contemporaries” was scheduled to be broadcast on the Feast of the Purification. The Bulletin concludes by arguing that “[an] interest in the sublime music inspired by the Mass of St Pius V is one way of awakening people, especially the young, to a realisation of what has been taken away from them.” After less than 10 years, had people in the pews already forgotten the beauty that had “been taken away from them”?

Following the Second Vatican Council, an emphasis was placed upon “Justice and Peace”, and the February 1981 LMS News Bulletin (No 47) tackles this issue. Alfred Marnau, the Chairman, introduces the Bulletin with these powerful words: “There has been neither Justice nor Peace in the Catholic Church since the ‘Spirit’ of post-Vatican II descended upon the Church…”

He continued his letter by highlighting the lack of justice and peace that was shown towards those who wished to attend Masses “celebrated in accordance with the former Roman Missal.” He spoke of young people “subjected to ‘home-made’ liturgies in their class-rooms, whose ignorance of Catholic doctrine has become the overwhelming concern of their worried parents.” He also mentioned “the old and poor.”

What chance, he asked, would the they have “to live in peace within the Church during their closing years? All they have is a remembrance of times past; the happy feast days of their youth. What is their chance to die as they have lived?”

One of the strangest aspects of the Church in our times is the “churchmanship” we often encounter – Catholics qualifying themselves in a political kind of way. This theme was touched upon by Mark Johnson in the February 2001 Newsletter (No 127). He began his editorial thus: “‘Right Wing’, ‘Left Wing’, ‘Authoritarian’, ‘Liberal’, ‘Traditional’, ‘Modernist’, ‘Conservative’, ‘Progressive’… It is astonishing nowadays to find the Roman Catholic Church using what are essentially political terms to describe sections within it. We have all been seduced by this.” His piece ends: “None of the labels are necessary, as there is only one kind of Catholic, and that is an orthodox Catholic. No further qualifications are relevant. How that orthodoxy is expressed, realised and guaranteed, well, I think we all know the answer to that question!”

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

FEBRUARY 2016 Sun 14 Mon 15 Tue 16 Wed 17 Thu 18 Fri 19 Sat 20 Sun 21 Mon 22 Tue 23 Wed 24 Thu 25 Fri 26 Sat 27 Sun 28 Mon 29

I SUNDAY in LENT I Cl V FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V EMBER DAY II Cl V FERIA III Cl V EMBER DAY II Cl V EMBER DAY II Cl V II SUNDAY in LENT I Cl V CHAIR OF S PETER § AP II Cl W FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V S MATTHIAS § Ap II Cl R FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V III SUNDAY in LENT I Cl V FERIA III Cl V

MARCH 2016 Tue 1 Wed 2 Thu 3 Fri 4 Sat 5 Sun 6 Mon 7 Tue 8 Wed 9 Thu 10 Fri 11 Sat 12 Sun 13 Mon 14 Tue 15 Wed 16 Thu 17 Fri 18 Sat 19 Sun 20 Mon 21 Tue 22 Wed 23 Thu 24 Fri 25 Sat 26 Sun 27 Mon 28 Tue 29 Wed 30 Thu 31

FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V JCHP FERIA III Cl V SH FERIA III Cl V IH IV SUNDAY in LENT (Laetare Sunday) I Cl V/ROSE FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V FERIA III Cl V PASSION SUNDAY (I SUNDAY in PASSIONTIDE) I Cl V FERIA in PASSION WEEK III Cl V FERIA in PASSION WEEK III Cl V FERIA in PASSION WEEK III Cl V FERIA in PASSION WEEK III Cl V FERIA in PASSION WEEK III Cl V S JOSEPH § SPOUSE of the BVM C PALM SUNDAY (II SUNDAY of PASSIONTIDE) I Cl R & V MONDAY in HOLY WEEK I Cl V TUESDAY in HOLY WEEK I Cl V WEDNESDAY in HOLY WEEK I Cl V HOLY THURSDAY I Cl W GOOD FRIDAY I Cl B & V HOLY SATURDAY I Cl V & W EASTER SUNDAY I Cl W EASTER MONDAY I Cl W EASTER TUESDAY I Cl W EASTER WEDNESDAY I Cl W EASTER THURSDAY I Cl W

APRIL 2016 Fri 1 Sat 2 Sun 3 Mon 4 Tue 5 Wed 6 Thu 7 Fri 8 Sat 9 Sun 10 Mon 11 Tue 12 Wed 13 Thu 14 Fri 15 Sat 16 Sun 17 Mon 18 Tue 19 Wed 20 Thu 21 Fri 22 Sat 23 Sun 24 Mon 25 Tue 26 Wed 27 Thu 28 Fri 29 Sat 30

EASTER FRIDAY I Cl W EASTER SATURDAY (Sabbato in Albis) I Cl W LOW SUNDAY I Cl W ANNUNCIATION of the BVM I Cl W S VINCENT FERRER C III Cl W FERIA IV Cl W ‡ FERIA IV Cl W ‡ JCHP FERIA IV Cl W ‡ OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV Cl W † II SUNDAY after EASTER II Cl W S LEO I P C D III Cl W FERIA IV Cl W ‡ S HERMENEGILD M III Cl R S JUSTIN M III Cl R FERIA IV Cl W ‡ OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV Cl W † III SUNDAY after EASTER II Cl W FERIA IV Cl W ‡ FERIA IV Cl W ‡ FERIA IV Cl W ‡ S ANSELM B C D III Cl W SS SOTER & CAIUS PP MM III Cl R OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV Cl W † IV SUNDAY after EASTER II Cl W S MARK Evangelist II Cl R SS CLETUS § & MARCELLINUS PP MM III Cl W S PETER CANISIUS C D III Cl W S PAUL of the CROSS C III Cl W S PETER M III Cl R S CATHERINE of SIENA V III Cl W

MAY 2016 Sun 1 Mon 2 Tue 3 Wed 4 Thu 5 Fri 6 Sat 7 Sun 8 Mon 9 Tue 10 Wed 11 Thu 12

Fri 13 Sat 14

S JOSEPH § the WORKER, SPOUSE of the BVM C I Cl W S ATHANASIUS B C D III Cl W FERIA IV Cl W ‡ VIGIL of the ASCENSION II Cl W ASCENSION of OUR LORD I Cl W FERIA IV Cl W ‡ SH S STANISLAUS B M III Cl R IH SUNDAY after the ASCENSION of OUR LORD II Cl W S GREGORY NAZIANZEN B C D III Cl W S ANTONINUS B C III Cl W SS PHILLIP § & JAMES § Aps II Cl R SS NEREUS, ACHILLEUS, DOMITILLA V & PANCRAS MM III Cl R S ROBERT BELLARMINE B C D III Cl W VIGIL of PENTECOST (Whitsun Eve) I Cl R

CALENDAR / CROSSWORD

Alan Frost: © January 2016

Clues Across 1 Took for granted Our Lady went body and soul into Heaven? (7) 5 ----- New Guinea, country in the South Pacific (5) 8 One who has taken the veil (3) 9 Good example of one showing charitable care for others (9) 10 Latin slaves or servants (5) 11 February Feast Day celebrating Our Lady’s Purification (9) 14 Bishop almost killed in the Gordon Riots who revised the Douay- Rheims Bible (9) 18 Piero ----- Francesca, Italian 15th c. painter of such works as The Legend of the True Cross (5) 21 Ruler of a family, title of holder of high office in branches of the Church (9) 22 --- lamma sabachthani, words of Christ on the Cross (Psalm 21) (3) 23 Poet associated with his ‘Inferno’ who wrote The Divine Comedy (5) 24 ‘------- of Faith’, that body of teaching given by Christ to the Apostles to be passed on by their successors (7) Clues Down 1 Sceptic holding that an unseen world is unknowable (8) 2 Guard (6) 3 ‘-------- Rose’, one of Our Lady’s titles in the Litany of Loreto (8) 4 Early Saint in the Canon of the Mass, with Cosmas Patron of surgeons (6) 5 Arvo, contemporary Estonian composer of religious works such as his 1989 Magnificat (4) 6 Credo in unum Deum ------ omnipotentem (6) 7 & 20 Down: Female Saint martyred for harbouring priests, at Tyburn 27 February 1601 (4,4) 12 His ---------, reference and mode of address to a Bishop (8) 13 One who worships the devil (8) 15 English derivation of ‘Augustine’ giving name to friars and canons (6) 16 Biblical hunter in Genesis (6) 17 Tools for extraction (6) 19 In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat ---- Deum (4) 20 See 7 Down

ANSWERS: WINTER 2015 Across: 1 Counsel 5 Canon 8 Ted 9 MacMillan 10 Bueno 11 Registers 14 Triumphed 18 Douai 21 Prophetic 22 Usk 23 Mayne 24 Ape-like Down: 1 Cuthbert 2 Unde Et 3 Summorum 4 Lacing 5 Cain 6 Noli Me 7 None 12 Sadducee 13 Sprinkle 15 Idiocy 16 Hostia 17 Tumuli 19 Spem 20 Thee

Closing Date & Winner: The closing date for the Spring 2016

Crossword Competition is Friday 1 April 2016. The winner of the Winter 2015 Crossword Competition was Catherine Urquhart from Oakham. She wins a copy of Treasure and Tradition: The Ultimate Guide to the Latin Mass by Lisa Bergman.

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COMMENT

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Would Modern Ireland Welcome Patrick Pearse?

Mary O’Regan ‘Patrick Pearse was a sexually repressed religious fanatic who went to Mass every day. He had an obsession with Jesus’s crucifixion and the Easter liturgies. He was driven by the whim of being a martyr for Irish independence and giving his life in a bloody struggle to break Ireland away from the UK. What a loon!’

This is the jist of a reaction from a modern Irish fellow who is an educated, lapsed Catholic.

There’s no doubt that he thinks Patrick Pearse was extremely odd. Patrick Pearse: this Easter his name will be ringing in our ears while we mark 100 years since the 1916 Rising.

Personally, I do not share Pearse’s militant nationalism, but I do consider him to be the most influential figure behind the 1916 Easter Rising. As commander-in-chief, Pearse led the charge through the streets of Dublin, ordered the smashing of the General Post Office windows and, after his band of seven rebels had occupied the key building in central Dublin, he was proclaimed the president of the provisional government.

I won’t pore over all the details of the 1916 Rising, suffice to say, its greatest significance is that it kick-started the independence movement that led to the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922. Born in 1879, were he alive in 2016, Pearse would most likely feel most at ease in the company of Traddie Catholics like you and me.

It startles people to learn that his father was an Englishman who was born in Bloomsbury, while his mother was an Irishwoman. Many often assume that Pearse was anti-English, but his militant nationalism was not based on racial hatred of the English. Pearse’s father, James, was a convert to Catholicism, the Irish priest who instructed him said he was never ‘so pleased’ with a convert. James Pearse was a very successful stonemason, who enjoyed a good relationship with his son Patrick and, in turn, Patrick was proud of his English dad. He used to say that if ever there was a good piece of stone masonry in an Irish graveyard that it had to have been the work of his father.

Patrick Pearse grew up in a relatively affluent home with a father who could lavish him with luxurious gifts and pay for his extensive education, including hefty fees when Pearse trained to be a barrister. But his well-off life at home meant Pearse had little empathy for Irish people of his generation, who subsisted in grinding poverty. The young Pearse learned Gaelic from the Christian Brothers and was consumed with love of this Celtic tongue, but he didn’t empathise with poor people who learned the English language to get a job. He made it clear that he wouldn’t drink or date women, because his attentions were dedicated entirely to the promotion of Gaelic and Irish nationalism. Yet, he wasn’t the stereotypical Irish Catholic, bowing to the clergy and the hierarchy. Pearse publically criticised those priests and prelates who did not support his aims.

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Militant Irish nationalism and Catholicism were the two sides of Pearse’s brain. He was convinced (foolishly, in my opinion) that if he gave his life in an armed struggle for Irish independence he would be a self-styled martyr. Narcissistically, he wrote that future generations of Irish people would call him ‘blessed’. T’would be a wonder if my generation of young Irish people ever used the word ‘blessed’, never mind applying it to a feverish nationalist like Pearse!

T’was not a coincidence that Pearse opted to hold the 1916 Rising at Easter – the heart of Pearse’s prayer life was his love of Christ on the cross, dying to save us from our sins. Pearse loved the Easter liturgies. He wrote a Passion play which was performed by the pupils of the school he founded, St Enda’s.

He had an incredibly strong devotion to Mary Magdalene, and he wrote a beautiful poem in her honour, celebrating how she escaped prostitution to be a follower of Christ:

Many a lover hath lain with thee, Yet left thee sad at the morning tide, But thy lover Christ shall comfort thee.

From reading Pearse’s writings, it is abundantly obvious that he thought the Irish under British rule suffered like Our Lord in his Passion. This troubles me, as it may trouble many of you, dear readers, and it strikes me as quasi-blasphemous.

For his pains in the 1916 Rising, Pearse was the first to surrender and the first to be executed. A Capuchin friar gave him the last rites, and in the wake of his death, Pearse was lauded by some Catholic clergy. One priest wrote to his mother calling him, ‘your dear martyred son.’ By the 1970s, some Irish priests were publically distancing themselves from a fellow they thought of as a little too sanctimonious, for fear their reputation would be tainted. To be fair, the problem with Pearse is that he falls between two stools: his fanatical Irish nationalism is not usually shared by Traddie Catholics nowadays, and many secular modern Irish people wince when they read his holy poems or criticise him for writing about Mary Magdalene’s decision to leave behind a life of sexual sin.

As one of that rare breed, a young Traddie Irishwoman, I find Pearse’s poem to Mary Magdalene moves me to pray more to her:

O woman that no lover’s kiss (Tho’ many a kiss was given thee) Could slake thy love, is it not for this, The Hero Christ shall die for thee?

Pearse collaborated in setting in motion a chain of events that would create the Irish Republic. But this Easter, spare a thought for him. The stinging, eye-watering irony is that judging by the sniggering that greets any serious discussion of him, Pearse the zealously pious, daily communicant would not feel at home in the Irish Republic today.

ISSUE 187 185 - SPRING AUTUMN 2016 2015

DO WE STILL BELIEVE IN...?

TAB

Do we still believe in...

Praying for the Jews?

Fr Bede Rowe In the past few months there has been much said about the call of the English and German Bishops for a change in the Old Rite Good Friday prayers asking that the veil be lifted from the eyes of the Jews and they recognise Christ as their Saviour.

In doing so, it questions the fundamental Christian calling of announcing the Good News to all the world, as was Our Lord’s clear command. If this announcement is what we should do, and I think that this is clear, are there any exceptions? Are we to preach to the whole world or are we not? Is Christ the only way to salvation, or is there another way?

What about the Old Testament Covenant with the Jews? Does it still work? If they follow it, will they gain Heaven? And if they do attain salvation, is it because they are simply being true to the Ancient Faith, or is it because somehow Christ-manqué is present in the Covenant (but don’t tell them)?

And what about Muslims? The documents of Vatican II are keen to lump Jews and Muslims together, while still preserving the privileged link between Christianity and Judaism.

The images that Vatican II used were of circles around the revelation of Christ.

The first circle has the Roman Church (and Churches in full communion) at the centre. Then the Orthodox. Then Protestants. The next circle includes those faiths which acknowledged one God, and a personal one at that. Jews first, then Muslims. Next were faiths who worship god(s) in some form. After that, those who seek for the good in some manner.

You see that this is all very inclusive, but there are lines in between these circles. We are now not supposed to preach to those who go under the heading of Christian – the first circle. (Try fitting the Salvation Army into this – as they do not practise baptism, I honestly have no idea where they are included. But I have immense admiration for them.)

But Vatican II says plainly that we should ‘evangelise’ the rest. Ad Gentes is quite clear on this.

So what are we supposed to do now?

Are we supposed to tell forth the truths entrusted to the Catholic Church to the whole world or not? Logically, at a stretch, you can sort of make a case for the first (Christian) circle. But now we are making distinctions between those (Jews and Muslims) who Vatican II deliberately put together. It was Pope Paul VI who let it be known that the Muslims were to be included with the Jews… not John XXIII, and not the Council Fathers.

Let me make this clear. It is eminently possible, and I would say desirable, that there is no proselytism (deliberate preaching with the aim of conversion) of the Jews. This is not as a principle, so I am not saying that they occupy a new theological place in the scheme of salvation, as many Church theologians seem to want to do.

Rather, I would say that it should not happen because we cannot effectively preach the message of Christ because of recent, and not so recent, history and our share in it. Today, preaching the conversion of the Jews is so clouded by the evil of the last century, that the message of Christ becomes too severely distorted to be honest, effective or even, perhaps, kind.

I think that the new statements can be read in this way – in theory ‘yes’, in practice ‘no’. The Church cannot preach conversion in this present age, but we, you and I, can pray for it and yearn for it.

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ROMAN REPORT

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

‘The Old Liturgy is Not a Relic of the Past’ Alberto Carosa

S

ince 2012, the Cœtus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum (CISP) has brought together the faithful who are attached to the pre-Vatican II liturgy for a an international pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles in Rome, as an annual tribute to Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI for the 2007 motu proprio which liberalised the celebration of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

The fourth pilgrimage brought over 1,000 traditionalminded Catholics from around the world in October 2015.

It coincided with the controversial Synod of the Family. Predictably, a controversial Synod could not but produce a controversial outcome, as also shown by the fact that it was described in the media as a ‘victory’ by both liberalprogressives and traditional-conservatives. Be that as it may, without entering the fray of this debate, one can limit to observe that if it was a victory for traditional conservatives, the pilgrims certainly contributed to it with their prayers.

“Our special intention this year concerns the Christian family, since the second assembly of the Synod of Bishops dedicated to that issue is just now coming to a close”, the official chaplain of the pilgrimage, Fr Claude Barthe, announced at the beginning of the pilgrimage – ushered in by Solemn Pontifical Vespers in the traditional personal parish of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini on Thursday 22 October. The Archbishop Emeritus of San Luís, Argentina, Mgr Juan Rodolfo Laise, who was also the celebrant of a Solemn Pontifical Mass on Saturday 24 October, in St Peter’s Basilica, led Vespers. Unlike previous pilgrimages, this year’s Pontifical Mass in St Peter’s was presided over by a copy of the miraculous statue of Our Lady of Fatima, who led the usual procession from the church of San Lorenzo in Damaso throughout Corso Vittorio right through the main entrance of the Basilica amid traditional prayers and hymns.

“On the occasion of the Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome, that keeps alive the ancient Roman liturgy in the Church, the Holy Father, Pope Francis sends his greeting of goodwill”, read the message conveyed by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on behalf of the Holy Father to the participants.

The pilgrimage was capped on Sunday 25 October at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, by another Pontifical Mass for the Feast of Christ the King (according to the Traditional liturgical calendar), whose celebrant was the Rt Rev Jean Pateau OSB, Abbot of Fontgombault. This is a Benedictine monastery of the Solesmes Congregation, where Mass is celebrated in Latin using the Old Rite. In his homily, Dom Pateau called upon the faithful to have a “faith as extraordinary as our liturgy”, for it is simply illusory for us to think “that nations should acknowledge Christ’s kingship over them” if we do not “first accept His kingship over each of us”. He continued, “to make Jesus the centre of liturgy has but a single aim: to become ourselves true witnesses of Christ’s kingship, to live of Christ and for Christ, to such an extent that all should be able to say: ‘It is Christ Who lives in him’. This thanksgiving pilgrimage has led us to Rome at the end of the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, on the theme ‘The Vocation

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and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World’”. And we ought to remember that Our Lord Jesus Christ is not only “King of men”, but “also King of families.”

In his concluding remarks, as reported on the Paix Liturgique website, Fr Claude Barthe, conveyed his most heartfelt thanks to the clergy and faithful alike, and in particular to Dom Pateau, “for having accompanied us step by step these last few days” and “carried amongst us, in Rome, the Roman spirit of Fontgombault – Fontgombault which, I dare say, is perhaps called to be the new Cluny of the new Gregorian reform for which the Ecclesia Adflicta, afflicted as never before, hopes against all hope… There is no measuring God’s gifts and the graces he can freely bestow to each of us, but we are too attached to the liturgy, and too devoted to St Philip Neri (under whose protection the pilgrimage was placed), not to know that the invisible movements of the Spirit within the soul can manifest themselves through the sensible movements produced and ordered by the heavenly beauty of the Roman liturgy.”

For the first time the pilgrimage took place in conjunction with the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce (FIUV, International Una Voce Federation) General Assembly, with a choir from England, Cantus Magnus, led by the FIUV’s Master of Music Matthew Schellhorn, and another from France, the Schola Sainte-Cécile under Henri de Villiers, accompanying the religious services. The FIUV Vespers and Benediction took place at the chapel of St Peter Chanel in Domus Australia, a complex owned by the Bishops of Australia and were graced by the presence of Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, Mgr Guido Pozzo, Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Historical Sciences and Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos President Emeritus of the Pontifical Ecclesia Dei Commission.

The FIUV proceedings, hosted in the same complex, marked also the beginning of its 50th anniversary. On 24 October, its council elected a new president in the person of Felipe Alanis Suarez of Una Voce Mexico, replacing the outgoing president, James Bogle. This change of guard was publicly announced during the open forum on Sunday 25 October, which also saw several interventions from others, such as Fr Mark Withoos, former member of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei who now works as Cardinal Pell’s Secretary in the Secretariat of the Economy; Henry Sire, a Rome-based historian who presented his recently published book Phoenix from the Ashes; and Guillaume Ferluc, international coordinator of the CISP pilgrimage.

Perhaps the most effective yardstick to assess the success of the pilgrimage was provided by Guillaume Ferluc when he pointed out that at the conclusion of the Pontifical Mass in Santa Maria in Campitelli, the priest in charge of the church asked: “When are you coming back?”

The headline is taken from a homily delivered by Archbishop Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. Alberto Carosa is a journalist and writer based in Rome.

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

LITURGY

Posture and Gesture in the Mass A question of real participation Stan Metheny

T

he Missal of 1962 prescribes in meticulous detail almost every facet of the ritual of the Mass. Yet there are a number of things that are not spelled out as clearly as one might expect. Among these is the fact that there are no officially-prescribed postures for the congregation. This is unfortunate because we are people of flesh and blood; and by virtue of our baptism, our bodies are living temples of the Holy Spirit. So the use of them in worship is intended to support our interior contemplation of the mystery of our divine Lord’s saving passion, death, and resurrection being made present before us on the altar.

As with other aspects of the rituals of the Old Rite, practice varied according to local custom. It may come as a surprise to some that the Novus Ordo actually prescribes posture for the laity, incorporating in many respects what was the most common practice for the Old Rite in the years before the Missal of Paul VI was promulgated. For many people, any similarity to what has become normal posture for the Novus Ordo has tainted it for use in the Old Rite from which it was actually taken. Ironically, this resistance has led to a reduction of ritual in the Old Rite, perhaps the most common criticism of the Novus Ordo.

An essay by Richard Friend, Understanding When to Kneel, Sit, and Stand at a Traditional Latin Mass: A Short Essay on Mass Postures, compares rubrics from six commonly consulted sources, and then offers a synthesis of recommended congregational rubrics for Low Mass, Missa Cantata, (Solemn) High Mass, and Requiems. Friend admits, though, that in most places local custom will trump even the postures are offered as in the revered rubrical manuals of Fortescue and O’Connell.

Growing up steeped in the German-American Catholic culture in which the late great Mgr Martin Hellriegel was a doyen of liturgical practice, the ‘private’ and ‘silent’ Mass was rare. Apart from a few early morning weekday Masses, Low Mass was more often than not a ‘dialogue Mass’ (dialogata vel recitata). By age 14 we were familiar with most of the Vatican Kyriale and a great deal of the Graduale. We attended – often serving or singing – Mass every day, and two Masses on Sunday, because of the Eucharistic fast and needing to sing the later Missa Cantata. Many were back again for Vespers and Benediction on Sundays and great feasts. In this world, the staid and silent congregation that many Latin Mass communities assume is normative was something quite alien.

After Vatican II this deeply Catholic inculturation with its liturgical underpinnings rapidly disappeared, resulting liturgical chaos. The fact that subsequent popes (Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI) continued to make the same requests for popular participation in the prayers and chants of the Mass, in Latin, has had little impact. Hence Pope Benedict’s wish, clearly stated in Summorum Pontificum, that the two forms of the Roman rite might be mutually enriching.

Besides full body posture outlined in the table below, other smaller gestures can also enhance participation. These include the practice of bowing one’s head at the names of Jesus, Mary, and the saint of the day, folding one’s hands in the proper way

(palms and fingers joined, right thumb over left) for the Gospel and the Our Father, and striking one’s breast at the mea culpa in the Confiteor, the Agnus Dei, and the Domine non sum dignus.

In no way does this denigrate or impugn the value or the desirability of quiet private Masses or the virtues of simple listening or even other devotions during the Mass. But especially when celebrating Mass in one of the more solemn forms, we might consider whether using these posturesres would enrich our participation and enhance our ability to receive the fruits of the Masses we attend.

Rubrics for Laity at EF Mass Parts of the Mass

Low Mass

Missa Cantata

Requiem Missa Cantata

Solemn Mass

Solemn Requiem Mass

When Priest enters Sanctuary

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

ASPERGES

N/A

Stand

N/A

Stand

N/A

While celebrant vests

N/A

Sit

N/A

Sit

N/A

Beginning of Mass

Kneel

Kneel

Kneel

Kneel

Kneel

Priest ascends the altar

Kneel

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

KYRIE Sit when the Priest sits

Kneel

*

*

*

*

GLORIA

Kneel

Stand

None

Stand

None

DOMINUS VOBISCUM COLLECTS

Kneel

Stand

Kneel

Stand

Kneel

EPISTLE (Priest at right side)

Kneel

Sit

Sit

Sit

Sit

GRADUAL (TRACT)

Kneel

Sit

Sit

Sit

Sit

DIES IRAE

Kneel

N/A

Sit

N/A

Sit

GOSPEL (Priest at left side)

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

CREDO (Kneel for Et

Stand

Stand

N/A

Stand

N/A

OFFERTORY (Oremus)

Sit

Sit

Sit

Sit

Sit

PREFACE

Sit

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

SANCTUS till COMMUNION

Kneel

Kneel

Kneel

Kneel

Kneel

2nd ABLUTION (when Priest

Kneel

Kneel

Kneel

Kneel

Kneel

DOMINUS VOBISCUM & POSTCOMMUNION and ITE MISSA EST

Kneel

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

BLESSING

Kneel

Kneel

N/A

Kneel

N/A

LAST GOSPEL

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

PRAYERS AFTER LOW MASS

Kneel

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

When Priest leaves Sanctuary

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

Stand

ABSOLUTION OF THE DEAD

N/A

N/A

Stand

N/A

Stand

*

(at Mass for the Dead)

incarnatus … homo factus est.)

drinks from chalice second time)

(Priest at left side)

Stan Metheny is the Director of the Schola at St Mary of Victories church in St Louis, MO, where Mass is sung in Latin according to the Novus Ordo on Sundays and according to the Usus antiquior on weekdays.

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ART & DEVOTION

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

‘Ecce Ancilla Domini’

The Annunciation by Jan van Eyck Caroline Shaw

I

n the last edition, we examined Velásquez’s beautiful image of the Immaculate Conception, in which Our Lady was conceived in Heaven, pure, perfect and without stain of Original Sin. Now we turn our attention to the Annunciation, with an image by the great 15th century Dutch painter Van Eyck, in which we meet Mary on earth – the allpure, humble young virgin.

This tall, thin painting, probably originally the left-hand wing of a triptych, shows Mary in deep blue fur-trimmed robes, reading a large book of scripture. Directly underneath the book is a vase of lilies symbolising her purity, while below that is a stool with a plump crimson cushion, traditionally a symbol of lust. Van Eyck’s viewers would have had no difficulty in reading the sequence of symbols in this image from top to bottom: in the Virgin’s womb, the Word (scripture) was made flesh, without her purity (the lilies) being compromised by lustful desires (the stool).

The setting, which looks like a church, actually represents the Temple in Jerusalem, where Our Lady was traditionally believed to have been raised and educated. The Archangel Gabriel, resplendent with his rainbow wings, his jewelled crown and his richly gilded robes, greets Mary with the familiar words ‘Ave Gratia Plena’ written in gold. Our Lady responds with the words ‘Ecce Ancilla Domini’ and, touchingly, her words are written upside down for God in Heaven to read. At the glorious sound of her humble assent, the Holy Spirit enters the Temple through a glass window without breaking it – another symbol of Mary’s virginity – and descends with seven rays of golden light – the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. At that moment, Light enters the World, and God the Son espouses human nature.

In the 15th century, Catholics were used to looking at, interpreting and understanding religious images and their symbolism in a way that is largely lost to us today. Popular preachers – gifted orators who were usually priests or religious – travelled from town to town, and often used religious paintings, particularly those that were well-known in the area, as the focus of their sermons. They explained in depth, and point by point, the way to understand and meditate upon the major events in the Bible.

The Annunciation was a favourite subject, and the spiritual significance of every moment of the event was expounded upon in detail by the preachers, taking St Luke’s account as a guide. In particular, they analysed Our Lady’s response to the message of the angel, breaking down her reaction into five separate, but linked stages. The first stage was Conturbatio, or ‘disquiet’. As St Luke writes, when Our Lady heard the angel’s words, ‘she was troubled’. In her humility, she was perplexed as to why the angel would address so lofty a greeting to her. In the second stage,

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Cogitatio or ‘reflection’: ‘she cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be’. At this stage, Mary is receptive and thoughtful, listening attentively to what the angel tells her: ‘Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God, and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.’

The third stage is Interrogatio or ‘inquiry’, in which Mary asks ‘how shall this be, seeing I know not a man?’

The modest, chaste maiden who so cherishes her virginity, waits to hear the angel’s wonderful explanation: ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.’ At this, Mary enters the fourth stage, Humiliatio or ‘submission’. Raising her hands in prayerful submission, and her eyes to Heaven, she speaks: ‘Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word’. At these words, Mary’s life – and the history of the World – are changed forever. The Holy Spirit descends upon her, and the Son of God is made incarnate in her womb. The fifth and final stage, Meritatio, or ‘merit’ depicts Our Lady alone, after the angel has departed from her, absorbed in lofty and sublime contemplation of the extraordinary nature of her angelic encounter.

Humiliatio It is not difficult to discern that in this painting Van Eyck chose to depict Humiliatio – spiritually perhaps the most significant moment of the entire episode. St Bernard of Clairvaux beautifully describes the drama of this moment: “You have just heard that you will conceive and bear a son, and now the angel is awaiting your response, for he must return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, wretchedly oppressed by a sentence of condemnation, we too await your word of compassion. Adam, exiled from Paradise, tearfully asks it, O dutiful Virgin, Abraham and David beg it of you; the whole World is waiting, prostrate at your knees. Answer promptly, O Virgin, why delay?

What do you fear? Open, blessed Virgin, your heart to faith, your lips to assent, your womb to the Creator!”

In this speech, St Bernard clearly establishes the link between the Old and New Testaments. Mary, a daughter of Zion, a descendant (according to tradition) of the royal House of David, represents Israel at its most perfect. Her faith surpasses the faith and obedience of all Old Testament figures from Abraham onwards, and at her fiat, Our Lady says “yes” to the incarnation of God the Son, thus ushering in the era of the New Testament.

This powerful link between the Old and New Testaments is indicated in several ways in Van Eyck’s painting, not least by the architectural setting. The Romanesque round arches

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

ART & DEVOTION

at the top of the painting – the ‘old’ style of architecture, contrast with the ‘new’ more pointed arches of the Gothic windows and arcades below, and together with the triple window representing the Holy Trinity, would have conveyed clearly to Van Eyck’s contemporaries the idea of the transition between the old dispensation and the new. Moreover, the intricate images carved into the floor panels depict scenes from the Old Testament that directly foreshadow the life and death of Our Lord. In the scene closest to the viewer, David is shown decapitating Goliath, and in the scene behind it, Samson destroys the Philistine temple. Both episodes were understood as ‘antitypes’ or prefigurings of the Crucifixion, in which Our Lord, through his violent, heroic death on the Cross, triumphs over the evil one for the salvation of the World.

The Archangel Gabriel also points to the relationship between the Annunciation and the Crucifixion. His staff, placed together with the golden letters of his greeting, forms a cross shape. In his elaborate gilded cope and dalmatic, he looks as though he might be a celebrant – albeit a rather unusual one – at the start of a High Mass. Meanwhile, Mary’s hands are raised in a posture known as expansis manibus, echoing a gesture that the priest makes several times during Mass. Van Eyck is emphasising the link between Our Lady’s personal sacrifice that began at the Annunciation and culminated in the Crucifixion, and the sacrificial rite enacted by the priest at every Mass. There is no Incarnation without Mary’s fiat, and there is no Crucifixion either. From this moment onwards, Our Lady will devote the whole of her life to being the ‘handmaid of the Lord’, and ultimately, CoRedemptrix at the foot of the Cross.

A patristic tradition that goes back to Tertullian states that Our Lord died on the eighth day before the Calends of April, in other words, the 25th March – the anniversary of the day He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. This year, 2016, quite unusually, Good Friday falls on 25th March, and although in the West, unlike the Eastern Churches, the Annunciation is never celebrated during Holy Week, we can nevertheless reflect most prayerfully upon the inseparable links between these two great events. Mary’s wholehearted consent at the Annunciation, to do God’s will and to have God’s will done through her, leads directly to the salvation of the World. Our Lady Annunciate is our true model of a Catholic life of contemplation, prayer and humble service.

The Annunciation by Jan van Eyck, c. 1434, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

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YEAR PLANNER

LMS Year Planner: Notable Events Details of all our events can be found on our website, together with booking and payment facilities.

Holy Week 2016 The LMS will be celebrating the Sacred Triduum at St Mary Moorfield’s, 4-5 Eldon Street, London EC2M 7LS, by kind invitation of Canon Peter Newby.

Wednesday 23 March 2016: Spy Wednesday 9.00pm Tenebrae Thursday 24 March 2016: Holy Thursday 6.30pm Mass 9.00pm Tenebrae Friday 25 March 2016: Good Friday 5.30pm Solemn Liturgy 9.00pm Tenebrae Saturday 26 March 2016: Holy Saturday 4.00pm Vigil Mass Friday, 1 April - Sunday, 3 April 2016 SCT Family Retreat and GCN Chant Weekend St Catherine’s Trust Family Retreat and Gregorian Chant Network Chant Weekend will take place, over Low Sunday weekend, at Ratcliffe College, Fosse Way, Ratcliffe on the Wreake, Leicester LE7 4SG. The Family Retreat will include daily Sung (or High) Mass in the Traditional Rite, spiritual conferences and talks for the adults, plus talks and activities for children of all ages.

The Gregorian Chant Network’s Chant Training Weekend takes place concurrently with the Family Retreat, at the same venue. The tutors will be Colin Mawby and Chris Hodkinson.

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016 Saturday, 30 April 2016 LMS Pilgrimage to York Our annual pilgrimage to York to honour St Margaret Clitherow and the York Martyrs.

Solemn Mass at 1.30pm at St Wilfrid’s Church, Duncombe Place, York YO1 7EF. This will be followed by a procession through the streets of York, via the shrine of St Margaret Clitherow in The Shambles and Ouse Bridge, the site of her martyrdom, returning to St Wilfrid’s for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Saturday, 14 May 2016 LMS One-Day Conference The LMS biennial One-Day Conference will take place on Saturday, 14 May 2016, at Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London W1C 2DJ (nearest Underground Station is Oxford Circus).

The theme of the Conference is ‘The Family’ and the speakers will be:Edmund Adamus – Director for Marriage and Family, Diocese of Westminster Fr Serafino Lanzetta – Parish Priest of St Mary’s, Gosport John Smeaton – Director, Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child Prior Cassian Folsom of Norcia Dr Joseph Shaw – Chairman of the Latin Mass Society Tickets can be purchased online or by phone from the LMS Office. (Prices to be confirmed.)

Sunday, 3 July 2016 LMS Pilgrimage to Holywell Our annual pilgrimage to Holywell takes place on Sunday, 3 July. High Mass will be celebrated in St Winefride’s church, Well Street. This will be followed by a rosary procession to the Well, where there will be devotions and veneration of the relic.

Photos: © Joseph Shaw

Saturday, 9 July 2016 LMS Annual General Meeting and High Mass The Annual General Meeting will take place in Westminster Cathedral Hall, Ambrosden Avenue, London on Saturday, 9 July. High Mass in the Cathedral will be celebrated at 2.00pm.

Monday, 4 April - Thursday, 7 April 2016 Residential Training Conference for Priests, Deacons & Servers In 2016, we are delighted to be returning to the Catholic independent school, Prior Park College, Ralph Allen Drive, Bath BA2 5AH. The Conference is open to priests, deacons, seminarians (in their final two years, for whom there is no charge) and male servers who wish to learn, or improve, their knowledge of celebrating or serving the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

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Sunday, 24 July - Sunday, 31 July 2016 St Catherine’s Trust Summer School The 2016 Summer School, for boys and girls aged from 11 to 18, will take place at the same venue as last year, the Franciscan Retreat Centre in Pantasaph, North Wales.

There will be daily Rosary, Sung or High Mass in the Traditional Rite, and Sung Compline at the end of the day. The

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016 Summer School also includes lessons each day in Catholic History, English Literature and a number of other subjects taught from a Catholic perspective.

There is no fixed fee, but parents and guardians are invited to pay what they can afford.

Monday, 25 July - Saturday, 30 July 2016 LMS Residential Latin Course This will be the 6th Residential Latin Course organised by the LMS and we are returning to last year’s venue, The Franciscan Retreat Centre, Monastery Road, Pantasaph, Holywell, Flintshire, North Wales CH8 8PE. The course is intensive, over six days, with accommodation close by in the St Winifrede’s Guest House in Holywell, which is run by the Bridgettine Sisters. The Latinists will be able to attend the daily Missa Cantata and sung Compline which are part of the St Catherine’s Trust Summer School, which will be running simultaneously to the Latin course in another part of the Retreat Centre.

Thursday, 25 August - Sunday, 28 August 2016 LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham This will be our seventh walking pilgrimage to Walsingham for the conversion of England. Pilgrims meet at Ely on the Thursday evening and, after Mass early Friday morning, start the 55-mile walk to Walsingham.

During the pilgrimage there will be a sung Traditional Latin Mass each day, Confessions, recitation of the Rosary, the singing of traditional hymns, periods of silence and quiet reflection, and the chance to chat and relax with other pilgrims. Arriving in Walsingham on the Sunday, pilgrims will be joined by day pilgrims from around the country.

CHINA

Continued from page 11

other at the Cathedral – this was very unexpected as the Sunday Vigil Mass was notorious among Traditionalists for its frivolous liturgy. The subject of promoting the Traditional Mass was again discussed. We had noticed that a priest (I shall only refer to him by his first name, Fr John, to retain his privacy) who had been recently appointed to the Cathedral always gave the absolution in Latin, and wondered if he was familiar with the Latin Mass. Completely spontaneously, I went to ask Fr John, who said that he had not celebrated the Old Mass in over 15 years, and had forgotten most of the rubrics. Nevertheless, to our delight, he promised to brush up his knowledge if I could find him a missal which also contained a Chinese translation – thankfully, this is something we obviously had. The following day, members of the group met to discuss what to do next, and, as a result, this led to a formal establishment of the group as it now finds itself – providentially, perhaps, it happened to be Pentecost Sunday.

Providential During the next few days, we were able to present Fr John with a Latin-Chinese missal and a handful of tutorial videos, and he began revising. Two weeks later, the elderly priest who had been the only one to offer the Extraordinary Form fell while saying Mass (thankfully, the server was quick enough to catch him before he hit the ground). The next day, Fr John was on the altar. According to Fr John himself, his first Latin Mass in years did not go well, as it “fell apart everywhere”.

But the elderly priest soon recovered and for the next two months we would often see him in the sanctuary with Fr John, teaching him the rubrics, and during communion he would come out from the sacristy and receive. This was a most comforting scene to see, a lively demonstration of how the faith is passed on from generation to generation, and the reassured smile of the old priest who knew that he could finally retire.

During the summer holidays, the young man whom I previously mentioned told me that he wanted to learn some Latin. I happened to have some spare time and just about enough Latin, so we went through the order of Mass word by word. At the end of those few days, I introduced him to Fr John, who asked if he could serve; this is how we had our very own altar server. There are now two from our group who serve regularly.

Now we have a priest and our own servers, but we’ve also always had a small schola as we have several keen and talented singers in the group. But for our first Missa Cantata to take place, we must also have access to a church or chapel. A major church in the city has very recently been refurbished, and a chapel was built in the sacristy; there seems to be a reasonable likelihood that we might be able to gain permission to use the chapel for semi-private Masses, but we do not yet know...

As a personal request to you who are reading this, I ask that you keep our Beijing group in your prayers. By the providence of God, may the Traditional Mass again flourish and be cherished especially by the world’s youth.

Catharina Chen co-founded a group for young Traditional Catholics in Beijing, for which she briefly served as its first president before coming to study in the UK.

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NOTICES / ADVERTISEMENTS

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

PRIEST AND SERVER TRAINING PRIOR PARK COLLEGE, BATH Monday 4th April to Thurdsay 7th April Tuition for priests, deacons, seminarians and servers in Low Mass, Missa Cantata and Solemn Mass.

Fees: (including tuition, and full board) Standard – £110 Full time students – HALF PRICE Seminarians – FREE The course starts after lunch on the Monday and finishes after lunch on the Thursday

Applications should be made on-line via the LMS website.

The LMS biennial One-Day Conference Will take place on Saturday, 14 May 2016, at Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London W1C 2DJ 10.30am Doors Open 11.00am: Mr Edmund Adamus Truth and Freedom Twin Pillars of the Domestic Church.

12 noon: Fr Serafino Lanzetta The sacrament of Marriage as spousal love of Christ for his Church.

Lunch 2.00pm: Mr John Smeaton: Building a pro-life resistance movement.

3.00pm: Prior Cassian Folsom: Pius Pater: Insights into family living from the Rule of St. Benedict.

4.00pm: Dr Joseph Shaw: Marriage and the Complementarity of the Sexes.

5.00pm: Prior Cassian will give a blessing and Conference ends.

LMS Member £15 + £10 for lunch Non-member £20 + £10 for lunch Book your place now at www.lms.org.uk

The LMS will be celebrating the Sacred Triduum

at St Mary Moorfield’s, 4-5 Eldon Street, London EC2M 7LS by kind invitation of Canon Peter Newby Wednesday 23 March 2016: Spy Wednesday 9.00pm Tenebrae Thursday 24 March 2016: Holy Thursday 6.30pm Mass 9.00pm Tenebrae Friday 25 March 2016: Good Friday 5.30pm Solemn Liturgy 9.00pm Tenebrae Saturday 26 March 2016: Holy Saturday 4.00pm Vigil Mass

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Please pray for the souls of all members who have died recently Requiescant in Pace

Ursula Barnsdall Sheilagh Burlton Jean Corlett Rita Cunningham Francis Donnelly John Downs Charles Dupenois William Hallisey Hugh Heggarty Leslie Jones Rosemary Leahy John Lloyd-Williams Gerard Noon Frederick Philbrick Michael Schutzer-Weissmann Elizabeth Stalker Peter Teeling Michael Telford Josette Turle Every effort is made to ensure that this list is accurate and upto-date. However, if you know of a recently deceased member whose name has not, so far, appeared on our prayer memorial, then please contact the LMS, see page 2 for contact details.

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

DIOCESAN DIGEST

Photos: © John Aron

Mass of Ages quarterly round-up

Westminster (St James’s, Spanish Place) Roger Wemyss Brooks 020 7224 5323

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he highlight ceremony at the head of the New Year is always the Society’s High Mass at St James’s church. This year, prefaced by the singing of the Veni Creator for the Indulgence, the Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo by Joseph Haydn, expertly sung by the Spanish Place choir, was offered

by LMS Chaplain Mgr Gordon Read. Deacon and sub-deacon were graciously supplied by Fr Cyril Law and, at very short notice, Fr Martin Edwards. The serving was carefully overseen

by Senior MC Gordon Dimon. Mass was very well attended and concluded with the vigorous singing of Adeste Fideles. I hope sincerely that this beautiful ceremony continues to be offered faithfully by the Latin Mass Society for many years to come.

For several months now we have been without our Sacristan, Linda Helm, who has been in and out of hospital. Please keep her in your prayers for a complete recovery.

All other Masses have been offered as advertised thanks to the help inter alia of Frs Michael Cullinan, David Irwin, Cyril Law and Anthony Robbie

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

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recently heard from Fr Goddard that there will be no further regular second Sunday Masses at Our Lady of Consolation, West Grinstead.

While this has saddened me, the decreasing Mass attendance there can be attributed, not in a small part, to the passing of many of the faithful to their eternal rewards over the past year or two. People who travelled to West Grinstead in the early years following the introduction of the New Rite did so because it was pretty much the only place in the Diocese that the Old Rite was celebrated. It sustained the faithful when everywhere else was liturgically bleak.

Not so today. Today priests are freer to say the Old Rite than at any time in the past 50 years. Regular Masses are said in parishes. In no way is the liturgical landscape as bad for us Latin Mass lovers as it was. One door may have closed, but two others have opened.

Firstly, following on from the cessation of Masses at West Grinstead, I can joyfully tell you of Masses on the second Sunday of the month at Bethany Chapel, Easons Green, celebrated by Fr Michael Clifton.

Secondly, Fr Gerard Hatton has said he will start saying Mass at Our Lady of Ransom, Eastbourne, hopefully from the start of Lent on the second Sundays of the month, and continuing after.

Details of Masses can always be found on the Arundel and Brighton LMS blog.

Thanks to everyone who supports the Masses already established, and in advance, thank you for supporting these new Masses.

We also lost another member of the Latin Mass community shortly before Christmas. Many of you knew Michael Telford, who with his wife, Gwen, travelled enormous distances for years to find the Latin Mass every Sunday. His contribution in terms of commitment, prayer, and unswerving devotion, was an inspiration. It was a privilege to know him. May he rest in peace.

Birmingham (Oxford) Dr Joseph Shaw 01993 812874 joseph.shaw@philosophy.ox.ac.uk www.oxfordlmsrep.blogspot.co.uk I am delighted to report the success of the first Midnight Mass in the Oxford area for many decades, in Holy Trinity, Hethe – a Missa Cantata, which was well supported.

There have been some important developments in the provision of singing in the Oxford area, with a new Director of Music at the Oxford Oratory, Andrew Knowles, a new regular cantor for the Sung Masses on second Sundays in Hethe, Dominic Bevan, and new arrangements for both Sts Gregory and Augustine’s and the roving Traditional Mass chant schola, the Schola Abelis. These all look very promising and we can expect a higher standard of singing as well as more opportunities for singers.

The Ember Saturday of Lent sees the annual Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Caversham (last year’s pilgrimage pictured), which is just outside Reading: the date

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is Saturday 20 February. There will be a High Mass at 11.30am.

This is a rare chance to experience this ancient and wonderful liturgy, with its extra readings, and visit this beautiful shrine.

Mass will be accompanied by the Schola Abelis (for chant) and Cantus Magnus under Matthew Schellhorn (for polyphony).

We will also be having a Sung Mass at Milton Manor on Saturday 27 February. This is a lovely private chapel, dedicated

by Bishop Richard Challoner, which is a privilege to visit.

The annual High Masses with polyphony at St Birinus, Dorchester on Thames, are taking place as usual on Easter Monday (28 March) and Ascension (5 May); the Oxford Oratory will also be celebrating its annual High Mass for the feast of the English Martyrs (4 May).

For more regular Masses on Sundays and feasts see the Mass Listings and the local blog.

© Joseph Shaw

Arundel and Brighton Annie Mackie-Savage 01323 411370 amacsav@sky.com www.arundelbrightonlatinmasssociety.blogspot.co.uk

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Birmingham (Staffordshire North) Alan Frost 01270 768144 alan.jfrost@btinternet.com www.north-staffs-lms.blogspot.co.uk

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ur Lady of the Assumption church in the village of Swynnerton near Stone continues to be the focus for Sunday Masses in North Staffordshire, but for some time now parish priest Fr Paul Chavasse, CongOrat, has celebrated and advertised the Old Rite Mass as an important option in the Sunday Masses.

He also celebrates and advertises in the parish weekly bulletin a fortnightly Low Mass on Saturdays, as well as other Masses from time to time.

We continue, also, to be grateful to Fr Anthony Dykes at St Wulstan’s church near Newcastle for feast day and First Friday Masses. Both priests offered numerous feast day Masses over the Christmas period, including St Thomas of Canterbury, the Octave of the Nativity and the Epiphany.

During Advent, after the Mass in which server Augustine Scorey made his First Holy Communion, Augustine and his brother Ignatius were formally admitted into the altar servers’ Guild of St Stephen. Their elder brother Benedict received the silver medallion of the Guild for ten years’ service as a member.

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016 Birmingham (Worcester) Margaret Parffrey

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he main blessing for the community here at Worcester – St john the Baptist, Spetchley – has been the arrival of the Schola Gregoriana Malverniensis who sing at a monthly Mass in the Traditional Rite in the chapel. We hope to encourage the laity to respond in Gregorian chant. St Pius X stated, “A singer of Gregorian chant is an image of man redeemed and restored to the order in which God created him, his mind intent on God subduing other distractions.”

We are trying to promote more faithful to our Mass at Redditch on the second Monday of the month at 6.00pm. Fr Gyronowski travels afar from Wolverhampton with wonderful cheerfulness, only to find eight to ten people (often less).

Please pray and come.

Please note, St Ambrose at Kidderminster Mass times vary.

No Mass in April, but Mass on Easter Sunday at 3.00pm. Our other Mass centre at Evesham continues as normal.

Our grateful thanks to priests and altar servers and all the faithful who make our Mass possible with the intention to: Instaurare omnia in Christo – ‘Re-establish all things in Christ’ (Pius X).

Cardiff Andrew Butcher Cardiff Representative 07905 609770 andrew.butcher@lmscardiff.org.uk www.lmscardiff.org.uk

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happy and holy new year to you all.

Since the last report a lot has changed so please bear with me. Mass at Cardiff Chaplaincy will not take place until further notice. Any updates will be posted on our website, but feel free to contact me should you need to. The last Sunday of the month Mass at St Francis Xavier has been discontinued, however the weekly Friday Mass at 6.30pm still remains. Mass at Belmont Abbey will now be offered on Wednesday evenings at 7.00pm. The second Sunday of the month Mass at Ledbury will now be offered at the earlier time of 9.00am. The Mass at Abergavenny will remain on the first Friday of the month at 7.00pm. For more information please visit our website. Holy Week and

DIOCESAN DIGEST Easter Masses for 2016 may be announced on the website, please check it regularly.

We also have commissioned an app, which is available to all Android users from the Play Store. The app contains all the latest updates, Mass times, photographs and much more.

Search for “LMSCardiff” or “Latin Mass Society Cardiff” and you will find it… and it is free too! An app will be developed for the iPhone and iPad later this year.

Of your charity please continue to remember Dom Antony Tumelty OSB in your prayers who is seriously ill at this time.

Pray to for his father, brother and his family. Our Lady and all the Saints and Blesséds of England and Wales, pray for him.

On Christmas Eve, Dom Antony Tumelty OSB celebrated Midnight Mass in St Teilo’s Cardiff at the very kind invitation of Canon Isaac (parish priest). The Mass was well attended with over 55 in the congregation and a seminarian in choir.

This was truly a very solemn occasion and I am sure everyone who attended would say the same. Thank you to all who helped in anyway with this Mass. Thank you also to Dom Joseph Parkinson OSB who offered a Dawn Mass on Christmas Day at Belmont Abbey.

Clifton (Main Reps) Ken and Carol Reis pussyfooters@blueyonder.co.uk 07896 879116 www.lmsclifton.blogspot.co.uk

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ince our last report there has been a sung Requiem Mass celebrated at the church of the Holy Cross, Bedminster which was well attended, with a congregation of about 35.

It was a lovely Mass, enhanced by the wonderful singing of the St John’s Singers. The celebrant was Fr Philip Thomas, the deacon Fr Andrew Goodman and the sub-deacon Rev Michael Belt. The homily was given by Fr Jean-Patrice Coulon.

There have also been a number clergy appointments within the Diocese during September and October with some masses (Dursley) no longer taking place. However, now that the priests have settled into their new parishes the number of Masses celebrated have been maintained, with Fr Alexander Redman continuing the Masses on the fourth and fifth Sunday of the month at Our Lady of Lourdes, Weston-super-Mare and Fr Martin Queenan continuing the Mass on the first Saturday of each month at St George’s, Warminster. During the Christmas period there were a number of Masses held including a Midnight Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes, Weston-super-Mare.

East Anglia Emma Cressey

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n East Anglia there has been no major changes to report regarding the Masses that are being said. I am currently in the process of rallying support to have a Traditional Mass said on a regular basis at the Cathedral. If anybody would be interested in giving their support to having a Mass established regularly in Norwich, they should contact me on: chickydum@hotmail.co.uk and I will respond with what details I need from you to add you to the list. It is important that we do establish a regular Mass in this area of the Diocese of East Anglia as we do not have much in this region other than the First Friday Mass each month. Please consider supporting us in this area.

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LMS REPS’ REPORTS

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016 Lancaster Bob and Jane Latin 01524 412987 lancasterlms@gmail.com www.latinmasslancaster. blogspot.co.uk

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t is with much regret that we have to report that the Extraordinary Form Masses in the Cathedral have been discontinued for the time being. We have a very willing priest in Canon Ruscillo and sufficient servers but a very small congregation which has declined substantially over the last year. Whilst we rejoice in the thriving traditional activities at Carlisle and Preston, these have had an impact on the central area. Sadly, the Cathedral, which was the first to bring back the Extraordinary Form, will be the first to lose it.

Therefore these Masses have, from January 2016, reverted to St Mary’s, Hornby – still at 3.00pm. The next two Masses will be offered for the anniversaries of Christine Ackers, our previous Representative and Angela Strickland, of Sizergh Castle – see Mass Listings for the dates. We thank all of those who went out of their way to support the Cathedral Masses, endeavouring to keep the flame alive in our mother church, but in the end young shoots of new life were not forthcoming and we await the actions of the Holy Spirit, allowing the Old Mass to return. With much appreciation we also acknowledge the magnificent support we have always received from the Cathedral clergy and staff in facilitating the celebration of these Masses. We are Liverpool Jim Pennington 0151 426 0361 pennington893@btinternet.com

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ue to a prior engagement, Archbishop McMahon was not able to be present at our Mass at St Anthony’s during his parish visitation in December, but has promised to be with us later this year; the date is so far not decided.

The inaugural Solemn Mass at St Mary’s, Warrington in the presence of the Archbishop was beautifully celebrated with a splendid choir and a crowded church. Subsequent Sunday and daily Masses have also been well attended – congregations of about 100 to 120 on Sundays.

We had an abundance of Christmas Masses this year.

Midnight Mass at Our Lady’s, Lydiate had a congregation of 35, in a rather isolated rural church. Daytime Mass at Holy Cross was also quite well attended – 25. At St Anthony’s, the congregation was only 13, which was disappointing as Canon Montjean had taken the trouble to come to us despite his busy schedule at Sts Peter and Paul.

Fr Riley at Holy Cross and St Helen offered Mass on the eve of the Epiphany with a congregation of 25.

Canon Tanner, ICKSP, offered the Epiphany Mass at St Anthony’s with a congregation of 25.

The regular Sunday and Holyday Masses continue at the other locations. Fr Wood is continuing his occasional weekday Masses at Our Lady’s, Lydiate. Please see the Mass Listings for more information.

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sure that those who have supported us so far will continue to help us keep the flame alive at Hornby until it spreads throughout the surrounding desert area.

Please remember in your prayers the clergy and people of Carlisle which, like so many other places, has been hit by the recent dreadful floods. The church of Our Lady and St Joseph, being on higher ground, was not affected but the approach roads were in a very bad way.

They have continued to offer the Sunday evening Mass in the Extraordinary Form throughout, even though there must have been considerable difficulties for some of the congregation in getting there. In the forthcoming period, Mass will be offered there on Ascension Thursday at 7.00pm. Other Masses may be arranged later, please check the website for details.

At St Walburge’s, as last year, there was a novena leading up to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception with a homily by a visiting preacher each evening. Unfortunately, the floods prevented Bishop Michael Campbell OSA from travelling to Preston to give the final evening’s homily. In addition to the Sung Mass on Easter Sunday at St Walburge’s, there will be Mass at 6.00pm on Maundy Thursday and at 8.00pm for the Easter Vigil.

One of our long time members, Bill Rodway, who went to his reward last year, left instructions in his will for a Mass in the Old Rite within 12 months at his parish church of St Bernadette in Bispham, Blackpool. This will take place on Friday 11 March at 7.00pm and all are welcome.

We offer our thanks to Fr Peter Clarke, parish priest of St Bernadette’s and Canon Ruscillo who will be the celebrant.

Menevia Tom & Elaine Sharpling 01239 710411 Tom.sharpling@btinternet.com

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e are indebted to Fr Jason Jones who continues to offer the Holy Mass as regularly as possible and also continues to support the Newcastle Emlyn Schola.

We were blessed with a Missa Cantata in Advent, for New Year and for the Epiphany. For the New Year Mass the Te Deum was sung and prayers offered for the intentions of the Holy Father.

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016 The Epiphany Mass included the blessing of chalk which is a lovely tradition and hopefully a few homes in Wales are now blessed with “20+C+M+B+16”! Our own home has inscriptions from 2010 and it is quite thought provoking to see those blessed years each time you come and go.

We also had the privilege of attending the LMS dinner and the Annual Requiem Mass at Westminster Cathedral, celebrated

by Cardinal Burke. It was a lovely occasion and it was good to meet lots of different people.

We have a small but faithful congregation and one of the challenges for 2016 will be to increase our numbers by encouraging those who do not know the Extraordinary Form to come along. The rural nature of Wales is an additional challenge with some folks travelling significant distances to attend the Mass each Sunday. We are very grateful to those families for their faithful support.

If you would like any details about the Traditional Mass in Menevia then please mail: tom.sharpling@btinternet.com.

Middlesbrough Paul Waddington 01757 638027 paul@gooleboathouse.co.uk www.latinmassmiddlesbrough.blogspot.co.uk

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am pleased to be able to report that we have a new venue for Latin Masses in the Diocese of Middlesbrough. It is at the church of the Most Holy Sacrament at Marton, which is seven miles to the northeast of Hull.

It is a privately owned church, dating from 1789, on the Burton Constable estate. It is in a very remote location and most easily found on satnav by the postcode HU11 4LN. Fr Mark Drew proposes to say Masses there on the original day of transferred Holydays of Obligation and other major Feasts. If these are successful, the frequency may increase. Candlemas will have passed by the time of publication, and the next will be the Ascension.

Meanwhile, Sunday Masses continue at York and Redcar, as does the first Wednesday Mass in Hull which attracts a sizeable congregation.

I am in need of assistance running the northern end of the Diocese, as there is more than I can cope with in York, Hull and the East Riding. Offers of help from people living in the Middlesbrough area would be gratefully received.

Nottingham (Lincolnshire) Mike Carroll www.lmslincolnshire.blogspot.com www.lincolnshiremartyrs.blogspot.co.uk

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incolnshire continues to have one regular Sunday Traditional Latin Mass at St Bernadette’s, Scunthorpe with Low Mass at 5.00pm. There is a location map on the Lincolnshire LMS website, but for those with satnavs the postcode is DN16 2RS. I do have some good news regarding further Latin Mass provision in Lincolnshire, but at present I can not give details as it is not presently public knowledge. I would say in advance

FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY that this may take six months to come to fruition and therefore I ask for your patience. I am able to announce however, that we have received a most welcome letter from Bishop McKinney of the Diocese of Nottingham. He is happy for the Market Rasen, Louth, and Caistor Catholic churches to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. He has also personally contacted our local Latin Mass priest and asked him to support provision for these churches. A great deal of thanks goes out to the Bishop, and to the members of the local Latin Mass community who have worked towards this accomplishment.

Portsmouth (Bournmouth) Tim Fawkes t.fawkes136@btinternet.com

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ur monthly evening Sunday Mass at Our Lady Immaculate, Westbourne, Bournemouth started to be offered again in October after a gap of several months due to the unavailability of our priest, Fr Glaysher, of St Mary’s on the Isle of Wight. Efforts were made to find an alternative priest but we were unsuccessful. We were very grateful to have him back with us. The Holy Rosary was prayed in Latin in October prior to Mass. This is now an established practice in May and October and is well attended; those coming to Mass on the whole arrive early for the Rosary and there have been some appreciative comments.

A Missa Cantata was offered at the church of the Sacred Heart in central Bournemouth on the evening of 14 December by Fr Serafino Lanzetta who is based at St Mary’s church, Gosport. A choir of his fellow friars sang beautifully a-capella, and there were around 50 in the congregation on a wet December night. Mass (sung or low) is to be offered there on future occasions on an ad hoc basis for the time being, so it is not possible to provide dates in the Mass Listings supplement but anyone interested is able to view the parish newsletter on line (www.sac-heart.org) where announcements will be made as well as on the LMS home page.

Portsmouth (Isle of Wight) Peter Clarke

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bout 50 people attended the Christmas (early) Midnight Mass at St Mary’s, Ryde. We also had an Extraordinary Form Mass on New Year’s Day and the Feast of the Epiphany. In his sermon Fr Anthony Glaysher, parish priest, reminded the congregation that the arrival of the Three Kings was “a revelation for the Gentiles – a reminder that God send his Son not just for the Jewish people but for the Gentiles as well. There is a place reserved in heaven for all those (whatever nationality) who pick up their Cross and follow Christ.”

We continue to have two weekday Extraordinary Form Masses. These are on Tuesday and Thursday at 12 noon in St Mary’s, Ryde. There are two Sunday Masses each month and a First Friday Mass. See the Mass Listings for details.

For the eigth year in succession the Isle of Wight will have the traditional 40 Hours Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament over the Passion Sunday weekend (11-13 March).

This will include at least two Extraordinary Form Masses.

Details will be on St Mary’s website www.stmarysryde.org

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DIOCESAN DIGEST Portsmouth (Winchester) Peter Cullinane 023 9247 1324 pmcullinane@hotmail.com

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he main event this quarter was the annual High Mass in St John’s Cathedral on the feast of Christ the King, 25 October. Fr Philip Harris was again the celebrant, Fr Serafino from Gosport was deacon and we welcomed Fr Patrick Hayward once more from London as sub-deacon. At one point it looked as if we would have to cancel the Mass as two key participants had to withdraw owing to family matters but luckily Fr Serafino stepped in at the last minute.

It was good to be able to welcome both friars and nuns from the dynamic Gosport community as well as our good Ordinariate friends and neighbours from St Agatha’s. The congregation numbered about 80, down on last year as the publicity had to be delayed pending replacements, but there were about 100 overall, including clergy, servers and the Gregorian choir under Christopher Hodkinson’s direction.

St Mary’s in Gosport was the scene of High Mass on the evening of 8 December. Fr Serafino was the celebrant, the deacon Fr Ian Verrier FSSP, ordained in Spanish Place last summer and now stationed in Reading. The congregation numbered more than 40, most of them parishioners of that church which is a gratifying sign of the attraction which the old rite has for those who did not know it before.

One of Fr Serafino’s sermon themes was that true freedom for the believer did not mean the choice to reject Almighty God and His Church, but to follow it faithfully, just like Our Lady did when she assented to become the Mother of God. On Gaudete Sunday in St John’s Cathedral there was the pleasant surprise of seeing Fr McNerney wearing a brand new and handsome set of rose vestments donated by a regular member of the congregation.

Christmas Day also provided us with three agreeable surprises: numbers attending were double the usual at about 80, including many visitors and some families with children, an organist was able to attend and play some carols and, finally, a young adult who joined the congregation this year served his first Mass so well that we thought he had been doing it for ages!

Summing up, numbers at both St John’s Cathedral 8.00am Mass and the monthly Winchester Mass are holding steady at about 40 each.

Finally, the evening Sung Mass on New Year’s Day at Gosport attracted at least 75 almost wholly local people, once more indicating the attraction which the Old Rite has for those previously unable to attend it for many years.

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016 Shrewsbury (Shropshire) William Quirk – Assistant Representative

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ur weekly Sunday Mass is an established feature of the Shrewsbury Cathedral parish schedule, though celebrated in the church of St Winefride. It is nowadays the only Traditional Mass in Shropshire and attracts a good attendance.

For some years, it has been celebrated by Fr Gerard McGuiness (retired).

Unfortunately, he had to withdraw last summer to undergo knee surgery and we were faced with a potentially blank period.

However, we were saved by Fr David Mawson, a priest of the Ordinariate, who resides locally and takes part in the regular work of the parish. He readily volunteered to fill in and there were no gaps. We are most grateful to him for the additional work he so willingly shouldered, including the period he spent training himself with the aid of the excellent DVD produced by the FSSP. We are also blessed by the recent arrival on the Cathedral staff of Fr Edmund Montgomery, ordained a couple of years ago, who has also celebrated for us, including a Requiem for an LMS member, and will take a turn in the weekly schedule. Again, our sincere thanks are due. With Fr McGuiness restored to active life, we are in a healthy position – a marked contrast to the preSummorum Pontificum era, during which priests who were transferred or otherwise impeded had no traditional successors and active Mass centres simply collapsed.

Shrewsbury (Wirral) Stefano Mazzeo

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he shrine church of Sts Peter, Paul and Philomena continues to strengthen in all areas, especially in the numbers attending our Masses and the improvements to the building’s fabric. The second phase of work on the restoration on the church is now complete, there is still much work to be done of course. The third phase will be the most difficult as it involves work on the Dome itself. There are also plans to illuminate the Dome so if you are able to support this initiative please contact the rector of the shrine Canon Monjean.

We now have a beautiful glass screen at the back of the church and also a new piety shop which is well stocked with books, missal, DVDs, statues, rosaries etc. Much of the stock has been donated so if you have of anything of a traditional Catholic nature that you think we could sell please donate it to the shine. Please check the website that updates regularly with the latest news and also for an interesting series by Kevin Jones the LMS Wrexham Rep, who is writing a series of posts on the saints.

Southwark (Kent) Marygold Turner 01580 291372

M © Alvi Baldomero

asses have continued according to the rota originally arranged for us

by Bishop John Hine in 2004, Deo Gratias! (Not very easy sometimes!)

Following the truly beautiful Sung Mass at Snave (on the Romney Marsh) on 26 September, we have been invited to repeat this, so do come if you can: 24 September at 12 noon. Fr Marcus Holden will be celebrating, as before.

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ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016 I was privileged to have Fr Andrew Southwell to stay for three days in October prior to the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. During his visit, he baptised James, the sixth child of Greg and Katya Grimes, at St Simon’s in Ashford.

Celebrations continued later with a visit by Cardinal Burke, and dinners arranged by the LMS. I remember with especial pleasure and gratitude the dinner at Simpsons given by Joseph and Lucy Shaw in Fr Andrew’s honour.

On 21 October, I was invited to Brussels for the opening of the extension to Canon Hudson’s school. He has achieved so much: starting with 30 pupils, he now has 500, a 6th Form and a waiting list! Cardinal Burke officiated (with Monsignor Mack), followed by a magnificent reception.

I was at the London Oratory for the CIEL day, when Cardinal Burke gave an interesting talk on marriage (15th November).

Fr Richard Whinder celebrated Mass for us on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and Fr Michael Woodgate gave us our usual Mass at Dawn on Christmas Day. As I write, we are looking forward to a Sung Mass on the Epiphany, for which I am most grateful.

Our congregations vary, but we are very fortunate at St Francis’ in Maidstone to have up to 40/50 people.

Southwark (Thanet) Antonia Robinson robinsonantonia@icloud.com

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e are fortunate in this little corner of Kent – the holy Island of Thanet, where St Augustine first landed in 597 to re-Christianise this land – to have three churches in which the Traditional Latin Mass is prayed: Sts Austin and Gregory in Margate, the shrine church of St Augustine in Ramsgate, and Ramsgate’s parish church, St Ethelbert’s.

REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY On Sundays there are two regular sung Masses: in Margate at 11:30am, and Ramsgate at noon. There are two weekday Low Masses in Ramsgate and one in Margate which means that TLM provision is very good within this small area (the parishes are less than 15 minutes apart). There are Traditional Masses four days out of seven.

Having Fr Marcus Holden (Ramsgate) and Fr Timothy Finigan (Margate) – two local priests experienced in and enthusiastic about the Traditional Mass – increases the possibilities for High Mass. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception was celebrated in Margate by Fr Finigan, with Fr Holden as deacon and Fr Bernard McNally as subdeacon. The Victoria Consort sang Palestrina’s Missa Brevis, Stravinsky’s Ave Maria and Palestrina’s Alma Redemptoris Mater. St Augustine’s is fortunate to have the Victoria Consort ‘in house’ and so had beautiful polyphony for All Saints Day as well as Requiem Masses on All Souls and Remembrance Sunday. There is a nascent schola at Sts Austin and Gregory and the ordinary and propers are sung at the Sunday Mass.

Attendance at the Sunday and feast day Masses is healthy in both parishes although more established in Ramsgate – weekday Masses have a respectable turn-out. Numbers attending the Traditional Mass are growing in both parishes. In Margate, the Extraordinary Form was reintroduced by Fr Finigan last year and many within the parish responded with enthusiasm and positively. In addition to a ‘home grown’ MC the parish has two well-trained young servers (who only encountered the Traditional Mass in the past year) and several others coming up, so the future looks bright. The congregation at Margate’s new Traditional Masses is largely composed of existing parishioners and others who have migrated from local parishes. This means that the Traditional Mass is becoming part of normal parish life, rather than something bolted on as an ‘extra’. Let us pray that the opportunities and numbers continue to increase throughout Thanet. Deo gratias!

Westminster (Hertfordshire) Tom Short

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t Albans: Masses continue at 5.00pm every Sunday at St Bartholomew’s church, thanks to the good offices of Fr Tim Edgar. Our numbers vary from about 14 to 30. Traditional Holy Day of Obligation Masses are at 7.00pm and on Christmas Day we had Mass at 8.30am. This was the time of the usual parish Mass so there was a large congregation, but, of course, not all of these were particular supporters of the Old Rite, and even on Sundays there are some members of the congregation who fall into this category. As a number of them are repeat participants, perhaps after the experience they see the benefits of a quiet Mass with time for personal prayer.

On 1 November we had a sung Mass of the simpler form (no incense and only one or two servers), with a choir led by Ivan Grimer, and on 8 December we had the more formal type of sung Mass to mark the start of the Year of Mercy.

As well as Sundays, we shall be having Mass on 2 February at 7.00pm in St Albans.

Old Hall Green: Mass continues at 3.00pm on the third Sunday of the month. Mgr Gordon Read is the usual celebrant, but Fr Cullinan has helped out by standing in when Mgr Read is unavailable, for which we are very grateful as this entails a long journey for him.

Baldock: Mass on the first Sunday of the month at 3.00pm continues thanks to the help and commitment of Canon Bennie Noonan from Shefford.

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DIOCESAN DIGEST / BOOK REVIEW Westminster (Tyburn Walk) Dylan Parry

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his year’s LMS Tyburn Walk will take place on 29 August, a Bank Holiday Monday. The Walk is scheduled to start at 1.00pm outside the church of St Sepulchre’s, Newgate (near the Old Bailey) – details TBC. We will stop at a few ‘stations’ on the way to Tyburn, praying a decade of the Rosay at each place. Walking along Oxford Street, we plan to arrive at Tyburn Convent in good time for Mass at 3.00pm. Celebrant to be announced at a later date. We are very grateful to the Tyburn nuns for so readily allowing us to have Mass in the Martyrs’ chapel and for agreeing to provide refreshments afterwards. So that we know how many to expect, please email me if you would like to attend: dylan@lms.org.uk

Wrexham Kevin Jones www.lmswrexham.weebly.com twitter.com/LMSWrexham lms.wrexham@outlook.com 01244 674011 / 07803 248170

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welve months ago I reported via the pages of Mass of Ages that the Bishop of Wrexham, the Right Reverend Peter Brignall, was undertaking a review of the Diocese in the light of shrinking Mass attendances and a serious shortage of priests.

Last September, the Bishop promulgated a document entitled Into the Future which deals with and I quote “the number and locations of churches... and consideration of parish boundaries and the territory that priests would be expected to have jurisdiction over and responsibility for.”

Whilst the paper provides no definitive plan to close parishes, it does set the scene for a period of change to how the Catholics of North Wales access Mass and the Sacraments. This is a case of watch this space as we proceed into 2016 and beyond.

I have written to His Lordship and have requested that he be mindful of the Latin Mass provision as these changes take effect.

All Masses took place as usual in each month of the quarter. I am particularly thankful to the Scorey family who again, as last year, provided assistance at the December Fourth Sunday Mass at Holywell which allowed a Missa Cantata to take place.

It would be delightful to see greater numbers attending, especially the fourth Sunday Mass at Holywell. Whilst our numbers have remained steady in 2015, it would be good to see growth in 2016. One Mass that had struggled for numbers was the monthly Saturday Mass at Buckley – after discussion we moved this last January to the first Saturday and this has been fruitful, with as many as 26 attending in November.

Finally, I am delighted to report that Fr Doyle, our regular celebrant at Holywell and Buckley and Fr Treloar, an LMS member and Dean at the Cathedral have both been called by the Bishop to the Cathedral Chapter and will thus become Secular Canons in due course.

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ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

A Much Needed Guide The Parish Churches of Greater London: A Guide Michael Hodges Heritage of London Trust 446pp, £25 This book is obviously the fruit of a long and consuming labour of love. Being the first comprehensive guide to the churches of Greater London, it is also a most invaluable resource.

The Parish Churches of Greater London: A Guide details churches in all the 32 boroughs of London, apart from the City, which, as the author explains, has “been more than adequately covered by other books.”

Each borough is placed in its historical context by a brief introduction. There then follows a chronological gazetteer of first Anglican and then Catholic churches, highlighting some wonderful buildings. Not all churches are covered, though, and Hodges himself admits that the ‘occasional gem’ may have been left out. Even so, around 420 churches are detailed in this volume, with interesting facts about these places of worship being brought to the reader’s attention – ranging from architecture and anecdotes to monuments and stained glass.

It’s amazing how many of the churches of Greater London now host the Traditional Mass, and many are mentioned in this book – St James’s, Spanish Place, the Brompton Oratory, St Mary’s, Chislehurst, St Mary Magdalen’s, Wandsworth, to name but a few.

The Parish Churches of Greater London is illustrated with over 1,340 colour photographs taken by the author. Despite not being a professional photographer, many of his photos are clear and of a high resolution. I particularly liked the one of the interior of St Mary Magdalen’s, Wandsworth, which was designed by the architect and priest Fr George Fayers.

Michael Hodges communicates his passion in a way similar publications rarely manage. For that, as well as for producing such an interesting, informative and necessary guide, he is to be highly commended. DP. The Parish Churches of Greater London may be obtained from Michael Hodges (michael.jeremyhodges@gmail.com) at a cost of £25 plus £4.50 for postage and packing. It is also available online.

LMS Annual Pilgrimage to York Saturday 30th April 2016 in honour of St Margaret Clitherow and the York Martyrs St Wilfrid’s Church, Duncombe Place, York YO1 7EF 1.30pm Solemn Mass 3.00pm Procession through York 4.00pm Solemn Benediction Join us in this act of witness to the Catholic Faith!

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MASS LISTINGS

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ARCHITECTURE

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Historic Gem in Central London Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory’s, Warwick St Paul Waddington

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© Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk

n 1673, Sir Christopher Wren, who was Surveyor General for His Majesty’s Works at the time, produced a plan for the westward extension of London. The proposal included a square, later to be called Golden Square, with houses “for the gentry”. Several of the houses of Golden Square later became embassies, including Numbers 23 and 24, where the Portuguese Minister took up residence in 1724. As was the practice during Penal Times, a chapel was provided for the minister and his staff. In this case it was built between the house and the stables which were in Warwick Street at the rear of the property.

Amongst the embassy staff were chaplains, usually five in number, who, in addition to their embassy duties, ministered to the Catholics who lived in the area. In 1747, the Portuguese delegation moved to South Street in Mayfair, and their property at Golden Square was taken over by Count Haslang, the Bavarian Minister. The Count put in place similar arrangements to minister to the embassy staff and the increasing numbers of Catholics of the neighbourhood, who were able to access the chapel from Warwick Street. These arrangements continued until the Gordon Riots of 1780.

Lord Gordon headed the London Protestant Association, which petitioned Parliament for the repeal of the Catholic Relief Act of 1778. Following the rejection of the petition on 2

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June 1780, a mob of Lord Gordon’s followers went on the rampage, intent on ransacking the embassy chapels and the homes of prominent Catholics living in London. The Sardinian Embassy chapel was set on fire and the mob later set about the Bavarian chapel. The doors were broken down and much of the contents burned, rendering the chapel unusable. It was fortunate that the arrival of the mob had been anticipated, and some of the more valuable contents had been removed to safe keeping.

In 1788, the Bavarian embassy moved elsewhere, and the Vicar Apostolic of the London District, Bishop Talbot, sought to provide a new church. A long lease was obtained on the site of the Bavarian Embassy, and Joseph Bonomi was engaged to design a larger church, which would occupy the site of the stables, as well as the site of the former chapel. Joseph Bonomi was born in Italy, but divided his professional life between Italy and England, where he worked with the Adam Brothers on the design of country houses.

Bonomi produced a very simple building, which was rectangular in shape and of the maximum size that the site would permit. The facade on Warwick St was given the appearance of a non-Conformist chapel with no statuary or images to indicate its Catholic use. The only concession to decoration was a triangular pediment, flanked by stone-coped parapets. Its wall was exceptionally thick and built without windows at street level to deter any future rioters. The doors were reinforced with metal for the same reason, and the whole had the appearance of a fortress. The exterior remains much the same today, except for the insertion of ground floor windows and the addition of stone frames around the doors, which do little to enhance the facade.

Internally, the new church was equipped with a gallery on three sides to maximise the size of congregation that could be accommodated. The altar was against the East wall in a very cramped sanctuary with little to distinguish it, except for a Rococo tabernacle, presumed to be a donation from the Elector of Bavaria. This tabernacle was removed in 1875 and found a new home in the Catholic Church of the Holy Ghost in Midsummer Norton, Somerset. It seems that the church was built to a very tight budget, and Bonomi had little opportunity to display much of his undoubted architectural talent, although he can take the credit for the very slim cast iron columns with Corinthian capitals which support the gallery.

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ARCHITECTURE

© Dylan Parry

the retention of a huge collection of votive silverware, which covered the adjacent walls. These were later arranged in a Regency-style mahogany cabinet which surrounds the statue.

It is doubtful whether this constituted any improvement.

Bentley also shortened the side galleries and provided them with an elegant cast iron balustrade.

It will come as no surprise that the sanctuary underwent further modifications in the 1970s to comply with the requirements of Vatican II as they were perceived at the time. The top two altar steps were removed, and the High Altar was separated from its gradine and moved forward to accommodate westward facing liturgy. The brass altar rails were more fortunate and have been retained.

In early 2013, Cardinal Vincent Nichols designated the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory for the use of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and it became their principal church. Mass is now offered there according to the Divine Worship Missal, which is the form of Roman Rite specifically created for Ordinariate use.

Mass is also offered there quite frequently in the Forma Extraordinaria.

Paul Waddington is the LMS Treasurer. This article is a continuation in his series on church architecture. The church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory features in the Mass Listings.

The new church was opened on 12 March 1790, the Feast of St Gregory the Great, to whom it was dedicated; although it had to wait till 1958 to acquire the marble side altar which carries a statue of that saint. This altar was brought from the chapel of Foxgate House in Warwickshire, and is of Italian origin. Above the tabernacle is a fine statue of St Gregory.

The additional dedication to the Assumption dates from 1854 and followed works designed to create a more imposing sanctuary. An architect named Erlam came up with a rather over-powering classical reredos incorporating Corinthian columns and pilasters which extended from floor to ceiling. The centrepiece was the bas-relief depicting Our Lady, supported by angels, ascending amongst clouds, which the rector had acquired from the sculptor, John Edward Carew.

This work is regarded as the church’s principal treasure, and now hangs rather awkwardly over the door to the sacristy.

John Francis Bentley

© John Aron

Despite Mr Erlam’s efforts, the church of the Assumption remained extremely plain, and in 1874 John Francis Bentley, who later designed Westminster Cathedral, was commissioned to remodel the whole church. He proposed lining the whole structure in marble and creating a new apsidal sanctuary in the small space that survived between the church and the house. Most of Erlam’s work was swept away, as was the Rococo tabernacle. The bas-relief survived, rehung in the only space available.

Due to limited funds, the marble lining never extended beyond the sanctuary, but Bentley’s treatment of the semicircular apse is considered a masterpiece. Amid the marble panels are mosaics depicting St Gilbert, St Gregory, St Joseph, St John the Evangelist, St Edward the Confessor and St Cecilia.

Above them in the semi-dome is a glorious mosaic depicting the Coronation of Our Lady in Heaven.

Bentley also remodelled the Lady altar around a statue of the Immaculate Conception which was imported from France.

Despite Bentley’s objections, the rector at the time insisted on

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LONE VEILER

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Bread and Circuses The Dangers of a Celebrity Civilisation The Lone Veiler

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here’s something magical about old movies. The clothes, the cars, the dialogue. The fact you can pretty much guarantee that you can safely leave kids in the room while you make a cup of tea knowing no-one will be getting their kit off for anything other than a quick dip in the pool. You can also pretty much guarantee that in the past, any portrayals of Christianity would be mostly positive. We weren’t seen as uniformly deranged and potentially dangerous. Unlike now.

Not that I don’t appreciate modern movies; some are excellent, some appalling, most are mediocre. Most lack any form of subtlety, or wit. The film industry seems to me (as an individual whose only contact with anything thespian has been doing props for the school play) to be entirely self-absorbed. Actors are given air time to share their views because they spend three hours in make-up and wear something sharp on the red carpet, and that’s just the men. There is something disturbing in the fact that the film and entertainment industry have such a lot of clout. It’s probably a little old fashioned of me, but I find the idea of folks taking more seriously the opinion of people who serially pretend to be other people rather funny. At least a politician’s been elected. But in the press, online and in print, we are bombarded with celebrity opinion.

From their diets, to their divorces, their various enhancements to their politics, if you want to find something out about one of the famous for being famous, especially a z-lister, it’s all just a google away if it’s not already on a news feed’s sidebar along with pictures.

Money, being the root of all evil, is of course at the bottom of all this yet again. If money can be made by using people’s peccadilloes in the public arena, then it will. If it can be made by manipulating opinion, again it will be. Instead of buying into real life, people are peddled some pretty vacuous lifestyle choices to emulate in sitcoms, chick flicks and bromances, and then seem surprised that real life actually becomes vacuous.

Just don’t talk to me about the execrable Friends and Sex in the City, or more recently, Modern Family.

I know I’m a bit of an ancient history-phile, but it’s all so been done before. We had bread and circuses in Rome, and the pandering to the lowest of the lowest of moral denominators.

Want to make your horse a politician? Too late, it’s been done

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already, if you believe what Suetonius said of Caligula. Back slightly further, and we see the poster boy for democratic process (if you were free, male, and a citizen, oh, and it helped if you were rich), fifth century BC Athens. Aristophanes pointed out that, actually, people are too easily influenced by charismatic speakers; they are apt to feel too much, and don’t think enough. Sound a bit familiar?

We don’t throw people to the lions anymore, because hey, lions have rights. We throw them to Jeremy Kyle. Nor do we famously execute generals for winning battles (not in Europe anyway), but we do try to silence those with pesky problematic religious belief by reporting them to the police for hate speech. At least we’ve so far been spared Socrates’ ultimate fate, but give it time, because we already have death of reputation and good will through mediated public opinion.

Freedom of speech is freedom if you buy into the current fashionable agenda, and assent to it unequivocally. Right now it helps if you happen to be pansexually transgendered, or transaged, or hope to be, or know someone who hopes to be. But, of course, mention the fact that up to a point this is a fashion, and only in the West, and instantly you’re into hate speech territory. Does anyone understand what chromosomes do anymore? Or is that fundamental of biological fact also now hate speech and therefore to be redacted? “What do you want to do when you grow up” has morphed in no time at all into “Who do you think you would like to choose to be now.” It’s all about choice, but only if you are picking from the smorgasbord encouraged by the media. In some circles it is now essential to ask which of several personal pronouns the individual prefers, ‘he’ or ‘she’ no longer covering the vast array of gender identity possibilities. Common sense, the hitherto ordinary, is becoming the rarest of commodities if all you look at is popular media. All this dissatisfaction, all this trying to find yourself, re-invent yourself. It is exhausting. What was it that St Augustine said about restlessness? It is only in Christ we have that peace which we crave.

I know St Thérèse of Lisieux said the world is our ship, not our home. It is a truly comforting thought, but right now the seas are particularly rough and I wouldn’t mind a bit of calm.

Cup of tea, biscuit, and the Song of Bernadette, anyone?

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

FEATURE

Great Catholic Women

Can one be Catholic and Feminist?

Daniel Blackman

Catholic and feminist?

So what does feminism mean, and can one be Catholic and feminist? You’d be hard pressed to find a consensus. All rejected mainstream feminism’s focus on abortion, contraception, and ‘man-hating,’ as several put it. There was also a strong emphasis on respect and male-female complementarity.

Some reject out-right the feminist label, while others opt for a ‘Catholic-friendly’ version.

“Feminism says men and women are equal, but equality doesn’t mean sameness.” says Emily, 23, a graduate working for her mother’s business. “There’s a type of ‘gender feminism’ that’s like a religion with lots of rules, calling out people who disagree.” She recounts how such feminists have a victimhood mentality, and claim patriarchy is bad and everywhere. “If you disagree, they say you’ve internalised your oppression, there’s no impartiality.”

Margaret, 22, is a student in Scotland and attends the Traditional Mass. Growing up in the United States, she attended a liberal school, and was raised in a “matriarchal home by bossy women,” she jokes. “Modern gender theory is doing a lot of harm to women, denying what makes us unique and special,” she adds.

Both Emily and Margaret adhere to a feminism they see as compatible with Catholicism. Emily supports pro-life ‘New Wave feminism’ while Margaret sees feminism as useful for explaining the pro-life position to non-religious people.

However, Chiara, 35, a mother of five, rejects feminism.

“We’ve grown up with the negative effects of feminism, and within Catholic women there’s this feminist element, it’s become the norm. They think like the world does, that they shouldn’t be at home bearing children. They fight against this mentality. They don’t call themselves feminists, but their mentality is,” she says.

Similarly, postgraduate Clara, 23, who works for a pro-life organisation, says, “I’m a Catholic woman and that’s a great privilege. I’m not defined by the feminist paradigm. Great Catholic women existed long before feminism. We need to rediscover the Catholic tradition of strong women like Sts Joan of Arc and Teresa of Avila, and biblical women,” she argues.

© John Aron

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here’s a serious crisis of Catholic masculinity and femininity. Secular trends of long-term singleness, later marriage, and fewer marriages and children are reflected among Catholics, not to mention marital breakdown.

What factors might be responsible?

Cardinal Burke has said, “I think there has been a great confusion with regard to the specific vocation of men in marriage and of men in general in the Church during the past 50 years or so. It’s due to a number of factors, but the radical feminism which has assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalised.

“Unfortunately, the radical feminist movement strongly influenced the Church, leading the Church to constantly address women’s issues at the expense of addressing critical issues important to men.”

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Pope Francis and Cardinal Robert Sarah have strongly criticised modern gender theory as a demonic attack on the family and male-female complementarity. “I wonder if so-called gender theory is an expression of frustration and resignation, which aims to eliminate the sexual difference because it no longer knows how to face it,” said Pope Francis.

I spent several weeks interviewing young Catholic women.

Some single or dating, others married with children. Some were cradle Catholics, others converts. Several attended the Traditional Mass, others the local parish New Rite. My question was, “Are young Catholic women saying ‘no thanks’ to feminism?”

Women at Mass Their experience of the Traditional Mass was mixed.

Margaret began wearing a mantilla, which provided her with a new and deeper understanding of womanhood. “I don’t see it as an act of subjugation, but as something dignified and sacred,” she explains. “We veil sacred things, like the tabernacle, for a special reason. I see wearing the chapel veil in the same way.”

Clara suggests that “[t]here’s an expectation that everyone should be active at Mass. Women are self-sacrificial by nature, offering to do things. If help is needed at Mass, women step forward. We are ready to give a lot of ourselves.”

Finance professional, Nicole, 27, sees women’s contributions to parish life as positive, but like Cardinal Burke, she warns that “[t]he perceived discrimination against women has lead to an overemphasis on women’s roles in the Church.”

Others point out that often it was, and remains, the mother who keeps the faith going in the family and takes the children to Mass, while the father has less involvement.

Their views and lifestyle choices show that some Catholic women are ‘saying no’ to feminism, while others prefer a ‘Catholic friendly’ version. Age and life experience play their part too. This ought to spur men and women in 2016 to keep finding solutions to the current situation. Catholic men and women should want to know and play their part – the Church and the world are counting on us. Regina familiarum, ora pro nobis.

Daniel Blackman is a freelance journalist, writer and photographer.

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BOOK REVIEW

ISSUE 187 - SPRING 2016

Good Education Is No Mere Ideal Eric Hester

The ‘Making of Men’: The Idea and reality of Newman’s university in Oxford and Dublin Paul Shrimpton Gracewing £25 (584 pages, illustrated)

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ime was when those becoming teachers were required to read Newman in order to understand something of the ideal of a liberal education. When I took my Postgraduate Certificate of Education at King’s College, London University, in 1963, parts of The Idea of a University formed a set text along with selections of Plato and Aristotle.

Those days have gone. However, Paul Shrimpton’s outstanding book ought to be in the library of all Catholic schools, and, indeed, of any school or college that thinks ideas and morals are important in education.

New Catholic universities are being established in London and elsewhere. Though these are often just the resurrection or regrouping of colleges that have died, nevertheless they would benefit from studying Newman’s idea of the university – they could do it at the expense of lectures on how to teach sex to threeyear-olds. This fine book is both scholarly and very readable – something not too common among books about ‘education’.

Paul Shrimpton was Oxford educated and is a school master (at a distinguished Oxford school) and not an ‘education’ specialist, and this shows in the book. There is an attention to practicalities often missing from books merely about educational theory.

Most works on Newman mention his The Idea of a University, but merely say that the Catholic university at Dublin was a failure and suggest that Newman had little to do with it. Paul Shrimpton shows that this is not even half the truth. Newman was very much involved not just in the aims and ideals of this university but in the appointment of staff, the arrangements for looking after the students and an amazing amount of detail of administrative and practical, sometimes, mundane and trivial matters. He gave generously of his time even though the travelling was not so easy.

This book clearly, and surprisingly, reveals that Newman, far from being the remote scholar was very practical on all the university’s arrangements with a great attention to detail. As Fr Ian Ker, the great Newman scholar says in his Foreword: “Newman’s letters reveal in great detail his extraordinary administrative and practical abilities, talents not normally associated with academics and thinkers. Paul Shrimpton makes full use of these and other unpublished materials to show how Newman was much more than the author of The Idea of a University.”

One thing the book reveals is how the Catholics of those times, who did not have very much spare money, nonetheless did not

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look to the government to pay their bills. The word ‘government’ itself is not even mentioned in the copious and helpful index of this book: ‘parliament’ is mentioned, but not directly in relation to the Dublin University project. It is clear that not only did the great Victorian Catholics not look to the government to provide funds, but they positively avoided it. Nothing forms a bigger contrast with the situation of today, where in any so-called Catholic university in Britain, the government is expected to provide almost all the cash for the buildings and equipment, to pay the teaching and non-teaching staff and then pay the fees for the students (or at least give loans), as well as give the students a grant for living expenses. But we find, of course, that the government, having paid the piper, will want to call the tune, and a horrific and evil tune it is with all the restrictions on whom may be employed, what might be taught, and what cannot be forbidden or demanded. The Victorians saw the evil of taking money from the state and knew that the state would want control in exchange for its cash – although, as economists point out, it is not the cash of the government but of the people from whom the government takes it. I suggest that any account of the setting up of a university anywhere in Britain would be largely about ‘politics’ and dealing with the behemoth of public control over every detail of life.

How much times have changed can be seen in the book’s references to Newman’s well-known list of the idea of a gentleman: “…the carriage, gait, address, gestures, voice, ease, selfpossession, the courtesy, the power of conversing, the talent of not offending; the lofty principle, the delicacy of thought, the happiness of expression, the taste and propriety, the generosity and forbearance, the candour and consideration, the openness of hand.” It is tempting to smile at this list and say those qualities are no longer respected. I am not so sure: they are the very qualities that make up the virtues of the heroes of the Jane Austen novels, which are still so popular and which are so frequently made into films. What is true is that most universities and schools do not try to impart those qualities, but that is a different matter.

The book gives important historical detail about what happened, but the author – thank goodness – does not convey something merely of antiquarian interest: he shows the relevance of great ideas for today, even though so many administrators choose to ignore them. He answers his own question about what we can learn from Newman’s insistence of the importance of the tutorial system: “Surely it is that personal influence is what gives any system its dynamism: the action of mind on mind, personality on personality, heart on heart – and this is lacking from systems based chiefly on ‘distance learning’. And if acquaintance became friendship, all the better since friendship was the privileged way of doing good to someone.” “[Friendship] requires one to be intimate with a person, to have a chance of doing him good,” as Newman himself once stated.

Eric Hester was headmaster of Catholic schools for 24 years.

In retirement, he led the inspection of independent schools.

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MACKLIN STREET

Looking After The Pennies Stephen Moseling

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he start of a new civil year provides us with the opportunity to look back and reflect on the year passed, and to look forward to the year ahead. Looking back at 2015, our 50th anniversary year, we as a Society have much to give thanks for. We were able, once again, to fulfil a full programme of events, many of which saw record attendances.

A number of regular, and occasional, Sunday and weekday Masses were started in different parts of the country. News and reports of our activities reached a far wider audience than hitherto, due to the doubling in circulation of Mass of Ages and increased coverage in the printed media and on the internet. To crown the year, Christmas 2015 saw 68 Masses in the Extraordinary Form celebrated around the country – the most there has ever been. Deo gratias!

All that has been achieved during the past 50 years is due to the dedication and commitment of the many people who have gone before us – and many who are still with us! Without their tireless effort, the LMS would not be what it is today. But, we must not be complacent. There is still so much more we can do to make the Traditional Mass available to the faithful.

If the work of the LMS is to continue into the next 50 years, we need a solid financial base from which to operate. In the past, a substantial portion of our income has come from legacies, many of these from people who joined the Society in its formative years. We are, of course, extremely grateful to them. However, during recent years we have not been receiving as many as we used to. Writing a Will – as with drawing up our own funeral arrangements – is a very sensible and practical thing to do. Please do consider including a legacy to the LMS in your Will.

One initiative of the 50th anniversary year was the creation of the Anniversary Supporters’ Appeal. This scheme provides a predictable income for the Society for our new and existing projects. Many people responded to this appeal and we continue to call on our supporters to consider making regular donations of a few pounds a month. For details, see our website or call the LMS Office.

If you are a UK tax payer, please, please do consider GiftAiding your annual subscription, and any donation you make to the LMS. For every £1 you give to the LMS, including your annual subscription, if you sign a Gift Aid Declaration (available from the LMS office) we can claim from the Government an additional 25p. It won’t cost you any extra – you have already paid your taxes. If you pay tax at the higher or additional rate, you can claim the difference between the rate you pay and basic rate on your donation. All it takes is your signature on a piece of paper, and your payment to us is worth 25% more. If you have any questions about Gift Aid, please contact Gareth Copping, our Financial Administrator, at the LMS Office. To qualify for Gift Aid, you must pay an amount of UK Income Tax

or Capital Gains Tax at least equal to the tax we reclaim on your donation in the appropriate tax year.

There are two other ways in which members can save us money and time. The first is to pay your annual subscription by Direct Debit, rather than Standing Order or cheque. A Direct Debit is an instruction from you to your bank or building society authorising the LMS to collect your annual subscription from your account on an agreed date – i.e. your renewal date.

You will continue to receive the usual Subscription Renewal notification informing you that your subscription is due but, after that, you need do nothing more about it. Should subscriptions ever increase, we will never increase your payment without first informing you. If you ever cancel your subscription – which he hope you never will! – you instruct your bank to cancel the Direct Debit and no further money can be taken. Again, all this takes is a signature on a piece of paper.

Over the course of a year, we spend a considerable amount of money on postage. Postal charges (like everything else) are due to rise again in March. We have noticed that some members wait until they receive their third reminder before renewing their subscription. This means the cost of notifying them is three times as much as it could be. Added to which, if you renew by cheque, we are charged for the prepaid envelope you use to submit your cheque. A great deal of this expenditure can be dispensed with if, as we are planning, Renewal Notifications are sent to members via email, and you make payment to us by Direct Debit. We are aware that not all members use email; if you do, please ensure we have your email address.

As my grandfather used to say, “Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.”

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To contact the General Manager, Stephen Moseling, please email Stephen@lms.org.uk or telephone the office.

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