Mass of Ages - Spring 2023

Mass of Ages

4 Liturgical calendar

5 Chairman’s Message

There is never a dull moment in the current Pontificate, as Joseph Shaw explains

6 LMS Year Planner – Notable events

7 Supporters of the ancient liturgy

Joseph Shaw introduces two new patrons of the Latin Mass Society, Sir Edward Leigh and John Smeaton

8 Profound and timeless truths

Peter A. Kwasniewski remembers Pope Benedict XVI

10 Obituary

Pride and joy: David Lloyd, 1934-2022

12 Roman report

Diane Montagna looks at a revealing new book by Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein

14 Architecture

Paul Waddington examines an impressive Black Country church

16 Reports from around the country What’s happening where you are

26 Books

Joseph Shaw reviews Victor Stater’s Hoax:ThePopishPlotThatNeverWas

28 Follow that Missal!

Owning and knowing how to use a Missal is a joy, says Jeremy Boot

30 Art and devotion

Caroline Farey looks at the Chichester-Constable chasuble

32 Family matters

We all need to make a special effort to be more specific about our faith, says James Preece

33 World News

Paul Waddington reports from around the Globe

34 Mass listings

40 The Order of the White Rose

Charles A. Coulombe looks at the life of Catholic convert

Bertram Ashburnham

42 Changing hearts and minds

Mary O’Regan on the grandparents of aborted children and the perils of being too special 43 Wine

Sebastian Morello on a wonderful Mediterranean potion

The Holy Face

Alberto Carosa on a powerhouse of holiness and grace

Mallow Street

The Latin Mass Society

9 Mallow Street, London EC1Y 8RQ

Tel: 020 7404 7284

editor@lms.org.uk

Mass of Ages No. 215

Due to the considerable volume of emails and letters received at Mass of Ages it is regrettably not always possible to reply to all correspondents

PATRONS: Sir Adrian Fitzgerald, Bt; Rt Hon. Lord Gill; Sir James Macmillan, CBE; Lord Moore of Etchingham; Prof. Thomas Pink; Sir Edward Leigh MP and Mr John Smeaton.

COMMITTEE: Dr Joseph Shaw – Chairman; Antonia Robinson – Secretary; David Forster –Treasurer; Roger Wemyss Brooks – Vice President; Paul Waddington – Vice President; Alisa Kunitz-Dick; Paul MacKinnon; Nicholas Ross; Alastair Tocher; Neil Addison.

Registered UK Charity No. 248388

MASS OF AGES:

Editor: Tom Quinn

Design: GADS Ltd

Printers: Cambrian

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.

Pope Benedict XVI. © Robin Jerstad/Alamy

© Society of Saint Hugh of Cluny

Liturgical calendar

FEBRUARY

SUN 12 SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY II CL. V

MON 13 FERIA IV CL. V

TUE 14 FERIA IV CL. V

WED 15 FERIA IV CL. V

THU 16 FERIA IV CL. V

FRI 17 FERIA IV CL. V

SAT 18 CELEBRATION OF THE BVM IV CL. W

SUN 19 QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY II CL. V

MON 20 FERIA IV CL. V

TUE 21 FERIA IV CL. V

WED 22 ASH WEDNESDAY I CL. V

THU 23 FERIA III CL. V

FRI 24 ST MATTHIAS AP II CL. R

SAT 25 FERIA III CL. V

SUN 26 1ST SUNDAY IN LENT I CL. V

MON 27 FERIA III CL. V

TUE 28 FERIA III CL. V

MARCH

WED 1 ST DAVID B C I CL. W (WALES ONLY)

EMBER WEDNESDAY OF LENT II CL. V

THU 2 FERIA III CL. V

FRI 3 EMBER FRIDAY OF LENT II CL. V

SAT 4 EMBER SATURDAY OF LENT II CL. V

SUN 5 2ND SUNDAY IN LENT I CL. V

MON 6 FERIA III CL. V

TUE 7 FERIA III CL. V

WED 8 FERIA III CL. V

THU 9 FERIA III CL. V

FRI 10 FERIA III CL. V

SAT 11 FERIA III CL. V

SUN 12 3RD SUNDAY IN LENT I CL. V

MON 13 FERIA III CL. V

TUE 14 FERIA III CL. V

WED 15 FERIA III CL. V

THU 16 FERIA III CL. V

FRI 17 FERIA III CL. V

SAT 18 FERIA III CL. V

SUN 19 4TH SUNDAY IN LENT I CL. V/ROSE

MON 20 ST JOSEPH SPOUSE OF THE BVM C, I CL. W

TUE 21 FERIA III CL. V

WED 22 FERIA III CL. V

THU 23 FERIA III CL. V

FRI 24 FERIA III CL. V

SAT 25 THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE BVM I CL. W

SUN 26 PASSION SUNDAY I CL. V

MON 27 FERIA III CL. V

TUE 28 FERIA III CL. V

WED 29 FERIA III CL. V

THU 30 FERIA III CL. V

FRI 31 FERIA III CL. V

APRIL

SAT 1 FERIA III CL. V

SUN 2 PALM SUNDAY I CL. R

MON 3 MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK I CL. V

TUE 4 TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK I CL. V

WED 5 WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK I CL. V

THU 6 MAUNDY THURSDAY I CL. W

FRI 7 GOOD FRIDAY I CL. B

SAT 8 HOLY SATURDAY I CL. V

SUN 9 EASTER I CL. W

MON 10 EASTER MONDAY I CL. W

TUE 11 EASTER TUESDAY I CL. W

WED 12 EASTER WEDNESDAY I CL. W

THU 13 EASTER THURSDAY I CL. W

FRI 14 EASTER FRIDAY I CL. W

SAT 15 EASTER SATURDAY (SABBATO IN ALBIS) I CL. W

SUN 16 LOW SUNDAY I CL. W

MON 17 FERIA IV CL. W

TUE 18 FERIA IV CL. W

WED 19 FERIA IV CL. W

THU 20 FERIA IV CL. W

FRI 21 ST ANSELM B C D III CL. W

SAT 22 SS SOTER & CAIUS PP MM III CL. R

SUN 23 ST GEORGE M I CL. R (ENGLAND ONLY)

2ND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER II CL. W

MON 24 ST FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN M III CL. R

TUE 25 THE GREATER LITANIES. ST MARK

EVANGELIST II CL. R

WED 26 ST CLETUS & MARCELLINUS PP MM III CL. R

THU 27 ST PETER CANISIUS C D III CL. W

FRI 28 ST PAUL OF THE CROSS C III CL. W

SAT 29 ST PETER M III CL. R

SUN 30 3RD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER II CL. W

MAY

MON 1 ST JOSEPH THE WORKER, SPOUSE OF THE BVM C I CL. W

TUE 2 ST ATHANASIUS B C D III CL. (PRIV.) W

WED 3 FERIA IV CL. W

THU 4 THE HOLY MARTYRS OF ENGLAND AND WALES III CL. R

FRI 5 ST PIUS V P C III CL. (PRIV.) W

SAT 6 CELEBRATION OF THE BVM IV CL. W

SUN 7 4TH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER II CL. W

MON 8 FERIA IV CL. W

TUE 9 ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN B C D III CL. (PRIV.) W

WED 10 ST ANTONINUS B C III CL. W

THU 11 SS PHILIP & JAMES APP II CL. R

FRI 12 SS NEREUS, ACHILLEUS, DOMITILLA V, & PANCRAS MM III CL. R

Knocking on doors

There is never a dull moment in the current Pontificate, as Joseph Shaw explains

Iwrite only a few days after the death of George, Cardinal Pell, which followed swiftly on the heels of the death of Pope Benedict. Of more local interest is the death, which preceded them both, of my predecessor as Chairman of the Latin Mass Society, David Lloyd. Requiescant in pace: they and all those who have died recently.

Pope Benedict’s death has been followed by the publication (so far, in Italian) of the memoirs of his long-term secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, which, as one commentator put it, settle a lot of scores. Cardinal Pell’s death was followed by the revelation that he was the author of a memo, signed ‘Demos’, circulating among the Cardinals, which is also very hardhitting. It is particularly focused on financial mismanagement and failures of legal processes in the Vatican.

Cardinal Pell’s comment on the widespread use of phone tapping in the Vatican inspires my choice of cartoon for this issue. Is the Vatican playing out a cheap Dan Brown plot-line, or are its most senior members paralysed by paranoia? There is never a dull moment in the current Pontificate; it is salutary to remember that the issue of the Traditional Mass plays only a small part in these dramas.

The Latin Mass Society, like other Catholic organisations and apostolates, has to navigate storms over which we have little discernible influence. It is occasionally said that the ancient Mass would be officially tolerated more easily if the Catholics who support it were quieter, or better people, or just different. I think this exaggerates, or at least misunderstands, our importance. What has been essential is that over the decades since the Traditional Mass was supposedly banned in 1970, we have continued to exist, as an identifiable group, still asking for it from priests and bishops, and still knocking on doors in Rome: politely, of course, but willing to be a little tiresome if necessary. This meant that when the psychological moment presented itself for a concession to be made on the ancient Mass—in 1984,

“Careful, careful. This part of the city is chock full of undercover agents.”

From: Cracks in the Curia or, Brother Choleric Rides Again, by Brother Choleric (1972)

1988, or 2007—there were still people to whom it could be made. No future pope is going to liberate the Traditional Mass if demand for it has disappeared. In the meantime, if we irritate some people by our very presence in the Church, as perhaps we do, that’s too bad.

David Lloyd represented the generation of Catholics who knew the traditional Mass when it was just the normal Mass, the generation who had it taken from them. There would be no movement for this liturgy today if that generation had all been happy about the change, or, if unhappy, had decided not to make a fuss about it. We owe an incalculable amount to those who did not let the matter slide: for being a bit awkward, for mentioning that embarrassing thing no one was supposed to mention, for not settling down and

accepting what their betters had decided for them.

David was a fighter and a gentleman, a man of determination and good humour, ready alike for hard work and for the enjoyment of homely pleasures. Please pray for him.

Few of his generation are left today, but what they created, in the Latin Mass Society, lives on. Like the founders of our movement, we are today motivated by a love for the Church, since the ancient liturgy is the noblest monument of the Church’s doctrine and spirituality. Whatever the future may hold in terms of policy towards the older liturgy, its preservation depends on the steadfastness of the Catholics attached to it. While we survive, with God’s help, the Mass we love cannot be erased.

LMS Year Planner – Notable Events

At the time of going to press the following events are planned.

St Tarcisius Server Training Days

Saturday 18 February in S t M ary M oorfields, Eldon S treet, London EC2M 7L S a nd Satur day 22 April in S t Dominic's P riory, So uthampton R oad, London NW5 4L B sta rting at 10.30a m. M en a nd bo ys will be ab le to le arn all r oles f or Low M ass a nd S ung M ass, a nd Hig h Mass if there is demand. There will also be a chance for those attending to be enrolled in the Society of St Tarcisius and be promoted from grade to grade.

Iota Unum Talk

Friday 24 February. The next in o ur series of talk s which focus on topics connected with the everyday life of tr aditionally minded Catho lics, tak es p lace in the basemen t of Our Lad y of the Assum ption & S t Gr egory, Warwick S treet, London. The s peaker will be Dr Ca roline Farey. Door s o pen at 6.30pm f or the talk at 7pm; en trance via Go lden Squa re. Ther e will be a c harge of £5 on the door to cover refreshments and other expenses.

Iota Unum Talk

Friday 24 M arch. The s peaker will be Dr Se bastian M orello ‘ Technocracy and the Process of Un-Personing’.

Iota Unum Talk

Friday 28 April. The speaker will be James Bogle.

St Catherine’s Trust Summer School

Sunday 30 July to Satur day 5 A ugust at S t Cassia n’s, Kin tbury RG17 9SR. See stcatherinestrust.org for details.

Residential Latin and Greek Course

Monday 14 to Satur day 19 A ugust in Pa rk Pl ace Pastor al Cen tre, Fareham PO17 5HA. Book via the LMS website.

Annual Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham

Thursday 24 to S unday 27 A ugust. Pil grims g ather in El y on Thursday in preparation for the start of the walk on Friday morning. They arrive in Walsingham Sunday lunchtime, to be met b y d ay pil grims fr om London. Ther e is a n early bird offer for those wishing to take part in the walking pilgrimage. Full details on the LMS website.

FACTFILE Details of all our events can be found on our website, together with booking and payment facilities where applicable. Go to lms.org.uk

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

Pope Benedict XVI

George Cardinal Pell

Joseph Byllam-Barnes

Margaret Lewis

David Lloyd

Eileen McCarthy

John Owen

Andrea Tindal-Robertson

Frank Venn

Arthur Williamson

Every effort is made to ensure that this list is accurate and up-to-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 3 for contact details.

The LMS relies heavily on legacies to support its income. Please do consider leaving us a legacy in your will.

Supporters of the ancient liturgy

Joseph Shaw introduces two new patrons of the Latin Mass Society, Sir Edward Leigh and John Smeaton

Like many charities, the Latin M ass Society has ‘Patrons’: distinguished individuals who associate themselves with the work of a charity by lending their names, which are often printed on the charity’s headed notepaper. Patrons are not paid, and don’t have fixed responsibilities; instead, they offer their implicit endorsement of an organisation.

In January the Latin Mass Society was able to announce two new Patrons, bringing our total to seven. The new Patrons are the veteran Member of Parliament, Sir Edward Leigh, and the well-known pro-life campaigner John Smeaton, who retired from his longstanding role as Chief Executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) in 2021.

Sir Edward Leigh commented: ‘Through its work preserving and expanding access to the full richness of the Latin liturgy, the Latin Mass Society of Eng land & Wales has proved to be one of the most beneficially influential bodies in the history of the post-conciliar Church.’

He continued:

‘Our work as Catholic MPs here in Parliament has something of a different emphasis but, as the recent public health measures surrounding the coronavirus have shown, we are still occasionally called upon to defend the rights of humble beings to collectively worship God.’

Sir Edward, who has been MP for Gainsborough since 1983, was a Maastricht Treaty rebel in 1993, and has stuck to his principles throughout his Parliamentary career. He illustrates the truth that persistent, principled, and courteous disagreement with the powers that be can in time earn respect. His selfless work from the backbenches has been recognised, not only with a knighthood, but with the award of Officer

of the Légion d’honneur of France, and Commander of the  Order of the Star of Italy: he is fluent in French and Italian, and has worked on bilateral relations with both countries. He has also been a long-standing supporter of the Church’s ancient liturgy, as well as a very public defender of the liberty of the Church and the Natural Law, particularly in relation to the issue of abortion.

Our other new Patron, John Smeaton, has devoted his career to life issues through S PUC, of which he was Chief Executive from 1996 to 2021. He has always understood life issues in a broad sense, and is now involved in a new project, Voice of the Family: readers may have seen its impressive quarterly magazine, Calx Mariae.

Accepting the invitation to be a Patron, Mr Smeaton commented: ‘It is a great privilege to be invited to be asked to become a Patron of the Latin Mass Society whose distinguished service to the Church in England and Wales has so immeasurably benefited the Catholic community, including my family, for almost 60 years.’

In 2013, he received the Cardinal John J O’Connor Pro-Life Award from Legatus, an international organization of Catholic business leaders; and in 2015, he received the first Fr Paul Marx Award from Human Life International.

Sir Edward and Mr Smeaton are among the best-known lay Catholic leaders in their spheres: of Parliament, and the prolife world. They join an already extremely distinguished group of Patrons.

Sir James MacMillan CBE is this country’s best-known com poser, who has combined an international reputation as an exponent of the most modern techniques to a dedication to the patrimony of Catholic liturgical music, promoting Gregorian Cha nt

and writing Mass settings, including one commissioned for the visit of Pope Benedict in 2007.

Lord Moore of Etchingham, better known as Charles Moore, former Editor of The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, and The Spectator, is without doubt the senior British Catholic opinion journalist, a steadfast voice of faith and reason who commands respect across the political spectrum.

Brian, Lord Gill, is a retired Lord President of the Court of Session, that is, the most senior judge of Scotland. He sits on the UK’s Supreme Court’s Supplementary Panel of Judges, and is also the President of Una Voce Scotland. He has been awarded a papal honour, as a Knight of St Gregory.

Professor Thomas Pink, philosopher, recently retired from King’s College London, is one of the most prominent Catholics in British academia, whose work has engaged closely with the Catholic tradition, particularly on religious liberty.

Sir Adrian FitzGerald, the Green Knight of Kerry, has been the Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea in London and the President of the Irish Association of the Order of Malta.

Prince Rupert Löwenstein and Colin Mawby KSG, the composer, were Patrons of the Society until their deaths in 2014 and 2019 respectively.

A quick search of other Catholic organisations suggests few have Patrons or anything like them, although CAFOD has a group of ‘celebrity ambassadors’, most memorably including the TV chef Delia Smith. In a world where the dominant culture is increasingly uncomprehending of the Catholic faith, not to say hostile to it, this seems a pity.

The fact that so many Catholics in public life, known for their fidelity to Catholic teaching and articulate in the Church’s defence, are willing to associate themselves with the cause of the Traditional Mass, shows that our project to preserve it is not a mere eccentricity, but something of central significance to the life of the Church.

John Smeaton

Sir Edward Leigh

Profound and timeless truths Peter A. Kwasniewski remembers Pope Benedict XVI

In my home library of several thousand volumes, only a few authors enjoy the privileged status of occupying several shelves exclusively their own. No one will be surprised to hear that Aristotle and Aquinas are among them; in the music section, Arvo Pärt and G.F. Handel; and for pleasure, P.G. Wodehouse. Joseph Ratzinger belongs to this limited circle of authors whom I regard so highly that I have acquired nearly everything they wrote.

It would be difficult for me to reconstruct at this point the sequence in which I read his works, but for sure it started with  The Ratzinger Report. I remember eagerly awaiting each subsequent sparkling interview—Salt of the Earth, God and the World, Light of the World—much as fiction fans might look forward to the latest release by a favorite novelist. As a professor, I would assign Called to Communion as a text in ecclesiology, and Behold the Pierced One as a text in Christology.

At the International Theological Institute (ITI) in Austria, I enjoyed the privilege of teaching alongside Fr (then Dr) John Saward at the time he was putting the finishing touches to his translation of The Spirit of the Liturgy. Although I had already fallen in love with the classical Roman Rite by experiencing it in its recited and sung forms, it was Ratzinger who first opened my eyes to why I loved it—the theological and spiritual rationale. He made my own mind and heart intelligible to me, gave me the language with which to express what had been an intuition and an attraction.

In discussing The Spirit of the Liturgy with fellow appreciators over the past two decades, especially members of the clergy, I learned that it had had the same powerful effect on many of its readers. At last, we had found a highly literate, sophisticated, rather audacious modern theologian who valued tradition, explained its meaning, rebuked its assailants, and advanced its recovery. That he was the right-hand man of John Paul II and followed him to the Chair of Peter only added to the momentary elation of recovering territory after a series of brutal losses.

Rejoicing there was, and plenty of it, in the small town of Gaming on that day in April of 2005, when the faculty and students of the ITI learned that Ratzinger had been elected Pope. We heard the bells of the town church start ringing like nobody’s business and we knew something was up. My wife and I took a short walk downtown to the apartment of some friends who had a TV, and they shouted to us from their upper-storey window: “It’s Ratzinger! Raaaatziiiingerrrrrr!” The rest of the day and week was passed in a sort of stupor, as the magnitude of the event sank in.

We have seen a steady stream of commentators in recent weeks attempting to pinpoint Benedict XVI’s “greatest work” or “lasting legacy”. When it comes to such a versatile and influential figure, it will not be easy to do that; rarely has anyone

in the last hundred years spoken with as commanding a breadth and depth of knowledge as Ratzinger possessed, or with comparable rhetorical finesse Besides, we are not as well-positioned to make such judgments as men will be twentyfive, fifty, or a hundred years hence Nevertheless, for me two moments stand out as permanent points of reference. The first was the inaugural homily when Benedict took possession of his episcopal chair at the Cathedral of St John Lateran on 7 May 2005. Here is the key excerpt that should be framed in letters of gold:

“The power that Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors is, in an absolute sense, a mandate to serve. The power of teaching in the Church involves a commitment to the service of obedience to the faith. The Pope is not an absolute

© Wikipedia Commons

monarch whose thoughts and desires are law. On the contrary: the Pope’s ministry is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and to his Word. He must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God’s Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every form of opportunism….

“The Pope knows that in his important decisions, he is bound to the great community of faith of all times, to the binding interpretations that have developed throughout the Church’s pilgrimage. Thus, his power is not being above, but at the service of, the Word of God. It is incumbent upon him to ensure that this Word continues to be present in its greatness and to resound in its purity, so that it is not torn to pieces by continuous changes in usage.”

The second key moment was, of course, the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum just over two years later— and in the teeth of ferocious resistance. We can size up the magnitude of that resistance when we recall that the same conclusions had been reached twenty years earlier, in 1986, by a commission of cardinals appointed by John Paul II, but no action was then taken. Yet here was a Pope—a Pope!—giving voice to the fundamental principle of traditionalism: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place” (Con Grande Fiducia, the letter that accompanied the motu proprio).

Moreover, he acknowledged the feelings that so many of the younger generation had: “In the meantime [since the reform] it has clearly been demonstrated that young persons too have discovered this liturgical form [of the usus antiquior], felt its at traction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, pa rticularly suited to them.” Finally, a Pope who recognized our existence! This “sacred a nd great principle,” as I call it, is no mere timebound prudential evaluation, subject to an unceremonious reversal under the next regime. Rather, it en unciates a perennial principle, a truth that flows from the nature of the Catholic Faith in its approved and received historical embodimen t, the fruit of Divine Providence.

Respect for the dead does not exclude a rigorous honesty. There were frustrating traits in Ratzinger’s writings and behavior, which, I think, could be summed up as a dialectical tendency, inherited from German philosophy, to bestow with one hand and to take away with the other. The Old Rite should be freely available… but there is nothing really wrong with the New Rite. The traditionalists should be respected… but they also must find their way to embrace the nouvelle théologie’s agenda. Hell really exists… but probably only for the likes of Hitler and Stalin. Ratzinger’s theology contains irreconcilable elements, commitments that clash like dissonant notes. Perhaps we might say that his heart was more traditional than his mind, and that, when he allowed himself sentire cum ecclesia—to think, feel, and perceive with the Church of all ages—he was capable of uttering profound and timeless truths that startled like exploding bombs in the midst of the false peace of the post-conciliar Church. These truths, liberated from their dialectical confines, will guide the recovery and reestablishment of tradition for decades, nay, centuries to come.

Put briefly: Ratzinger can awaken us to the theological weight of the question of continuity; but once one sees for

oneself the magnitude of rupture that has occurred, one can no longer play along with the “hermeneutic of continuity” or the “reform of the reform.” In short, as with so many other great figures and thinkers in history, Ratzinger has initiated a process that surpasses its founding insights and motivations. Better said, he nourished an already existing movement that benefited from the theological heft and official encouragement he offered it.

The most lasting legacy of Benedict XVI is to have helped mightily in clearing the way for a return of traditional Catholicism—regardless of his own complicated and conflicted relationship to it; regardless of our current weariness and woes under the anti-Ratzinger who succeeded him. Without him, I am quite confident that in far more places we would still be stuck spinning our wheels in the crooning guitar Mass paradigm that has emptied churches everywhere. He mainstreamed the concerns that only the maligned “Lefebvrists” had hitherto dared to speak and act upon.

Should we be disappointed that he never celebrated the traditional Roman Rite as Pope? That he abdicated his office at a time when the prospect of a reversal of his efforts was a real and present danger? That he did not protest his successor’s numerous deviations but allowed himself to be co-opted as acquiescent? Yes, I believe we should be All the same, the honorable thing for us to do at the present time is to pray God to glorify his soul and to acknowledge with humble gratitude the enormous blessings we have received through his teaching and example, contrary to all human probabilities. For there is no question that the traditional movement experienced its greatest growth under the benign fourteen-year reign of the policies of Summorum Pontificum. The gentle scholar-Pope sparked a “new liturgical movement,” a work of rediscovery and restoration, which even his worst enemies cannot reverse, however much they throw obstacles in its path.

While I too have written lines in criticism of this or that aspect of Ratzinger’s doctrine and governance, I have written vastly more in praise of what he has bestowed on me, on us, on the Church. I would not be a traditionalist writer and speaker today but for him and the inspiration of his liturgical theology. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the gift of this man’s life and work. We beg You to give us the grace to assimilate all that is good in it and to build upon it wisely.

‘Rarely has anyone in the last hundred years spoken with as commanding a breadth and depth of knowledge as Ratzinger possessed, or with comparable rhetorical finesse’

© Wikipedia Commons

Pride and joy: David Lloyd, 1934-2022

David Lloyd became Secretary of the Latin Mass Society in 1996, and in March 2000 became Chairman, succeeding the long-serving Christopher Inman. He retired as Chairman, at his own request, in September 2003. He continued to be active on the Committee for some years after that, and indeed was an Honorary Officer of the Committee at the time of his death.

As Secretary he edited the Society’s quarterly Newsletter, travelling into the Society’s Office in Macklin Street to do so. It was in his time as Chairman that the Society first took on a paid employee to edit the Newsletter, which was renamed MassofAgesfor the occasion in May 2003. The editor, John Medlin, later combined the editor role with being the Society’s first General Manager, from 2005.

It was as Secretary that David helped to organise, and then to deliver, a massive and beautifully presented international petition seeking greater freedom for the Traditional Mass, in 1997. As recounted in Leo Darroch’s book, Una Voce, this was delivered by hand to the Prefect of the Papal Household. Despite this, the then President of the Una Voce Federation, Michael Davies, was never able to get official confirmation that it had been passed on to Pope John Paul II.

David married Elizabeth (Betty) on 11 February 1961; she died on 3 January 2020. He is survived by three children—Sian, Nicola, and Peter—five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

David Lloyd, 17/11/1934 to 3/12/2023: requiescat in pace.

Below is a lightly edited version of the eulogy, composed by David’s son Peter, delivered at his funeral.

It’s difficult to distil 88 years of life into the few moments here. We’ve been told he was an inspiration, a mentor, a lovely man.

We thank the Bishop for granting Dad’s wish for his Funeral Mass to be in the Tridentine Rite. Sustaining the Latin Mass was a passion in Dad’s life. Particularly after he retired in 1992, he devoted a truly staggering amount

of time, energy and paper to its cause, travelling extensively in the UK and to Rome.

Of course, these weren’t solely liturgical experiences. He took little persuasion to recover from his strenuous efforts of meetings, singing practice or Mass, with a different form of worship. Few pubs near the Society’s head office or in north Wales, the Wirral. Cheshire and Shropshire escaped his call, especially with Campaign For Real Ale and fellow LMS member Gordon Catherwood in tow

Born in Rhyl in 1934, Dad grew up Holywell, the first son of Sydney and Monica Lloyd. The Lloyds were of Albert House, a drapers.

David was the eldest of three and by his account at least the better behaved of the two brothers, Bob being more mischievous. He was a staunch source of support and counsel to his younger sister, Jennifer.

When his father passed away, Dad left Belmont Abbey School in Hereford

where he was a boarder and returned to 21 Halkyn Street, Holywell, which Mum and Dad bought from our grandmother in the early 1960s. It remained his home for the next 60 years. In the last 12 months people have asked Dad, ‘How long have you lived here?’ to receive his typically curt ‘all my life’ in response, as if the question was impertinent.

He has described a fairly uneventful National Service in the RAF. Yet he took part in Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation, spent time disposing of mustard gas in the Irish Sea, and not heading to Suez. He worked as a rep. for Keillers, living in Cheltenham before and briefly after marrying Mum, then joined the National Provincial Bank in Chester and then the Nat West in Flint and Holywell.

No 21 Halkyn Street will be remembered as a place where Dad indulged his other passions. If he had a motto, it must surely be, ‘If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well’. He cooked, he gardened, he learned (badly, to be fair) French, and, always partial to a drink, he brewed things.

But he didn’t just brew it did he? He collected things from the gardens of Basingwerk House, filled the kitchen (and airing cupboard) with buckets and bottles and demijohns and the house with aromas of yeast, malt, hops, barley and sterilizing powders. He experimented with ways to bottle it, storing it in cupboards, racks, under the stairs and in crates in the shed.

He didn’t just make it, he studied it in guides, magazines, books and atlases. He drove through the gates of Bordeaux Chateaux or Alsace mansions where the public were, shall we say, generally discouraged. No problem, he invariably came out with a case.

He delighted in how cheap it was in France or Spain, and was convinced the shopkeepers of Italy were selling knockoff whisky at those prices. That simply encouraged him.

If he arranged manure for the garden it was truckloads, in mountain sized piles on the road, stopping traffic, typically (for him) on a Good Friday, when half of

David Lloyd: ‘He was meticulous in his preparation for the Holywell Pilgrimage…’

Holywell was heading to the funfair in one direction, the rest trying to escape the A55 traffic heading into north Wales in the other. Absolute chaos.

He didn’t just put the manure on the garden: he had first completely removed all the top and subsoil, down to about three feet, a convoy of barrows shifting the tonnes of waste to the council tip just up the road. He brought in new topsoil and hand riddled it to remove stones and waste.

That created his garden, which was his absolute pride and joy. As children it fed us apples, potatoes, carrots, peas, tomatoes, runner beans and blackcurrants. In retirement it evolved into a truly spectacular flower garden with striped lawn. We weren’t allowed to walk on it – though he began to relent for the grandchildren. In the front garden there were magnificent displays of spring daffs and tulips, summer baskets of fuchsias, geranium and begonia. He nurtured, watered, deadheaded, composted, filled windowsills with cuttings and seedlings and kept hairy bulbs in the airing cupboard over winter. He timed periods when he was away (only ever short), ensuring neighbours or family watered it when he was on holiday. In later years he solved that problem with an irrigation system.

He cooked, very well it has to be said: few people make their own consommé for lunch, or ice cream dessert. He bought strawberries from fruit farms, made custard and perfected it. It really was wonderful ice cream.

I’ll pose this one as a question rather than a statement. Was he sartorial? He will be remembered for the occasionally jaunty hat on a narrowboat, for blazers, socks, shirts, bright yellow trousers, and who could forget those crimson Gieves &

Hawkes slacks in Spain in 1987? Perhaps he was colourblind.

When Mum died, he bought himself a bright red carpet and bedding for his room. Just because he’d always wanted one, and Mum hadn’t let him.

And so to the last few years. Dad missed Mum terribly and few could have imagined that, just a few short weeks after her passing, he, like so many, would find himself in No. 21 waiting for the pandemic to end, on his own. Afterwards, he travelled between the family, and with increasing support, remained independent until late summer. Sharp as a pin when he wanted to be, he grasped the word “holiday” during a meal with him the weekend before he passed away.

He said: ‘Don’t forget to leave some room in the car for me.’

Kevin Jones, the LMS’s long-standing Representative for Wrexham, who succeeded David in that role, writes:

‘I wished I’d known  David for a long time before I got really acquainted with him. Indeed, when I first met him, I was quite terrified of his nononsense approach to discipline in the schola he directed! It was of course a case of his bark being a lot worse than his bite, as I later learned. He was a gentleman and just said it how it was, always with manners and always with one objective: the glorification of God to the best of our capabilities.

‘He was meticulous in his preparation for the Holywell Pilgrimage, having me and Andrew Nielson at the church to prepare it from 10.30am, for a Mass not beginning until 2pm. We would spend ages aligning the Altar Crucifix with the centre of the Altar and the wall-mounted crucifix above the Tabernacle. David would stand in the aisle – “left a bit”, “right a bit,” “No, you are not listening”, he would say. Of course, we would never be able to get it centred because the forward Altar wasn’t centred to the Tabernacle, as he later revealed!'

A Sung Requiem Mass will be celebrated for David Lloyd at 6.30pm, Monday 13th February inCorpus Christi, Maiden Lane, in London.The Society hopes to organise another in SS Peter & Paul & St Philomena in the Wirral: to be confirmed.

David (right): ‘Sustaining the Latin Mass was a passion…’

David and friends…

Preserving the deep and unbroken link

Diane Montagna looks at a revealing new book by Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary, has r evealed i n a new book the extent of Benedict’s opposition to Traditionis Custodes and its restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass.

In the book—titled Nothing but the Truth: My Life by Benedict XVI’s Side and released shortly after Benedict’s death—Archbishop Gänswein reveals that the P ope Emeritus only discovered that Pope Francis had released the motu proprio T raditionis Custodes (T C) on July 16, 2021, b y, “leafing through the afternoon edition of L’Osservatore Romano”.

This contradicts media reports that Pope Francis, “likely either consulted with or at least gave advance copies of the document to retired Pope Benedict”.

Archbishop Gänswein says that when he asked Benedict for his opinion on TC, the Pope Emeritus, “reiterated that the reigning Pontiff is responsible for decisions like this” but said that, “on a personal level, he saw a definite change of course and considered it a mistake, as it jeopardized the attempt at pacification” he had made fourteen years earlier with Summorum Pontificum.

“Benedict in particular felt it was wrong to prohibit the celebration of Mass in the ancient rite in parish churches,” he explains, “as it is always dangerous to put a group of faithful in a corner, thus making them feel persecuted and inspiring in them the feeling of having to safeguard their own identity at all costs in the face of the ‘enemy’.”

A remark Pope Francis made to fellow Jesuits during a trip to Bratislava in September 2021—asser ting that his “decision to stop the automatism of the ancient rite” was going to usher in a “return to the true intentions of Benedict XVI and John Paul II”—left the Pope Emeritus with a “furrowed brow,” Gänswein notes.

“Even less appreciated,” he continues, was an anecdote Pope Francis recounted immediately afterwards about a cardinal

who admonished two newly ordained priests who had asked to study Latin in order to celebrate the sacred liturgy well. Francis praised the cardinal for “making them return to earth” by telling them he’d let them learn Latin once they’d mastered Spanish and Vietnamese.

Gänswein explains that, “as an expert on Vatican II, Benedict well remembered how the Council had insisted that, ‘particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites’ (Sacrosanctum Concilium 36) and that all seminarians should acquire ‘a knowledge of Latin which will enable them to understand and make use of the sources of so many sciences and of the documents of the Church.’ (Optatam totius 13). Not for nothing, he had noted in the motu proprio Latina lingua, ‘precisely in order to highlight the Church’s universal character, the liturgical books of the Roman Rite, the most important documents of the Papal Magisterium and the most solemn official Acts of the Roman Pontiffs are written in this language in their authentic form’.”

“With  Summorum Pontificum [Benedict] wanted to make it easier for

a priest to celebrate with the ancient rite,” Gänswein insists, adding that, “his only motivation was the desire to repair the great wound that had gradually been created, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.”

In the book, co-authored with Italian journalist Saverio Gaeta, Gänswein also stresses that Summorum Pontificum was not, “an operation carried out c landestinely” ( unlike Traditionis Custodes) and that Benedict, “regularly asked the bishops during ad limina visits how the application of that legislation was progressing in their dioceses, always getting a positive feeling from it.

“That is why to Pope Ratzinger that reference [by Francis] to his ‘true intentions’ seemed incongru ous,” Benedict’s longtime personal secretary writes. “As we read in  Light of the World, he had wanted, ‘to make the ancient form more easily accessible above all in order to preserve the deep and unbroken link that exists in the history of the Church. We cannot say: it was all wrong before, but now it is all right. Indeed, in a community in which prayer and the Eucharist are the most important things, what used to be considered the most sacred thing cannot be considered entirely wrong. It was about reconciliation with one’s past, about the internal continuity of faith and prayer in the Church’.”

Archbishop Gänswein concludes the section on Traditionis Custodes by noting that, “it also remained mysterious to Benedict why the results of the consultation of the bishops carried out by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which would have allowed a more precise understanding of every implication of Pope Francis’s decision, were not disclosed”.

Perhaps the results were not disclosed because (as this journalist has reported extensively since October 2021) they showed that the bishops, on the whole, wished to stay the course with a careful and prudent application of Summorum Pontificum

St Mary on the Hill

Paul Waddington examines an impressive Black Country church

All photographs from the parish website and used by kind permission

Until the opening of the Birmingham Ca nal in 1772, Wednesbury was a very small place, altho ugh the local de posits of ir on or e, coal a nd c lay had enab led the nascen t ind ustries of coal mining, nail making and pottery to develop. With im proved access to tr ansport, these ind ustries prospered causing a h uge incr ease in the po pulation, inc luding many Catholics. Until the opening of a small chapel in Wednesbury in 1850, these Catho lics had to tr avel to Bilston or Walsall to attend Mass.

The current Church of St Mary on the Hill in Wednesbury, which o pened in 1874, owes its existence to one S tuart Eyre Bathurst. He was the eldest son of Gener al Sir James Bath urst, a n aide de ca mp to the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsula War. His mother was Ca roline S tuart, d aughter of the f irst Earl of Castle Stuart who owned lands in Ireland. The young Stuart Bathurst was educated at Winchester School a nd Christ Ch urch, Oxf ord. Coming fr om su ch a bac kground, it is no t at all surprising that in 1842 he would be ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England. He was appointed Rector of the parish of Kibworth in Leicestershire where he quickly earned a reputation as an energetic and effective minister.

During his time at Kibworth, Bath urst was much influenced by the Oxford Movement. John Henry Newman’s conversion in 1845 started him on the r oad to Catho licism, a nd f ollowing the Gorma n con troversy, he converted in 1850. He w as baptised by Newman and joined the Oratorian comm unity, which at that time was based in Alcester Street in Birmingham. However, Bath urst did not stay long with the Oratorians. Instead, he stu died f or the priesthood at Oscott College and was ordained for the Diocese of Birmingham in 1854.

Beautifullylitinwinter:thespireisthemostrecognisablefeatureofthechurch

Dilapidated and dangerous

After ser ving as a curate at Stone and Cheadle in Staffordshire, he was, in 1871, appointed Parish Priest of St Mary’s in Wednesbury. He found that the modest chapel that had been built in 1852 was “dilapidated and dangerous”. He also found that the school buildings were inadequate and not compliant with the standards required by the Education Act of 1870. Father Bathurst immediate ly initiated a massive building pr ogramme, com pleting two new schools before turning his attention to a replacement church. It is believed that Father Bathurst personally contributed as much as £10,000 towards the cost of these three projects.

To design the church, he engaged Gilber t Blount, one of the leading Catholic architects of the time. Blount had been educated at Downside before embarking on a career as a civil engineer. He worked alongside Isambard

Kingdom Brunel on the construction of the Thames Tunnel, becoming the Superintendent of Construction in 1841. Later he decided to train as an architect, and in 1849 became architectural advisor to Cardinal Wiseman. He designed numerous Catholic churches, mostly in the Decorated Gothic style. Among his most impressive churches are St Peter’s in Gloucester and St Mary Magdalen in Brighton. St Mary on the Hill in Wednesbury was one of his last works.

The old chapel was demolished in 1872 to make way for the new church. The foundation stone was laid in 1873, and the church was sufficiently advanced to be opened for public worship on 22 September 1874, with a Mass offered by Bernard Uller thorne OSB, the Bishop of Birmingham. The sermon was preached by Cardinal Manning.

Pyramidal spire

The Church of St Mary on the Hill, along with the nearby Anglican church, occupy high ground, and are prominent features of the Wednesbury landscape. They can be seen clearly from the M6 motorway. The Catholic church is built from red brick, with string courses in black brick. It consists of a five bay nave extending into a polygonal sanctuary, under a common roof line. There are side aisles and, at the north-west corner, a tower with an open bell chamber beneath a copper-covered pyramidal spire.

It is this spire that is the most recognisable feature of the church.

The church is given height, as well as plenty of light, by a clerestory formed of three light windows of plain glass above each bay. Side aisles, which terminate in side chapels, have two light windows filled with stained glass. The sanctuary has tall two-light lancet windows with stained glass and elaborate tracery. These extend upwards to form projecting gables in the style often used by Edward Pugin.

The columns of the arcades, which are slender and octagonal, support double chamfered arches. At the west end, a sixth bay houses a narthex with organ and choir loft above. There are four lancet windows with stained glass arranged in the west wall. Over the nave, the roof is supported by arch-braced timber rafters, but above the sanctuary, the ceiling is formed of plaster ribbed vaults.

In common with so many Catholic churches, a lot of damage was done in the 1970s, supposedly in compliance with Vatican II liturgical reforms.

The stencilling that covered the walls throughout the church was over-painted in a particularly offensive orange colour. A carpet in another shade of orange was laid over the sanctuary floor, the communion rail was removed, and a forward altar installed.

Kneeling for Communion

Whilst Fr Peter Madden (a former Oratorian priest) was in charge of the parish in the early twenty-first century, much of this damage was reversed. The orange paint was replaced by a light coloured one, restoring some brightness to the church. The carpet was pulled up from the sanctuary floor, revealing the original Minton tiles and communion rails were reinstated. This was well received because the custom of kneeling for communion had apparently persisted in the parish. Regrettably the stencilling has not been restored, and this remains a great loss, especially in the sanctuary and side chapels.

The church is fortunate to retain many of its original features. The high altar, with its carved stone frontal and red marble shafts, stands before a tall stone reredos. This features a central tabernacle flanked by kneeling angels, with monstrance throne above. Niches at the extremities house statues of Our Lady and St Joseph. The two side altars are also survivors of Blount’s original design.

One thing that has not survived is the very fine presbytery that once stood next to the church. The four-storey building which incorporated its own little tower was fairly eccentric in design, and presumably not considered suitable for modern use.

The Church of St Mary on the Hill is Grade II listed, and the current parish priest, Fr Paul Lester, offers a Latin Mass every Sunday at 11.30am.

StMary’s:thealtar

The interior

DIOCESAN DIGEST

Mass of Ages quarterly round-up

Arundel & Brighton

Huw Davies

aandb@lms.org.uk

07954 253284

As ever, there is no shortage of news for me to report on this quarter from the diocese. The Society was saddened to hear of the deaths of two long-standing supporters of the traditional form of the Mass in recent months. Jennifer Newton’s funeral rites were observed at St Pancras in Lewes, followed by burial at Ripe, in September. Her love of the Tridentine Rite, which she had known from her childhood, meant a great deal to her, as indeed it did to her husband, Christopher, and her family. Jennifer was raised at Bosworth Hall in Leicestershire, a place with many deep Catholic connections running back centuries, and was proud of her Recusant ancestry. She and Christopher also lived for a time at Everingham Park in Yorkshire, which has its own links to England’s rich Catholic history. May she rest in peace (my thanks to Christopher’s obituary from the Requiem order of service for its contribution to this report).

In November, the Requiem Mass of Lionel Gracey, another well-known and loved local devotee of the Tridentine liturgy, was celebrated at Sacred Heart in Sunningdale. Members will have to help in informing me of the last time the Traditional Form of the Mass was celebrated here, but it is thought to have been many years ago. May the Lord also grant him eternal rest.

November being the month of Holy Souls, there were multiple other Masses for the Dead, with additional All Souls Day Masses at Sacred Heart in Caterham, St Edward the Confessor near Guildford and at Lewes, plus the annual Remembrance Sunday Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation and St Francis in West Grinstead. The start of Advent was also marked here by a Sung Mass celebrated by Fr Bruno Witchalls; the next at West Grinstead will be at 3 o’clock on the first Sunday of Lent.

Christmas Day was celebrated with an additional Mass of the Dawn at St Barnabas in Molesey, plus the regular Sunday Mass at Lewes. The Christmas Octave brought additional joy at St Edward the Confessor’s with the Holy Baptism of baby Cecilia, whose parents were regular attendees at the Masses celebrated in Knaphill until it ceased in the autumn. The celebration was somewhat of a “St Hugh’s reunion”, with many former Knaphill attendees in attendance, and it was a joy to see Fr Gerard Hatton, who was visiting his home diocese on a short break from his new apostolate in Scotland.

Birmingham & Black Country

Louis Maciel 07392 232225

birmingham@lms.org.uk

birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk/

Rorate Masses took place during Advent at the Oratory on Saturdays at 7.30 am, replacing the usual 9am Low Mass, and at 7 am on Tuesdays at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Wolverhampton. For Christmas, the Oratory celebrated High Mass at Midnight and at 10.30am as usual on Sunday, with additional Masses at 8am at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and a Sung Mass at 9pm on Christmas Eve at St Mary-on-the-Hill in Wednesbury. (For more on St Mary-on-the-Hill see pages 14-15 of this issue.)

High Mass at the Oratory and Low Mass at St Mary-on-the-Hill were celebrated for the Immaculate Conception and Epiphany, with the usual first Friday Mass at Sacred Heart and All Souls in Acocks Green. Friday Mass at Wolverhampton was cancelled on the Epiphany so that Novus Ordo Masses could be celebrated for the restored Holy Day of Obligation. Some of the first Friday Masses in this quarter have also been celebrated in the New Rite at Acocks Green due to the unavailability of the priest, and at St Dunstan’s in November due to the unavailability of a server.

At the time of writing, the Oratory is planning to celebrate a Requiem Mass for Pope Benedict on a Saturday in January, and a High Mass for Candlemas.

Birmingham (North Staffs.)

Alan Frost north-staffs-lms.blogspot.com

In November two special Masses were celebrated by the PP, Fr Paul Chavasse, at Our Lady’s, Swynnerton. On All Saints Day there was a Missa Cantata, followed on 5 November by a Low Mass offered for the Holy Relics, a Feast Day held in only some of the dioceses of England and Wales. An expanded schola provided the singing for a second Missa Cantata that week for the Feast of the Holy Souls celebrated by Fr Stefek at St Augustine’s (Meir) Stoke-on-Trent.

A little later a rare event at Meir was witnessed with the celebration of a Solemn High Mass, courtesy of Fr Chavasse from Our Lady’s, Swynnerton, and Fr Goodman from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Wolverhampton, joining Fr Stefak. Fr Chavasse also celebrated the end of the year (10 am on 31 December) with a very well attended Low Mass, a Saturday morning event celebrated fortnightly. Into the New year he celebrated an evening Mass for the Epiphany.

Birmingham: Oxford Joseph Shaw oxford@lms.org.uk

We have been blessed to have two Midnight Masses last Christmas, one anticipated at 6pm (SS Gregory and Augustine's) and one at Midnight itself (Holy Rood in the Abingdon Road).

Sunday Masses continue in the Oratory and Holy Rood, as do feast day Masses. Important feast day Masses are often  accompanied with polyphony thanks to our local singers Thomas Neal and Dominic Bevan, in SS Gregory & Augustine's; it is good to see these Masses increasingly well attended.

Please look out for all these in the Mass listings.

Birmingham (Worcestershire)

Alastair J Tocher

01684 893332

malvern@lms.org.uk extraordinarymalvern.uk Facebook:  Extraordinary Malvern

There is little news to report this quarter:  the regular Masses across Worcestershire – Sung Masses at St Ambrose, Kidderminster on first Sundays, and Low Masses at Our Lady

of Mount Carmel, Redditch on first Fridays and at  Immaculate Conception & St Egwin, Evesham on Tuesday evenings at 6.30pm continue largely as normal.  The only significant change is that the Sunday afternoon Masses at St Ambrose, Kidderminster are now at the later time of 6pm.

Our thanks as ever to all our local priests – Fr Douglas Lamb, Fr Jason Mahoney, and Fr Christopher Draycott – who make the extra effort to celebrate these Masses for us and who support us in so many other ways; also to Archbishop Bernard Longley who generously grants permission for these Masses.   Please remember them all in your prayers.

Brentwood (East)

Alan Gardner

alanmdgardner@gmail.com

Laus Deo, we are seeing signs of recovery around the diocese! Following the departure of the Norbertines we had suffered a dearth of Masses in Chelmsford. However, following some very hard work from clergy and laity alike, the Chapel at St Philip’s Priory has had a facelift, with some very generous loans of material from various places. All TLM Masses at Chelmsford from now on will be at St Philip’s Priory Chapel, 178 New London Road, CM2 0AR, (normally First Fridays 7.30 pm, second Sundays 12.30 pm).

November saw a good number of Requiems in various places, including a Sung Requiem at Leigh, where we were blessed with the support of a number of young men who travelled considerable distances to support a nine-strong Schola, enabling a robust ‘Dies Irae’ and a beautifully-ethereal ‘In Paradisum’; thank you, Jack Reason, Robert Sławik, Niall and Rory Windass –your help was much appreciated!

Christmas also saw a number of Sung and Low Masses around the diocese, and the New Year was seen in by various Masses, including a Missa Cantata at Leigh.

Whilst just over the border, we are also blessed with the great work of Fr Henry at Withermarsh Green, with Low Masses every Sunday, plus a Missa Cantata on the last Sunday (whether 4th or 5th) of every month

Advance notice – please note that, as Saturday 6  May is Coronation Day, the Mass at Kelvedon will be transferred to the following Saturday: 13  May; thank you Monsignor Gordon. Indeed we remain grateful to  all our priests: working hard to co-ordinate and encourage provision around the diocese, going the extra mile in saying TLM in their own and other parishes; allowing TLM in their own parish despite not being able to say the Latin Mass themselves.

As always, a reminder that this is a large region undergoing much fluctuation, so do please keep me informed about developments in your local area so that I can circulate details. If you are not currently on my local email (bcc!) circulation list (you should be receiving something from me at reasonably regular intervals), do please feel free to get in touch.

Cardiff (Ledbury)

Alastair J Tocher

01684 893332

malvern@lms.org.uk

extraordinarymalvern.uk

Facebook:  Extraordinary Malvern

Sunday Low Masses continued as previously throughout the latter half of 2022 at Most Holy Trinity, Ledbury.   June last year however saw the installation of Mark O’Toole – formerly Bishop of Plymouth

as the eighth Archbishop of Cardiff.   Archbishop O’Toole visited Ledbury at the end of September as part of a schedule of visits to meet all his new parish priests and to acquaint himself with his many parishes. Following discussions with parish priest Fr Adrian Wiltshire, and with

the full support of the Parish Advisory Group, Archbishop O’Toole kindly authorised returning the Sunday Low Masses to the earlier time of 11.30am beginning from the 1st Sunday of Advent.   We are very grateful for this adjustment which is welcomed not just by families with young children;  and we have since welcomed a few new adults and families who seem to have begun attending the Low Masses here regularly.

Please r emember Ar chbishop Mark O’ Toole, Fr Adrian Wiltshire, a nd all those at tending Most Holy Trinity in your prayers.

East Anglia (Walsingham)

Tom FitzPatrick

07803 166293

We continue to have our regular Low Mass at 9am every second Saturday of the month at the Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady. Numbers average in the mid-fifties, with a good cross-section across all the age ranges. Many people living locally travel fair distances to attend Sunday Mass at Withermarsh Green, Sheringham and Norwich, as well as the mid-week Low Mass at Downham Market.

Bishop Peter was installed as our new Bishop of East Anglia in December to succeed Bishop Alan, who has our gratitude for instituting our monthly Mass. Mgr Moger, the current Rector at the Shrine will  be leaving at the end of February as he has been appointed Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Southwark and has both our prayers for his new role and thanks for facilitating our Traditional Masses.

The earnest hope for many of us continues to be that we may be blessed with a weekly Traditional Mass here in Walsingham which will fulfil the Sunday Obligation. We now await the appointment of the new Rector of the National Shrine and pray that he will be sympathetic to our spiritual needs.

East Anglia (West)

Alisa and Gregor Dick

01954 780912

cambridge@lms.org.uk

Sunday Masses at Blackfriars continue as normal. Fr Nicholas Crowe OP was elected Prior in November; we encourage readers to keep him and his brethren in their prayers.

With the return of students to Cambridge after Christmas, more frequent Sung Masses will resume, and the schedule for these will be posted on the noticeboard at the entrance to the Priory. New singers and servers are always welcome.

East Anglia (Withermarsh Green)

Sarah Ward 07522 289449 withermarshgreen@lms.org.uk

Since the last edition, Bishop Alan Hopes has retired and been succeeded by Bishop Peter Collins. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Bishop Hopes for his generosity in establishing the Chaplaincy at Withermarsh Green and for his pastoral support. We would also like to welcome Bishop Collins and look forward to meeting him in the future.

Daily Masses in the old rite continue, with two Masses on Sundays and a monthly Sung Mass on the last Sunday of the month. The “Friends of Withermarsh Green Latin Mass Chaplaincy” charity continues to offer teas and coffees after the 11am Sunday Mass.

A reminder to visitors that in wet weather the parking area can become very muddy indeed and you may wish to park a little way up the lane and walk down to the chapel.

Hexham & Newcastle

Keith McAllister

01325 308968/07966 235329

k_c@ymail.com

We have enjoyed an active season of Ancient Rite liturgies as on scheduled listings, with additional Masses for All Saints and All Souls at Gateshead, Coxhoe and Thornley. Weekday Advent Low Masses were celebrated at Thornley, as a new feature, thanks to Fr Paul Tully.

Clergy and lay Catholics were dismayed, even shocked, to hear of the resignation of our Bishop, Robert Byrne in December after less than 4 years tenure; the exit having already been agreed by the Vatican. Bishop Byrne had supported Traditional Latin practice in the diocese from his arrival and we are grateful for this, including his direct involvement in such liturgies. We now await the appointment of a successor, hoping and praying for a Bishop who will be at least equally encouraging to true Catholic Tradition.

On 12 December the Nuptial Mass of Miss Katie Ross in marriage to Mr Leon Reimers was celebrated by Canon Michael Brown in St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham City, with Mass settings and music by Mozart, Schubert and Lotti.

A Missa Cantata was offered by Canon Brown at St Joseph’s in Gateshead on the Epiphany Feast. On that date Low Masses were celebrated at both Coxhoe (Fr Shaun Swales), where the sanctuary decoration was remarkably beautiful, plus by Fr Paul Tully at Thornley – both well attended. A Sung Requiem for our beloved Pope Benedict XVI was celebrated by Canon Brown on 11 January. We look forward to Latin Masses at both Gateshead and Coxhoe on Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday. With our uplift in the number and frequency of Ancient Rite liturgies, we really do need more servers - please!

Editor’s note: The Society is extremely grateful to Bob and Jane Latin for their many years of service as Local Representatives for the Diocese of Lancaster. They have now handed over the reins to John.

Lancaster (North) Nicholas Steven 07715 539395 pilgrimways@gmail.com

As trailed last qua rter, a Sung Requiem Mass in the Old Rite was offered in the historic recusant chapel at Naworth Castle, near Brampton, Cumbria on Tuesday 25 October, by kind permission of the Hon. Philip Howard. This was the first time that a Catholic Mass had been offered in the castle since about 1645. Requiem Mass was offered by Fr Daniel Etienne for all deceased members of the Howard Family and all souls enrolled in the Cumbria Purgatorial Society www.prayforsouls.uk. After Mass, Philip Howard showed us the priest 's hiding hole, leading by secret passages to other pa rts of the castle, which in penal times enabled escape from pursuers. Andrew Plasom-Scott led the Schola in singing the propers. Justin and Emma Hoskins kindly provided tea afterwards at their home in Brampton.

On 2 November, the Feast of the Holy Souls, we processed by ca ndlelight from Our Lady a nd St Wilfrid, Warwick Bridge, to the "lost cemeter y" of the Benedictine Nuns of the former Holme Eden Abbey. Our planned route had to be changed at the last minute due to a locked gate but at least the forecast rain did not materialise. Votive lights were placed on each of the 31 graves and Fr Etienne led us in singing the Litany of the Holy Souls before the grievously poigna nt life-sized crucifix. One of our n umber later remarked, "I got goose bumps while the prayers were read there. The ambiance was holy and uplifting". We then returned to Our Lady and St Wilfrid for a Sung Requiem Mass for the Holy Souls.

This was our Schola's final preparation for the Cumbrian Purgatorial Society's annual Sung Requiem at St Margaret Mary’s on Saturday 5 November. This was a Solemn High Mass celebrated by Canon Luiz Ruscillo with Fr Serafino Lanzetta of the Marian Francisans as Deacon and Fr Daniel Etienne as Subdeacon. Sean Beh, on loa n from Ca non Brown's pa rish in Gateshead, acted as MC. After Mass Fr Lanzetta gave a talk on The Four Last Things and the Purgatorial Society held its AGM. This grace-filled occasion was fittingly crowned with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Fr Philomeno James of the Marian Franciscans brought further blessings down on us by choosing Warwick Bridge for his personal f ive-day silen t retreat. In addition to his daily private Masses in the early hours, he completed 40 hours of Eucharistic Adoration in Our Lady and St Wilfrid’s church. Several of us were able to watch and adore the Lord with him from time to time.

Lancaster

John Rogan

lancaster@lms.org.uk

For the past year, Fr Docherty at Hornby has been offering Mass weekly on a Saturday, but with numbers remaining low, a change is being made.

Mass at Hornby will still take place but will become monthly, on the first Saturday. On the first Friday, Mass will be offered in the Chaplaincy Centre at Lancaster University at 6pm, during term time, and these are open to anyone wishing to attend.

The usual Mass at Hornby on 31 December was replaced by a Requiem Mass for Pope Benedict XVI.

This year, we hope to be able to arrange Mass in the chapel at Sizergh Castle, with dates to follow.

Sadly, for the beautiful Feast of The Immaculate Conception on 8 December, the Old Rite was not available a nywhere in Cumbria, although a n umber of us travelled afa r to pa rticipate – either at Preston or Gateshead. We continue to pray for the Traditional Mass to be celebrated locally on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. As dauntless Fr James Mawdesley recently asser ted, " The Traditional Mass will return".

Saturday 17 December was a great day for Rorate Caeli Masses in Cumbria, with Ca non Watson celebrating one in Workington at 7am and Fr Etienne celebrating another in Carlisle at 8am. Canon Watson’s regular 7pm second Friday Masses at Our Lady & St Michael’s in Workington con tinue as usual.

Coxhoe: Low Masses

With the Vigil of Christmas falling on a Saturday this year, a nd St Margaret Mary’s needing to be prepared for the f irst Mass of Christmas, the Traditional Vigil Mass was celebrated at Our Lady a nd St Wilfrid, Warwick Bridge. It is such a pleasure to celebrate a nd to ser ve the Mass there! Pugin certainly knew what he was doing when he laid out the sanctuary and nave in this gem of a church.

Peter Sylvester, who taught my brother and me to serve the Latin Mass when we were boys, visited Our Lady and St Wilfrid on 30 December with his wife Eileen to renew their marriage vows. They were married there 50 years ago to the day. Please pray for Eileen who has just been diagnosed with Motor Neurone disease. (Speaking of illness, a bug picked up in Armenia prevented me from attending the annual LMS Reps meeting in London. I really hope I shall get there next year).

Immediately following our Saturday Mass on 31 December, having learned of the death of Benedict XVI just 90 min utes earlier, Fr Etienne celebrated a Traditional Requiem Mass for the repose of the former Pontiff’s soul. The Mass was ser ved by semina rian James Knight, on leave from Oscott. Several of us were able to stay on for this unexpected double-dip a nd opportunity to pray immediately for the soul of our dear departed German shepherd.

Fr Etienne offers Mass in the recusant chapel at Naworth Castle

Ecce Agnus Dei, Carlisle 5 Nov 2022

© Jakub Janik

© Emma Hoskins

LIVERPOOL (Warrington)

Alan Frost

St Mary’s Shrine continues to be a remarkably, indeed intensively, busy place. Considering it has relatively few priests for the activities, a look at a typical weekly schedule is quite breath-taking (go to www.fssp.org.uk/warrington). It means a lot of regulars and visitors offer help and Fr de Malleray, on behalf of St Mary’s community, recently thanked the lay staff for their hard work behind the scenes To help cope with the dayto-day running of things, a new Secretarial Assistant has been appointed, working with the Shrine Administrator.

A particularly notable recent event was the Advent Marian Saturday on 3 December, when a sung Rorate Mass for Our Lady was followed by the sale of Christmas goods in the bookshop, a picnic lunch and a seasonal play by some of the children. This followed the previous week’s greatly successful annual Vocation Discernment Weekend, with eighteen young men considering a future as a priest. The Shrine priests advising these young men were themselves, for the first time since pre-Covid, granted a visit by FSSP Superior General Fr Andrzej Komorowski, as part of a customary triennial visitation of the houses in Reading, Warrington and Edinburgh. The Superior General spent time with every priest to hear how they are doing in community life and in their ministry. There was also in November at St Mary’s, a gathering of the 10 FSSP priests from England, Scotland and Ireland for three days of fraternal talks and prayer.

There were many regulars and visitors for the beautifully sung Christmas Midnight Mass, and many people praying by the large, impressive crib scene after the Mass. Among visitors from earlier in the year, one lady from the USA.

On-line are some very impressive pictures of FSSP seminarians at their German base They enjoyed a Christmas break back home, among them David from Warrington along with others from the UK & Ireland: go to fsspwigratzbad. blogspot.com

A special Requiem Mass was held on 7 January for the repose of the soul of Pope Benedict XVI, following the Solemn High Mass for the Epiphany and (5 January) the annual Blessing of the Epiphany Water.

Last but not least, by the time you read this, conversion work should have begun in Priory Court, the large building acquired by St Mary’s Shrine during the Priory Campaign (2019-2020). Construction costs soared following the Covid crisis, making it necessary to focus for now on the main Shrine hall (middle floor) rather than convert the entire building (three floors) all at once. The hall will be one large room all across the first floor of the three adjacent units, seating 218 guests. Please God, it should be ready before the summer. Movable partitions will allow flexible use for smaller groups simultaneously. A lift will enable parishioners with impaired mobility and mothers with pushchairs to access the hall safely. A well-equipped kitchen will be added. This vast hall will make St Mary’s Shrine an attractive venue for various events, not only liturgical but prolife, doctrinal, musical, academic, and cultural in general. You are welcome to contact Shrine Rector Fr de Malleray (malleray@ fssp.org) if you wish for more information.

Menevia

Tom and Elaine Sharpling

meneviastabatmater.blogspot.com/

All is well in Menevia – thanks to Canon Jason Jones and Father Liam Bradley. We are now delighted to have two servers in ‘post’ and two who are learning the rubrics – a real answer to prayer, as we were struggling to find people to help.

Attendance remains steady with one or two new people coming along but mostly we are a pretty stable and loyal group.

It was lovely to have the Traditional Mass on New Year’s Day in Morriston, but not possible to find anywhere for Christmas this time round.

Please pray for Mrs Barbara Phillips, a longstanding member of our congregation, who is in hospital at the moment.

If you are ever in South Wales, then be sure to come along as a warm welcome awaits.

We continue to post information on our blogspot so please check here before travelling: meneviastabatmater.blogspot. com/

Or give us a call/text on 07702 230983.

Middlesbrough

Paul Waddington

waddadux@gmail.com

There is a new venue for Latin Masses in the Diocese of Middlesbrough. It is the Church of St Andrew in Teesville, which is a suburb on the eastern fringe of Middlesbrough. The Parish Priest, Fr Sellers, will be offering a Latin Mass at this church at 3pm each Sunday, as well as on major feast days. This replaces the Mass that has been offered by Fr Charlton at Stokesley in the last couple of years. Fr Charlton has now retired, but I understand that from time to time he will be seen at Teesville, helping Fr Sellers by offering Latin Masses there. We thank both Fr Charlton and Fr Sellers for their continuing efforts to promote the Latin Mass. We also thank Bishop Drainey for ensuring the continuation of Latin Masses in the northern part of the diocese.

Fr Etienne with the Hon. Philip Howard and the portrait of his martyr ancestor, St Philip Howard

Emma Hoskins

Solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of Pope Benedict at theYork Oratory

© Simon Crouch

Meanwhile, daily Latin Masses continue to be offered at the York Oratory. On most Sundays, there is a polyphonic setting, but this is usually replaced by a plainsong setting during the university vacation periods On Friday 13 January, we were treated to a Solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of Pope Benedict XVI. The musical setting was Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Requiem Mass for four voices. A parishioner had built a very tall and very impressive catafalque specially for the occasion.

In Hull, Fr Massie continues to offer a Low Mass on Thursday evenings at 7.30pm. I understand that the congregation at this Mass is growing.

Northampton North

Paul Beardsmore

01858 434037

(Northamptonshire)

northampton@lms.org.uk

The regular Masses at St Brendan, Corby, continue. A number of additional Masses have been celebrated for significant feasts, with Mass every day during the Christmas octave. The first Mass of Christmas was sung at 10.30pm on Christmas Eve.

Northampton (South)

Barbara Kay

01234 340759

mbky3@outlook.com

We were blessed on the Sunday before Christmas by a visit to Christ the King, Bedford by the Bishop of Northampton, the Rt Revd Dr David Oakley. Bishop Oakley was visiting Christ the King on the occasion of our parish priest’s 15th anniversary of ordination, and as well as celebrating the parish Masses, he preached at our 8.30am Latin Mass and joined us for refreshments afterwards. He also took the opportunity to speak to and bless our Scouts of Europe troop.

The following weekend we had Sung Midnight Mass for Christmas at Bedford, as well as Christmas Morning Low Masses at Chesham and at Bedford. All were well attended, as were the Masses for Epiphany at Chesham and at Bedford. The latter resembled a Sunday morning in that many young families were in the congregation despite the evening hour.

Fr Gwilym Evans FSSP, celebrated the Epiphany Mass at Bedford and stayed overnight to celebrate a First Saturday Mass at 8am, preceded and followed by Confession. There was a schola practice in the morning and server training in the afternoon, and then, in the evening, Fr Evans gave the first in a monthly series of adult catechism with the opportunity to ask questions, followed by socialising and pizza! On the Sunday morning Fr Evans celebrated his first Sung Mass at Bedford. Going forward, he will be training the schola monthly, normally on the first Saturday afternoon of the month. Any singers within reach of Bedford who can attend both the practice and the Sunday Mass are invited to contact Barbara Kay as above. We are a small and friendly group and you will be made most welcome.

As always, please see our Facebook page: www.facebook. com/bedfordlatinmass/ or the FSSP page fssp.org.uk/bedford/ for updates and other articles of interest.

Nottingham

Jeremy Boot

0115 849 1556 / 07462 018386

All our Masses continue as usual. Attendance varies. We could do with more servers, especially in Nottingham. See the published schedule for times and places at our usual venues in Nottingham and Derby.

We were pleased to have a Sung Mass for All Souls, Dedication of the Archbasilica of Our Saviour and the Holy Innocents, as well as the usual weekly Masses as advertised at Our Lady of the Annunciation, Loughborough. We anticipate Mass for Ash Wednesday and others to be announced.

Our sincere thanks to our priests, church helpers and all who assist us in any way.

Nottingham South (Leicestershire and Rutland)

Paul Beardsmore

01858 434037

northampton@lms.org.uk

Sung Masses were celebrated for the feasts of All Saints and the Immaculate Conception at Blessed Sacrament, Leicester, and at the same church in the new year for the Epiphany. Otherwise, Masses continue as usual at St Peter's and Blessed Sacrament in Leicester, at Oakham when Fr Dye is available, and at Loughborough (see report Nottingham North).

Plymouth (Cornwall)

Stefano Mazzeo

cornwall@lms.org.uk

Renovations to the chapel and hall continue at Lanherne Convent. The hall will soon have a new floor! The quote to upgrade the electrical service is around £2800. If anyone is willing to contribute to the hall or to the chapel, please contact Canon Smith canon.smith@institute-christ-king.org or by phone to the Chaplain's house 01637 861752.

Sung Mass for Holy Innocents at Our Lady of the Annunciation, Loughborough

© Elvira Jephcott

Christendom Rising, our video magazine based at Lanherne, was delayed due to last minute work on EWTN's The Message of Lourdes film. It was broadcast on the 8 of December and has proven to be a great success; thank you to all who took part. Christendom Rising Episode 5 has a main theme of Catholic dating and marriage, and we have a wonderful discussion between Sophie O'Shaughnessy and Michelle Buscombe on traditional Catholic moral values during dating.

Plymouth (Devon)

Maurice Quinn

07555 536579 devon@lms.org.uk

With Canon Tanner’s long-awaited move from living at Buckfast Abbey to rented accommodation just around the corner from Holy Angels in Torquay, a more permanent Mass and services schedule has been put in place – a schedule that more closely reflects the distinctive spirituality of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest that includes regular Lauds, Vespers, Compline, Adoration and Benediction.

As Mass times only are included in the Mass Listings, I recommend that if you wish to attend one of these other services do contact me beforehand for more information. I would just like to add that there are now two opportunities at Holy Angels for attending a weekday 12 noon Mass, the first being a Low Mass on Wednesdays, and the second one being a full Sung Mass on Fridays. For details about Ash Wednesday and Holy Week services at St Edward the Confessor and at Holy Angels, please contact me nearer the time, or check the regularly updated Mass Listings on the LMS Website.

We thank Fr Berry (Cong Orat) for helping out Canon Tanner at both St Edward the Confessor, Plymouth, and at Holy Angels, Torquay, during the weeks that he was in the area before returning to his home oratory in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Fr Berry became a welcome and familiar figure in the confessional and on the sanctuary at both Devon Mass venues, and was given a hearty send off when he left us just before Christmas.

Since Fr Berry’s departure, we have welcomed two more Institute seminarians, Abbe Michel Waveoke from Benin, and Abbe Charles Morris, both of whom – along with Abbe Aaron Zielinski – assist Canon Tanner in the Institute’s unique apostolate here in the heart of the English Riviera.

Plymouth (Dorset)

Maurice Quinn

07555 536579 devon@lms.org.uk

There is little change in Latin Mass activity in Dorset where, at Our Lady of Lourdes & St Cecilia in Blandford Forum, Mgr Francis Jamieson still continues with a monthly 12 noon Low Mass, followed by a social lunch. Also continuing is the regular Saturday morning 9.30am Mass, all of which can be checked in the Mass Listings. This year, I hope that improved circumstances allow me to travel to Blandford to attend a Latin Mass and to meet up with old friends as used to be the case, especially as Our Lady of Lourdes & St Cecilia is a beautiful church situated in this quaint Dorset town noted for its Georgian architecture.

Portsmouth (Isle of Wight)

Peter Clarke

01983 566740 or 07790 892592

EF Masses continue on the Isle of Wight at St Thomas’s, Cowes most Thursdays. Built in 1797, it is one of the earliest

Catholic churches in England where the EF Mass is offered. There is usually Exposition and Confessions beforehand from 11.15am, and a packed lunch (we bring our own) in the church hall afterwards.

We were delighted to have Mass on the Feast of the Immaculate Conce ption. In his sermon, Fr Jonathan Redvers Harris reminded the faithful that although this dogma w as pr omulgated b y Pope Pius IX in 1854, it has been a widely held belief in the Church since the days of the Early Fathers.

Just one week after this Marian feast, on 15 December, the congregation remembered the anniversary of the Beatification of the two Isle of Wight martyrs, Blessed Robert Anderton and Blessed William Marsden, who gave their lives for the One True Faith when they were captured and martyred at Cowes in 1586. They were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929. After the EF Mass, Father led an Act of Remembrance at the Martyrs’ memorial outside the church. He reminded those gathered there that, “the heroic sacrifice of the martyrs encourages us to maintain our devotion to the Mass and the Sacraments and Fidelity to the Holy Catholic Church and all that it teaches. We thank God for these two brave young priests and we ask Our Blessed Lord to inspire us with the same zeal that they so honourably portrayed as they suffered death and attained the martyr's crown.”

Please ring for confirmation of EF Masses if you are coming from the mainland: 01983 566740 or 07790 892592

Portsmouth (Reading and Portsmouth North)

Adrian Dulston

The St John Fisher Parish, residing at St William of York Church in Reading, had the Parish pilgrimage to West Grinstead before Advent at the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation. Prior to this, the March for Life was well attended this year by the parishioners.

On 1 October we hosted the Catholic home education forum which was well attended.

In November the newly ordained Father Evans offered a Requiem Mass for all the faithful departed. It makes a difference to have a third priest with all the travelling to the Bedford Parish and Hospital ministry.

On 8 December we celebrated Solemn Vespers for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

We have an altar serving team that is growing, probably due to the growing numbers at the Parish. Fr Phipps highlighted that the FSSP is pleased with the efforts of the serving team. We also had 17 candidates Confirmed by Bishop Egan in the Parish. Bishop Egan has also instituted a Year of the Holy Ghost within the Diocese, which I’m sure the Parish will take this on board.

Once again, we say thank you to the FSSP priests for providing so many Masses during Advent and the Christmas Octave. The energy and quiet enthusiasm of these priests is a boost in these tumultuous times Also, the putting on of various groups for the youth, ladies, and men keeps a certain interest in the parish outside of the Sunday Mass. Blessed Epiphanytide!

Salford

Alison F. Kudlowski salford@lms.org.uk

The Traditional Latin Mass at 4.45pm on Sundays continues to be celebrated by the Oratorian Community at St Chad, Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester.

For additional events please check the website of the Manchester Oratorian Community, www.manchesteroratory.org

Southwark (Kent)

Marygold Turner

We have continued with our Sunday Masses and Holydays of Obligation. The Parish Priest, Fr Behruz, celebrates the Tridentine Mass now, for which we are grateful. He has done so much to make the little church of St Andrew such a pleasure, with new carpets and kneelers, and seats all matching in a good shade of green. Our artists in residence, Ben Bevan and his group, who sings twice a month, are professional, of course, and greatly appreciated by us. Financed by Dr Andrew Czaykowski, we appreciate so much his beautiful chant and polyphony.

I am personally very sad indeed that our General Manager, Stephen Moseling, is retiring in March. I shall lose a valued friend who has supported me/us in all we have tried to do. I especially mention the initiative at Snave, on the Marsh, which has been a great success, largely helped by him. Have a very good, much earned retirement, Stephen!

Southwark (St Bede’s, Clapham Park)

Thomas Windsor

claphampark@lms.org.uk

Our Guild of St Clare is regularly meeting a nd for the third Sunday of Advent completed a new tabernacle veil to match the Rose High Mass set that was formerly used at Blackfen.

Our first major event this quarter was the Feast of the Dedication of the Cathedral, we almost had a full set of Polyphonic Propers, the In troit a nd Comm union by Isaac, Gradual by Bruckner a nd the Offertory by Palestrina. We also sa ng a set ting of the  Domine Salvum fac by John Francis Wade from a ma nuscript c.1740, that also con tains the earliest edition of the  Adeste Fideles.

Our choir has once again been busy, for the Feast of St Raphael they sa ng  Missa super Dixit Maria, by Hassler. On Christ the King we had the Worcester Antiphonal setting of the  Christus Vincit, a nd the set ting of Psalm 92  Dominus regnavit by Josquin des Prez. We also sa ng for the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls.

On the following Sunday the choir sa ng  Missa O quam Gloriosum est regnum, a nd motet by Victoria. This was followed by our All Sain ts pa rty, with our ever growing numbers of children dressing up and giving short talks about their saint.

In November we had a Solemn High Requiem Anniversary Mass for Fr Briggs, a nd on Remembrance Sunday the choir sa ng  Missa Pro defunctis a 4 by Victoria. On the last Sunday after Pentecost a nd the 2nd Sunday of Advent we once again had Polyphonic Propers, the In troit, Alleluia a nd Comm union by Isaac, a nd the Offertory by Palestrina. We had another Sung Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a nd more Polyphony for the 3rd Sunday of Advent.

Christmas was once again very busy, Christmas Midnight Mass we had the Missa super Dixit Maria, by Hassler and the Alma Redemptoris, Guerrero, Christmas day the  Introit Puer Natus, Issac, Byrd 3 pa rt Mass a nd  Alma Redemptoris Guerrero, St Stephen’s Day chant followed by our usual servers party Masses for St John and the Holy Innocents, our string of Sung Masses ended with  a Solemn High Mass for the Feast of St Thomas, with Palestrina's Missa O Quam Gloriosum a nd motet, Ave Verum, Byrd a nd the Alma Redemptoris Palestrina.

I would like to thank Fr Southwell for spending Christmas with us a nd celebrating ma ny of the Masses, including our usual New Year’s Mass at midnight a nd blessing large a mounts of Epiphany water, chalk a nd salt on the Vigil of

the Epiphany. This qua rter ended with New Year’s Day Mass, where the choir sa ng the Byrd four-part a nd Veni redemptor gentium, by Jacob Handl, a nd Sung Masses for the Feast of the Holy Name, Vigil of the Epiphany a nd Feast of the Epiphany.

Our catechetical programmes continue on Friday nights, beginning with Low Mass at 7pm, we also have First Holy Communion and Confirmation classes for children and a programme for adults. Please check our website / newsletter stbedesclaphampark.blogspot.com for all our Mass times, catechetical programmes, talks and activities.

Southwark

(St Mary’s Chislehurst)

Christopher Richardson chislehurst@lms.org.uk

Our regular Sunday and weekday Masses continue and are well attended. We have also had Masses for the feast of the Immaculate Conception and a Requiem Mass for Pope Benedict XVI. We also recently held a Requiem Mass for our most celebrated parishioner (including deceased ones), the French Emperor Napoleon III who had originally been laid to rest in our church. This was to mark the 150th anniversary of his death.

Southwark (Thanet)

Chris Serpell thanet@lms.org.uk

Our Sung Masses con tinued through Advent, a nd we were blessed to celebrate three Missa Cantatas for Christmas itself - Midnight Mass, the Dawn Mass a nd the Mass of the Day. Attendance at the Shrine has been growing over this time, with pilgrimages from various locations picking up gradually post- covid, a nd this has included those at tending our weekly Sunday Masses in the older form. We were of course saddened by the passing of Pope Benedict, a nd we will be organising a suitable Mass to be said for his soul.

Southwark (Wandsworth)

Julia Ashenden

The approach to Advent and the Feast of The Nativity of Our Lord was filled with special Masses. Beginning with the celebration of All Sain ts Day, followed by All Souls we had a Missa Cantata on both these weekday Feast Days at 7pm and then on Remembrance Sunday, 12 November. David Guest’s Choir sang Vittoria’s Requiem Mass.

As readers of this column will know, we a re fortunate to be able to welcome this choir once a mon th, so on Gaudete Sunday they sa ng Mozart’s Missa Brevis a nd for our Christmas Midnight Mass they sang Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël.

Apart from these musical gems, our own excellent choir provides us with our Sunday Missa Cantatas, as well as any weekday extras. One of these was a Rorate Mass very early on 17 December, followed by breakfast in the Hall.

And then again, for the Feast of Epiphany they sang at the 7pm Mass.

On the Sunday following Epiphany, David Guest’s Choir sang again Mozart’s Missa Brevis (a favourite) in addition to which were two Motets: ‘The Three Kings’ by Peter Cornelius and ‘Lo! Star-led Chiefs’ by William Crotch, a n English composer from the turn of the 19th Century.

St Mary Magdalen’s continues to thrive and has a faithful and ever-growing congregation, for which we m ust tha nk the very dedicated Canon Edwards.

Westminster (St James, Spanish Place)

Roger Wemyss Brooks

Opening this year's copy of the Westminster Year Book it was a shock to find almost all references to the Old Rite had been deleted. Shocking but not altogether a surprise.

There is a rich and varied choice of other rites on offer - Gheez, Polish, Iraqi, Chaldean, Portuguese, Syriac, Sri Lankan ... Family, Children's, even Latin - but barely a mention of the venerable Mass of Ages, from which all other rites derive their form and authority. The beginning of the end? It certainly looks like it - a bleak prospect.

Of course, we should not despair.  We have a Chaplain at Spanish Place with a faculty from the Cardinal, and we have a number of priests within the Archdiocese we can call upon to supply Masses when needed. We have recently been given the possibility of refreshments after Sunday Mass to welcome visitors, and we have just celebrated our annual New Year High Mass - this year as a Requiem for the late Pope Benedict XVI.

Tucked in my missal is the prayer to Pope St Pius V, received years ago from the Latin Mass Society. We need the prayers of this holy pontiff now more than ever. "St Pius, pray for us, protect the Roman Liturgy."

Gregorian Chant Network

Alastair J Tocher

01684 893332

chantnetwork@gmail.com

gregorianchantnetwork.blogspot.com

The Gregorian Chant Network’s aim is both to support the development of existing Scholas and to encourage the founding of new Scholas.

Chant tuition, led by John Rowlands-Pritchard and supported by the Latin Mass Society, continues at the ICKSP apostolate at Lanherne Convent in Cornwall. However, the former chant tuition in Bedford, led by tutor Dominic Bevan, has recently come to a close since the FSSP apostolate there is now in a position to provide tuition themselves. We thank Dominic for his past support.

If you would be interested in chant tuition for your schola or parish please get in touch.

Society of St Tarcisius

Joseph Shaw

tarcisius@lms.org.uk tarcisius.org

Our London server-training days continue to attract good numbers of people and I am delighted to announce dates for the new year. The following have been confirmed:

Saturday 18th February in St Mary Moorfields;

Saturday 22nd April in St Dominic’s Haverstock Hill;

Saturday 17th June in St Mary Moorfields.

These events are free to attend; please see the LMS website to book.

There will be vestment-mending in parallel with these events organised by the Guild of St Clare; please email  guildofstclare@ lms.org.uk or see the Guild website for more details.

As always I'll be delighted to cooperate with server training days and/or enrolments into the Society of St Tarcisius elsewhere in the country: please get in touch if you want to organise one.

Stoking the plot

Joseph Shaw reviews Victor Stater’s Hoax: The Popish Plot That Never Was

The ‘Popish Plot’ fabricated by Titus Oates, William Bedloe and others, that gripped England from 1678 to 1861 and led to so many martyrdoms, is an extraordinary, thrilling, and important story, and this book is a gripping blowby-blow account. I could quibble with Stater’s prose style, and I wonder a little about his understanding of Catholicism: I seriously doubt that a man with the title ‘Cushion Bearer’ who worked in Queen Catherine’s Catholic chapel had the task of putting cushions on pews. Nevertheless, Stater has mastered many primary sources, including state papers, di plomatic dis patches, scurrilo us pamphlets, letters, and diaries, and has produced a highly readable book.

The Popish Plot was not the last gasp of violent anti-Catholic bigotry: that honour goes to the Gordon Riots a full century later, a final, bloody protest against the legal toleration of the Catholic Faith. What was special about the Plot is that it was fanned and sustained not just by popular hysteria, but by an important section of the political establishment, including a consistent majority in the House of Commons.

The only evidence ever presented for the plot was testimony by Oates about conversations they had heard and letters they had seen. They claimed a plot was afoot to kill the King, a nd take over the country with a n a rmy of perhaps 50,000 men. It was supposedly organised by the Jesuits and some Catholic aristocrats. Despite determined searches, no documen ts directly relevant to the plot were ever discovered, a nd despite all kinds of threats and promises almost none of the suspects ever confessed.

Why was the plot ever taken seriously? One factor is the political imperative of the faction which came to be known, in the course of the con troversy, as the ‘Whigs’. Its leader, the Ea rl of Shaftsbury, beca me iden tified with the a nti-Catholic (a nd a nti-French) cause, a nd f inally beca me obsessed by the attempt to prevent

King Cha rles II’s Catholic brother, James, succeeding to the throne. King Charles’ own government could not afford to seem too soft on Catholics: as had been the case before the Civil War, a n off icially moderate Anglican establishment found itself persecuting Catholics to avoid a violent reaction from protestant extremists.

Another factor was the extraordinary depth of a nti-Catholic hatred, which could be found at all levels of society. Catholics were widely blamed for the Great Fire of London a nd subsequent conflagrations, a nd the ever-active prin ting presses poured out screeds connecting Catholicism with the despotism supposedly found in France a nd Spain, a nd denouncing the Jesuits. At trials of Catholics the presiding judge might remind the jury that Catholics thought nothing of assassination, terrorism, or lying under oath: the last a particularly strange accusation, given how easy successive governments had found

it to exclude Catholics from political office, from commissions in the a rmy, a nd from the Universities, by demanding the swearing of oaths.

The instrumentalisation of popular bigotry by an unscrupulous political elite anticipates some of the themes of later a nti-Semitism. In both cases an essentially quite helpless and very small minority were condemned as somehow foreign, even if they had lived in the country for cen turies, constantly dreaming of enslaving their fellow citizens, even if they had fought and died for their country in recent war. This minority, moreover, was held to represent such a dire threat to society, due to their in ternational connections a nd f iendish cunning, that only complete extermination would solve the problem. Another parallel is that this panic arose after a period of relative peace and integration: for example, local magistrates had all but given up collecting fines on Catholics for non-at tendance at Anglican ser vices, or seeking out priests.

The claims of Titus Oates and his collaborators were given some plausibility by the accusers having a degree of familiarity with the English Catholic scene, in to which Oates and Bedloe had wormed their way. Oates feigned conversion, a nd spent short spells in English seminaries at Vallodolid and St Omer. Oates also had remarkable self-assurance a nd a good (though not perfect) memory of his own inventions, along with a n unlimited appetite for perjury.

Furthermore, w hen Catho lic houses were raided, evidence of highly complicated, a nd often illegal, affairs, were uncovered, because of the manoeuvres necessary to evade the laxly-enforced penal laws. For example, the property of Catholic fa milies, of Catholic institutions such as schools, a nd of the Jesuits, could not be owned directly lest it be seized by the state. It was therefore necessary to

use a complicated web of trusts with trustees prepared to hand over the income to the intended beneficiaries. Similarly, it was common for Catholic gentry to send their children abroad for a Catholic education, but this was in fact against the law. Then again, any Catholic priest ordained abroad present in England was guilty of treason. None of this looked very good in the cold light of day. Some priests were executed in the course of the panic not for their involvement in any plot, but because local magistrates had been stimulated to enforce the law forbidding their presence.

A lot of the work of stoking the plot was done not in the law courts, however, but in Pa rliamentary commit tees, where Shaftsbury and his allies could endlessly take sworn testimony from their favourite witnesses, draw extravagant conclusions, a nd pass inf lammatory resolutions. King Charles’ only defence against this was to prorogue or dissolve Parliament.

When matters did come to trial, there was more chance for the inconsistencies and absurdities of the testamentary evidence to be exposed, and this is

indeed what eventually happened: first Bedloe and then Oates became completely discredited, even in the eyes of the initially enthusiastic Lord Chief Justice Scroggs. This took longer than it should have, however, because in line with standard procedure at the time, those accused of treason were not allowed legal representation, and many of them had been forbidden visitors while awaiting trial, so could not organise their own witnesses or prepare a defence. Some were even not allowed pen and paper to take notes at their own trials, undermining their ability to crossexamine prosecution witnesses. If they did produce witnesses (sixteen young men travelled from St Omer to witness about Oates’ presence there), these could not testify under oath.

The result was that it was only across multiple trials in which Catholics were sent to their deaths that the evidence for the plot was gradually undermined. Another powerful factor in favour of the Catholics was the martyrs’ steadfastness on the gallows: bystanders were consistently impressed by their protestations of innocence at the point of death.

An edifying theme in the book is the determined and sometimes heroic response of the Catholic community. Catholic ladies such as the Countess of Powis and Mrs Cellier sitting in court taking notes, a nd visiting prisoners. (Despite this more died in prison than on the scaffold.) Jesuits and Benedictines showing not just courage but in telligence, wit, a nd learning, in court. The half- deaf old squire, St Thomas Gascoigne, being acquit ted in part because of his insistence on having a jur y of fellow Yorkshiremen drafted in to the Old Bailey. The legal and practical organisation of the Catholic Earl of Castlemaine in support of the accused. And the eloquence and composure of the most distinguished martyrs, St Oliver Plunket, Bishop of Armagh, a nd Blessed William Howard, Viscount Stafford.

Many of the victims were beatified in 1929; some were ca nonised in 1970. May they intercede for us today.

Hoax: The Popish Plot That Never Was, by Victor Stater is published by Yale University Press at £20.

Follow that Missal!

Owning and knowing how to use a Missal is a joy, says Jeremy Boot

Pope St Pius X urged: “If you wish to hear Mass as it should be heard, you must follow with eye, heart and mouth You have to associate your heart with the holy feelings which are contained in these words and in this manner you ought to follow all that happens on the altar. Pray the Mass.”

Many times, over the last few years people who are new to the old rite, have asked where they could get hold of a Missal or, having acquired one, are puzzled how to use it - it does not come with a user manual – and find they don’t know where to look, which Mass applies or how exactly to proceed. Hence this article to highlight a few points and give some explanation both for newcomers and not-so-new comers who may remain confused.

One frequently sees people struggling to find which Mass is being said, thumbing pages of a Missal without result and then just putting the Missal down. Others rely on a handout sheet for the propers, but they still seem all at sea. Having a Missal and knowing how to use it is really a very useful thing. It allows you to follow the Mass in greater detail with directions as appropriate to increase your knowledge and understanding and with commentaries and background on scripture readings and rubrics.

The Latin Mass Society’s bookshop holds editions of the one I use most, the Baronius Press Missal which follows the 1962 rite. That neatly fits Pope Benedict ’s Summorum Pontificum, whose Masses will usually be the 1962 rite. Other, older Missals, perhaps inherited from a parent, will still be fine, but there will be variants, notably for Holy Week ceremonies which were modified by Pius XII in the 1950s.

The larger Missals not only include Masses for each Sunday, Saints Day, Holy Day and Votive Masses, but also a wealth of extras: Vespers and Benediction, an outline of what a Catholic should believe, Blessings, the Rosary, devotional prayers,

the Sacraments, Litanies of the Saints, extracts from the Graduale, with music for the different Mass Commons, to name but a few items. With Latin on one side of the page or column, and English translation opposite, it is an excellent way to become familiar with Church Latin, and to memorise at least the more commonly used prayers. Following the Mass is the primary use of the Missal as the name suggests, but do read and get to know the wealth of content it has in your leisure time. It will surprise you.

Sundays: There are essentially two basic things to remember about a typical Sunday Mass, as the most useful starting point. There is the Mass itself, those parts that do not change – usually to be found at the centre of the book and labelled “Order of Mass” – and the variable parts of the Mass that relate to the “Proper of the Day” according to season (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Septuagesima, Lent, Passiontide, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and Sundays after Pentecost). All these Sundays have a title, such as “8th Sunday after Pentecost,” They are sequentially titled and easy to follow, so the next Sunday would be “9Th Sunday…” and so on. Exceptions include transferred holy days of obligation, particular feasts falling on a Sunday, such as Easter, Pentecost, Trinity or Christ the King.

The nine variable parts of the Mass I referred to above (propers) appropriate to any Mass are: 1. Introit, 2. Collect(s), 3. Epistle, 4. Gradual and Alleluia (or tract in Lent), 5. Gospel, 6. Offertory verse, 7. Secret prayer, 8. Communion verse, 9. Post-Communion prayer. Prefaces also change (see below). The places where these fit in are clearly labelled in the main Mass pages and there is nothing more demanding to do than turn to the particular Sunday propers to see what the prayers are as you get to them.

Using ribbons and markers: For this a practical tip; use the coloured ribbons or markers. Be consistent: only mark pages you need to visit for that

Mass. Keep one permanently in place for the beginning of Mass and another for the particular Sunday. These should be kept diagonally, exiting halfway down the page (see photo), not stuck at the bottom near the binding – this is where you leave the unwanted other ribbons. In any case, constantly moving them to and from this lower position will risk tearing the thin pages or just cluttering up the Missal with markers you do not need to visit for that particular Mass. Once you are more familiar with the Missal, you can of course markup other pages with prayers you frequently need (e.g. Marian antiphons, Benediction etc) or just use markers or memorial cards. With age, a used Missal should acquire plenty of these.

Weekdays and feasts: For daily Mass, things become a little more detailed, but the principles above remain the same: “Order of Mass” is marked as above (your main ribbon marker which doesn’t change), but you will need to keep another ribbon against the date of the current month. This should give you the order for that day’s feast, but it may draw upon another template (set formula Masses f or Martyrs, Conf essors, Apostles etc) which serve for most of that d ay’s sain t’s pr oper, b ut with possibly one or more elements (such as Epistle or Gos pel, Co llect, Secr et or Postcommunion) special and unique to that sain t’s d ay. Take as a n example, 29 July: S t Martha. The Mass r efers you to “Dilexisti 1 Mass of a Virgin” (on pa ge 1057 in my Missal), so you s hould ma rk that with a rib bon, b ut no te that ther e is a s pecial Gos pel allocated which v aries fr om the “ template” Mass, so you will have to turn bac k to the 29 July pa ge f or that. Cle ar away a ny o ther extr aneous rib bons. You don’t need them today.

1. Mass propers are usually referred to by the first Latin word of the Introit of the day.

It also tells you that on the same date is commemorated SS Felix, Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrice. That Mass can also be said instead of that of St Martha. If so, the Mass “Sapientiam – Common of Martyrs” (on page 1007) is used (mark it) except for the Collect, Secret and Postcommunion which are printed out under the original date. It’s usually the priest’s choice which Mass he chooses to say where there is an option. But if he says the one, he should commemorate the other at least at Low Mass – in which case there will be two collects (one for each), two secrets and two Postcommunion prayers.

All sounds too complicated? Well, you don’t have to follow every turn and choice until you get some confidence and know your Missal better. Once you do, this jumping from page to page just becomes second nature. Don’t fuss about every place in the Missal and then by the time you’ve found it, it is too late and the priest has moved on. We’ve all done that. You don’t have to follow everything verbatim. The priest does, but you don’t.

How do you know which Mass is on what day? For Sundays, it ’s easy, they are sequential and if today is the 8th after Pentecost, unless it collides with a more important feast, next Sunday will be the 9th. But to be sure, you can look up (or buy) what is known as an Ordo. The LMS sells them and extracts are to be found in this magazine each quarter, which prints forthcoming dates and their feasts;

they are primarily published for the celebrant. You can survive without it. Or you could look at a traditional calendar – but don’t use a modern Catholic diary or calendar because most of the dates will not coincide and the Sundays have a different set of titles. Likewise, to state the obvious, don’t attempt to use a Novus Ordo hand-out sheet or modern Missal for the Old Rite: it just doesn’t work. Other details such as the colour of vestments, whether the Gloria or Credo is said or omitted, is likewise indicated in the Ordo for given Sundays, feast days (universal or local) or seasons.

Prefaces: There are a number of different Prefaces for the seasons or the feast. These are indicated in the “Order of Mass” and sometimes noted in the propers. Generally, for Sundays they are obvious: Preface of the Holy Trinity applies to most ordinary Sundays but this changes according to season (e.g. Christmas, Epiphany, other feasts, etc). For daily Masses, the short Common Preface applies widely throughout the year, unless indicated otherwise in the Missal. You find the Prefaces (in my Missal) just before the main Mass pages (p279 in my edition).

Masses for the Dead: It is not unlikely that apart from All Souls (2 November), you will attend at some point a Requiem Mass. Rubrics vary slightly from the standard Mass, not hugely, but in any case the Missal inser ts a note along the lines of “… at Masses for the Dead, such and such a prayer is

omitted or the following is said.” The Agnus Dei for example, includes at the end “Dona eis requiem (sempiternam)” instead of “Miserere nobis / Dona nobis pacem.” The proper for a Requiem Mass (p1694) depends of the circumstances, the day of death or burial, daily Mass, the status of the deceased and so on. The Introit “Requiem aeternam”, Gradual and Tract, Offertory, Preface and Communion all stay the same, but other proper prayers from the Collect to the Post-communion do vary. It’s only a matter of knowing which Mass is to be said. Usually this is announced beforehand. Also, prayers for the absolution at the end of Mass and burial, as well as the Office for the Dead, is included if you care to follow that too. These prayers for the Dead are quite sublime.

The finest example of the Roman Mass liturgy is undoubtedly the Sung High (or Solemn) Mass and here the Missal comes into its own. Space does not permit more details here. The principles above to follow remain, but the detail in the Missal to add to the visual majesty of High Mass with or without a Bishop (Pontifical Mass) are all there at your fingertips.

I hope the above has been useful. The small effort required in knowing and using your Missal is well worth it. Owning and knowing how to use a Missal is a joy and it will certainly increase your love for the Faith and her beautiful liturgy. This is your heritage.

For the Queen of Heaven

Caroline Farey looks at the Chichester-Constable chasuble

By wearing this chasuble, a celebrant would necessarily honour the Queenship of Mary whatever the feast or solemnity for which it was actually worn. In fact, in perfect summary form, the three scenes of this chasuble give us the beginning and goal of Christ’s mission of Redemption in and through the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother of the Church.

Red was normally used to celebrate the Martyrs because of the shedding of their blood for Christ, and for the Holy Spirit because of the tongues of fire that descended on Our Lady and the Apostles at Pentecost as signs of the burning fire of Divine Love. Red vestments, especially copes, could, however, be worn on any great occasion since the colour is rich and always proclaims, through its primary symbolism, the precious blood of Jesus shed for our salvation. This chasuble is of the finest red silk velvet from Italy.

The exquisite gold embroidery work seen here was produced in England in the 13th and 14th Centuries. Known simply as Opus Anglicanum it was the best of its kind in the whole of Europe and most highly sought after. This chasuble is one of the finest pieces of such work and is a sister piece to the Butler-Bowden cope at the V&A Museum, both made around 133050AD. The patterns in the gold work are astonishingly varied and fine, using a range of coloured silk threads and couching stitches. One stitch in particular was a specialism of Opus Anglicanum where the couching stitch pulled the gold thread through to the back leaving a smooth and patterned field of gold on the surface.

Dating can be quite precise because the black death of 1348-50 killed so many skilled workers and producers of food and materials, that the production

of art dropped in quality and quantity throughout Europe for decades afterwards. The fine quality of this work was not matched again. Instead, these works were cut up and adapted in later years for changes of purpose or style. You can see angels and other figures cut away at the top and sides.

The structural element of the design of the embroidery is of floriated gothic architecture mounted on pillars of intertwining oak branches with leaves and acorns, usually symbolising strength and endurance. Heraldic heads of ‘leopards’, really lions, of the royal house of England are placed in prominent positions, since this vestment was being made during the reign of the Plantagenet King, Edward III (ruled 1327-1377), and his muchloved wife, Queen Philippa.

Also dividing the panels are rows of angels carrying flaming stars typically known in heraldry as estoiles. One of these also shines over the child Jesus in the central panel to guide the three kings, while another spins behind the right shoulder of Mary as Queen in the top panel. This positioning is unusual as the moon usually signifies Mary and the sun, Christ, but in the top panel here these symbols are reversed.

Staying with the top panel we find the Blessed Virgin Mary and her son, both crowned, sharing an intricately wrought throne-like bench of ecclesiastical form symbolising the Church. Gazing intently at each other, they manifest quite different roles from that same seat. Christ holds his right hand in blessing and his left in guarding the orb that represents his kingdom. The Queen, on the other hand, has both hands raised and joined towards him in intercession. It may be no coincidence that Queen Philippa is known to have regularly interceded with her husband for others and to

have been greatly respected by him in diplomatic affairs.

Both Mary and Jesus wear royal cloaks with white fur lining, but Christ’s cloak has the more expensive ermine, while Mary’s cloak is lined with vair, which is made of squirrel skins. She wears this in all three panels, as do the kings in the centre section. Vair is frequently found in the heraldry of this period, displayed in its distinctive pattern of small panels cut from the white fur of the underbelly contrasted with panels of darker fur from the squirrel’s back.

The gestures made by the gracious elongated hands throughout this work are all significant and animate each scene with a sense of lively dialogue. In the lowest panel, notice how the Angel Gabriel holds his right hand with the thumb resting over three fingers (for the Trinity) and points a single finger towards Mary with the phrase on the scroll giving his words: AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA DNS (Dominus) TECUM, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you’ (Lk 1:28). Mary’s hands give her response. Her right hand is stretched out in a welcome greeting and her left touches the book on the pillared reading stand beside her where it is written: ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI, ‘Behold the handmaiden of the Lord’ (Lk 1:38).

In the central panel, unusually, Mary is wearing a crown and holding a sceptre and is seated on a throne at the visit of the wise men. Thus, she is depicted as equally royal as they are and with the same vair lining for her cloak. It is possible that this is also a tribute to Queen Philippa who would have been recently raised fully to the throne of England in 1330 after the removal of her mother-in-law and the birth of her first born that same year.

The three kings depict the rulers of the gentile world come to honour the

true King of Kings. They also, typically, represent the three ages of man. The oldest, with white hair, is on his knees, his crown removed; the humblest and most knowing. Later the three wise men are often painted as from three corners or races of the earth but that comes later.

The scene of the epiphany was popular in the West from the earliest

times of the Church as we know from Christian art in the Roman catacombs. This is partly because the scene depicts the first gentiles coming to Christ and so was favoured among pagan converts of Rome and the West. More than this, however, it depicts the whole of the redeemed human race returning the goods of creation to their Creator and

the return of all Christendom to the true King. In this way the event signifies the culmination of all things in Christ (Eph 1:10).

The Chichester-Constable chasuble, English, late 14th century.

MetropolitanMuseumofArt,NewYork.

Through the incarnation

Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour? You could be forgiven for thinking that the idea of personal faith belongs to Evangelical Protestants and Depeche Mode. Your own personal Jesus, someone to hear your prayers, someone who cares. Catholics, you may think, don’t really go in for that kind of thing. Especially not traditional ones.

Catholics seem to be more about institutions, rituals a nd outward appearances. The most important thing is to be a member of the correct Church and go to the correct Mass (in the correct language of course) and tick the right boxes. Gotta tick those boxes. The great thing about rules is finding a way to be technically righteous without having to be actually righteous. Prayer is nice I’m sure but… Why do I need to talk to God when I ca n get a Priest to do it for me?

I’m kidding of course, but this idea of traditional Catholicism as a ‘Revenge of the Sith’ Pharisee comeback is quite common. I once heard a homily where the Priest explained that Jesus had got rid of the Pharisees but in the Middle Ages the Pharisees ‘got back in again’ – fortunately, he explained, the Second Vatican Council kicked them back out. Not the same literal Pharisees

you understand, he’s talking about metaphorical Pharisees. It’s code for ‘people who want the Church to uphold some teaching I disagree with’.

Our Lord’s problem with the Pharisees of course wasn’t that they followed the Old Testament law. God gave Moses the law and following it was quite obviously what people were supposed to do No, His problem with the Pharisees was that they followed the literal letter of the law where they had to but took full advantage of any loopholes to live however they wanted. They didn’t actually love God. They had found a way to ‘play the system’ to their own advantage.

I’m sure some traditional Catholics fall into this way of thinking, but it ’s a problem that goes way beyond traditional Catholicism. We’ve all got lapsed relatives who say things like, ‘I’m sure if God loves me so much He won’t mind if I skip Mass’ – a kind of novus Phariseeism – a plan to get into heaven on a technicality while essentially being free to do whatever I like.

Before we get too sm ug, we should remember how high the bar is set. Let’s say you have prophetic powers, understand all mysteries a nd knowledge, have the faith to move mountains, give away all of your goods

to feed the poor and give up your body to be burned. St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians has news for you: If you do all that stuff but have not love, you a re nothing.

So, it ’s all well a nd good saying, ‘if God loves me, He’ll let me in to heaven,’ but the more relevant question is going to be – do you love God?

You may be tempted to a nswer in the aff irmative, but don’t be so hasty. What does it even mean to love an infinite, all powerful, omnipotent God? How ca n you love a God you ca n barely even comprehend? That is why the traditional follow up question is - do you know God? Fortunately, Our Lord did not remain in the abstract. Through the inca rnation God beca me ma n - or rather, one specific ma n: Jesus Christ who told us, ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’.

It’s interesting to notice this pattern of God’s action in the world. God never seems content to remain general but always more specific, individual, personal.

Hearing about a ma n who lived 2000 years ago could seem a bit remote – so the next question becomes, ‘Do you love your neighbour? If you do not love your brother who you ca n see, how ca n you love God who you ca nnot see?’ See how it gets ever more specific? It’s not enough to love ‘people’; you have to love the person in front of you.

So, I think we all need to make a special effort to be more specific about our faith. It’s good that you care about the poor, but what about that guy who is always begging outside the local corner shop? It’s good that you want to do something for the young people in the pa rish, but do you know their names? It’s good that I want to evangelise but it would help if I actually told some specific person something specific about Jesus. You get the idea. But it ’s ha rd. Well yes, there is that. Sorr y. Did you think getting to heaven was going to be easy?

We all need to make a special effort to be more specific about our faith, says James Preece

‘What does it even mean to love an infinite, all powerful, omnipotent God?’

World News

Paul Waddington reports from around the Globe

Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage

The 11th annual Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, now with the additional title, Ad Petri Sedem, took place in Rome over the last weekend in October 2022 to coincide with the Feast of Christ the King.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, presided over Solemn Vespers at the Basilica of St Mary of the Martyrs, bet ter known as the Pantheon, on the Friday evening.

On the Saturday morning, there was adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the Basilica of Sa n Celso e Giulia no, the Rome church of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. This was followed by a procession passing over the Ponte Sant’Angelo to St Peter’s Basilica, where a Solemn Pontifical Mass was offered at the altar of the Throne of St Peter. The celebrant was Msg Marco Agostini, one of the Pontifical Masters of Ceremonies.

On the Sunday, Solemn Mass of Christ the King was offered in the FSSP’s Church of the Sancta Trinita dei Pelegrini. This was celebrated by Msg Patrick Descourtieux, of the Dicaster y for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Many commentators were surprised that the Traditional Mass was allowed to take place in St Peter’s Basilica in the light of the restrictions imposed by Traditionis Custodes. Another surprise was the involvement of Ca rdinal Zuppi.

Hotly debated in France

France is arguably the country where issues around the celebration of Mass in its Traditional Form are most hotly debated.

In a n enigmatic move, the Vatican Secretary of State, Ca rdinal Perolin, sent a message to the bishops of the

French Episcopal Conference meeting at Lourdes in November. It included the following paragraph:

‘Pope Francis also invites you to the greatest solicitude and fatherhood towards those people - especially young people,priests and laity - who are disoriented by the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes, which you will be working to implement. They are often wounded sheep who need to be accompanied, listened to and given time.’

There do not seem to be any reports indicating how the French bishops received this part of the message from Ca rdinal Perolin, although a development in the Diocese of Versailles may be relevant.

On Friday, 9 December 2022, t wo parishioners of the Church of Saint Germain in Sain t Germain en Laye, met with Monsignor Luc Crepy, Bishop of Versailles, along with Fathers Marc Boulle, Vicar General, a nd Bruno L’Hirondel, pastor of the pa rish, to discuss Latin Mass provision in the city. It is said that “cordial a nd fraternal” exchanges took place over a period of an hour a nd a half. However, it seems

that the only decision taken was that they should meet again in March or April this year “in order to take advantage of this time to implement mutual signs of communion”.

In the meantime, the Latin Mass continues to be offered each Sunday on the steps of the church, outside f irmly locked doors.

Latin Mass discussions in the US During November 2022, several articles discussing the Latin Mass have appeared in United States newspapers. Most notably, the New York Times carried an extensive and well-written article under the heading – Old Latin Mass Finds New American Audience, Despite Pope’s Disapproval.

The New York Times had sent a reporter to Detroit, where the Institute of Christ the King have their Shrine Church of St Joseph. After discussing the background issues, the article included comments from several members of the congregation. Some described how they had either been brought to the Faith or had returned to the Faith after experiencing the Latin Mass.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, presided over Solemn Vespers at the Basilica of St Mary of the Martyrs, better known as the Pantheon

© Society of St Hugh of Cluny

The Order of the White Rose Charles A. Coulombe looks at the life of Catholic convert Bertram Ashburnham

In some ways, British and Continental history are intertwined and reflective of each other. The struggle between two versions of governance and Monarchy that rocked the Three Kingdoms of the British Isles from 1642 to 1746 would be mirrored in 19th century Western Europe. In the later struggles, the roles of Cavaliers and Jacobites would be taken by the French Legitimists, Portuguese Miguelists, and Spanish Carlists. As with their English, Scots, and Irish predecessors, for these latter groups it was not merely a question of which branch of the Royal family would reign, but the very nature of the Monarchy over which the legitimate line would preside. Rather than the sort of Crowned Republic ushered in by William and Mary and secured at Culloden, the European groups mentioned fought for a traditional Kingship of Altar, Throne, Subsidiarity and Solidarity. Subsidiarity would have been called local liberties or pr ovincial rig hts bac k then; Solidarity as Class Co -operation rather than Class Conflict – the idea being that all classes a re pa rt of a national fa mily, with, in those days, the Monarch as the common Father of all.

These developments were not unnoticed in Great Britain. Despite the aid given the liberal parties in each of these countries by such as Lords Melbourne and Palmerston, their opponents did not lack for British sympathisers – the Carlists in particular. These had emerged when, in 1837, Spain’s King Fernando VII had violated his dynasty’s succession laws by declaring his daughter to be his successor rather than his brother, Don Carlos, who was his legal heir – liberals rallied to the former, Traditionalists (the Carlists) to the latter. There were quite a few Carlist allies among the Catholic families of the United Kingdom: Henry Stapleton, 9th Baron Beaumont (1848–1892), builder of Carlton Towers, ser ved in the Carlist

army during the second Carlist War in the 1870s; James Errington, nephew of the Archbishop, also joined, as did the American-born John de Haviland, later York Herald. But few of these Carlist supporters attempted to apply (in a sense) Carlism to Great Britain. One who did was Ber tram Ashburnham, the 5th Earl of Ashburnham.

The Ashburnhams had been at Ashburnham in Sussex since the 12th century, and later acquired properties in Wales. Successively made Barons and Earls, they had been steadfast supporters of the Stuarts until about 1710. John Ashburnham, a loyal courtier to Charles I, was given the shirt, drawers, and garters worn by the King at his judicial murder on 30 January 1649, and the blood-stained sheet that was used to cover his body – as well as a lock of the King’s hair encased in a glass and gold pendent. These relics were kept by the family for generations. The 5th Earl was born in 1840 and educated at Westminster School and in France. As was typical in his family, young Bertram was active in court circles, and was part of the delegation that brought Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph the Order of the Garter in 1867. Without a doubt both this experience and his time in France played a part in his conversion to Catholicism, which took place in 1872. Four years later, he succeeded to his father’s title and lands in England and Wales.

Now a man of means, the newlyminted Earl wanted to benefit both the Church and his fellow man. Having built a chapel at Ashburnham Place, he found himself a parishioner of St Thomas of Canterbury, St Leonard’s-onSea. In 1882 he provided funding for a school and chapel for what became the parish of Our Lady Immaculate and Saint Michael in Battle, Sussex.

But the Earl was not content with purely religious matters. As mentioned, many wealthier English

Catholics were concerned with the Spanish Carlist cause, and the new convert enthusiastically joined their ranks – rapidly becoming the Carlist heir’s chief agent in Britain. But seeing the many resemblances between the Carlist ideology and that abandoned by his ancestors, he began to wonder if some of Carlism’s tenets might not be applied with great benefit to the problems facing the British Isles. Would not an effective Monarch rule according to the true national interest, and not merely act as a figleaf for the contending political interests? Would not the local liberties being fought for in Spain soothe the centralised United Kingdom’s stresses and strains between English, Irish, Scots, and Welsh? This led him to two different efforts.

The first, inspired by the Three Kingdoms’ own histor y, was NeoJacobitism. In 1886, the Earl published a pamphlet in which he solicited Jacobite supporters – both for the purpose of commemorating the nowextinct-in-the-male-line Stuarts, and for

Bertram Ashburnham: a cordial relationship with Victoria

strengthening the existing Monarchy. One of his first respondents was the Anglo-French Melville Henry Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny. Together they and a number of others founded on 10 June of that year the Order of the White Rose. Its rolls soon became a sort of Who’s Who of the aesthetes and Celtic Revivalists of the day: Frederick George Lee, Henry Jenner, Kit ty Lee Jenner, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Robert Edward Francillon, Andrew La ng, Lionel Johnson, a nd Herbert Vivian, to name a few.

Such members were of course attracted to the Romantic side of Jacobitism, and were a very heterogenous group – Irish, Scots, Welsh, and Cornish Nationalists; AngloCatholic devotees of King Charles I; anti-materialists; and Catholics of an historical and literary bent. Their vision of a British Isles freed from the horrors of modernity may well have been fanciful, but it was not without insight. Their first at tempt at a major demonstration was to be a Requiem Mass for Bonnie Prince Charlie – de Jure King Charles III – on his centennial in 1888. This was to be offered at the Carmelite Church in Kensington on 31 January; unfortunately for the Earl and his associates, the Prior of the Friars was ordered by Cardinal Manning to desist. While that mysterious prelate, Frederick George Lee offered an Evensong Catholics could attend as a substitute, it was obvious that the Catholic hierarchy in Great Britain had no interest in any sort of Jacobite revival, being quite happy to maintain good relations with Queen Victoria.

On that score, however, they need not have worried. The Earl, although aware that de Jure the Stuart claims had gone through the female line to a Bavarian Princess, maintained a very cordial relationship with Victoria. Thus it was that he was able to convince the Queen the following year to lend a number of items to a Jacobite exhibition at the New Galler y. In 1890, the Order began the now-hallowed tradition of laying a wreath in honour of Charles I at his statue at Trafalgar Square. But a fissure began to erupt between two currents within the Order; those who like the Earl wished to infuse the existing government and culture of the Islands with the Jacobite spirit, and those who wished to unseat the Queen and replace her with the Bavarian Princess. These

latter left the Order in 1891 to found the Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland, although the Earl stayed on good terms with them.

In keeping with Carlism’s and Jacobitism’s commitment to local liberties – or, as we would say, subsidia rity – Bertram became committed to the idea of Irish Home Rule – albeit as Monarchy, as in the days of Charles I and the Confederation of Kilkenny, or J ames II a nd the Patrio t Pa rliament. In the same year that he founded the Or der of the White R ose, he also started the British Home Rule Association, w hich beg an lif e with a mass meeting. The Earl was a forceful supporter of the cause – although he opposed the establishment of an Irish Republic.

In the aftermath of the Spanish defeat by the United States in 1898, Carlist hopes again soared. In 1899, Lord Ashburnham sent his private yacht – loaded with arms and men – to Spain to spark a new revolt. On 17 June, however, the ship was seized by the authorities in a French por t, and while the crew and men were permitted to depart, the 3000 rifles were not.

The Earl had married Emily Chapman, a tradesman’s daughter, in 1888. They had one daughter, Lady Catherine, t wo years later. With the failure of his Spanish attempt and the death of Lady Ashburnham in 1900, Ber tram spent ever more time on his estates, concentrating on his daughter’s upbringing. In 1912, Lady Catherine entered the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Roehampton, although she would not persevere; her father died the following year, and titles and land went to his Anglican younger brother. The 6th Earl would sell the other properties save Ashburnham Place; dying childless in 1924, he left the old house to Lady Catherine, now once more an unmarried laywoman. She died in 1954, leaving Ashburnham Place and enormous death duties to her Anglican priest-nephew the Rev. John Bickersteth, who after pulling down parts of the building, turned Ashburnham Place into the, “Christian Meeting Place it is now ”. He remained custodian of the Charles I relics until his death in 1994, at which time they were taken custody of by the Ashburnham Heritage Trust, which in turn has placed them on long-term loan with the Carisbrooke Castle Museum on the

Isle of Wight, site of one of the doomed King’s periods of imprisonment. In addition to these, one may look to the Catholic Church in Bat tle, the Wreath Laying ceremony at Trafalgar Square and the organisations that sponsor it – the Royal Stuart Society, Society of King Charles the Martyr, and the Royal Martyr Church Union – as elements of the Earl’s legacy.

It may not seem like much at first glance, but Lord Ashburnham’s life and work – although rarely crowned with success – does give us much to ponder. For him, all his political efforts and belief were sparked by his religious ones. The collective experience of Western Countries – and the Church – since his death in 1913 suggests that the questions he raised in his time have yet to be properly answered. Although the Church continues to champion Subsidiarity and Solidarity, can these really exist without the common organising principle established by State acceptance of Christianity of some form, and more particularly of Catholicism – in a word, the very issues being debated under such names as Integralism and the Common Good. Moreover, in a severely “Democratic” era where the elected representatives of the people have demonstrated in the past few years their ability to do as they please with their subjects, ought we not to re-examine the role of Monarchy? Cer tainly, the new King ’s taking the name of “Charles III” must remind us of the roles of the first three Kings who bore that name.

It may well be that the efforts and writings of Ber tram, 5th Earl of Ashburnham and his colleagues are more relevant now than they have been in decades. The closest heirs to the Stuarts have no interest in the British and Commonwealth thrones; but an understanding of the Stuart heritage can certainly help lead to better arrangements than those now prevailing in the King ’s realms. Indeed, as Fr Aidan Nichols points out in his work, The Realm: “Constitutionally this realm remains a Christian country, and that will remain so until there is intentional constitutional change to the contrary. The bonds of the social covenant are still meant to be under God, in the light of the Gospel.” So it was in Lord Ashburnham’s time: he had the courage to ask if those bones can be made to live.

Changing hearts and minds

Mary O’Regan on the grandparents of aborted children  and

no idea and no awareness of this. They may lament their lack of grandchildren without ever knowing that one of their children may have aborted a child.

I knew him and his girlfriend well. They were a good couple, but his parents were dead set against them marrying. Their reasons were unreasonable; they thought their son should marry someone bet ter; that there was a superior woman out there, but the whole thing was based on fantasy.

marriage meant they share the blame for the culture of death – and they don’t even know it.

Many problems that lead to abortion arise from parents being obsessed with their children’s self-esteem. The result is they produce adults who feel so special that they cannot bear to take second place – even to a child. Making a child feel special is often done with the best of in tentions, but it ca n lead to disaster if overdone.

In the lead-up to the Irish abor tion referendum of 2018, many people told me off. They were upset I had not campaigned full time, flat-out to sway people from voting for “social” abortion to be made legal in Ireland.

I did my best, but some even wanted me to give up my job, stop writing and overnight try to change hearts and minds to fight for something I knew had been lost long before I’d been born.

The pressure from them got so bad that I stopped using social media. When asked what I thought the result would be, I said that t wo thirds would vote for abor tion. This came to pass, and I’d had a hunch it would, even though I’m not that bright and quite frankly one chromosome from a potato.

But I was informed by my experience of tr ying to persuade on a one-to -one basis hundreds of women, several Irish, out of aborting their child.

In the aftermath of Ireland voting for abortion on demand I wrote in this column how Irish women who drink in early pregnancy want to abort lest the child has problems. But I’ve been asked by a few older people to comment on something that is pertinent to both the Irish and to every grandparent who has lost a babe in the abortion machine.

It's a sad fact that many people in their seventies do not know that they are the grandparents of an aborted child. It’s galling to think that they have

It was also deeply unfair because the girl he wanted to marry was good and hard-working, just a tad too ordinary and too young at heart, which time would have corrected. Aggressive measures were taken to prevent their marriage. When she got pregnant, she went to a London clinic in secret. Had they been married, she would not have done so.

Married couples are much less likely to go for abortion and the more normal a nd healthy the ma rriage, the less chance of abortion.

In this case the young woman must accept her share of blame but she didn’t want to be the girl who was always told she was not good eno ugh b y na rcissistic in-l aws w hich exposed her own narcissistic tendencies. Her lack of humility shows, b ut the fail ure of w ould-be gr andparents to help or encourage a

I’ve met men who are so convinced of their own special importance that they find it hard or even impossible when they are faced with the prospect of parenthood. They find it unbearable when their pregnant girlfriends or wives are getting too much attention. The resentment this creates is often focused on the baby.

This may seem disturbing and rare, but it ’s all too common, just not acknowledged as such. This f irst ca me to my attention when I was helping women who were pregnant after undergoing IVF; having desperately wanted a child they suddenly found they were under pressure to have an abortion. Even the “planned” babies are not safe it seems. And those who said that the “ wanted” babies at least were immune from harm were often those who voted to allow “social” abor tion in the first place.

the perils of being too special

‘I’ve met men who are so convinced of their own special importance that they find it hard or even impossible when they are faced with the prospect of parenthood…’

Piccini Memoro Rosso

Sebastian Morello on a wonderful Mediterranean potion

There was a time when I thought of becoming a Franciscan, and I even spent a few days at a friary of the Friars Minor to get a feel for their way of life. Having chosen quite another life altogether, divine providence has allowed me to live something of the Seraphic Father’s charism by keeping me on the brink of evangelical poverty for much of my adult life.

Obviously, when one is struggling for dosh, one must think carefully about how to use one’s funds, and chief among such considerations is that of how to get hold of decent yet affordable wine. In rare spasms of egalitarian fervour—from which I quickly recover— it strikes me as supremely important that good, cheap wine be known to as many people as possible. I presently write in one such revolutionary fit, and it has led me to shout from the rooftops the praises of Memoro Rosso, by the Tuscan winemaker Piccini.

On marrying my very patient wife, due to my somewhat Franciscan bank account all I could provide to my beloved was a basement in Thornton Heath. Living on a heath in Surrey may sound lovely, but Thornton Heath is in fact a suburb of Croydon, and boasts being the fourth most violent area of that borough, which is itself the most crime-ridden area of London.

One day, friends of ours arrived at our underground squat; in turn, we needed wine. Off I wandered to Thornton Heath’s Tesco Express and, shooting in the dark, I took off the shelf a few bottles of Piccini’s Memoro. I chose this wine on the grounds that it was at tractively-priced, a blend, Italian, and I liked the cod-Renaissance label— and in that order. That wonderful evening in the ‘hood’ (as the youths say) was almost a decade ago, and I’ve been drinking the stuff ever since.

Piccini winemakers, a family-owned business to this day, is something of an empire, with fourth generation Mario Piccini as its emperor. With its headquarters in the heart of Tuscany’s Chianti Classico region, the company now owns seven estates across Italy. The

various regions where Piccini has made itself present are brought together in the extraordinary Memoro Rosso blend (a winner, by the way, of the much-coveted Decanter Gold Award). The blend comprises Primitivo from Basilicata, Nero d’Avola from Sicily, Merlot from the Veneto, and to my surprise the always disappointing Montepulciano from the Abruzzo—which it turns out just needs to be mixed with other grape types to be salvaged. Thus, grapes have been brought together from every corner of the peninsula to concoct this Mediterranean potion. And whilst there seems something devilishly Garibaldiesque about unif ying Italy in a bottle, the outcome is frankly fantastic.

If y ou lik e a f ull-bodied Ama rone, b ut don’t lik e the cost, then this is the wine f or y ou. I t’s d ark, v ery d ark; in fact, the l abel describes the wine as “r eminiscent of por t”, a nd at 14% I’m inc lined to agree. Made with partially dried grapes for a smooth and yet dense f lavour, this is a n extr emely ric h red with a powerful bouquet of every winter berry and sundried currant y ou ca n ima gine, mix ed with a romas of d ark c hocolate, es presso, a nd grandpa’s pipe smoke. With a finish that just keeps kicking till the next si p, this is cer tainly w hat the I talians would refer to as a “vino da meditazione”.

Such meditation is probably best practiced among the vines of Tuscany. On the o ther ha nd, it ’s bet ter in my vie w to drink the good local wine that doesn’t travel when in those hallowed hills. Piccini’s Memoro Rosso is as perfect on the patio in a spring evening in Bedfordshire as it is by a roaring f ire after a long mid-Se ason win ter w alk, or indeed si pped in a ho le in Thornton Heath.

Tuscany is in fact the part of Italy—that city of leaning architecture to be precise—from which the first Franciscan mission came to Eng land in 1224, led b y B lessed Agnellus. He established a school at Oxf ord, w hose F ranciscan s pirit soon animated the whole university. E ventually, fr om that le arned city our Lady’s Immaculate Conception would be defended against the Dominicans in Paris by the F ranciscan Dun Sco tus, w ho, as Ger ard M anley H opkins p ut it, “f ired F rance f or M ary witho ut s pot.” In turn, her e in Albion I’m con tent to embr ace my Franciscanism in meditative moments enjoyed with a g lass of M emoro R osso, r aising it f irst to o ur B lessed M other, w hose sinlessness w as defended in Blighty by the child of a Tuscan mission.

The Holy Face

Alberto Carosa on a powerhouse of holiness and grace

Is it just a coincidence that the most prominent promoters of the devotion to the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ are on the path to canonization? I think not. Given the countless graces and even miracles in the wake of this devotion, it is cer tainly worth knowing more about it.

First of all, how did the Feast of the Holy Face and its devotion come about? Well, it was established by Pius XII in 1958 on the day before Ash Wednesday.

Everything comes from the Lord's visions to Sister Marie de Saint Pierre (1816-1848) and to Blessed Maria Pierina de Micheli (1890-1945) Sister Marie de Saint Pierre died at the age of 31 after living in mor tification for and reparation of offences against Jesus. In a vision of 1844, Jesus told her: “ Those who contemplate the wounds on my Face here on earth, will contemplate it resplendent with glory in Heaven!”

Another apostle of the Holy Face was Léon Papin Dupont (1797-1876), a kind of spiritual son of Sister Marie and proclaimed Venerable by Pius XII. He was in close contact with Carmel of Tours where Sister Marie de Saint Pierre received revelations from Heaven on devotion to the Holy Face. When Sister Marie died, Léon started to spread the devotion. On Holy Saturday 1851, a young woman suffering from a disease in her eyes went to Léon's house to pray in front of the image of a copy of Veronica's Veil and recovered after anointing her eyes with oil from a lamp. This first miraculous event was followed by many others.

Among the Apostles of the Holy Face there are also Mother Maria Pierina and the Venerable Father Ildebrando Gregori (1894-1985), her spiritual guide After Maria Pierina’s death, Father Ildebrando, although already engaged in various charitable initiatives for the poor and the needy, fulfilled this new task with great energy and passed it on as a charism to a Congregation of Benedictine nuns, the Reparatory Sisters of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ (BRSV). He arranged for the same mission to be conferred on the Benedictine Sylvestrines, to whom

the Father belonged and whom he directed as abbot for 20 years from 1945 to 1965. In addition to the Giulianova Monastery, they dedicated the Shrine of Bassano Romano and Clifton in the United States to the Holy Face.

Father Abbot Gregori had a medal struck, which did not fail to produce an impressive series of miracles. For example, according to his testimony, during the Second World War all those who had been given the Medal of the Holy Face, expressly approved by the Holy See, escaped death. By the will of Paul VI a copy of the medal was left on the moon by American astronauts. Pope Francis proclaimed Father Gregori Venerable on 7 November 2014.

In his apparitions to the t wo nuns, Jesus had also said that he would be pleased if his Holy Face could be honoured not only on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, but generally every Tuesday and especially on Tuesdays during Lent, a request that has become regular practice with the BRSV nuns in their convent of St Francis in Poggio Cinolfo, where as a rule on this day of each week the morning Mass is followed by Eucharistic adoration.

This convent might seem to be located in the middle of nowhere, but its importance as a hub for the dissemination of the devotion to the Holy Face ought not be underestimated, especially as it has the highly symbolic value of being situated in Poggio Cinolfo, the very place where the founder of BRSV, Venerable Abbott Gregori, was born.

Mother Pierina’s story reached its climax when Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed her Blessed on 30 May 2010. In one of her apparitions to Mother Pierina, on 31 May 1938, Our Lady had linked four supernatural promises to this devotion.

“All those who wear a scapular like this, and make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament every Tuesday, to offer reparation for the outrages that the Holy Face received in his painful passion and receives every day in the Eucharistic sacrament i) will be strengthened in faith, ii) be made ready to defend it, iii) will overcome interior and exterior difficulties, iv) moreover they will die of an unpainful death under the loving gaze of my divine Son”.

A more recent apostle of the Holy Face is Father Domenico da Cese (1905-1978). Born Emidio Petracca, his childhood was marked by the tragic e arthquake of 1915 in Avezzano in which two of his sisters died. In 1921 he joined the Capuchin fria rs a nd was an apostle of the Holy Face of Manoppello, where f or 400 years pilgrims have been venerating a veil on which the face of Jesus Christ is imprinted with open eyes and the signs of the Passion. This veil is traditionally believed to be the cloth with which Veronica wiped the holy face of Jesus.

Father Domenico da Cese died in Turin after being hit by a car in September 1978, and on 27 July 2013, his cause for beatification began.

PoggioCinolfo:theconventofSaintFrancisoftheReparatoryNunsoftheHolyFaceofJesus

Welcome to Mallow Street!

The move from Macklin Street to Mallow Street towards the end of last year went very smoothly. As with a ny move, it was an opportunity to clear out years of accumulated rubbish and to find things that we thought were lost.

Mallow Street is bigger than any office we’ve had before, which means we can divide it into three distinct areas: a working a rea, a shop a nd a rchive a rea, a nd a meeting a rea. If you are ever in the Old Street part of London, do pay us a visit… tea a nd coffee are always in abundance!

Moving offices is not the only change that has taken place. After working seven years as the Society’s Publicist, Clare Bowskill decided the time has come for the Society to have a new perspective on the way it portrays itself on social media and in other ways, so she will be leaving us and handing over the reins to Portia Berry-Kilby. Clare has done tremendous work promoting the Society’s image and events. We owe her a great debt of gratitude.

Perhaps the biggest change to take place is my retirement, at the end of March, as General Manager.

Having reached pensionable age, I feel the time has come to step down. I can say, with hand on heart, that it has been a pleasure and a privilege to have been able to serve the Society in this capacity for the past eight years. Recent attempts to restrict the Traditional Latin Mass have made me more and more conscious of the work, pain and sacrifices made by members in the early days of the Society’s history. I leave hoping I have made a positive contribution, albeit small, to the foundation which they laid. I wish the Society well for the future.

Alan Frost: February 2023

ANSWERS TO WINTER 2022 CROSSWORD

Across: 1 Maniple 5 Lucas 8 Nil 9 Imitation 10 Olive

11 Manichees 14 Adventure 18 Quota 21 Tablature 22 Ash

23 Mamre 24 Absalom Down: 1 Mandorla 2 Nellie

3 Philemon 4 Edison 5 Leah 6 Clique 7 Sine 12 Chequers

13 Seraphim 15 Verbum 16 Ursula 17 For All 19 Atom 20 Ease

Clues Across

1 English 13th C Bishop Saint of Chichester (7)

5 See 15 Down

8 Bavarian border town, birthplace of Albert Einstein (3)

9 Feb. 14 Saint something of a card? (9)

10 City in the Holy Land and grandson of Ham (5)

11 Behaving in opposition to one of the Cardinal Virtues (9)

14 Inappropriate if vestments wrong size (9)

18 Regional magistrate with a Tale for Chaucer (5)

21 Former seminary in Lancashire, closed 1992 (9)

22 Reference to a bride’s maiden name at birth (3)

23 ‘Kyrie eleison’, ‘Lord have -----' (5)

24 Name by which Thomas the Apostle also known (7)

Clues Down

1 Social Contract philosopher or French post-Impressionist painter (8)

2 Divine work by Dante including his ‘Inferno’ (6)

3,17 & 19: ‘Thy kingdom come’ in the Mass (8,6,4)

4 Girl’s toy and Dominican provide large untidy portion of food! (6)

5 ‘Cui ----‘, who benefits from an action? (4)

6 Superfluous clue (6)

7 They have it in Parliament if motion defeated (4)

12 Achieved improvement in standing (8)

13 Indefatigable in need of bicycle parts we hear (8)

15 & 5 Across: G.K. Chesterton’s sleuthing priest (6,5)

16 An entity that John Donne reminds man he is not (6)

17 See 3 Down

19 See 3 Down

20 ‘Treasure in ----‘, autobiography of Abp. Fulton Sheen (4)

Entries for the spring 2023 competition should be sent to Latin Mass Society, 9 Mallow Street, London EC1Y 8RQ or scanned and emailed to info@lms.org.uk, to arrive by Friday 10th March 2023.

The winner of the winter 2022 competition is Mr Zieba of London, who receives a copy of the LMS Wall Calendar and AShortHistoryoftheRomanMass

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St Catherine’s Trust Summer School 2023, date for your diary: this will take place Sun 30 Jul to Sat 5 Aug at St Cassian’s, Kintbury RG17 9SR.

Iota Unum talks: 24 Feb Dr Caroline Farey; 24 Mar Dr Sebastian Morello; 29 Apr James Bogle; 19 May Dr Joseph Shaw; 30 June Prof Thomas Pink. Parish hall at Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street (please enter through 24 Golden Sq, London W1F 9JR). St Tarcisius Server Training Days / Guild of St Clare Vestment Mending Days: Sat 18 Feb St Mary Moorfields; Sat 22 Apr St Dominic’s Haverstock Hill; Sat 17 Jun St Mary Moorfields. Please book through the LMS website for the Server Training; email guildofstclare@lms.org.uk com  for the Vestment Mending. In both cases all levels of skill are welcome!

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Withermarsh Green Chapter: next meeting 11 Feb. Please email Sarah Ward sarahcampling@ hotmail.com for details.

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Northern Chapter: 25 Feb at the York Oratory. Please email Clare Megarity clarefm0325@ gmail.com for details.

Birmingham & Black Country Chapter: meets monthly on last Saturdays; email Julie Roberts julieroberts1708@hotmail.com for details.

Oxford Chapter meets fortnightly on Thursday evenings; email Clare Auty justsixkids@ btinternet.com for details.

Oxford Chapter: Bobbin Lace for Beginners. Ongoing course, fortnightly on Thursday evenings, Oxford. Email as above for details.

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