Mass of Ages Spring 2021

Mass of Ages The quarterly magazine of the Latin Mass Society

Issue 207 – Spring 2021 – FREE

Ancient discipline: fasting for Catholics A gift for Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane Plus: news, views, online Mass listings and nationwide reports

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Contents

CONTENTS

5 Chairman’s Message – Joseph Shaw on coping with the pandemic 6 LMS Year Planner – Notable events 7 Liturgical calendar 8 Lenten Penance

We should learn from Challoner, says Fr Timothy Finigan 10 To the highest standard…

Joseph Shaw reports on an LMS gift of a set of faldstool covers to

Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane 12 Letters

Readers have their say 13 Highly prized Matthew Schellhorn talks to Dominic Veall, winner of the 2020 Schellhorn Prize for Sacred Music Composition competition, which is supported by the Latin Mass Society 14 A cap of blood

Mary O’Regan remembers Girolamo Savonarola 15 Roman report Alberto Carosa remembers the late Don Giuseppe Vallauri, a giant of the Traditional Liturgy 16 Reports from around the country

What’s happening where you are 23 Family matters

In this, the first of a new series, James Preece looks at the perils of a ‘contraceptive mentality’ 24 Art and devotion Caroline Farey discusses a remarkable modern painting of St Joachim Entrusting the Blessed Virgin Mary to St Joseph 26 Reform of the Reform

David Gornall SJ looks at where we are now, fifty-five years after the Second Vatican Council 28 Architecture Paul Waddington on a splendid Victorian church in the North East, designed by Archibald Matthias Dunn 30 Mass listings 36

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Ancient discipline Joseph Shaw looks at fasting for Catholics Good works Charles A. Coulombe on the life of John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute

40 News from the FSSP…

By Alan Frost 41 Wine Sebastian Morello in praise of ‘common culture’, the traditional English pub and Trappist ales 42 Crossword 42 Classified advertisements 43 LMS Guild of St Clare Sponsorship Scheme The Latin Mass Society 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH Tel: 020 7404 7284 editor@lms.org.uk Mass of Ages No. 207 High Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Warrington, 2020. © John Aron

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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.

25 39 PATRONS: Sir Adrian Fitzgerald, Bt; Rt Hon. Lord Gill; Sir James Macmillan, CBE; Lord Moore of Etchingham; Prof. Thomas Pink.

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

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.

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OBITUARY

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CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

A concern for truth Joseph Shaw on coping with the pandemic

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s one lockdown to maintain continuity with the London follows another, training schola, the Houghton Schola, it has become with online training and online sung impossible to say when Compline. our regular events will The Guild of St Clare, our affiliated recommence. We hope to group of needleworkers which makes move the date of the Priest’s Training and repairs vestments, has been hit Conference, originally planned for the hard by the cancellation of last autumn’s spring of 2020, for a third time, into this Sewing Retreat; this spring’s retreat will summer. If it does turn out to be possible clearly go the same way, though booking to have residential events by then, we will is open for the autumn Sewing Retreat also have the St Catherine’s Trust Summer School (1-7 August), the Residential Latin Course (16-21 August), and the Walsingham Pilgrimage (26-29 August). If we can’t have these events, then we won’t, and they will have to skip a second year.

The Latin Mass Society has been adapting to make the most of the onlinefocused possibilities which remain to us. At the time of writing, we have released six ‘Iota Unum’ Podcasts, and have begun recording a second season: search for ‘Latin Mass Society’ on podcast providers such as Spotify. The Society has been sponsoring the participation of seminarians and clergy in online Latin courses led by Matthew Spencer, which are ongoing (there 'Brother doesn't like people to think he's one are details in this issue’s of the ultra-progressives.'

Classified Advertisements).

From Cracks in the Clouds by Dom Hubert Van Zeller New videos are also planned. (erstwhile Brother Choleric) 1976 The Society’s shop, which has always been online, had a good (see Classified Advertisements). What Christmas and continues to operate they have done is to complete a major project which is noted in this edition of reasonably normally.

We have also done our best to have Mass of Ages: a set of faldstool covers music in the Masses which are taking for Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane (see place, for the benefit not only of the pages 10-11). The Guild is also inviting congregation but of people watching applicants for its sponsorship of the the live-stream. In doing so we have Royal School of Needlework Certificate had to follow the twists and turns of the Course (details on page 43). regulations.

Overall, I’m not sure whether we Our Director of Music in London, will all emerge from this prolonged Matthew Schellhorn, has done his best hibernation desperate to get back to our

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normal activities, or depressed, worn down, and lethargic. In either case we must make the effort, when the time comes, to spring back as vigorously as possible, for our own sakes as well as for the sake of the good works we hope to do.

We are making plans for this, despite not knowing when restrictions will be lifted, or how. Otherwise, we are thrown back on the question of how to use the time until then as productively as possible.

I have felt extremely fortunate in living my ‘lockdown’ in the bosom of a large family in a comfortable home, but there’s no getting away from what we are losing in terms of human contact.

There are ways to mitigate this. I have taken part in two of Matthew Spencer’s Latin courses, and I have started offering some online philosophy seminars myself to all comers, on the early Platonic dialogues, with a view to staying sane as much as anything. Sometimes it is useful to get away from the application of principles to the latest crisis or scandal, and go back to the basics of those principles themselves.

At the very bottom of these principles is a concern for the truth, exemplified with such persistence and wit

by Socrates. Only a culture which cares about truth will be open to the message of the Man who is Truth, and it seems increasingly as though our own society has lost interest in truth, preferring the language of feelings.

As we mark the melancholy anniversary of the start of the Coronavirus epidemic, don’t forget to pray, to do penance, to read, to talk— and to talk not only about viruses and conspiracies. We must be prepared, when this is over, to give an account to God of the use we have made of that precious gift: of time.

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The Annual Mass of Reparation for Abortion at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bedford.

For more on this, see this issue’s report for Northampton South

LMS Year Planner – Notable Events At the time of going to press the following events are planned.

Sacred Triduum. This year, the LMS will celebrate the Sacred Triduum in St Margaret’s Convent Chapel, Bethell Avenue, Canning Town E16 4JU, by kind permission of Mgr John Armitage, the parish priest. With social distancing restrictions in place, the Convent Chapel has greater capacity than St Mary Moorfields. Timings can be found on page 4.

St Catherine’s Trust Summer School for children: Sunday 1st to Saturday 7th August, at St Cassian’s Centre, Wallingtons Road, Kintbury, Berkshire RG17 9SP. Book through www.stcatherinestrust.org LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham. We hope to be able to hold our annual pilgrimage from Ely to Walsingham over the August Bank Holiday weekend, 26-29th August.

Guild of St Clare: Autumn 2021 Sewing Retreat at Douai Abbey, 12-14th November, with Fr Tim Finigan. Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, RG7 5TQ. Booking open on the LMS website.

LMS Latin & New Testament Greek Residential Course: 16-21st August (Mon to Sat). Latin for beginners and intermediate students; Greek for students with some basic knowledge. Reduced rates for clergy, religious, and seminarians for the Latin course. With Fr John Hunwicke, Fr Richard Bailey, and Matthew Spencer. Savio House, Ingersley Rd, Bollington, Macclesfield SK10 5RW. More details and booking through the LMS website.

The Residential Training Conference for Priests and Servers planned for Low Week has been postponed to a, yet to be confirmed, date later in the year.

NEWS Write for us!

If you enjoy reading Mass of Ages and feel there is an article you would like to write for us do let us know.

In the first instance contact the Editor with an outline of your proposed article letting us know why you are the person to write it and with details of any photographs or illustrations you are able to supply.

Contact our Editor Tom Quinn at editor@lms.org.uk

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

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LITURGICAL CALENDAR

Liturgical calendar FEBRUARY Sun 14 QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY II Cl V Mon 15 FERIA IV Cl V Tue 16 FERIA IV Cl V Wed 17 ASH WEDNESDAY I Cl V Thu 18 FERIA III Cl V Fri 19 FERIA III Cl V Sat 20 FERIA III Cl V Sun 21 I SUNDAY in LENT I Cl V Mon 22 CHAIR OF S PETER Ap II Cl W Tue 23 FERIA III Cl V Wed 24 S MATTHIAS Ap II Cl R Thu 25 FERIA III Cl V Fri 26 EMBER DAY II Cl V Sat 27 EMBER DAY II Cl V Sun 28 II SUNDAY in LENT I Cl V MARCH 2021 Mon 1 FERIA III Cl V. In Wales S DAVID B C I Cl W Tue 2 FERIA III Cl V Wed 3 FERIA III Cl V Thu 4 FERIA III Cl V Fri 5 FERIA III Cl V Sat 6 FERIA III Cl V Sun 7 III SUNDAY in LENT I Cl V Mon 8 FERIA III Cl V Tue 9 FERIA III Cl V Wed 10 FERIA III Cl V Thu 11 FERIA III Cl V Fri 12 FERIA III Cl V Sat 13 FERIA III Cl V Sun 14 IV SUNDAY in LENT (Laetare Sunday) I Cl V/ROSE Mon 15 FERIA III Cl V Tue 16 FERIA III Cl V Wed 17 FERIA III Cl V Thu 18 FERIA III Cl V Fri 19 S JOSEPH SPOUSE of BVM C Patron of the Universal Church I Cl W Sat 20 FERIA III Cl V Sun 21 PASSION SUNDAY (I SUNDAY of PASSIONTIDE) I Cl V Mon 22 FERIA in PASSION WEEK III Cl V Tue 23 FERIA in PASSION WEEK III Cl V Wed 24 FERIA III Cl V Thu 25 ANNUNCIATION of the BVM I Cl W Fri 26 FERIA in PASSION WEEK III Cl V Sat 27 FERIA in PASSION WEEK III Cl V Sun 28 PALM SUNDAY (II SUNDAY of PASSIONTIDE) I Cl R & V Mon 29 MONDAY in HOLY WEEK I Cl V Tue 30 TUESDAY in HOLY WEEK I Cl V Wed 31 WEDNESDAY in HOLY WEEK I Cl V APRIL 2021 Thu 1 HOLY THURSDAY I Cl W Fri 2 GOOD FRIDAY I Cl B & V Sat 3 HOLY SATURDAY I Cl V & W Sun 4 EASTER SUNDAY I Cl W Mon 5 EASTER MONDAY I Cl W Tue 6 EASTER TUESDAY I Cl W Wed 7 EASTER WEDNESDAY I Cl W Thu 8 EASTER THURSDAY I Cl W Fri 9 EASTER FRIDAY I Cl W Sat 10 EASTER SATURDAY (Sabbato in Albis) I Cl W Sun 11 LOW SUNDAY I Cl W Mon 12 FERIA IV Cl W Tue 13 S HERMENEGILD M III Cl R Wed 14 S JUSTIN M III Cl R Thu 15 FERIA IV Cl W Fri 16 FERIA IV Cl W

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Sat 17 OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV Cl W Sun 18 II SUNDAY after EASTER II Cl W Mon 19 FERIA IV Cl W Tue 20 FERIA IV Cl W Wed 21 S ANSELM B C D III CI W Thu 22 SS SOTER & CAIUS PP MM III Cl R Fri 23 FERIA IV CI W Sat 24 S FIDELIS of SIGMARINGEN M III CI R Sun 25 III SUNDAY after EASTER II Cl W Mon 26 SS CLETUS & MARCELLINUS PP MM III Cl R Tue 27 S PETER CANISIUS C D III Cl W Wed 28 S PAUL of the CROSS C III Cl W Thu 29 S PETER M III Cl R Fri 30 S CATHERINE of SIENA V III Cl W

MAY 2021 Sat 1 S JOSEPH the WORKER, SPOUSE of the BVM C I Cl W Sun 2 IV SUNDAY after EASTER II Cl W Mon 3 FERIA IV Cl W Tue 4 S MONICA W III CI W Wed 5 S PIUS V P C III CI W Thu 6 FERIA IV Cl W Fri 7 S STANISLAUS B M III Cl R Sat 8 OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV Cl W

Please pray for the souls of all members who have died recently Requiescant in Pace Derrick Adlington James Allanson Kathleen Brodie Thomas Carr Patricia Dicks Alan Granger Trevor Leney Jennifer Luckhurst Daphne McLeod Gerard Martin (Priest) Joseph Rea Kathleen Spackman Edward Welch 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. We are very grateful to the following who remembered the Society in their Will: Alexander Nemeth.

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FEATURE

Lenten Penance We should learn from Challoner, says Fr Timothy Finigan

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n the 1775 edition of his Garden between meals on two days of the year. of the Soul, Challoner reminded It is embarrassing when many ordinary Catholics that they should fast and people in our midst faithfully keep a abstain on all days of Lent, as well as month-long fast during which no food is the Ember Days and the Vigils of major taken between sunrise and sunset. feasts. Fasting, he said, meant that In response to the absence of any “we are to eat but one meal in the day.” law on fasting which would constitute Between then and 1996, the law of the a hardship, and hence a real penance, Church was gradually and successively Lent has become a matter choosing a mitigated. The 1872 revision of the Lenten penance for ourselves, of “giving Garden of the Soul does not require fasting on the Sundays of Lent, and abstinence is only required on Fridays. By this time, two collations or light snacks are allowed in addition to the main meal.

The 1909 edition of the Catholic Encyclopaedia gives considerable space to the various reasons which excuse from fasting. Along with sickness and hard manual labour, the author mentions headaches, loss of sleep, or difficult mental work such as that undertaken by “bookkeepers, stenographers, telegraph operators, legal advisers” and others. Not surprisingly, in the conclusion of the article, it is observed that, “No student of ecclesiastical discipline can fail to perceive that the obligation of fasting is rarely observed in its integrity nowadays. Conscious of the conditions of our age, the Challoner: free of psychobabble Church is ever shaping the requirements of this obligation to meet something up.” I did come across advice in one or two schools that even giving the best interests of her children.”

Fifty-seven years later, Paenitemini, something up was not a good idea, but that changed the law to its present form, the children should do something extra which only obliges us to fast on Ash instead. When I advised that this would Wednesday and Good Friday. Certainly, directly contradict any sermon that I gave the requirements have been “shaped”; to the children about Lenten penance, the whether the Church has met the “best idea was fortunately not pressed.

Many Catholics are still unsure about interests of her children” is open to dispute. Since the Old and New Testament the value of corporal penance, and scriptures, the writings of the Fathers, particularly of fasting. In the kind of and the tradition of the Church, all seem inconsistency that we increasingly face in to require us to fast as part of the spiritual society, fasting is deemed a good thing if life, it is worth asking whether this is the purpose is to lose weight, look more achieved in any credible way by what attractive, or chase faddishly after an essentially amounts to not eating illusory miracle of instant healthiness, but

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fasting is seen as a dark and superstitious practice if it is a spiritual exercise to atone for our sins and plead for the mercy of God. Many of our contemporaries would be horrified to hear Challoner’s explanation that fasting appeases the wrath of God which is provoked by our sins, and that by condemning and punishing ourselves, we admit our guilt and work with the justice of God. Lenten penance is first and primarily concerned with sorrow and reparation for our sins, and secondly with overcoming our disordered desires and temptations so that the flesh is made to submit to the spirit. Since food is so basic a necessity of life, fasting is ideally suited to the season of penance in which we seek to draw away from the death of sin and cleave to life in Christ.

The more the Church’s discipline on fasting has been relaxed, the greater has been the volume of casuistical discussions aimed at diluting even further the rules that remain. Rather than obsess about what exactly the Church requires of us as a minimum, we would do better simply to follow the teaching of the gospel and our Catholic t radit ion, by d ep rivin g ourselves of some food, especially meat, that we would otherwise eat and enjoy, and force ourselves to experience some hunger as a result. For the Christian, Wednesdays and Saturdays are traditionally days of fasting, in addition to Fridays. We could certainly abstain from meat on those days of Lent, and most of us could fast rather more than we do in preparation for Easter, especially if that means simply having one meal in the day.

Challoner is refreshingly free of psychobabble when he offers homely, and genuinely pastoral advice on the regulations of his time: “If you find some difficulty in the observance of them, offer it up to God for your sins.”

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FEATURE

To the highest standard…

Joseph Shaw reports on an LMS gift of a set of faldstool covers to Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane

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n Saturday 5 December 2020, in between lockdowns, the Guild of St Clare delivered the final instalment of an important gift from the Latin Mass Society to Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane: a set of faldstool covers in violet, black, and green, to go with a faldstool given to the parish by the LMS in 2019.

A faldstool is a chair, very similar to those you can see in pictures dating to Roman times, used by bishops in the celebration of Mass outside their own cathedral. It is normally covered in fabric, in accord with the liturgical season.

Four sets of covers, with matching cushion covers, have been executed by the Guild of St Clare. One, in white, came with the faldstool itself from the Italian supplier, Serpone, since it was needed at short notice for a Mass celebrated in Corpus Christi by Cardinal Francis Arinze, on 20 June 2019.

A red one was completed by the Guild for a Mass said by Cardinal Raymond Burke there on 16 September of the same year. The final three colours included one, in violet, which was to be used the very day after delivery by Bishop Robert Byrne of Hexham and Newcastle, who is a regular visitor to the parish.

The Latin Mass Society’s gift was made in the context of the thorough restoration of this church by its present Parish Priest, Fr Alan Robinson, and the long and close association the Society has with the parish.

Corpus Christi is a church where the Traditional Mass has always been said: it was one of the very few places where the parish priest continued to say the ancient Mass for those who wished to attend, alongside the Novus Ordo, in the dark days of the 1970s. This tradition continues with the Society’s Monday evening Masses, which are usually sung. We have had many other Masses there over the years: the already-mentioned Pontifical Low Mass celebrated by Cardinal Burke, many feast-day Masses, and in past years the Easter Triduum (which has now moved to a larger church, St Mary Moorfields).

Corpus Christi is now a regular venue for polyphony arranged by the LMS

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Director of Music for London, Matthew Schellhorn, and chant sung by the LMS training schola, the Houghton Schola, which Matthew also leads: all, sadly, currently disrupted by the Coronavirus epidemic.

Fr Robinson has done a remarkable job in restoring the church, which is partly underground and at one time appeared

A faldstool is a chair, very similar to those you can see in pictures dating to Roman times, used by bishops in the celebration of Mass outside their own cathedral

a little gloomy. It is now resplendent in gilding, marble, and cleaned stone and brickwork, and the sanctuary which formerly had two altars in it now has just the original one, in its original place, so High Mass ceremonies can take place unimpeded.

The Guild of St Clare usually makes a charge for commissions, but provided the faldstool covers to the LMS at cost price, in recognition of the Society’s assistance to the Guild over the years since its foundation in 2009.

The covers were worked on at successive Guild ‘Vestment Mending Days’ and Sewing Retreats, by many volunteers, including the multi-talented Fr Stephen Morrison OPraem, when he was a Retreatgiver. When the Coronavirus restrictions made these events impossible, the covers were completed personally by the Guild’s National Coordinator, Lucy Shaw.

This set of faldstool covers represents the biggest project the Guild has yet

tackled, taking up untold hours of volunteers’ time, and completed to the highest standards. The accuracy of the sewing, and details such as the piping, could hardly have been bettered, and indeed they far surpass the white cover supplied by the Italian manufacturer, Serpone. Fine materials, traditional skills, and the motive of the glory of God, are all on display.

The Latin Mass Society has a great many vestments in need of repair, and others lacking individual items, such as a maniple, stole, or chalice veil. Our vestments tend not to be of museum quality, but it seems an offence against our predecessors in the Faith who made, donated, and used these attractive though workaday vestments simply to throw them away. However, they can only be made usable again with the right skills and a great deal of time.

It is a source of frustration that such work by the Guild has been slowed down by the Coronavirus restrictions, but we are doing our best to find ways to continue the Guild’s work of teaching

A set of faldstool covers in violet, black, and green…

as well as making and mending despite this challenge. I hope readers with an inclination towards sewing will join the Guild at its events when they do become possible again: tasks can always be found for every level of skill.

For details of Guild sponsorship see page 43.

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COMMENT

Fr Alan Robinson, Parish Priest of Corpus Christi Maiden Lane, being presented with the faldstool covers by Lucy Shaw, National Coordinator of the Guild of St Clare

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LETTERS

Letters to the Editor In light of Alberto Carosa's intriguing article The Silver Screen (winter 2020), suggesting a possible link between Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ and the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, it is worth looking at one particular scene from that film - in which Jesus is questioned by Pontius Pilate.

When the procurator initially addresses Our Lord in His native tongue of Aramaic, He surprises Pilate by responding in Latin, and thus the dialogue continues, leading to what for me is the most beautiful moment in cinema history: Christ speaking the words, "Omnes qui veritatem audiunt, vocem meam audiunt" ("All men who hear the truth, hear my voice" - John 18:37).

For any Traditional Latin Rite Catholic, this scene begs the question of whether Our Lord ever personally spoke what would ultimately become the universal language of His Holy Church. Clearly, being Divine and All-Knowing, Jesus would have understood any dialect in which He was addressed, and could have responded in whatever language He knew to be most proper for the occasion. Furthermore, it does not take a huge leap of the imagination to see that, out of the three languages inscribed on the Cross, Latin is the one the Devil hates most precisely because it was once the language of a pagan empire.

Nonetheless, I await with baited breath the moment when, Déo Volente in heaven, I shall learn in what dialect that most important judicial interrogation in all history actually took place.

Matt Showering Via email .....

Bread and wine Paul Beardsmore’s review of Fr Dulac’s book In Defence of the Roman Mass (winter 2020) mentions that, “Fr Dulac deplores the revisions to the offertory prayers. There can, he says, be no genuine Catholic Mass without a prior offering of the bread and wine...”

I don’t know whether this is a fault in translation, but there is no offering of bread and wine in the Mass. What is offered is Christ – the Immaculate Victim – “hanc immaculatam hostiam”. In other words, while the bread and wine have not yet been consecrated what is offered is the Immaculate Victim in anticipation of the consecration which has not yet happened. It is only in the Novus Ordo service where the offertory was replaced by the Judaic prayer before meals that bread and wine is offered to God. Nicholas Wilton Via email

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© Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Silver Screen

Memling’s Blessed Virgin

Consolations of art I greatly enjoyed Caroline Farey’s wonderful article on Hans Memling in your winter 2020 edition. Even traditional Catholics may not always understand all the symbolism in these ancient works of art, but Caroline leads us gently – and entertainingly –through them. I feel I have learned a great deal from her articles and when I am once again allowed to visit our great art galleries, I will look with new eyes on so many of the many masterpieces of Catholic art we are so lucky to have in our public collections.

But Caroline’s articles have also reminded me of a fact so sad that I usually do my best not to think about it – I have read that before the Reformation, England was reputed to have some of the greatest religious art in Europe. The iconoclasts of the 16th century probably destroyed ninetynine percent of it. How I would love to have some inkling of what we have lost!

Mary O’Brien Via email

Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Mass of Ages, 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH email editor@lms.org.uk Letters may be edited for reasons of space

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MUSIC

Highly prized Matthew Schellhorn talks to Dominic Veall, winner of the 2020 Schellhorn Prize for Sacred Music Composition competition, which is supported by the Latin Mass Society

Dominic Veall: ‘The Christian heritage provides musicians and writers with… enormous creative scope’

Congratulations on winning the 2020 Schellhorn Prize for Sacred Music Composition! Can you tell us something about your life and development as a composer and about your work in composing for choirs?

Thank you! I started composing seriously towards the end of school, then studied Music, specialising in composition, at King’s College, London.

After that, I did a Masters degree in Composition at Trinity Laban, studying with some incredible tutors, including Errollyn Wallen. Choirs have always been my main focus as a composer – it’s the idiom I know best having been a Head Chorister at Leicester Cathedral and now a freelance choral singer. The last few years have seen some pretty fantastic opportunities. I was commissioned to contribute to the Novello Easy Choral collection, and have transcribed a song written by Gary Barlow and Gareth Malone for Bright Star, published by Hal Leonard.

I was also a finalist in the Radio 3 Carol Competition 2019, where Bob Chilcott conducted the BBC Singers’ performance of my carol Go to the Child.

Your piece Dormi, Jesu was premiered on Christmas Eve at the Midnight Mass

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at St Margaret’s Convent Chapel, Canning Town. Have you attended a Traditional Latin Mass before? What are your impressions of the ancient Roman Rite?

I first experienced Latin liturgy when on a choir tour in 2016, at Maria Laach Abbey in Rheinland-Palatinate, Germany; I was certainly not used to getting up for it at 7.30 each morning! I found it peaceful to sit in solemnity and embrace the stillness and calmness of the service, mirrored by the beautiful lake, which we would often row across during the day. At the traditional Midnight Mass at Canning Town, where my piece was premiered, I found myself once again immersed in tranquillity and enjoying reading along as the clergy made seamless progressions through the Latin prose. To engage with the ancient words that were sung and spoken in the service made me further appreciate the artistry and history of the Latin language within the Church.

What are the challenges in writing sacred music in Latin and how do you approach setting text? What are your guiding aesthetic principles?

Latin is impossibly beautiful, and also bountiful in its imagery, which means that deep, thoughtful settings of the words are essential. In some ways, I find Latin easier to set than English because I feel that the articulation of the words is so much more evocative than their English counterparts. Words that always stick in my mind are cruce, perforatum, and sanguine in the Ave verum corpus; the words themselves and their pronunciations guide what chords, melodies, phrasings, progressions and voicings I envisage for the piece. I aim to use words to create points of familiarity and variation throughout the score, which both relieve and intrigue the listener as well as elevate the portrayal of the text.

Which other composers, past or present, do you admire and who has influenced you the most? Do you see yourself as part of the Western Classical tradition, and what benefits do you think our Christian heritage provides musicians with?

I would say that by and large as a composer I follow the Western Classical tradition and am classically trained, but retain an interest in ethnomusicological studies, which I was fortunate to study in my music degrees. I’ve always been drawn to the romance and drama of music by the likes of Poulenc, Ravel, and Fauré. The Christian heritage provides musicians and writers with such enormous creative scope, both thematically and musically. One cannot ignore the long-lasting influence of chant in today’s music and the abundance of interesting and powerful narratives of the text that provides composers with endless inspiration and performers with ample professional opportunities. The drama of Latin texts also brings out such power and depth in a musical work, which I don’t believe any other language can match.

What are your current projects and how will you use your recent success to propel your career forward? What would be your biggest ambition as a musician?

As a musician my main enjoyment comes from the variety of working in a host of different environments in different roles with different people. My passion lives not only as a composer, but also as a singer, arranger, conductor, pianist, cellist, and educator, and my main ambition is to achieve a busy and exciting career as a hyphenated musician. Some specific aims are to compose and orchestrate concert and film scores, write and arrange for several professional choirs, and to write a musical at some point!

To have had one of my favourite pieces that I’ve written performed by an ensemble of such high esteem as Cantus Magnus will be of huge benefit: it has given me a really strong creative boost as a composer. I am sure that the contacts made from the Competition will also help me connect with a further field of musicians and lead to more exciting work!

Matthew Schellhorn is the Latin Mass Society’s Director of Music for London. He has had a deep love of Sacred Music since his childhood and continues to campaign for the raising of musical standards in the life of the Catholic Church. He can be contacted at dirmusic@lms.org.uk

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COMMENT

A cap of blood Mary O’Regan remembers Girolamo Savonarola

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lorence, May 1498. A scaffold was erected in Piazza della Signoria where the infamous Dominican, Girolamo Savonarola was to be hanged.

Conveniently enough for the corrupt Pope Alexander VI, Savonarola had been supposedly found guilty of heresy. A bishop came to degrade Savonarola from the clerical state, and said, “I remove you from the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant.” Savonarola contemptuously replied, “Not from the Church Triumphant, that is not within your power.” Before the noose strangled him, Savonarola withdrew the false testimony he had given under torture where he had “admitted” to having acted out of personal ambition and not divine inspiration.

After he was strangled, a burning pyre licked the flesh off his bones until his body was reduced to ash and swiftly flung into the River Arno, where it dissolved before anyone had a chance to collect his last remains. The life of a loud and influential critic of the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI was snuffed out. He was only 45.

Perhaps his most accurate criticisms were of the financial malfeasance and corruption of Pope Alexander VI’s reign.

Savonarola charged the Spanish born Pope with simony, that he had bribed certain cardinals to vote him into the Chair of Peter, which historians down through the ages have credited as true. Savonarola unflinchingly decried

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Alexander VI’s “execrable crime of simony”. He repeatedly denounced the Pope’s lustfulness, he made hay with the fact that Alexander VI had fathered several children with his mistresses.

From his pulpit, Savonarola railed against Alexander VI, and called him, “this pestilence”, and even declared, “This man is not a Christian, he does not even believe there is a God.” Savonarola was not very tactful, or subtle. His conclusions were sometimes tainted with personal dislike. He held the Pope in contempt, and truly Alexander was contemptible, but Savonarola’s conclusion that he was an atheist was surely beyond his ability to tell.

Savonarola was no sycophant. He was certainly not complicit in the corruption or a tacit observer, and for that a debt of gratitude is owed him. The words he used were vile, but he did so because the Church was in a vile state. I, however, am a recovering papal sycophant. To my shame, in years gone by, I was in a bid to outdo myself to pour praise on past and present bishops of Rome. But my conscience has made me eat my sweet words, and I find something medicinal in the way Savonarola’s words put into perspective the dire situation of Pope Alexander VI’s papal court. I am not saying modern Popes share the misdemeanours of Alexander VI, rather I see the necessity of open criticism of high-ranking men of the cloth.

Savonarola’s criticisms would not have ruffled the Pope much, had he been a small-time preacher with a tiny audience.

But no, for a handful of years Florence was under the firm control of the implacable Savonarola who ruled as moral leader or “dictator” as his critics hyperbolically claim. He sought to cleanse the city of prostitution, gambling, drunkenness and debauchery. He employed a league of youths to spy on citizens; he never tried to flatter his congregation. During one sermon he held forth on why Florence was like a donkey.

The validity of his methods still stirs debate and even people who warm to him are conflicted about his tactics and some

of his teachings, as am I. He was keen to preach that natural consequences of vice were signs of God’s vengeance. There was a syphilis epidemic, and he taught that this was a punishment from God. At the height of his power, he organized a bonfire of the vanities where he instigated the burning of objects, from cards and dice to immodest items of clothes. Most jarringly, he burned works of art with levels of nudity that breached his standards. His critics often assert as fact that Savonarola reduced to ash several masterpieces – well, he definitely wanted the destruction of pieces of art that depicted Our Lady in an unchaste and impure manner, and thus he defended the Blessed Virgin’s honour.

Savonarola most threatened Alexander was his campaign for a council that would depose the Pope. Such a council could have revealed Alexander's simony, and shown his election to be invalid, maybe even led to him being forced to resign, and led to a cleansing of the curia. One view is that this might have prevented the Reformation.

Alexander grew weary of this diehard Dominican. He sent Savonarola an invitation to come to Rome and explain himself, which the Dominican rebuffed on grounds that he was needed in Florence.

Next the Pope forbade Savonarola from preaching, but the Dominican continued to preach and denounce the Pope in ever more vituperative terms. When the Pope charged Savonarola with disobedience, Savonarola preached that if the Pope commands something wrong, then he must be disobeyed.

His excommunication followed shortly but he fought it off, pointing out that excommunications were easily bought.

Savonarola was thrown in jail where he was tortured for 45 days before his execution. Savonarola had always wanted to be martyred. When the philandering Alexander VI tried to buy Savonarola by making him a cardinal, Savonarola sharply refused the red hat saying, “I want a cap of blood.” Savonarola was a priest, unsuited to his times, because he could not be bought.

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ROMAN REPORT

A true man of God Alberto Carosa remembers the late Don Giuseppe Vallauri, a giant of the Traditional Liturgy

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ometimes it happens that in the times and circumstances in which the death of a person occurs, it is possible to see indications of the extent to which he or she was appreciated by the Lord.

This is precisely the case with the recent death of a priest linked to the Old Rite, among the many others who have left us in recent months: the Italian Don Giuseppe Vallauri (1945-2020), member of the congregation Figli della Divina Provvidenza (FDP- Sons of Divine Providence) founded by St Luigi Orione (1872-1940).

Fr Vallauri was struck by a heart attack on the morning of 2 November 2020, in a clinic in Rome, while he was preparing to celebrate Holy Mass; thus he ended his earthly pilgrimage to go and receive his eternal reward from the One whom he had served so faithfully in his lifetime.

Don Vallauri, as he was familarly called, was 75 years of old. For 58 years he had been a member of the FDP congregation.

He had been a priest for 48 years.

Don Giuseppe was born in Robilante, in the Province of Cuneo in Piedmont on 7 September 1945, the seventh of eight children. He joined the FDP congregation (also called Orionines, after the founder) in Voghera in 1956 at the age of 11, following in the footsteps of his elder brother Don Sebastiano. After his novitiate and high school at Villa Moffa, he made his first religious profession there on 11 October 1962. He carried out his apostolic training in 1965 in Tortona (Alessandria) and in 1966 in Campocroce di Mirano, Verona.

In 1967 he was sent by his superiors to England, to the community of Up Holland for theological studies at the inter-diocesan major seminary and he was ordained priest on 27 May 1972 in Liverpool Cathedral.

Don Giuseppe began his first priestly apostolate in Dublin, from 1972 to 1977. In those years he also graduated in English Literature, a language he spoke fluently.

From 1978 to 1988 he was assigned as parish priest in Buntingford (in the diocese of Westminster) and then returned again to Dublin, from 1989 to 1995.

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Giuseppe Vallauri: He was especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary

From 1996 to 1998 he was in Nairobi, where he laid the foundations for the opening of the new Orionine mission in Langata. He returned to Italy to the Vatican, where he served in the Vatican Post Office from 1999 to 2004. From 2005 to 2008, he was confessor and head of the Orionine community at the Sanctuary of Madonna di Pompei. He spent his last years in the General Curia of the Congregation in Rome, where he arrived in 2008 to serve as an archivist.

The Gruppo Stabile san Luigi Orione was founded by Don Giuseppe to promote the celebration of the Old Rite. I had the great honour, privilege and pleasure to know Don Giuseppe at this time.

Those who, like me, knew Don Giuseppe well knew him to be a true man of God, one of the most intrepid in safeguarding and promoting the Traditional Liturgy. Needless to say, his wonderful celebrations of the Mass, which he had already begun long before the Summorum Pontificum came into force, are deeply missed.

Don Vallauri managed to bring the ancient rite to the Cesi chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and to San Nicola in Carcere. He also teamed up with the Institute of Christ the King, and with the parish of the SS Trinità dei Pellegrini.

He was especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as reflected in his countless pilgrimages to Marian shrines such as Pompeii, Montevergine,

Madonna del Buon Consiglio in Genazzano and Madonna della Guardia in Tortona in Piedmont, where the mortal remains of San Luigi Orione were laid to rest.

Don Giuseppe brought the Traditional Mass to the sanctuary of Divine Love near Rome, and it was Fr Giuseppe who promoted the practice of the Lenten pilgrimage of the seven churches, a Roman and medieval tradition revived

by San Filippo Neri and which included a visit to the four major papal basilicas, St Peter’s, St Mary Major, St John Lateran and St Paul outside the Walls.

In the pilgrimage to Pompeii and Montevergine in early October 2011, a friend of my wife came all the way from Finland to join us once she learned that Don Vallauri was leading the group, a clear sign that his fame as a holy priest was now spreading far beyond national borders.

For a number of years he also served as chaplain and preacher of spiritual retreats with the Militia Templi (Militia of the Temple), also called the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ (Christi Pauperum Militum Ordo), a Catholic private association of lay faithful that adopts as its liturgy the Tridentine Mass.

One traditionalist remembered Fr Vallauri as: "An extremely polite priest, who embodied the sobriety of a certain kind of Roman clergy, that now hardly exists.”

Dear San Luigi Orione and Father Vallauri, orate pro nobis!

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

DIOCESAN DIGEST Mass of Ages quarterly round-up Birmingham & Black Country Louis Maciel 07392 232225 birmingham@lms.org.uk birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk/ It is a sign of the times that, as I write this, the Oratory community has had to isolate for ten days following a priest testing positive for Covid-19. For obvious reasons the church had to close for ten days and it is a reminder that we must keep our priests in our prayers at this difficult time.

I do not think any of us expected the public celebration of Mass to be suspended again in the run up to Christmas, which prevented any Monday Masses followed by Sung Vespers for the Dead being offered during November at the Oratory as planned.

Four Low Masses were celebrated on All Souls Day, along with a High Mass in the evening. Two additional Masses were celebrated for Christmas at the Oratory, at 9pm on Christmas Eve and 9.30am on Christmas Day, in addition to midnight Mass and the 10.30am High Mass to accommodate the increase in numbers. The daily 5.45pm Mass switched to 9am during the Octave, with a Mass at 12 noon celebrated on the Octave Day itself.

The regular Friday 6.30pm Mass continues at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Wolverhampton, which is live-streamed for those who are unable to attend in person. For obvious reasons, this did not take place on Christmas or the Octave of Christmas which fell on a Friday this year, but there was an additional Mass at 7pm on New Year’s Eve, announced at late notice, and on All Souls Day. For similar reasons there was no first Friday Mass at Sacred Heart and All Souls in Acocks Green in January, but the Mass continued in the other months. This continues to be complemented by the third Friday Mass at St Dunstan’s in Kings Heath.

I am pleased to announce that a new weekly Sunday Low Mass has now started at 11.30am at St Mary-on-the-Hill in Wednesbury. Due to the current restrictions, communion is not distributed at this Mass.

Birmingham (Oxford) Joseph Shaw oxford@lms.org.uk The Traditional Mass in Oxford has proved resilient in the difficult circumstances of the last quarter, and I hope it will continue to do so.

While we cannot plan pilgrimages and special events, regular Masses have been taking place more or less as usual, and we have even been able to have Sung Masses, for feast days at SS Gregory & Augustine, and on Sundays (5pm) at Holy Rood, over the diocesan boundary (into Portsmouth Diocese) in the Abingdon Road, with various precautions in place.

The Oxford Oratory’s 8am Sunday Mass has been close to capacity on occasion but it is rare for SS Gregory & Augustine to be so, and there is plenty of room at Holy Rood on Sundays.

I would like to record my profound thanks to our always hard-working priests in all the churches of the area where the Traditional Mass is being celebrated, who have taken a very sane approach to the challenges of the epidemic, with regard for the health of Oxford’s Catholics both corporeal and spiritual. Thanks are also due to the many volunteers for their time and for the cooperation of all the Faithful.

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Birmingham North Staffs Alan Frost 01270 768144 It is good that in these times of national upheaval, since recently, churches have been allowed to stay open and Holy Mass celebrated, especially in the Traditional Rite. Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Swynnerton has been offering weekly Sunday Mass through parish priest Fr Paul Chavasse, who also celebrated Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany.

Similarly, at St Augustine’s, Stoke-on-Trent (Meir), Fr Stefak has been offering the Old Rite Mass weekly (Wednesday evenings). The December Mass fell on an Ember Day and he obligingly prepared a handout about Ember Days, as this old tradition was probably new to some attenders. At the Benedictine chapel of Oulton Abbey (now a hospice/nursing home), Masses are occasionally offered in the Old Rite, such as for the Feast of All Souls, by Fr Regan.

Birmingham (Worcestershire) Alastair J Tocher 01684 893332 malvern@lms.org.uk extraordinarymalvern.uk Facebook: Extraordinary Malvern Masses resumed after lockdown at Most Holy Trinity, Ledbury – just over the border in Herefordshire – with a Missa Cantata on the 2nd Sunday of Advent sung by a small group of singers and sung Masses have continued each Sunday since. Owing, however, to the increasingly stringent limitations which ultimately precluded pre-Mass rehearsals, Masses from Christmas onwards have been sung by a solo cantor. These included both Midnight Mass and Mass on Christmas morning, both of which were well attended. A Missa Cantata was also celebrated on the feast of the Epiphany of Our, Lord after which Epiphany Chalk was blessed.

Subject to any increased restrictions it is hoped that these sung Masses will continue for the foreseeable future.

At St Ambrose’s, Kidderminster, Fr Douglas Lamb offered a Low Missa in Aurora on Christmas morning. Once current restrictions are lifted Fr Lamb hopes to expand and extend provision of the Extraordinary Form in the parish. Watch this space!

Fr Jason Mahoney continues to celebrate frequent private Low Masses at Redditch; and at nearby Belmont Abbey (Herefordshire) I am pleased to report that, whilst there have been no public celebrations of Mass in the Vetus Ordo, it seems that three resident monks – including Dom Augustine who was ordained priest last summer – are now celebrating private Low Masses.

Blessed chalk after Mass on Epiphany

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY Brentwood Mark Johnson I am delighted to report that the Missa Cantata on Christmas Eve at St Margaret's Convent Chapel was very well attended (within Covid protocols). Fr Michael Cullinan was the celebrant, with Tomas Luis de Victoria's Mass setting, O Magnum Mysterium sung by Cantus Magnus under the direction of Matthew Schelhorn. Our thanks go Monsignor John Armitage, the parish priest, for his hospitality and willingness to accommodate the Mass in a busy Christmas schedule.

The Mass at Canning Town continues with improving numbers. I am most grateful to Fr Gabriel Diaz, Fr Jean-Claude Selvini and Fr Tim Finigan for their willingness to come and celebrate the Mass.

Fr Neil Brett has returned to the Diocese of Brentwood and is now resident at SS Mary & Ethelburga, Linton Road, Barking.

He is now offering a Low Mass every Sunday at that church at 12 noon.

Members should note that the Triduum Sacrum will be celebrated again this year at Canning Town. Please see the magazine or Latin Mass Society website for details.

as chaplain in 2013, initially in order to celebrate the annual Requiem Mass for Mgr Alfred Gilbey, but beyond this he would also say other Masses in the Traditional Rite in the chaplaincy at the request of students. May he rest in peace.

Cardiff Andrew Butcher cardiff@lms.org.uk 07905 609770 Blwyddyn Newydd Dda. It goes without saying that last year was a very unpredictable and distressing year for us all. I hope and pray that this year will be a much happier and healthier one.

Daily Mass is continuing to be offered and live-streamed at the Cardiff Oratory in Formation and Sunday Masses are offered at both the Oratory and Most Holy Trinity, Ledbury (not livestreamed). Please see the Mass listing for more information and please check with the parishes, either by visiting their websites or by phone before travelling, as a ticketing system may be in place.

I would also like to thank the clergy for their support and hard work over the last twelve months, it is truly appreciated.

Be assured of my prayers.

East Anglia (Withermarsh Green) Sarah Ward 07522 289449 withermarshgreen@lms.org.uk It has been a joy to watch the season changes at the remote rural location of Withermarsh Green. What a blessing to attend Mass in such picturesque countryside!

Travellers to the church may have encountered flooding, stray cows and certainly mud on their way up the hedge-lined, single track road. Parking at the field by the church has become almost impossible due to the mud, with many vehicles getting stuck. On the whole, this has caused more laughter than distress, but special thanks must go to all the willing men who have been so obliging in pushing vehicles out of the mud. Many now opt to park a little further up the lane and walk down to the church.

A second national lockdown in November meant that public Masses were suspended for a few weeks. The church remained open for private prayer and a good number of people made use of this opportunity, as well as a weekly Holy Hour with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. We are very grateful to Fr Whisenant, who produced regular videos for our edification in a series of “Fireside Sermons” and “Rambling Sermons”, the latter being filmed as he took a walk around the Dedham Vale.

For a short period, Withermarsh Green was designated Tier 2 and Fr Whisenant was able to get started on some pastoral initiatives, in particular a Men’s Group and a Women’s Group. We hope these will take place on a monthly basis once restrictions are eased.

The last few weeks of Advent and the Christmas Octave were a glorious interlude between lockdowns. Some highlights include a Solemn High Mass on 8 December for one of our patronal feasts, the Immaculate Conception. Thanks to Monsignor Gordon Read and Fr Simon Leworthy for assisting. Also, two very beautiful Rorate Masses, celebrated by candlelight at dawn. On Christmas Eve, a team of volunteers decorated the Church with garlands of fresh greenery and set up a Nativity scene. Midnight Mass was celebrated with a Missa Cantata, preceded by carols sung by the new fledgling Schola.

Unfortunately, our other patronal feast, that of St Edmund, fell during the November lockdown. So as not to forget our great local Saint, Fr Whisenant arranged to say Mass at the tiny chapel of St Stephens in the hamlet of Bures St Mary, purportedly built on the site of St Edmund’s coronation in 855 AD. This chapel is even more remote than Withermarsh Green! Nevertheless, a good number of people braved the freezing weather conditions to travel to Bures and attend Mass. We are grateful to the current custodian of the chapel for his hospitality and telling us a bit about its history.

We look forward to spring at Withermarsh Green!

East Anglia (West) Gregor and Alisa Dick Sunday Masses in the Dominican Rite continue to be celebrated at Blackfriars in Cambridge. Often too there is Mass on holy days of obligation, as was the case most recently for Christmas and the Epiphany. To find details of such Masses near to the time, please check the LMS website or contact us.

Of your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of Mgr Mark Langham, lately Catholic chaplain to the University of Cambridge, who died on 15 January. Mgr Langham learned to celebrate the Traditional Mass following his appointment

Hexham & Newcastle Keith McAllister 01325 308968 07966 235329 k_mcallister@ymail.com Latin Mass provision continues as last quarter, in a very limited manner, with the only Sunday worship being at St Joseph’s, Gateshead celebrated by Canon Michael Brown. He also arranged a Missa Cantata on 20 December (Advent 4) celebrated by our Bishop Robert Byrne. With a congregation of 78, this was fittingly elevated with musical and choral excellence by the Paul Dewhirst choir, including the Ave Maria offertory by Vittoria,

Brentwood (East) Alan Gardner alanmdgardner@gmail.com We continue to be grateful to hard-working priests and laity across our extensive area for their wonderful efforts to make the Mass available to us. I know that in some cases we are having to rely on Spiritual Communion and/or live-streaming and I know we are all praying for a return to ‘full experience’ Masses everywhere.

As you can imagine, provision is continually shifting – if you are ‘in the know’ in your local area, please keep me informed so that I can circulate to everyone.

If you are not currently on my local email circulation list (you should be receiving something from me at reasonably regular intervals), do please feel free to get in touch.

SPRING 2021

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY Elgar’s Ecce Sacerdos magnus; then at Communion, Panis Angelicus by Casciolini.

Weekday Masses are proceeding at Coxhoe through to Lent, thanks to Fr Shaun Swales; also at Whittingham, celebrated by Fr David Phillips.

Fr Paul Tully and I are trying to reinstate Sunday Masses at Thornley and are currently engaged in the diocesan compliance regime of stewards/ cleaners/ booking system, et al!

There is no imminent prospect of a renewal of Masses at Barnard Castle, given retirement of the PP approaching, with no indication of the new incumbent yet announced.

Bishop Byrne had agreed to a Latin Mass at our cathedral on 23 Jan; however, he has decided to postpone this, probably to March.

The death of Patrick (Paddy) Walsh of Hartlepool is noted with sadness as of early December; a Latin Requiem Mass was celebrated at his local church by Fr Paul Tully ahead of Paddy’s burial. Paddy was an avid supporter of Tradition in the diocese and abroad, serving Masses near home, on pilgrimage in Fatima and marching from Paris to N.D. of Chartres.

Lancaster (North) Nicholas Steven 07715 539395 warwickbridge@lms.org.uk After a three-year gap, weekly Traditional Latin Masses have returned to Cumbria! Canon Luiz Ruscillo, having been appointed Parish Priest of the newly amalgamated Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in September 2020, is now offering Mass at 10 am each Saturday at Our Lady and St Wilfrid, Warwick Bridge. Let's hope this will one day extend to Sundays and other days of the week.

Attendees regularly include faithful souls who have been devoted to the Usus Antiquior for over 50 years, families with children who love the quiet reverence of the Mass and regular parishioners who just wish to receive the Blessed Sacrament in the traditional manner.

I had the awesome privilege of serving Fr Luiz's first Mass - in the very church where I had first learned to serve it in 1961. JohnPaul Whalen served the second Mass at which his son, William, received his first Holy Communion. Fr Luiz's third Mass was a Missa Cantata, accompanied by our four-man Schola, ably led by Andrew Plasom-Scott.

Do please join us for future Masses if you can. Anyone coming from a distance is always most welcome to call me on 07715 539395 to confirm before setting off. Please text the same number if you'd like to join our WhatsApp news group. Also please call if you are passing and would like to pray before the tabernacle and relics of St Petronia in A.W. Pugin's little masterpiece. I'll see what can be arranged.

Liverpool Neil Addison liverpool@lms.org.uk I must begin by giving praise to my predecessor Jim Pennington who has retired after 20 years as the Liverpool LMS representative. That means being involved in the LMS when life was much harder for the Traditional Rite than it is today. Jim was particularly involved in ensuring that the Traditional Rite continued as a weekly Mass at St Anthony’s and it is a particular sadness that he has retired during the time that the St Anthony’s Mass has been discontinued due to the Covid restrictions. I am very grateful to Jim for his constant guidance and kindness as I’ve tried to understand the rep’s job and I am fortunate that he remains just a telephone call away when I need advice.

Like everywhere else in the country Liverpool Archdiocese has had to contend with the relaxation following Lockdown 1

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being followed by Lockdowns 2 & 3. We are fortunate that we have the ICKSP churches in New Brighton and Preston as well as the FSSP in Warrington because without them we would have no access to the Traditional Rite other than online. Fr Simon Henry in Leyland made valiant attempts to re-start a regular Sunday EF Mass at Leyland but the small numbers combined with the need to clean afterwards rendered that impractical, however he is offering 2 weekly EF Masses on Tuesdays and Fridays. Other than that, there are no diocesan churches offering the EF at present and we are dependent on the 2 Traditionalist Orders.

Over Christmas we were fortunate in the number of Masses offered by the Traditionalist Orders but despite valiant efforts Jim was not able to get approval for a Christmas EF in St Anthony’s, which was a great loss to the many who attended that Church.

On a very positive note, the Archdiocese has issued a ‘Summary of Proposals’ as part of its Synod 2020 consultation process www.synod2020.co.uk and those proposals include this heartening entry.

3.5 The Synod proposes that the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite be more widely available. There are other proposals which we in the traditionalist community will also support.

3.3 The Synod proposes that traditional devotions, which have nurtured people in ages past, be renewed for our age.

3.8 The Synod proposes that more value be placed on the need for beauty in our liturgy, in the way it is celebrated and in the liturgical environment.

The local LMS were in fact consulted by the Archdiocese as part of the Synod process and asked to make submissions.

Obviously, we asked for more availability of the EF but we also looked at the wider needs of the Archdiocese. We stressed the value of traditional devotions, Rosary, Divine Office, Stations of the Cross, Eucharistic Adoration etc. and the importance of beauty and reverence in the liturgy, whether in Latin or in English. It is heartening that our submissions seem to have been listened to. We can only hope and pray that they will be acted on as the Archdiocese starts to look to its future post Covid Liverpool (Warrington) Alan Frost In these troubled times it is encouraging to be able to report some excellent news. Improbable as it seemed at the outset a little over two years ago, the St Mary’s Priory Campaign raised the huge sum needed to purchase the buildings targeted by the October deadline and finance some of the conversion work inside; indeed, it surpassed it a little, raising just over a £1 million.

All this in less than five years and in time for the fifth anniversary of the FSSP taking over the running of what is now the Shrine Church of St Mary.

St Mary’s was formerly owned and run by the Benedictines of the Abbey of Ampleforth. For want of priests, they had to withdraw and after two years the Archdiocese of Liverpool was about to shut down this magnificent church. The FSSP, the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, the largest traditional priestly community in full communion with the Holy See, took it over. The Fraternity’s registered charity legally owns the church, presbytery and entire site. Archbishop McMahon of Liverpool entrusted the FSSP with the canonical mission of making the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite available to all in the Liverpool Archdiocese, but, of course, the priests welcome anyone from other dioceses.

The Confirmation of nineteen candidates from several dioceses

by Archbishop McMahon last July illustrated this point. Details about the FSSP can be found on-line: https://www.fssp.org/en.

The regular Sunday congregation increased by one third during last summer, from 150 to 200. And since the re-opening of the Shrine Church for daily Mass, attendances have been impressive, particularly at the Christmas Midnight Mass. Many

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY also attended the (seldom seen) ‘Blessing of the Epiphany Water’, following the Epiphany Eve Mass, people being able to take home containers of the newly blessed water for private devotions.

Weekly confessions heard reached 100 in September. When allowed by the often-changing Covid regulations, the following activities take place: Weekly Mothers’ Prayer group and Men’s Groups, both on Wednesdays, monthly Ladies’ Group; the family educational afternoon, with the Youth Group active on-line (juventutem.warrington). Moreover, during Advent, appropriately, it was good to see Fr Alex Stewart able to return to his priestly duties. He re-joins Fr Verrier (organist and choirmaster), support priest Fr Jolley, and Rector Fr de Malleray, whose summer ‘FSSP Sermon for the LMS Anniversary’ is available via the on-line ‘LiveMass’ link.

Deacon Roger Gilbride, who spent some time at St Mary’s in recent months, was ordained in his native New Zealand in October. Fr de Malleray thanks all who contributed to the spiritual bouquet sent to Deacon Gilbride for his ordination. FSSP seminarians have been visiting from the States and assisting at St Mary’s, two of them feature on the cover of the current issue of the ‘Dowry’ quarterly (available by surface mail), along with recently professed Sr Mari Caritas, formerly a helper at the Shrine church and for several years a student at the LMS Summer School. On the theme of the calling to religious life, it is hoped, at the time of writing, to hold the Annual Vocations Weekend at the end of January (beginning 29 Jan but obviously subject to Covid regulations).

Finally, the ongoing promotion of the Shrine and its mission has seen the introduction of a new logo for related sales items and works: the image of Mother Mary from the centre of the great Lady rose window above the altar.

St Mary’s Church logo

the event, and also took some beautiful photographs. Fr Seth Phipps, FSSP, celebrated this High Mass on his first visit to the Shrine, assisted by Fr Gabriel Diaz as Deacon and Fr Michael Cullinan as Subdeacon. They wore some beautiful cloth of gold vestments which form part of Christ the King Bedford’s collection.

The team of servers was most ably led by Columba Shaw, son of our Chairman, Joseph, who himself was serving on this occasion, and Matthew Schellhorn provided the music.

We had a ‘first’ at Bedford in December – the first Christmas Latin Midnight Mass since 1968, at 12.00 am of course; the parish congregation’s Midnight Mass was kindly put back to 10 pm to accommodate us. We also had the usual 8.30am Mass on Christmas Day, both Masses being celebrated by Fr Matthew Goddard, FSSP, with an attendance of about 90 people at each.

Fr Goddard was back on 6 January for the Epiphany Mass, which was attended by a surprisingly large congregation of around 100.

Afterwards the faithful were able to collect Epiphany water and blessed chalk, as sadly, of course, due to the pandemic, homes could not be blessed by our priests this year.

It has been a privilege since the beginning of December to welcome turn by turn to Bedford Frs Armand de Malleray, Ian Verrier and Alex Stewart from the FSSP apostolate in Warrington.

This has come about because there are currently two rather than the usual three priests at Reading at the moment with three apostolates to cover. The Warrington priests come down on Saturday afternoon to hear confessions from 3pm – 5pm and then stay over to celebrate the 8.30am and 12.30pm Sunday Masses.

We have heard from Fr Patrick O’Donohue, FSSP, who said Mass at Bedford up until last September. He returned from Reading to his native land in September to be the first resident priest there in a new FSSP apostolate. Sadly, the strict lockdown in the Republic of Ireland with the total closure of churches has meant that there have been only four Sundays in three months where Fr O’Donohue has been able to celebrate Mass publicly.

We now have a new priest-in-residence at Christ the King, Fr Nicholas Nwanzi. Happily, he has been supportive of our Latin Mass community, continuing the warm welcome given to us by his predecessor.

We have a flourishing Facebook page which is regularly updated with full details of our activities: please see https://www. facebook.com/bedfordlatinmass/.

Menevia Elaine Sharpling 01239 710411 meneviastabatmater.blogspot.com/ Good news from Menevia – despite the various lockdowns and circuit breakers, Fr Liam Bradley was able to offer his first Mass in the Extraordinary Form in November. Our very fine seminarian, Gregory Beckett, served the Mass and was excellent in every way. Canon Jason Jones and Fr Paul Brophy also offered wonderful support.

This provision means that the Mass of Ages takes place on each Sunday offered in turn by Canon Jones, Fr Brophy and Fr Bradley. In particular, Fr Liam’s Mass is a significant help for those living in west Wales.

Attendance remains good and we are delighted to see new families with children attending the Holy Mass.

We continue to post information on our blogspot and it is essential that you check there before travelling - a booking system for Mass attendance is in place.

The Annual Mass of Reparation for Abortion

Northampton (South) Barbara Kay bedford@lms.org.uk 01234 340759 Deo Gratias, the Annual Mass of Reparation for Abortion at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bedford went ahead for the third time on 14 November. Sadly, this had to be celebrated behind closed doors due to the lockdown, but Peter Jones, a member of our congregation who works for EWTN, live-streamed

Nottingham Jeremy Boot 07462 018386 I am sorry to say there is little to report this quarter. As I write this, most of the country has just gone in to tier 4, including Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, which makes travel outside one’s immediate area illegal rather than simply cautionary. We have one Mass in Nottingham that still takes place at The Good Shepherd, Thackeray’s Lane, Nottingham NG5 4HT (Saturday

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY before 2nd Sunday, 4.30pm). So far these have been Low Masses, occasionally with some music. Our other scheduled Masses at Our Lady and St Patrick’s, Nottingham and the Cathedral still cannot take place alas. For those further south, Masses are regularly celebrated at Our Lady of the Annunciation, Ashby Road, Loughborough LE11 3AB on Wednesdays at 6.30pm. Our thanks as ever to our generous celebrants and also our thanks to the small army of cleaners in those parishes who both keep us safe and make us welcome in these trying times.

Nottingham South (Leicestershire & Rutland) Paul Beardsmore There is little to report in Leicestershire and Rutland other than the regular Wednesday Masses at Loughborough, which happily included the Epiphany this year.

Plymouth (Cornwall) Stefano Mazzeo cornwall@lms.org.uk The Convent Chapel at Laherne continues to serve the Traditional Catholic faithful of Cornwall and is open during the day for private prayer. Mass is at 10am on Sundays and at 8am from Monday through Saturday. Confessions are from 3pm on Saturdays and from 9.15 to 9.45am on Sundays.

Volunteers have been working on the grounds of the Convent to help with improvements and especially a very large hedge, which needed to be cut by hand. An even bigger project is the restoration of Lanherne's historic chapel, and the sisters, Canon Scot Smith and the congregation have been engaged in a Novena to St Joseph for benefactors.

Should anyone wish to help please contact Canon Smith at: The Chaplain's House, Lanherne Convent, St Mawgan, Newquay, TR8 4ER. Tel: 07366 321039. To be included in Canon Smith's weekly newsletter email please a request to canon.smith@ institute-christ-king.org

Lanherne's historic chapel

Plymouth (Devon) Maurice Quinn 07555 536579 devon@lms.org.uk In these strange and restricted times, it is pleasing to report that in the City of Plymouth our regular Sunday Latin Mass has been celebrated as usual at St Edward the Confessor in Peverell

by Canon Scott Smith of the ICKSP, who looks after the pastoral needs of the Latin Mass congregation. The Christmas Day Mass was particularly uplifting due to it being a Sung Mass with a choir, when Mr Andrew Proctor once again provided the organ music for the Latin chants and for the traditional Christmas carols, while two of his sons, Oliver and Alajandro, ably served on the

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sanctuary. I managed to attend Mass at St Edward’s the following Sunday when Canon Scott blessed wine that people had brought in for the purpose, and was pleased to see that once again the small but efficient choir was in full voice. For anyone considering attending this regular and beautiful Sunday Mass at St Edward’s, please do note that Canon Scott has brought the Mass back an hour from 4pm to 3pm in order to accommodate more easily the four Mass celebrations that take place every Sunday (2 x Novus Ordo, 1 Ordinariate Rite and 1 Traditional Latin). As is apparent, the Priest in Charge, Fr Ian Hellyer, ensures that everybody in the Plymouth area is catered for! I would just like to add that Canon Scott has been pleased to resume the monthly 1st Saturday’s Mass at 11.30am (Our Lady of Fatima devotion) with Confession beforehand, so please do avail yourselves of this wonderful opportunity to comply with Our Lady’s request to Sr Lucia, one of the Fatima seers.

Unlike in Plymouth, the pastoral needs of the Latin Mass congregations at Blessed Sacrament in Exeter, and at St Cyprian’s, Ugbrooke House, Chudleigh, cannot be met. I hasten to add that this is not the fault of parish priests – who are doing their level best to accommodate us – but is simply due to present nationwide circumstances. The major insurmountable obstacle at the moment at both venues is that we cannot possibly meet the added time-consuming virus requirements for congregational use – after Mass deep clean/sanitizing etc., so I do ask everybody to be patient and understanding. The good news is that we have already been pleased to engage the services of Fr Peter Coxe, who has kindly offered to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for us at both venues throughout this current year when circumstances allow.

As always, do check the Mass Listings, and contact me if you have any questions regarding the above.

Plymouth (Dorset) Maurice Quinn 07555 536579 devon@lms.org.uk I am happy to report that the days/dates for the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass have been confirmed for 2021 at Our Lady’s, Marnhull, and at Our Lady of Lourdes & St Cecilia in Blandford Forum. The first Usus Antiquior of the year was celebrated at Blandford Forum by Mgr Francis Jamieson on Our Lady’s Saturday, 2 January at 9.30am. Please take note that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Traditional Rite will be celebrated every Saturday morning at Blandford Forum at 9.30am throughout the coming year, so if you are able, do support this, especially if you live in the area – a wonderful opportunity for carrying out the 1st Saturday devotions of Our Lady of Fatima.

The Epiphany Mass was also celebrated by Mgr Francis on Wednesday 6 January at 12 noon, an occasion that saw Our Lady of Lourdes & St Cecilia at full capacity given the current virus distancing in force. This Mass was followed up on Wednesday 13 at 12 noon by an impromptu celebration of the Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Although this latter was not well attended due to it being a last-minute arrangement, it was much appreciated by those present.

It is always a special joy for me to attend any of the Dorset Traditional Latin Mass celebrations, so to be present at Our Lady’s, Marnhull, for the Thursday 10 December 12 noon Mass was memorable, especially as I had the pleasure of serving on the sanctuary after being invited to do so by the PP and celebrant Fr Martin Budge. On the sanctuary I was once again struck by the beautiful simplicity of this traditional old church, especially of the reredos replete with tapestries showing six West Country saints – including the Chideock Martyr Fr John Cornelius S.J. expertly produced by lady parishioners in 1982 (see photograph).

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY During 2021 give yourself a real treat and attend a celebration of the centuries old Traditional Latin Mass at Our Lady’s, Marnhull, and at Our Lady of Lourdes and St Cecilia, Blandford Forum, and take note that Confession is available at both venues before Mass. Do check the Mass Listings, and if travelling any distance, do contact me to confirm or if you have any relevant questions.

Our Lady’s Marnhull: from left to right, Blessed John Slade; St Walburga; St Aldhelm; St Boniface; St Edward; Blessed John Cornelius SJ Portsmouth (Bournemouth) Tim Fawkes t.fawkes136@btinternet.com Over the past quarter and when the law has allowed, regular Sunday Masses at 4pm have continued at St Thomas More Church, Iford and our thanks again to the friars in Gosport who undertake a lengthy round trip to the church to offer Mass on Sundays and Holydays of Obligation. There were also Masses on 8 December (feast of the Immaculate Conception), Christmas Day at midnight and on 6 January (Epiphany).

First Friday evening Masses have continued at the Bournemouth Oratory and there were vigil Masses for the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and Epiphany.

Portsmouth (Isle of Wight) Peter Clarke We give thanks for 32 years of Latin (E.F.) Masses on the Isle of Wight. These have been mainly at St Mary's, Ryde. Now they are chiefly at St Thomas's, Cowes, thanks to Fr Jonathan Redvers Harris. Despite a heavy workload running two parishes (Cowes and East Cowes) and his duties as Chancellor of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, Father still manages a weekly E.F. Mass at 12 noon on Thursdays.

We have benefited in the past from visiting priests, especially from the FSSP. The present pandemic has curtailed this. However, we look forward to welcoming any priest who visits our beautiful Island (when restrictions are lifted) who will, hopefully, offer Mass for us.

Portsmouth (Reading) Adrian Dulston 01491 682909 berks@lms.org.uk Reading Latin Masses continued to be served by the FSSP, who are now down to two priests, who nevertheless valiantly continue to serve other areas of the country. The Masses have continued more or less at the normal times albeit with the restrictive measures in spacing etc. However, thanks to the down to earth nature of these heroic priests there is some spiritual anchorage to the routine of the laity’s lives.

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Of course, the highlight remains Christmas, and Midnight Mass was well attended, beginning with Carols at 11.30pm and Mass at the stroke of midnight. There were no festive refreshments. It would be remiss of me to not mention the choir, both the male chant and the mixed polyphonic, who give valuable beauty to the Sunday Masses and these seasonal Feasts.

I have to say the FSSP priests are a providential gift for the people of north Portsmouth Diocese and far beyond – if you ever come you will know the spread of distances people travel to get to the greatest of treasures of the Church.

I write on the Feast of the Epiphany where two Masses were offered, one in the morning and one in the evening as well as a commitment to another diocese. Let us thank God for Fr Goddard and Fr Phipps. And a Blessed Epiphanytide to you all!

Shrewsbury (The Wirral) Neil Addison liverpool@lms.org.uk Congratulations are due to Canon Montjean of the ICKSP who achieved a Doctorate in Theology after 3 years of hard work. His thesis was ‘Catholic Marriage in the works of St Francis de Sales’, St Francis is a Patron of the Institute of Christ the King so a very appropriate subject for a Thesis.

Sad news however for Canon Poucin whose grandmere died in the New Year, he has the sympathy of all of us at the Dome.

We were fortunate over the Christmas period that 2 Vigil Masses were offered on 24 December and 2 on Christmas Day. The Vigil Masses needed to be booked in advance to ensure proper social distancing was maintained and in addition we had sung Mass on New Year’s Day. One slightly amusing addition was a service on 31 December to ‘Give Thanks for the Year’, a nice thought and a traditional devotion but I don’t know how sincere people were in giving thanks for 2020, however we are all certainly looking forward with hope to 2021.

We know that compared to many areas we are very fortunate in having access to regular Masses and devotions in the Traditional Rite. The Canons continue to live-stream these services for those who are unable to attend and they can be found on YouTube The restoration work on our Church is continuing in the main Altar and inside the Dome itself, so we continue to use the side altar of St Philomena which is serving us well. Like the rest of the country, we continue to make the best of the situation and hope that things will have returned to some normality by Easter. For us Easter will also hopefully be the time when the building work is complete and we are able to return to using the main Altar.

Southwark (Kent) Marygold Turner 01580 291372 Things have looked up since my last report and our churches are open, so we’ve been able to have Holy Mass on Sundays and Feast Days. I’m immensely indebted to Fr Behruz at St Andrew’s in Tenterden for welcoming us so warmly and for understanding the importance of the Traditional liturgy. Not only that but Fr Gabriel Diaz has most generously celebrated the Mass for us at St Andrew’s. He has a very fine reputation as an expert on many subjects, especially the liturgy, which he has studied for so many years. He also has a magnificent voice, as many of you will know.

We have been able to have a number of Sung Masses with Ben Bevan and one or two of his singers. He came to Trevor Leney’s funeral on 18 January. The music was celestial, ending with Faure’s In Paradisum. A fitting tribute to Trevor, who was a marvellous and very devout man. Trevor’s son put together the beautiful Requiem, which was attended by his devoted mother and family. Live-streaming the Mass via Zoom enabled more than 20 family and friends around the world to join with us.

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY Southwark (St Mary’s Chislehurst) Christopher Richardson chislehurst@lms.org.uk We have been blessed by the appointment of a new parish priest, Fr Francis Lynch. We were very busy over Christmas and the Epiphany. In addition to our usual Sunday (Sung) and Friday (Low) Masses, we had Sung Masses on Christmas Day; on The Vigil of the Octave of the Nativity (31 December) followed by a Te Deum; on the next day (the Octave, New Year’s Day) preceded by the chanting of the Veni Creator; and on the Feast of the Epiphany.

We will have a Sung Mass again on the feast of the Purification of the BVM (Candlemas).

Our Traditional Masses continue to be well attended, but at the same time meticulous care is taken to ensure Covid restrictions are observed.

Southwark (Thanet) Antonia Robinson 01843 845880 07961 153963 thanet@lms.org.uk Amidst the madness of the whole country going into lockdown, then coming out of lockdown, then back into lockdown again, liturgical life at the Shrine Church of St Augustine in Ramsgate flourished. Never one to miss a trick, Fr Christopher Basden seized the opportunity of the November lockdown to increase the internet reach of the traditional community of St Augustine’s and saw the number of subscribers to the church’s YouTube channel increase to well over 1000, with a virtual congregation stretching across the globe.

Although forbidden to enter the church during those lockdown weeks, a number of faithful gathered every Sunday in St Augustine’s peaceful clifftop graveyard to pray the Rosary, read the Sunday readings aloud, and adore Our Lord when the peal of the consecration bells rang through the flint walls, just audible above the crashing of the waves.

What delight there was among the faithful when the doors were allowed to be reopened and public worship resumed!

Three joyful sung Christmas Masses in the Traditional Form were celebrated in 2020, which must be a post-conciliar record for the parish. We are all enormously grateful to Fr Gabriel Patri Diaz for celebrating Christmas Mass at Midnight, (really at midnight!) and a Dawn Mass at 6am on Christmas Day. The Dawn Mass was a rare treat, with the first pale shafts of light illuminating the sanctuary as the liturgy reached its pinnacle.

Thanks are also due to our intrepid Director of Music, Ben Scott, who led, sang and played the music at all three Christmas TLM, and Hugo Robinson who MCed both the Midnight and Dawn Masses. Sung Mass on Christmas Day celebrated by parish priest Fr Christopher Basden was the final of our three Traditional Masses, and no less splendid than the others. All three Christmas Masses were very well attended and it was particularly wonderful to see so many intrepid worshipers at the dawn Mass.

On 27 December a glorious High Mass was celebrated for the Feast of St John, Apostle and Evangelist, Celebrant: Fr Christopher Basden; Deacon: David Hunter; Subdeacon: Patrick Breeze; MC: Hugo Robinson.

At the time of writing, we are into a third lockdown although the church remains open and the congregations (both in church and online) are growing. Particularly pleasing is an increase in the number of young families, the toddlers and infants who will be the next generation of servers, priests, and religious. At the end of a difficult year, we have much for which to thank God and many reasons to feel hopeful. Deo gratias!

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Southwark (Wandsworth) Julia Ashenden Canon Martin Edwards continues to run a thriving parish at the Oratory of St Mary Magdalen in Wandsworth and kept the Church open every morning for private prayer during the November lockdown. Once Mass could be resumed there was a feast of Advent and Christmas Masses. On Gaudete Sunday a small professional choir sang Mozart’s Missa Brevis while the following week, just before Christmas, a Rorate Mass was celebrated in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary at 7.30am by candlelight.

Likewise, a Dawn Mass was said on Christmas morning in the EF. Midnight Mass was a splendid occasion with the church as full as Covid rules would allow and the choir singing Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël. This small visiting choir, under the leadership of David Guest, sings once a month using the spacious choir loft. On the other Sundays at 11am there is a Missa Cantata with a trio of singers from the congregation, again using the choir loft. In addition to the 11am Sunday Mass Canon Edwards will now be adding a regular weekday Latin Mass on Tuesdays, followed by Benediction.

If we are still allowed to function by Easter (by the Government) then the liturgy will be as you would expect, and on Easter Sunday at 11am there will be the world premiere of a new Mass setting by Mr David Guest. We now have a website up and running, so for any more details or information, please log in! Website: stmarymagdalens.co.uk Westminster (Willesden) Anna Grayson-Morley willesden@lms.org.uk 07710 472295 We continue to carry on the best we can under the threat of more extensive lockdowns. Mass attendance on Sundays continues to be very low at 6 – 8 people, while Holy Days see a slight rise. For example, the Epiphany saw a turnout of 14, still lower than pre-Covid. The most notable exception was the 10am Christmas Day Mass, where we had a very large attendance of 126. If only we could keep this up weekly!

It is due to the very low numbers on the Sunday evening Mass that Fr Stephen will be taking the situation under review at the end of January. It may be that we will have to move to a fortnightly or even monthly EF Mass. It all depends on the support via attendance that we get. You can keep up to date on times by visiting our website http://parish.rcdow.org.uk/willesden and clicking on the latest newsletter. Please also remember that in order to keep to social distancing guidelines, you must reserve a place for Mass attendance. You can do this by email: willesden@ rcdow.org.uk or by telephone: 020 8965 4935.

Wrexham Kevin Jones wrexham@lms.org.uk 01244 674011 The situation in Wrexham is unchanged in respect of celebrations of the Traditional Mass and the ongoing pandemic situation. None of the venues, which were few in the first place, have resumed.

Of note is that our Llay celebrant, Canon Lordan, has continued his treatment and just before Christmas he went home to Co. Cork for a period of convalescence. I am sure you will join me in continued prayer for his recovery.

The grim situation in Wrexham diocese is typified in that OF Masses at Llay are, as I understand it, being covered by the Bishop himself such is the crisis in Priestly numbers in the diocese.

Any changes to the situation will be posted on the Wrexham LMS blog lmswrexham.weebly.com

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FAMILY MATTERS

Darling, Let's have another baby...

In this, the first of a new series, James Preece looks at the perils of a ‘contraceptive mentality’

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o not be afraid!” the angel told us just a few weeks ago at Christmas, or for those of you using the 1965 authorised Charlie Brown version, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy”. It's interesting to note that the shepherds who feared the angel were put at ease by the news of a birth. These days we are more likely to be afraid of the baby! I'm pleased to say that this year we spent Christmas with a beautiful three-monthold baby girl, but we might easily not have done - because of fear.

There are a lot of reasons to be afraid of having a baby. Money is a huge factor because maybe you can't afford to pay the bills as it is, or maybe you'll need a bigger car and where is the money for that going to come from? Then there's health issues, like whether pregnancy will be safe for the mother or a history of genetic diseases in the family. You may be struggling in your marriage or have other commitments like caring for an elderly relative. Even if you don't have those problems now, who is to say you won't have them in two or four or ten years. Children are a long-term project.

It's incredible that anybody chances it to be honest. In our case it was mostly health concerns, although money played a part as well (have you seen the cost of shoes these days?) and a healthy mother seemed like a smart move.

So we used natural family planning to avoid pregnancy. We gave away the baby things, our children grew older and we 'moved on' – but something niggled.

It was only a little niggle though and easily ignored when I realised that our children would be all grown up and out of the way while we were still relatively young. I'd be able to buy a boat and travel the world! Kid-free life was going to be awesome. Oh yes, definitely open to life I was. Or was I? I was beginning to have my doubts. My wife's health difficulties

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‘I realised our children would be all grown up and out of the way while we were still relatively young…’

seemed to be easing off, I was older now and earning a bit more. Had we drifted across a line somewhere? This all came to a head when I read a blog post by Dr Joseph Shaw in which he described using NFP with a “contraceptive mentality”.

Was that me? Could the money be stretched further? Were the health issues serious enough? The questions literally kept me awake at night.

At this point I'd like to share a short explanation about how to make a prudential judgment. I'd like to, but I can't, because I really have no idea.

On the one hand, we should obviously trust God, “consider the lilies” and all that. On the other hand, we must use the gifts we have been given to figure things out, for “which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it”. Which was I doing?

Was I using my God given intellect to chart the best path, or was I worrying and failing to trust? Spoiler alert - we had to buy another pram. After a great deal of prayer and discussion, the Lord

blessed us with two beautiful baby girls, plus two more I hope to see in heaven – but that's a theological discussion for another day.

So what is the lesson here? Certainly not that NFP is always and everywhere wrong and evil, but also not that it is always and everywhere fine and dandy. In Humanae Vitae, Paul VI was clear on the need for “iustae causae”, that is, just causes. If you are going to avoid pregnancy, you really ought to have a serious reason. That's where things get tricky - I'm not about to try and spell out what is a serious reason, suffice to say that “life and death” sounds pretty valid to me and “I'd rather buy a boat” not so much. Even if it's a really, really, nice boat. I would encourage you though, to consider seriously whether or not you might have inadvertently strayed, as I did, in to a contraceptive mentality.

Are you absolutely confident? or do you have niggles?

If so, I hope this article will keep you up at night. Then maybe someday, I hope your future children will. Think about it.

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ART AND DEVOTION

A unique insight Caroline Farey discusses a remarkable modern painting of St Joachim Entrusting the Blessed Virgin Mary to St Joseph

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his painting is by the Canadian and profoundly Catholic artist, Michael O’Brien who is often better known for his novels. Here he gives us unique insight into the foster father of Jesus, in this year dedicated to St Joseph.

A first or second century source, the ‘Protoevangelium of James’, records the names of the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary which were known and revered as Joachim and Anna. The source is apocryphal, that is, it is not divinely inspired Sacred Scripture, but its stories of the infancy of Jesus made it a popular book amongst the Eastern churches. Although it contains elements that are rejected by the Church, several details are believed to be true and some became the basis of liturgical feasts such as the birthday of Mary, her presentation in the temple and the feast of St Joachim and Anna.

The names of Mary’s parents have been accepted as historical fact and also that St Joachim was from the same tribe, of Judah, as St Joseph, while Anna was of the priestly tribe of Levi. We know that Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, was married to the High Priest Zechariah in the year Jesus was born. Jesus’ only grandparents, then, the parents of Mary, were from the kingly and priestly tribes of Israel, united in their daughter for the sake of her son who would be king, priest and prophet for the people of God and for the whole world.

St Joachim is portrayed here as the elderly father figure with grey in his hair and his beard, large strong hands and a line of clear blue edging around his Jewish head covering. His expression is of great wisdom, reverence and kindness.

St Joseph is the younger man gazing intently on the pure white dove he has been given to hold. He has a band of royal purple at the edge of his headdress, as a descendent of the House of King

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David (Mt 1:21), but these bands have another significance too that we will see later. St Joachim, Joseph’s father-in-law, ‘entrusts’ the dove to St Joseph with the tender gesture of his right hand. In this way the elderly father entrusts, supports and protects the hand that now carries and takes responsibility for the dove, his beloved daughter, Mary.

It is unusual for the Blessed Virgin Mary to be portrayed as a dove, yet here we can see that the gentle pure white bird symbolises both her espousal to the Holy Spirit when the Archangel Gabriel told her ‘the Holy Spirit will come upon you’ (Lk 1:35), and the absolute purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, the immaculate conception of the Church, the new heaven and the new earth.

Right at the centre of the painting is St Joachim’s prophetic message to St Joseph and to us as observers of this moment. The message is powerfully portrayed by the arm, hand and finger of St Joachim pointing upwards and outwards from the communion created by the golden ochre of the clothing of the two figures. St Joachim points out into the darkness of the world of sin, towards the moon reflecting the light of the sun. The moon is an ancient symbol of Mary who totally reflects the light of her son, the Son of God, who is the light of the world shining in the darkness ‘and the darkness does not comprehend it’ or overcome it (Jn 1:5), nor her.

St Joachim is revealing to St Joseph who his new bride is, she to whom Joseph will dedicate himself completely, also what her mission is and thus what his mission will forever be too. The moon, reflecting the light of the sun, sits at the centre of twelve bright stars just as Mary, forever reflecting towards us the light of her Son, remains in the midst of the twelve apostles. From them, many coloured shooting stars stream out to the ends of the earth, as the faithful

disciples witness and pass on to others the news of this Mother and her Divine Son, so that others can treasure it and pass it on whole and entire, entrusting it to further generations across the nations and ages.

The Blessed Trinity As you may have already noticed, the entire image is also, and deliberately, indicative of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You can see that, in this sense, the Father has the clear blue band of the creator of the heavens while the Son has the band of the purple of his passion.

All three persons of the Holy Trinity have the one and same determined and loving intention, that the Holy Spirit will be sent into the world darkened by man’s sin, ‘to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the House of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.’

(Lk 1:27). St Luke’s Gospel describes the moment of the Incarnation as a Trinitarian act of embrace of the Blessed Virgin, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you and the child to be born of you will be called holy, the Son of God’ (Lk 1:35).

In this modern icon-style painting ‘God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself’ (CCC 1) is portrayed by the intense regard and golden light of the Father and Son embracing the Holy Spirit, symbolised by the immaculate white dove. The perfect unity of the three persons of the Trinity opens up between the heads of the Father and Son, and out in the created world is God’s ‘plan of sheer goodness’: to bring mankind back to himself ‘to share in his own blessed life’ (CCC 1).

A final point can also be visualised in this very simple, profound painting. Most Holy Tradition begins here, at this moment when the Father ‘hands over’ (traditio) his Son to be conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The

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ART AND DEVOTION

Michael O’Brien’s St Joachim Entrusting the Blessed Virgin Mary to St Joseph. The picture is in a private collection.

same Greek verb is used in the gospels to mean both ‘hand over’ and ‘betray’. So, Judas hands over Jesus into the hands of the Romans to be crucified for our sins.

Jesus hands over (the verb is usually translated into English as ‘gives up’) his Spirit from the cross, to descend upon the apostles at Pentecost and stay beside them (the paraclete) guiding them into all the truth (Jn 16:13) to the end of time.

From ancient times in the catechetical tradition there is a

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moment called the ‘traditio’, when the Creed is ‘handed over’ to the catechumen who is seeking to be baptised and become a member of Christ’s mystical body, the Church. The catechumen is entrusted with this precious account of the salvific truths, mysteries and events of the faith. The newly baptised is to learn it by heart, live by it and ‘hand it over’ in turn to others. Together with the fullness of Tradition, Mary too is entrusted to the Church and to each

of us in catechesis, as she is entrusted here to St Joseph. Under the loving care of St Joseph, she is to be handed over to each future generation as our Mother in heaven who draws us always and only to the light of her Divine Son. The writer used the artist’s own brief explanation of the painting. Her expansion of this explanation was then sent to the artist (several years ago) which he most kindly verified in his reply.

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FEATURE

Reform of the Reform David Gornall SJ looks at where we are now, fifty-five years after the Second Vatican Council

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ur drastic and strange experience of coronavirus has given us a great opportunity and incentive to re-evaluate our situation in society, and the reality of our own lives. We are also fiftyfive years on from the closing of the Second Vatican Council, in 1965, and this gives us also the motivation to reassess the progress and situation of the Church since then, and especially in our own day.

Changes in the Church are often labelled ‘Reforms of Vatican II’, although very many of these significant and major changes were not foreseen by the Council Fathers, or contained in the Council documents, but were instigated following the Council, under the banner of being ‘according to the spirit of the Council’.

These include, the installing of freestanding altars, and Mass facing the people, Holy Communion taken standing and in the hand, the Sign of Peace before Holy Communion, and the multiplication of lay Ministers of Holy Communion, the introduction of women lectors and girl servers, and the almost total eclipse of Latin in the liturgy, replaced by the vernacular.

As well as these, there was the introduction of a New Rite of Mass, together with a number of new Eucharistic Prayers, and the introduction of a new Sunday and Weekday Lectionary. Also, there was the renewal, and publication in the vernacular, of the Breviary. These changes were generally approved, and in some cases promulgated, by the Holy See. The life of the Church

What has been the effect of all this, in the life of the Church, and have they had a significant effect on the Church’s mission of evangelization and the transformation of society? There have been definite positive results, such as the greater involvement of the laity in the life of the Church, and the greater scope for the gifts of women in its life, the increased awareness and facility of the

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laity in making use of Sacred Scripture, progress in catechesis (although this has been a mixed picture), the ministry of permanent Deacons (foreseen by the Council), and the more understandable and acceptable image of the Church to society at large.

In the Religious Life of both men and women, there has been a re-engaging with the original documents and intentions of the founders (encouraged by the Council document). Improved ecumenical relations between the various Churches, and better relations with Jews and Non-Christians, were also positive fruits of Vatican II.

However, looking back over the last decades, there have been notable negative factors both in the life of the Church and in its place within the wider society. Perhaps the most obvious one of these is the huge decline in Mass attendance of Catholics; in many nominally-Catholic countries this is now minimal. Coming fast after this, is the equally great decline in vocations, both to the Priesthood and to the Religious Life. Many Religious Congregations now face de facto extinction, and dioceses have faced drastic pastoral reorganization of parish ministries. Both these phenomena have been generally

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FEATURE confined to the developed Western World. Probably not unconnected with these factors, has been the significant loss, or perhaps apostasy, of Catholics both adults and young people, which has been a troubling aspect of Church life in Western countries, but also in South America, most prominently in Brazil.

Significantly too, the evangelizing work of the Church in Western countries has been slow, with minimal conversions, and its influence on Society at large has also been small. This is highlighted by the growth and promulgation of abortion, both in the Western world and also in developing countries (together with artificial contraception), the promotion and wide acceptance of gay marriage and homosexual unions, the promotion of transgender theory and its medical practice, and the promotion of these elements in the ‘sexual education’ and ‘sexualisation’ of even primary school children. These have been encouraged by the notable secularisation of society, particularly in Western Europe and Great Britain, with its overpowering materialism, where a large proportion of the populations claims to have no religion.

Given the fact that evangelisation is the core mission of the Church, from the commission of Christ to ‘make disciples of all nations’ (Mt 28:19), it has to be admitted that the ‘reforms of Vatican II’ have to a great extent not been a success, despite the good effects on a fair proportion of those who have remained faithful. How should we analyse this situation, and the various elements within it? Various points have been made, in recent times, with suggestions of remedies for different aspects and current practices. This process was highlighted by various mentions in the writings of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI of a muchneeded ‘Reform of the Reform’.

The sense of mystery

A significant focus has been the Liturgy, particularly the Eucharist – not surprisingly, as Vatican II called it, “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11). There has been strong criticism of the Novus Ordo Mass promulgated by Pope St Paul VI, in that it downplays the sacrificial aspect of the Mass, which is crucial, and overstresses the communal aspect, making it more of a community experience, more ‘protestant’. This, together with the almost total use of the vernacular,

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the celebration of Mass facing the people, and the unbalance between the length of the ‘liturgy of the word’ and the relatively short ‘liturgy of the Eucharist’, have had the effect of taking away the sense of ‘mystery’ in the Mass. Together with the ‘circular’ aspect of the celebration facing the people, the focus is mainly on the community rather than on worship of Almighty God. The mystery of our worship of the Almighty and All-Powerful God has been ‘tamed’, made ‘something-everyday’ and ordinary. This does not attract the uncommitted modern person! As Bishop Schneider says, the Mass, “is not the perpetuation of the Last Supper; it is the sacramental perpetuation of the mystery of the Cross”.

Linked with this, is the criticism of the current reception of Holy Communion, mostly standing and taken on the hand. The common removal of Altar rails often goes along with this. It is claimed that these changes have drastically reduced the reverence on the part of most laity for Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament (also on the part of some clergy). This is how we receive ordinary food, so how is this special and holy? It is noteworthy that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI insisted on administering Holy Communion to the faithful kneeling and on the tongue!

Reinforce the Faith

Also, there is criticism of the new Lectionary, with its two- and three-year cycles. It is alleged that this is treating the laity as if they were students of a biblical institute, and that it is confusing and bewildering. Rather have a simpler one -year cycle, with essential readings for the understanding of the Faith, which would reinforce the Faith of the faithful.

Looking at the position of the Church in the modern world, a key concern of the Council, the picture is not rosy. In many ways, the Church (its members, indeed) has been ‘conformed’ to the world and modern society, rather than being an influence for its conversion and purification; the Church has also been ‘tamed’, allege the critics. The Church’s leaders, the Bishops, are clearly key figures, here. Do they ‘speak out’, give a lead, and point out the right way? Very often, they seem to be silent or sleeping spectators; only a junior, Auxiliary Bishop denounced the imposition of an extreme abortion regime on Northern Ireland recently, by the Westminster government. The ‘ultramontane’ media

focus on the Papacy, however, detracts from the mission and role of diocesan bishops, it is said, with some truth. Of course, the Council stressed the role of the laity in the transformation of society. How far has this been effective?

A notable positive case in point, has been that of abortion and the situation of unmarried mothers, where the laity have led the field in opposing this evil, and caring for needy mothers and babies. The liberal faction in the church, which has led the way in promoting the ‘reforms’ following the Council, has been notably silent on this area; when did you last hear a ‘liberal’ speak out or even make a prayer against the evil of abortion? (Surely the greatest injustice in our modern world of today.) In many ways, this has been a touchstone for Catholic orthodoxy, among the clergy. Where does this leave us for the future, and any positive ‘reform of the reform’? The arch-liberals of the sixties and seventies have either gone to their reward, or are approaching this milestone. The middle age-group, who hold positions of responsibility in the Church today, have been greatly affected by this mentality. It is said that the new generation (few though they are) entering the ministry, are more ‘conservative’. Is this a sign of hope?

We may pray that this is so, and that positive ‘reforms’ may be gradually initiated, to renew the pastoral and evangelising mission of the Church in our modern society, in the forthcoming decades.

(Fr David Gornall SJ joined the Jesuits in England in 1961 and was ordained in 1974. He has spent most of his apostolic life in Zimbabwe, his ministries being, among other things, Administrator of the Cathedral in Harare, and for 14 years Secretary to the Archbishop of Harare. Having returned to Britain for health reasons, in 2006, he has done retreat work in North Wales, and parish work in Bournemouth. He is now resident at St Wilfrid’s Jesuit Community, Preston.)

Suggested Reading:

Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Day is now Far Spent

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age Both books are available from the LMS online shop

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ARCHITECTURE

St Joseph’s Gateshead Paul Waddington on a splendid Victorian church in the North East, designed by Archibald Matthias Dunn

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t the time of the restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850, there was no provision for Masses to be offered in Gateshead. Catholics would have to cross the River Tyne to attend Mass in Newcastle. However, the newly appointed Bishop of Hexham (as the Diocese was then styled), the Rt Rev. William Hogarth, lost little time in putting this right. In 1852, he sent Father Betham to set up a parish in Gateshead.

Mass was first offered in a temporary chapel on the top floor of a warehouse, and later in the Assembly Rooms of the Queen’s Hotel.

It is estimated that there were 3,000 Catholics in and around Gateshead at the time, half of them newly arrived immigrants from Ireland who had come to seek work in the new industries of the area. With such numbers, a church of considerable size was clearly necessary.

In the year 1858, Bishop Hogarth laid the foundation stone for a church which was originally going to be dedicated to Our Lady and St Wilfrid. The architect was Archibald Matthias Dunn, and his brief was to design a church for a congregation of 1,000. The bishop returned the following year to open the new church, which, due to a change of mind, was now dedicated to St Joseph.

It had been built for the remarkably low cost of £3,000.

Dunn also designed a school and a three-storey presbytery, which were built on the same site and both opened in 1864.

Archibald Dunn was the son of a mining engineer, and was educated at Ushaw College and Stonyhurst. He served his architectural apprenticeship in Bristol with Charles Francis Hansom (younger brother of the more famous Joseph Aloysius Hansom). Besides St Joseph’s in Gateshead, Archibald Dunn designed several other churches in the diocese, including Our Lady and St Wilfrid in Blyth and St Dominic’s Priory in Newcastle. Later he formed a partnership with Edward Hansom, the son of Charles Francis Hansom, and

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The exterior St Joseph's: originally there was to have been an impressive tower with a spire reaching to a height of 200 feet, but this was never built

together they designed a number of Catholic churches. These include the Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs in Cambridge, the Church of St Michael in Newcastle, the Church of Our Lady and St Joseph in Carlisle and the Church of St Joseph in Hartlepool.

Perhaps the partnership, which was joined in 1887 by Archibald’s son, also called Archibald, is better known for rebuilding and enlarging Augustus Welby Pugin’s chapel at Ushaw College, and adding the tower and spire to St Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle.

the spire was never built, as it would have greatly enhanced the building.

Internally, the church has a light and airy feel. The six bays of the lofty nave have high pointed arches supported on octagonal columns, which are sufficiently slender to allow good sight lines. Above the arcading are clerestory

Prominent position St Joseph’s Church in Gateshead occupies a prominent position on a street corner in central Gateshead. It is built of stone with a slate roof, and is in the Decorated Gothic style. Cruciform in plan, and traditional in orientation (altar at the eastern end), it is a substantial building with lofty nave, apsidal chancel and side isles. Originally there was to have been an impressive tower with a spire reaching to a height of 200 feet, but this was never built. This feature seems to have been abandoned before building started, its place at the northwest corner of the church being taken by a baptistery with pyramidal roof. It is a great pity that

Original drawings for St Joseph’s: the architect was Archibald Matthias Dunn, and his brief was to design a church for a congregation of 1,000

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ARCHITECTURE

The interior of St Joseph’s today: a re-ordering in the 1980s destroyed much of interest

windows of generous size that admit plenty of light. The scissor-braced roof trusses spring from wall posts that rise from corbels above the columns.

A prominent feature of the church is the chancel arch, on which is painted a rood with the figures of Our Lady and St John at either side. This is not an original feature, but dates from the early part of the twentieth century. The sanctuary is lit by three pairs of stainedglass windows. The central one depicts the Holy Family, and this is flanked on the left by images of Saints Patrick and Cuthbert, and on the right by Saints Edward and Henry.

In the year 1907 a fine white and ochre marble altar and reredos were installed. This was a massive structure incorporating two arches that gave access to steps behind the altar. Above the tabernacle, was a monstrance throne with a tall conical canopy reaching nearly to the ceiling, and incorporating numerous spirelets. Marble altar rails were also installed, and the walls were with decorative stencilling. The panelling of the apsidal sanctuary ceiling was also brightly painted. At a later date, an exceptionally elegant pulpit was added which was a gift from Alderman William John Costello, who later became a Mayor of Gateshead.

There are side chapels at the eastern ends of the aisles. One is dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady, and has an original oil painting on the retable of the altar. The other has been robbed of its altar, but contains a beautiful statue of St Joseph carrying the infant Jesus, as well as housing a large pipe organ.

At the western end of the church is a choir loft with a five light window behind. Like most of the windows in St Joseph’s Church, the curvilinear tracery is elaborate, and demonstrates Dunn’s skill in executing the neo-Gothic Decorated style. The glass in this window

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The sanctuary as it originally appeared

depicts various scenes including the Nativity and the Assumption. Indeed, all the windows of St Joseph’s Church are noteworthy, both for their elegant tracery, and for the quality of their stained glass, which was mostly supplied by the firm H M Barnett of Newcastle.

and presidential chair, the outcome had a catastrophic effect on the appearance of the church, made worse by the selection of a red carpet to cover up the damage.

Spectacular With all the improvements made during the early part of the twentieth century, the church must have looked quite spectacular. Alas, a reordering scheme of the 1980s destroyed much of this good work. Not only were the pulpit and the altar rails swept away, but the altar was detached from its reredos, and relocated in a forward position.

The reredos was much reduced in size, losing its monstrance canopy in the process. As was done in so many places, the sanctuary was extended into the crossing and the level of its floor raised.

The walls were whitewashed, and, many decorative effects eliminated.

Surprisingly, the screens in front of the side chapels survived.

Although the statues that used to adorn the pulpit were salvaged, and some of the marble was used to make an ambo

The remains of the original reredos

St Joseph’s Church is Grade II Listed, and has Canon Michael Brown as its Parish Priest. Canon Brown is the Northern Chaplain to the LMS and offers Mass in the Extraordinary Form Every Sunday at noon.

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REVIEW

Ancient discipline Joseph Shaw looks at fasting for Catholics

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ntermittent fasting is the diet trend of the moment. That is not in itself a recommendation: the world of nutrition has been plagued by mutually contradictory theories and passing fads for decades, some ineffective, some not very healthy, and some lucrative to their promoters. I’m no expert on nutrition, so while I’ll try to explain the theory as presented in two books, I can’t really assess its claims: readers must use their own judgement. The reason I’m bringing it to the attention of Mass of Ages readers derives from two aspects of this approach to diet which set it apart from others: its relationship with the ancient Catholic discipline of fasting, and its relationship with ordinary culinary culture.

To understand these two issues, I need to explain the intermittent fasting

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theory. Its major populariser, Jason Fung, gives in his book a very interesting account of the modern history of nutrition, the science of blood-sugar regulation, diabetes, and why things have gone so wrong: which clearly, they have, particularly in the USA and the UK, where the rates of obesity (and diabetes) are so high. But a helpful way of introducing the fundamental point would be to compare two fasts: the Minnesota Starvation Experiment of 1944-5, and Angus Barbieri of Tayport, Scotland, in 1965-6.

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment isolated the subjects, 36 conscientious objectors, and progressively reduced their food intake to make them lose an average of 25% of their total body weight, over 24 weeks, before allowing them to recover.

The idea was to study the effects of malnourishment, which was a major problem in war-torn Europe. What they discovered is that the human body has an amazing capacity to cut its energy usage when it has to: it was surprisingly difficult to get the men to lose the weight the experimenters had planned. In the meantime, the wretched subjects felt the cold acutely, lacked strength in standardised activities, and became obsessed with food: thinking about it, dreaming about it, and in some cases stealing it, and being thrown out of the experiment as a result.

Contrasting Anyone who has been on a calorycontrolled diet will know exactly how they felt. However, Angus Barbieri presents a contrasting case. He was

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REVIEW seriously overweight, and, under medical supervision and taking vitamins and other supplements, ate nothing at all for 382 days. That’s right, for more than a year, he lived off his fat. He lost 276 lb, and said he felt fine.

He put on a bit of weight after returning to a normal diet, but he didn’t go back to being obese.

Now, no-one is recommending mimicking Barbieri’s feat. But given the results of the Minnesota experiment, which corresponds to so much common experience, how on earth did he do it? Why was his fast so different from theirs? For his experience can also be paralleled. Many ascetics, of various religious traditions, have fasted for long periods, apparently without causing their bodies to shut down in the way the Minnesota subjects’ did. One might think that ascetics have incredible selfcontrol that ordinary people lack, but actually fasting, on a scale difficult to imagine for us today, used to be a universal practice. It was only a couple of generations ago that Catholics had to fast every day in Lent, leaving aside Sundays. It wasn’t superhuman; people just got used to it. But how?

Dr Fung and his follower Jay Richards offer an explanation. My very non-expert attempt to understand it goes like this. The body has two modes of providing energy for our cells, depending on what food is available.

Carbohydrates and sugars are very easily converted into energy, and if they are plentiful in your diet that is what happens. If you consume more than you need, the excess is converted into fat for storage, as we all know. Burning fat, on the other hand, is harder work: it involves a more complicated process and uses more energy. (Protein comes in between the two, and of course most food on one’s plate includes elements of all food groups.) The body won’t go to the trouble of burning fat if it doesn’t need to.

Western diet Accordingly, the body of someone who habitually eats the amount of sugar and carbohydrate typical of the modern Western diet, uses the sugars and carbohydrates for preference, and if they are restricted, it asks for more: hence you can get cravings for sweet things. At the same time, if there is a serious shortage the body tends to close down non-essential functions, and you can feel cold and weak.

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On the other hand, if your diet is more fat-oriented, your body is used to burning fats, and can shift more easily from burning fat which you have just eaten, to burning fat that you have stored away. Fung suggests that for a couple of weeks before you start fasting you should adapt your diet so that you take in half your calories from fats. With this conditioning in place, if there is then a shortage, the body much more readily turns to the fat which has been stored away, instead of demanding sugars and carbohydrates through cravings, and simultaneously cutting down the body’s metabolism.

In the Minnesota experiment the subjects were fed with carbohydrates, and this made their lives much more miserable than necessary. With Barbieri, despite his previously normal (or poor) diet, a complete cessation of eating for long enough stimulates the body to move into fat-burning mode. Having made that transition, Barbieri wasn’t plagued by cravings and weakness.

I really have no idea if this theory corresponds to scientific reality. I confess, however, that over the time of the first lockdown, I tried it, and, well, it worked for me. I hadn’t previously found fasting at all easy, but the preparation recommended by the intermittent fasting theory makes it much, much easier. Yes, I got hungry, but hunger is not continuous: it comes and goes, and Fung and Jay suggest having a hot drink or distracting oneself for a bit. I did, in fact, feel the cold more than usual, and it helped that I wasn’t going out much or doing hard physical labour. I was amazed, however, that I didn’t go mad with food-cravings, even while fasting for a whole day, or two, or even three, at a time.

More technical Of the two books, Fung’s is more technical; for the practical issues of fasting, I found Jay’s (which has a foreword by Fung) easier to understand.

While some of Jay’s digressions are a little silly, he does make a serious attempt to put intermittent fasting into a Christian and Catholic context.

With this approach, fasting can be a penance, a sacrifice, something we can do out of devotion, as well as for our health, but it’s not a torture, a superhuman act of self-control, or something which sets us up to fail.

Another aspect of the diet which is worthy of note is this. Many diets

demand a life-time of ‘funny eating’: some exclude whole food groups; some exclude a bewildering variety of individual items. Going to a restaurant can be complicated; dining with friends, a nightmare. It’s not as if we could all adapt our culinary culture to some new scientific discovery: there can be as many faddish diets as chairs around the table at a dinner-party, and some people hop rapidly from one demanding and peculiar diet to another in a never-ending series.

When an Atkins dieter says he can’t have bread, potatoes, or pasta, he is excluding himself from fundamental components of European cuisine.

Low-fat diets make many of the best dishes of many culinary traditions not just difficult to make but unrewarding, because of the role fats play in the cooking process, and in making us feel satisfied. Steamed vegetables and poached white fish is not the same as duck confit or roast potatoes.

Dietary fashions Food and cooking are fundamental elements of human culture. If that is obvious, one must recognise that the constantly-changing dietary fashions of the past fifty years have done huge damage to it. They have contributed to the disappearance of culinary traditions, and to the ties between generations constituted by the passing on of recipes. Nearly all nutritionists would agree that it is best to prepare food from scratch, at home, but their food-fads have made doing this absurdly complicated, just at the moment when many young adults lack the confidence even to boil themselves an egg.

Intermittent fasting allows us to eat, like our Catholic predecessors, with regard for taste and satisfaction, and above all normally, in relation to our particular food culture. No authentic culinary tradition includes the hideous products of the modern food industry, highly processed and stuffed with sugar and salt. At the same time, we should mix feasting with fasting: celebration and thanksgiving with penance and petition.

The Obesity Code: the bestselling guide to unlocking the secrets of weight loss by Jason Fung (2016) Eat, Fast, Feast: Heal Your Body While Feeding Your Soul-A Christian Guide to Fasting by Jay W. Richards (2020)

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FEATURE

Good works Charles A. Coulombe remembers John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute

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he Catholic Church in the British Isles was in large part preserved through the Penal Times by nobility and gentry; its astonishing revival in the 19th century was spearheaded by many zealous converts.

The Marquess of Bute was both, and he laid a large and valuable mark on the Church in the Three Kingdoms that continues to the present.

The Crichton-Stuarts are descendants of John Stewart, illegitimate son of Scotland’s first Stuart King, Robert II. Holding the hereditary office of Steward of Bute since 1157, the family have numbered among other worthies John Stuart, the 3rd Earl of Bute, who was George III’s mentor and (until a falling out) Prime Minister. His son, likewise named John, was promoted to Marquess. Predeceased by his own son, he was succeeded in the Marquessate by his grandson, yet another John, who took his mother’s surname by deed poll – ever since, the family have been Crichton-Stuart. A wealthy landowner already, the 2nd Marquess amassed ever more money through mining and other pursuits. His only son was born sixth months before he died.

The 3rd Marquess being an infant when he came into his title in 1848, found himself master of four great houses – Mount Stuart and Dumfries in Scotland, Cardiff Castle in Wales, and London’s Bute House. His father’s industry made the babe the richest man in the world at the time; he would spend a fortune on good works over a lifetime.

When he was 12, young John’s mother died; he was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford. Once there, the young Marquess quickly fell in with the Anglo-Catholic movement. But he soon decided the only logical move was to convert to the Catholic Church; despite the annoyance of his trustees, he was received after his 21st birthday on 8 December 1868. Disraeli’s novel Lothair was inspired by the resulting uproar.

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Then began a period of study, discovery, and travel – including attendance at some of the sessions of Vatican I. This time culminated with his marriage in 1872 to Gwendolen FitzalanHoward, the granddaughter of the 13th Duke of Norfolk. In so doing he married into the most prestigious Catholic family in England, since the Howards have for the most part kept the Catholic Faith since the Protestant revolt. The Duke of Norfolk is the premiere non-Royal peer in Great Britain, and as Earl Marshal (an office attached to the title), then as now supervises much of the ceremonial life of Great Britain – as especially that revolving around the Monarchy.

Both the Marquess’ wealth and his position in society placed many obligations upon him. He was active in attempting to apply Catholic Social teaching to his miners and workers and was Hereditary Keeper for the Crown of both Rothesay Castle and Falkland Palace. He not only restored both these extensively out of his own pocket, but was responsible for the resumption of Catholic Mass at the latter establishment’s Chapel Royal (this continues to-day, being one of the two Chapels Royal in the Commonwealth used for Catholic worship: the other is Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal of the Mohawks in Tyendinaga, Ontario, used by an Ordinariate community). His own residences of Dumfries House (now under the care of the Prince of Wales) and Mount Stuart House (still the seat of his descendants) are incredibly beautiful.

Indeed, much of the amount of new building and restoration work the Marquess was responsible for was due either to his secular responsibilities or Catholic ideals – Cardiff Castle, Castell Coch, Caerphilly Castle, Pluscarden Abbey, the Bute Medical Buildings of St Andrew’s University (of which he was Lord Rector), the Bute and Randolph

Halls at the University of Glasgow, and on and on. He did a great deal to raise the public face of the Church in British life.

Architecture was a great interest of his until the end of his life, and he took an active role in all his building schemes – among other great architects, William Burges was one of his favourites. But the Marquess also had a great interest in church furnishings and vestments: when the Scottish Hierarchy was restored in 1878, he donated new mitres to the bishops of each of the revived dioceses Galloway, Edinburgh, Dunkeld, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Argyll.

He was of course in favour of removing the remaining Catholic political disabilities, and not too surprisingly, given his Scots and Welsh interests, he encouraged and supported the use of Scots Gaelic and Welsh – so noted was the Marquess for the latter that he chaired the National Eisteddfod one year. Politically, while he was definitely a Tory on the one hand, on the other he supported Home Rule for Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, which countries would nevertheless be equal partners with England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa in an Imperial Parliament.

With all these many practical interests, the Marquess combined a large number of scholarly ones as well.

Again unsurprisingly, he amassed a great many papers and materials regarding the Jacobite movement, and wrote many essays on various foreign and domestic historical subjects – especially in the Celtic and Medieval eras. Somewhat more unusual was his interest in such matters as astrology and psychic phenomena – he rose to be Vice President of the Society for Psychical Research and co-wrote an account of a supposed haunting he had looked into.

But his investigations in these arcane areas were always conducted with ecclesiastical approval.

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Most notable for our purposes was his interest in all aspects of the Liturgy – East and West. Familiar with many languages and a fine Latinist, he wrote several comparative liturgical studies – most notable a volume on the Blessing of the Waters for the Epiphany in the Latin, Byzantine, and other rites. But his biggest achievement in this field, perhaps was his translation of the Breviary into English. Predating St Pius X’s radical changes in the Divine Office, the Marquess’ work opened up the treasures of the Church’s daily prayer to the English-speaking laity in an unheard-of manner. Faithful to the letter of the Latin original and yet in beautiful English, it remains a monument of what Liturgical translation should be, but so very rarely is. Moreover, its availability online allows the average reader access to it not seen in decades.

A Knight of the Thistle, a Knight Grand Cross of the Holy Sepulchre, and a Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great, he was highly regard both

by Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII, and by Queen Victoria. What makes the level of his achievement even more amazing is that he lived a mere 53 years, dying in 1900. His heart was buried on the Mount of Olives in the Holy Land. In addition to the successive Marquesses of Bute since then, he has had a number of remarkable descendants, including Servant of God Fra Andrew Bertie (19292008), Grand Master of the Order of Malta, and Fra Fredrik Crichton-Stuart (1940-2011), Grand Prior of the Order of Malta in England, head of Una Voce (Scotland), and President of Una Voce International (2005–2006). It is fitting that every 2 November, the souls of the Marquess and his descendants have a Requiem Mass offered for their repose at the chapel of Cardiff Castle by the reigning Archbishop. When the Butes acquired their Cardiff properties, the town was a backwater; by the time the Third Marquess’ son eliminated the family’s Welsh holdings, it had become the Welsh metropolis.

In a corrupt age where wealth and power are rarely employed for the Common Good, it is inspiring to remember a man who summed up in himself all that was admirable in his place and time. Let us hope to see such leaders again – whether in Church or in State.

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Bute: ‘Familiar with many languages and a fine Latinist, he wrote several comparative liturgical studies’

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REVIEW

News from the FSSP…

By Alan Frost

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owry is the title of the quarterly magazine of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP) in the UK and Ireland. Founded in 1988, the FSSP is devoted exclusively to the traditional liturgy of the Roman Rite and has ordained 12 new priests from the UK since the early 2000s. The Superior of the English apostolate of the FSSP is Fr Armand de Malleray, also the editor of Dowry since its inception as a newsletter in Advent 2008. Dowry took over from the newsletter of the FSSP of Scotland, Videre Petrum, edited by its founder Fr John Emerson. Dowry was chosen as a title because England, since the late 14thc., had been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary as ‘Our Lady’s Dowry’.

In these Isles the FSSP is present in Reading, Chesham Bois, Bedford, Edinburgh, Waterford (Ireland) and at what over the last five years has become the main English base: St Mary’s Shrine Church in Warrington, where daily

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liturgies and homilies broadcast on livemass.net are a lifeline for many during the pandemic.

Dowry is a glossy well-illustrated magazine with a wide range of articles on contemporary, historic and theological matters, on family and pro-life topics, as well as on art and reviews of publications relating to the traditional liturgy. Originally written entirely in-house, in recent years it has included contributions from outside the Fraternity. Dowry welcomes articles, drawings and pictures, to be submitted by email to the editor: malleray@fssp.org.

All the issues are accessible online, thereby providing an important research source, perhaps on items not that accessible elsewhere. In this issue of Mass of Ages, e.g., in the Reports section, there is reference to the distribution of Epiphany Water. One can find all about this in an article by Fr Matthew

Goddard FSSP in Dowry Issue 21 of Spring 2014. Access to this resource, by author or title, can be found on https:// fssp.co.uk/dowry-articles/. Dowry is sent free of charge. Details of how to obtain the magazine by subscription, including in Ireland and Scotland, are provided: postal addresses and the website access (https://fssp.co.uk/ manageprofile/register.php). Priests and laity are welcome to order several 5, 10 or more copies to give to parishioners and acquaintances.

In these difficult pandemic times, a most appropriate prayer is to be found on the cover of the magazine, beneath the title. It has been displayed there since the third issue, that of Summer 2009, quoting the words of Cardinal Wiseman: "O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gracious Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England thy Dowry."

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WINE

Merry England Sebastian Morello in praise of ‘common culture’, the traditional English pub and Trappist ales

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ll great music is folk music. Even the most elevated compositions are, in essence, folk music.

That is, folk music which has been raised for a higher purpose than that of accompanying the harvest festival, or some such occasion. This was, in sum, the argument of Ralph Vaughan Williams in his National Music lectures published in 1934. T.S. Eliot, fifteen years later, extended this notion to all high culture, arguing in Notes Towards the Definition of Culture that high culture was dependent on ‘common culture’, and was really the latter transformed.

I endorse this view, and I look down my nose at those who turn up theirs at common culture.

Among conservative-minded people there is much worry that high culture is in crisis, but this should not be our first concern. The recital halls, the museums, the opera houses and the art galleries keep going (for now at least). Families eating meals together, local traditions and festivals, historical associations, fiddle-playing and card games; all such things have largely been replaced by the television – ‘the devil’s tabernacle’, as Padre Pio called it – addictively enjoyed by a population of zombies. It is common culture that is in crisis, and if there is a crisis in high culture then it is surely due to a crisis in common culture. That is, at least, how Vaughan Williams and Eliot would have diagnosed the situation.

All is not lost. Within a five-mile radius of anywhere in England one is sure to find an oasis in which genuine common culture still survives: the English pub, the source of whose thirstquenching spring is found below in barrels. The true English pub is one of the last vestiges of Merry England. Here, conversation continues and friendships are renewed. The English pub is a home away from home, with real ale, pork scratchings, copper table-tops, and exposed beams. A true English pub should have these features. If a pub does

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civil liberties, and charity are rife. All this is captured in the lines that were added to the print by James Townley: Beer, happy Produce of our Isle Can sinewy Strength impart, And wearied with Fatigue and Toil Can cheer each manly Heart…

Genius of Health, thy grateful Taste Rivals the Cup of Jove, And warms each English generous Breast With Liberty and Love!

have these features, but relentlessly subjects you to the latest moronic pop music blasted out from speakers in every corner, then you should still take your cash elsewhere.

I was delighted when, from the upper governmental spheres of the Latin Mass Society, a request came for me to occasionally devote my wine column to the work of Bacchus’s Nordic cousin, Aegir, and write in honour of beer.

Beer was the tipple of Catholic England. Following the Inglorious Usurpation of 1688, William of Orange was instrumental in introducing a new drink to help his new subjects drown their joys at his new regime: gin. Gin was easy to make and cheap to buy. Most importantly, gin was strong. Gin helped the English to forget Merry England and accept Protestant England, where Our Lady was not to be honoured, having been replaced with ‘Lady Gin’ whom the drunks would toast before they blacked-out. The unceasing satisfaction of insatiable appetite took on an almost religious character (as it always does).

In 1751, William Hogarth depicted this tragic situation in his famous print, Gin Lane. Less famous, though equally brilliant, is his portrayal of the antidote: Beer Street. The joys of Merry England are presented to us in Beer Street, where manners, cheer, hard work,

Merry England and beer belong together, and in 2018 this land was blessed with a beer both truly Catholic and English. Out of Mount St Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire came forth Tynt Meadow Ale. A true monastic beer to warm the heart with the joys of Our Lady’s Dowry, and strong enough even to satisfy any gin addicts. Though the Ampleforth Benedictines produce an excellent abbey ale, Tynt Meadow is a true Trappist Ale, having received the Authentic Trappist Products label and thereby becoming the twelfth official Trappist beer in the world. By mid-2019, Mount St Bernard Abbey had produced more than 30,000 bottles of Tynt Meadow and declared it was struggling to satisfy demand.

I am familiar with Trappist Ales, having undertaken serious fieldwork in Belgian bars when I visited the newly restored Ghent Altarpiece in 2017.

Tynt Meadow is certainly as good as any Belgian or Lowland Trappist Ale. I confess I have only tried it once, but I can instantly recall the taste. Tynt Meadow is like a brandy-soaked three-month aged fruitcake in a glass – a perfect winterwarmer. A word of advice: at 7.4%, one goblet of Tynt Meadow suffices (Trappist ales are always served in goblets).

However, if you decide to have more than one, perhaps offer up your headache for the conversion of England.

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CROSSWORD Clues Across 1 See 11 Across 5 Jesus descended from the Royal House of ----- (5) 8 See 4 Down 9 Alternative circus attraction to earliest martyrs, named from Latin for a sword (9) 10 Schubert’s favourite fish? (5) 11 & 1 Across: Spanish Saint, 7th c. Archbishop and Doctor of the Church (7,2,7) 14 Proximity of eve of today’s feast or celebration (9) 18 French Revolution leader famously murdered in his bath (5 across link!) (5) 21 Pope (I) in whose time the basilica of St John Lateran built (9) 22 ‘--- vivis et regnas Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum’, The Mass (3) 23 Remove from the records (5) 24 City in California named after husband of Mary (3,4)

Alan Frost: February 2021

ANSWERS TO WINTER 2020 CROSSWORD

Across: 1 Oxburgh 5 Defoe 8 Ego 9 Modernism 10 Ixion 11 Casuistry 14 Suffragan 18 Agape 21 Ottaviani 22 Cui 23 Herod 24 Donatee Down: 1 Onesimus 2 Biopic 3 Romancer 4 Hydros 5 Dark 6 Flight 7 Eimi 12 Ignatian 13 Yuletide 15 Frater 16 Gerard 17 Faucet 19 Roch 20 Ovid

Clues Down 1 Quality of holiness (8) 2 Apparition or foresight (6) 3 Relating to papal ambassador or council of same (8) 4 & 8 Across: ‘Christe ------ ---’ [Christ hear us], litany response (6,3) 5 Platform for delivering lecture (4) 6 Type of offering, prayers or Mass (6) 7 ‘---- Night Of The Soul’, poetic spiritual classic by St John of the Cross (4) 12 Literary device such as ‘bitter sweet’ (8) 13 Athletic achievement for Lent? (4,4) 15 ‘Ave Maris ------’ [Hail Star of the Sea], hymn to Our Lady, sung for over a thousand years (6) 16 ‘-----'- Inferno’, part of the Divine Comedy, with the poet journeying through hell (6) 17 ‘Quid --- ---’, something for something in return (3,3) 19 ‘Locus ---- a Deo factus est’ [This place was made by God], Bruckner sacred motet (4) 20 Venerable author of 8th c. Ecclesiastical History of the English People (4)

Entries for the spring 2021 competition should be sent to the Latin Mass Society, 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH or by email to info@lms.org.uk, to arrive before Friday 12th March 2021.

The winner of the winter 2020 competition is D. Lithgow-Smith of Lancashire, who wins a copy of Lent and Easter: Catholic Customs and Traditions by Joanna Bogle.

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS Guild of St Clare: Bobbin Lace for Beginners. Ongoing course,

fortnightly on Thursday evenings.

To recommence when Coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Email for further information: lucyashaw@ gmail.com Guild of St Clare: Autumn 2021 Sewing Retreat at Douai Abbey, 1214th November, with Fr Tim Finigan.

Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, RG7 5TQ. Booking open on the LMS website.

Guild of St Clare: Spring 2022 Sewing Retreat at Douai Abbey, 4-6th February 2022, with Fr Stephen Morrison OPraem. Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, RG7 5TQ. Booking open on the LMS website.

St Catherine’s Trust Summer School for children: Sunday 1st to Saturday 7th August, at St Cassian’s Centre, Wallingtons Road, Kintbury, Berkshire RG17 9SP. Book through www.stcatherinestrust.org

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LMS Latin & New Testament Greek Residential Course: 16-

21st August (Mon to Sat). Latin for beginners and intermediate students; Greek for students with some basic knowledge. Reduced rates for clergy, religious, and seminarians for the Latin course. With Fr John Hunwicke, Fr Richard Bailey, and Matthew Spencer. Savio House, Ingersley Rd, Bollington, Macclesfield SK10 5RW. More details and booking through the LMS website.

Online Christian Latin and New Testament Greek Courses

w i t h Ma t t h e w S p e n c e r. T h e beginners’ Greek course is the ideal preparation for the residential course noted above. NT Greek for beginners 22nd Feb-20th March; Latin for PostBeginners 19th April-14th May; Latin of the Mass 22nd Feb-19th March and 19th April-14th May. Reduced rates for Latin courses for clergy, religious, and seminarians thanks to LMS sponsorship.

Secondhand Books Wanted

The second-hand books section of our website is proving to very popular with our customers. If you have any books you would like to donate, please contact the LMS Office info@lms.org.uk

Classified advertisements cost just 50p per word with an additional charge of just £5 if you’d like your advertisement in a box, so whether you run courses, a small hotel, a B&B, a retreat or have something to sell or a service to offer that would be of interest to our readers just contact us on 020 7404 7284.

Categories include: • Property for sale or to rent • Travel • Accommodation • Art • Courses • Gardening • Personal • Books • Jobs

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FEATURE

Latin Mass Society Guild of St Clare Sponsorship Scheme for the Royal School of Needlework Certificate Course

F

or the third year running, the Latin Mass Society will be paying half the tuition fee of a student undertaking the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) Certificate Course. This course trains students to the highest standards in skills relevant to vestment construction and repair, but can be done part-time, at the student’s own pace, making it ideal for the enthusiastic amateur.

The successful applicant will join two other students sponsored by the LMS who are part-way through the course. Despite the difficulties of the Coronavirus epidemic, they have been able to continue their work, as the RSN has moved its tuition online.

renowned, and which its experts apply to historic restoration projects and important commissions.

Sponsored students will be able to reclaim half the cost of their tuition days, up to a maximum of £2,000 a year, subject to satisfactory progress and attendance (for free) at at least one of the Guild’s two annual Sewing Retreats.

The sponsorship is open to anyone who is able to do the RSN Certificate Course, shares the Guild’s passion for hand embroidery and the restoration of fine vestments, and is happy to join us at some of our events.

Written applications should be made by 20th June to lucyashaw@gmail.com There is no form to fill in, but your application should include the following information:

• Name and address • Previous experience / training if any • A short paragraph (200 words) on your interest in the course, your plans, and your creative background • Details of a character reference if possible We hope to interview shortlisted candidates, by Zoom, in mid-July.

The successful candidate will need to make his or her own application to the Royal School of Needlework for admission to the Certificate Course.

More details can be found on the LMS website and the Guild of St Clare blog: http://www.guildofstclare.org/

Beautiful work by a 2019 sponsored student.

The RSN Certificate Course takes between one and four years, depending on how intensively students wish to do it. Its great flexibility makes it ideal for those who can only spare limited time, or whose availability fluctuates over the year. The Certificate gives its graduates a thorough grounding in a range of traditional hand-embroidery skills, skills for which the RSN is

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