Mass of Ages Issue 181 Autumn 2014

Mass of Ages The quarterly magazine of the Latin Mass Society

PRICE £2.50

ISSUE 181 – Autumn 2014

Goodbye Fr Chips?

Catholic Education Special Edition

Archbishop McMahon: There is no Plan B. Catholic schools are safe.

From Prayer Book to Old Rite, from Evelyn Waugh to Alec Guinness: Extraordinary converts

NEWS, FEATURES, COLUMNS AND COMPREHENSIVE TRADITIONAL MASS LISTINGS JOIN THE LMS NOW – APPLICATION FORM, BACK PAGE

CONTENTS

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

COMMENT 3 52 53 54

Chairman’s column In Illo Tempore, Crossword Family Notebook Macklin Street

EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION 4-5 Interview with Archbishop McMahon, chairman of the Catholic Education Service 8-9 Goodbye Fr Chips? What future for Catholic Independent Schools.

10-11 Fighting Fire with Fire – and Faith, an interview Dr James Whitehead.

13 Do we still believe in… Catholic Schools?

Fr Bede Lowe 14 Having it All: Catholic Home Schooling.

15 The true story of one family’s fight over sex education

NEWS AND FEATURES 6 7 12 16 17 18-19 20-21 22 23 24-25 26-27 28-30 32-33

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The Oratorians Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein, RIP, a tribute.

How to say a little prayer, DVD review.

Parish Profile: Spanish Place Fr Robbie returns – learning to say the EF Mass Reports from the LMS Conference Bishop Schneider speaks Fr de Malleray on art, Harriet Tait At Mass With…Maria Young Art and Devotion, Caroline Shaw LMS Year Planner In Good Company – Extraordinary Converts St Walburge’s Church, Preston, Paul Waddington Photofinish

DIOCESAN REPORTS 34-44

MASS LISTINGS 45-51

The Latin Mass Society 11-13 Macklin Street, London, WC2B 5NH Tel: 020-7404 7284 Fax: 020-7831 5585

Mass of Ages The quarterly magazine of the Latin Mass Society

PRICE £2.50

ISSUE 181 – Autumn 2014

Goodbye Fr Chips?

Catholic Education Special Edition

Archbishop McMahon: There is no Plan B. Catholic schools are safe.

From Prayer Book to Old Rite, from Evelyn Waugh to Alec Guinness: Extraordinary converts

NEWS, FEATURES, COLUMNS AND COMPREHENSIVE TRADITIONAL MASS LISTINGS JOIN THE LMS NOW – APPLICATION FORM, BACK PAGE

Cover photograph by kind permission of Downside School.

Mass ofAges No.181 Of your charity, we ask your understanding of the reality that, due to the considerable volume of e-mail received at Mass of Ages, it is regrettably not always possible to provide a reply.

Views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Latin Mass Society.

Chartres Pilgrimage in June. Photo by Joseph Shaw.

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e are greatly privileged to have so many excellent contributions to this edition.

Not only are we lucky enough to have an interview with our newest archbishop, the Most Rev Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool, we also hear from Dr James Whitehead, the first lay headmaster of Downside school, as part of our special focus on education.

Why are we focusing on education? Quite simply Catholic education, whether it is carried out in the home or at maintained schools or at public school is a fundamental consideration for all interested in the future of the Church. So this ‘back-to-school’ issue takes a look at all forms of Catholic schooling. And we ask whether Catholic schools can survive in this league-table dominated age and whether they can withstand the forces of secularisation in society.

Mass of Ages also focuses on converts and their extraordinary relationship with Mass in the Extraordinary Form. And we hear from a convert in search of the authentic, who had thought about becoming a woman vicar before finally joining the Church and then making it to a Traditional Mass.

We also get an update from the priest who was going on the last LMS training course. He got on rather well, as you will see.

This is not to forget the reports from our reps throughout the diocese, the heart of the smoothlypurring LMS machine, who have sent us news of much joy and of a little disappointment from around the country.

This edition of Mass of Ages also looks ahead to the much-anticipated Synod of Bishops on family matters. And we look back at the successes of the last few months including the visit of the remarkable Bishop Athanasius Schneider, who came here to talk to the LMS and ended up talking to the world. There are also reports on the London conference and much, much more.

THE LATIN MASS SOCIETY PATRONS: Sir Adrian Fitzgerald Bt, Lord (Brian) Gill, Dr James MacMillan CBE, Colin Mawby, Charles Moore COMMITTEE: Dr Joseph Shaw – Chairman; Paul Waddington – Treasurer; David Forster – Secretary; David Lloyd – Vice President; Paul Beardsmore – Vice President; James Bogle; Kevin Jones; Stefano Mazzeo; Roger Wemyss Brooks, Dylan Parry

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

COMMENT

Chairman’s message Dr Joseph Shaw

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ope Francis is challenging us to leave behind the comfortable certainties of ‘ideology’, the better to proclaim the Gospel. The message may sound vague, but its lack of specification enables us to apply it in a wide variety of situations. It is a fact that we need to be open minded about tactics and strategy while single-minded about Christ. It is also a fact that an excessive attachment to historically conditioned ways of doing things, at the expense of the Gospel, has been a problem in the Church for the last couple of generations.

The alarm was sounded by Pope Paul VI in 1972, when he observed that: ‘There was the belief that after the Council there would be a day of sunshine for the history of the Church. Instead, it is the arrival of a day of clouds, of tempest, of darkness, of research, of uncertainty.’

The failure of the policies of the 1960s, some going far beyond the often rather tentative suggestions of the Second Vatican Council, others directly contradicting them, did nothing, sadly, to stop the same policies being imposed in the following decades, even as the social conditions for which they had been formulated, and the scholarly consensus which had provided their intellectual justification, ceased to exist.

A generation of leaders in the Church had fallen in love with a certain way of doing things, and seemed no longer to care if it worked or not.

For a while, the answer they gave to any doubts about what they were doing was that, however bad things had become, it would have been even worse if their policies had not been imposed: indeed, they claimed that we should be grateful to them for saving us from an even greater disaster.

This was never very plausible, and over the decades many fields of research rendered it indefensible. Sociologists of religion tell us that you cannot expect intense loyalty to, and veneration of symbols and beliefs, if they are radically changed in their outward forms overnight. Anthropologists tell us that you cannot expect people to give their lives for the community if they do not see respect being given to previous generations of people who have given their lives for it. Those studying the latest social trends tell us that the more liberal the religious denomination, the more profound has been its collapse in membership.

Just as the Church is not immune to sociological principles in relation to her members, so psychological generalisations apply to her human leaders. Those who imposed the policies with such determination – in some cases, with savagery – were not eager to admit they had been wrong. As the older generation passes away, however, we have an opportunity to look at things in a more open minded way. This open mindedness is making possible the gradual revival we are

‘In spite of ecumenism and the changes it is doubtful if we shall ever hear:’ “I call it pretty decent on the part of the liturgists, scripture scholars, speculative theologians to admit that all along they had been talking complete bosh.” currently experiencing. Even more open mindedness is going to be needed if this revival is to be allowed to continue, develop, and spread.

This open mindedness accepts that things have changed since the 1960s. We no longer have a captive audience of loyal Catholics to take for granted and experiment upon.

We have to do something that will draw people in: perhaps a sense of the sacred in the liturgy, perhaps beauty, perhaps the more daring and counter-cultural aspects of the Christian message. What could be presented as fusty old tradition back then is the forbidden fruit of today: the Church’s buried treasure. What was new and exciting back then is at best familiar and boring, at worst stale, unfashionable, and embarrassing.

What we are asking of our superiors today, and what many of them are doing, is to permit the younger generation to try a few things, to make the experiment of tradition. If it doesn’t work, then we can try something else. We’ll never know, however, if we aren’t allowed to try.

The Latin Mass Society helped to keep the lamp lit for 50 years. Now the restoration has actually begun, from re-installed altar rails to revived Gregorian Chant choirs, and above all ancient liturgy. The Society’s need for support is greater the more people ask for our help, and the more opportunities we have to do good things.

That is why, once again, I call on readers to consider becoming ‘Anniversary Supporters’, in anticipation of our 50th Anniversary next year. We will show our appreciation.

Each Anniversary Supporter will receive a little gift. You’ll find out what it is when you sign up!

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EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Catholic Schools are Safe. And that’s official.

Some say voluntarily-aided Catholic schools are not sufficiently Catholic, others that they are too Catholic. Some argue that admissions policies are too strict, others that they are not sufficiently strict. And critics of church schools, who would simply like them all closed down, are vocal. Can Catholic schools ever win? Quite possibly.

In an interview, Archbishop McMahon, Chairman of the Catholic Education Service, brooks no such nonsense.

‘It’s about parental choice and parents want Catholic schools.’

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here is no need for a Plan B, according to Archbishop Malcolm McMahon, because Catholic schools are safe from political and secular forces. And, talking to the Chairman of the Catholic Education Service, it is easy to believe.

Despite calls from some, including the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, for church schools to be scrapped for being antiinclusive, the recently-installed Archbishop of Liverpool gave a robust defence of the Church’s involvement in education.

He rejected out-of-hand suggestions that secular opposition to church schools is gathering, insisting that only a small minority are of that view. And it is hard to imagine politicians, or anyone

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else, having the temerity to argue with the imposing, but very genial, new Archbishop.

The 65-year-old Londoner, formerly prior provincial of the Dominicans’ English province and one-time prior of Blackfriars Oxford, is very personable and can tell an amusing story about his early days as a parish priest. But he does not give the impression that he would allow himself to be brow-beaten by politicians or anyone else. Indeed, it is amusing, for a moment, to contemplate a scene in which the leader of the Liberal Democrats tried to take on the towering clergyman. The Archbishop insisted: ‘It’s only very small groups [who are opposed to Catholic schools].’

And he argued definitively: ‘It’s about parental choice and parents want Catholic schools. That’s the force that keeps them open. Others can make any noise they want, they’re entitled to. But [the politicians] won’t suddenly pull the plug.’

He maintained: ‘We don’t need contingency arrangements.’

In an apparent side-swipe at the Liberal Democrats, the Archbishop said it is hoped the situation might actually improve for church schools, rather than the other way round. The CES anticipates that admissions restrictions could be abandoned after next year’s General Election – the implication being that the Liberals will not be around to complain. Mr Clegg’s party is widely held responsible for curbs on Catholic schools, although his own children, of course, attend them.

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Currently, the Church has declined to get involved with the free schools project, except in one specific case, because Government regulations mean such schools would be obliged to take 50 per cent of pupils from outside their denomination.

‘It makes no sense,’ said Archbishop McMahon for Catholic schools to be forced to turn away pupils because they are Catholic. ‘And I told that to Lord Nash [the Conservative junior minister for schools]… It’s only the Liberals… The two main parties are very supportive of church schools.

‘We hope the ban [on free schools recruiting more than 50 per cent of their pupils from one denomination] will go after the General Election.’

Any new schools proposed are likely to be in areas of need, especially the South, which has experienced high levels of Catholic immigration.

Archbishop McMahon also maintained that Catholic schools are ‘good value’ for the Church; ‘We get a lot for our 10 per cent – including reserved headships and the head of RE, control over our governors and admissions.’

The real issue with Catholic schools, said the Archbishop, is that the ‘drawback comes if a child does not have the same wraparound emphasis on Christ in their family life’.

Returning repeatedly to the need for Christ-centred education, he maintained: ‘That’s the major issue. Schools are there to supplement families [in terms of educating children in the Faith] not to replace them.’

But are Catholic schools Catholic?

According to the Archbishop: ‘Catholic schools try to pass on the experience of Catholic life in which young people can grow in a knowledge of Christ and receive an education so that they can take their place in society.’

He added: ‘They [children] discover the teaching of the Church.

And this is applied to all subjects. Nothing in the curriculum should be taught outside the Catholic view. RE is a key part of it but not the only part.’

Archbishop McMahon, who briefly worked for London Transport before joining the Dominicans, insisted: ‘Catholic education is about more than just RE lessons or going to Mass on Sunday. It’s about the whole curriculum.’

Defending schools against critics of the Catholic content, he pointed out: ‘It is easy to criticise an RE programme but teachers deliver a lot of material and a lot of what is imparted to a child is not in the outline.

‘The RE curriculum is approved by bishops and is full of content. It is their canonical duty…and there is a system of reporting and inspection.’

The Archbishop maintained: ‘My experience as a bishop, as a parish priest and as a school governor has been that Catholic education is very inclusive and the child is valued greatly. And it is based on Catholic teaching.’

The CES chairman has no problem with home schoolers, and does not see that it is a criticism of Catholic schools. He said: ‘Home schoolers work from the basic premise that they want to impart knowledge to their children themselves, rather than use intermediaries to do it.’

While some say Catholic schools are too Catholic and others say they are not sufficiently Catholic, the Archbishop acknowledges that the CES also faces criticism over schools admissions procedures. Each year as places are allocated at

EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

schools, some parents find they have failed to win places for their children at popular Catholic schools, especially in London. But Archbishop McMahon insisted: ‘It’s very rare that practising Catholics cannot get their children into a Catholic school. If there is a Catholic family and they are part of a parish they are connected.

‘It may be that they cannot get into a particular school, which is the fashionable school.’

On the Extraordinary Form Archbishop McMahon is a long-standing friend of the LMS but accepts Mass in the Extraordinary Form can be divisive.

He said: ‘In some places, the community can be divided by those who support it or others who don’t.’

He maintained: ‘It is up to the priest to unite the people and for him to celebrate Mass in both forms.’

But the Archbishop is not about to ask all priests in the Archdiocese of Liverpool to learn to say the EF Mass.

‘It is not necessary,’ he said. ‘For most priests, ordained since the 1970s, it is a very strange way of saying Mass, they don’t feel any affinity with it. Some of the younger priests have learnt how to do it. But most priests are content and feel Mass in the Ordinary Form engages people in a very real way.

‘You have to be practical as well. There is the Latin to learn and you have to be taught it [the EF Mass].’

So what is going to happen in Liverpool, will he be asking some priests to learn Mass in the Extraordinary Form?

‘In my last diocese I asked some younger priests to learn it, to help reconcile some of the Lefebrevists... I’ll see what’s available [in Liverpool].’

He concluded the discussion and said: ‘Priests are very busy at the moment. I’ll look at the provision and see what’s best.’

Archbishop McMahon clearly sees value in the wider use of the EF: ‘By looking at the liturgy [informed by the Extraordinary Form], you begin to understand the multi-layered experience of worship…We’re there to worship Christ. It helps us to realign ourselves on God.’

The Synod of Bishops in Rome Continuing in robust mood, Archbishop McMahon said of the forthcoming Synod in Rome: ‘Church teaching won’t change. You can quote me on that.’

However, the Archbishop is concerned that people do not get the wrong impression about the Church – do not think it is some sort of exclusive club. He maintained: ‘The Church needs to make teaching clear: Christ loves everybody. We seem to have lost sight of that… No one is excluded.’

He was not suggesting that rules on marriage should be changed but rather that people need to know, for instance, if their situation is irregular in the eyes of the Church.

Perhaps annulment might be an option or a previous marriage is not actually valid: ‘The Church needs to be more pastoral’ – in terms of annulment tribunals and also looking at the validity of marriages… But there won’t be any change to Church teaching.’

At the heart of his remarks again, though, was the need to look to Our Lord: ‘We do need to discuss ways to discover Christ in the family. Whether it’s broken down or not Christ is always present.’

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BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE ORATORIANS

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

BACK TO THE FUTURE The Oratorians

The New Oratory in York.

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ew traditional orders are moving in to parishes where long-established orders or diocesan clergy have moved out, both in this country and overseas. With iconic churches, such as the ‘Dome of Home’, part of this renewal, it is a trend that cannot be ignored and many hope it will alleviate the shortage of priests and reinvigorate the Catholic community.

At the forefront of such moves are the Oratorians, the order introduced into this country by Blessed John Henry Newman in the 19th century. They are hardly new but the Oratorians are associated with this resurgence, having seen a two thirds increase in their English houses in the last couple of years.

Two new city centre Oratories are being founded in York and Manchester, to add to the order’s existing presence in

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Birmingham, London and Oxford. And the Bishop of Middlesbrough has asked the Fathers in York to take care of an adjacent parish. Meanwhile, interest in vocations to the order is growing.

They may be more modern than the Benedictines, which were founded in the 6th century, but the Oratorians can hardly be called new. St Philip Neri began his Oratory in Rome during the counter reformation, a thousand years after St Benedict wrote his Rule but still more than 500 years ago.

As a high profile, growing group – and one that is committed to Mass in the Extraordinary Form – the Oratorians are, nevertheless, seen as part of this trend, along with the new emerging orders.

There have never been great numbers of Oratorians in this country and the order is quite distinct and different from the more familiar monks, friars and religious orders. Oratorians are not religious and do not take vows. They are secular clergy.

But they live in communities, under St Philip’s Rule and they tend to stay in the same house to which they originally committed. Each Oratory, meanwhile, is quite separate.

A special part of the Oratorian’s charism is to be part of this world, while living dedicated holy lives. Charity and pastoral work is central to their mission and each house is committed in its local area. They also have their own spiritual exercises, distinct from those given to the Jesuits by St Ignatius Loyola. And the Oratorians are renowned for their devotion to the splendour of the liturgy with the Extraordinary Form very much part of their spiritual diet.

The recent growth in the number of houses in this country can be attributed to forces beyond the order’s domestic Oratories.

Oratorians from Oxford were invited to take on the pastoral care of a parish in York by Middlesbrough’s Bishop Terry Drainey and the new foundation in Manchester is actually being established by a group of diocesan priests who

want to live in community on Oratorian lines. But there are also new candidates showing interest in becoming Oratorians and the Oratory at Oxford is bursting at the seams.

Various theories have been put forward for this increase in interest. Perhaps young men, facing the cold climate of secularism, prefer to live in a community where they are supported? Bearing witness in the world as it is today may be easier from a stable, secure environment.

And bishops may be happy to bring them in to parishes, sacrificing a modicum of control over local clergy in return for an energetic and growing group.

Oratorians are usually found in large city centre churches. They keep them manned as much as possible, which a diocesan priest on his own may simply not be able to do. Theirs is a gentle approach; forming groups, giving a bit of catechism and organising social occasions in an informal way. The Old Rite Mass is part of their way of doing things and, in York at least, they were specifically asked to provide it by Bishop Drainey.

Each Sunday they offer a Missa Cantata at 5pm. In terms of the mission at York, though, they are also providing ordinary Sunday services and a popular lunchtime Mass in the week.

While some in the Church may be sceptical because of the Oratorians’ devotion to providing traditional liturgy, the order is convinced it is essential. For Oratorians, goodness, truth and beauty are key and, they believe, beautifully celebrated liturgy is a powerful conversion tool. Beautiful music, incense and vestments all make God visible, they maintain. And it is an approach that is attracting congregations and vocations.

But Oratorians are always keen as well to take their share of prison visits, hospital duties and convent rounds. And this may help dispel any negative preconceptions of Oratorians as conservatives, interested only in the liturgy, that some may have.

Right now, though, they seem very much to have history on their side.

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PRINCE RUPERT ZU LOEWENSTEIN, RIP

In Memoriam:

Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein 1933-2014, RIP A Tribute by Fr Ronald Creighton-Jobe of the London Oratory

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he obituaries of Prince Rupert Loewenstein, who has died aged 80, have made much of his long association with the Rolling Stones, as their financial adviser.

However, comparatively little has been mentioned of his profound devotion to his Catholic Faith and his attachment to the traditional worship of the Church.

As President of the Latin Mass Society, Prince Rupert did much to raise the profile of the Traditional Mass, supporting the LMS’s work in many ways, with generosity and tact. This Rupert Louis Ferdinand Frederick Constantine Lofredo Leopold Herbert Maximilian Hubert John Henry zu Loewenstein-WertheimFreudenberg was born at Palma, Majorca, on 24 August 1933 and died on 20 May 2014.

In 1957, Prince Rupert married Josephine Lowry-Corry at the London Oratory. Their two sons were Princes Rudolf and Konrad.

Their daughter, Princess MariaTheodora (Dora), married an Italian count.

was within the wider context of his love of the Church and an interior life which was seldom realised by others, who did not see beyond his sometimes formidable exterior.

Born of an ancient Bavarian princely family, Prince Rupert came to England as a child and was sent to a co-educational Quaker boarding school by his divorced parents, although he later attended Beaumont College, the long closed Jesuit school.

In Cambridge, before going on to Oxford, he was much influenced by

Monsignor Alfred Gilbey, who personified an adherence to the ideals of a Catholic priest and Faith which formed generations of undergraduates at Cambridge and later during his long and fruitful apostolate in London.

For both Monsignor Gilbey and Prince Rupert, their spiritual home was the London Oratory. This was not due to an old world nostalgia for the Ancien Regime, as some imagined, but the realisation that a sense of history and continuity is an integral part of a Catholic identity.

As president of the Order of Malta in Britain, Prince Rupert gave unfailing support to the Traditional Rites of Mass and its celebration in the Order’s conventual church and elsewhere.

Prince Rupert’s two sons became priests, one a Dominican, the other a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter.

A Knight Commander of St Gregory with Star and connected to many of the major orders of Catholic chivalry, Prince Rupert was, above all, a faithful and generous friend and will be greatly missed.

We are indebted to Fr Creighton-Jobe for sharing his memories of the late Prince with Mass of Ages.

Please pray for the souls of all members who have died recently Requiescant in pace Ann V Bowley Catherine Rose Dunn Bernard Donovan Flynn Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein Roy Travis 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 2 for details.

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EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Goodbye Fr Chips?

Can independent Catholic education survive the parental love affair with league tables?

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atholic schools are among the most illustrious names in British independent education. They boast centuriesold traditions of keeping the Faith alive along with the benefits of a top public school education. Downside; Ampleforth; Stonyhurst; St Mary’s Ascot… the list goes on…

Worth; The Oratory; St Benedict’s, Our Lady’s Abingdon… too many to mention.

And they have churned out an impressive list of old pupils, who have been at the forefront of British life, sometimes as friends to the Church, sometimes not, but almost always as good advertisements for their former schools.

Bishops, abbots, royalty and aristocrats have sat in their classrooms. Leading authors, politicians, journalists and diplomats have sprung from their playing fields. To name just a few: Arthur Conan Doyle (Stonyhurst); Hilaire Belloc (The Oratory); Lord Patten (St Benedict’s, Ealing); The Duke of Norfolk and the LMS’s Dr Joseph Shaw (Ampleforth); Fr Timothy Radcliffe (Downside); Abbot Luke Jolly (Worth) and Lady Antonia Fraser (St Mary’s Ascot). Indeed, without ‘old boys’, it is doubtful certain English Benedictine monasteries would still exist.

But times have changed. Some schools have closed, including Mayfield, Douai and Buckfast. And there are occasional whispers that others are on the brink.

Catholics, who could afford it, used generally to send their children to one of these renowned institutions for a robust classical education and to be thoroughly inculcated in the Faith.

Such schools were very Catholic; very single sex; seven-daya-week boarding institutions; often staffed by religious orders and with far-from-luxurious facilities.

Today, the picture is very different. In the past few years, many household-name Catholic schools have become co-ed and lay-led. (Only The Oratory at Reading in this country offers boys-only boarding.) Some schools now also have large numbers of non-Catholic pupils, many from abroad, along with growing numbers of day students. Meanwhile, too many well-to-do Catholic parents are opting to send their children to non-Catholic elite public schools.

So what has happened? Does it simply reflect shifting demographics and falling congregations? Partly. But it reflects also a change in some parental attitudes which places a ‘Catholic’ education a long way down the list of priorities. Leading Catholic independent schools survived persecution and penal times, but can all survive such a shift in parental priorities and remain Catholic? More to the point, what are the implications for these children… and for the Catholic community?

Despite tough financial times, more than half a million children in the UK are in some sort of private education, according to the Independent Schools Council. And parents are queuing to

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From the archives: Sixth form history at Worth with Dom Edward Cruise.

get their children into Britain’s elite schools, where more than a third of A levels passes are at A*, and competition for entry is more than fierce.

Real difficulties began just over two decades ago, when John Major’s government introduced league tables. Much has been made of the impact of tables on the state sector, but the independent sector underwent similar turmoil. There were particular implications for Catholic education, which was not just geared to exam results but also to fostering the Faith.

Leading Catholic schools refused to co-operate, maintaining that education was about more than bald results, but the genie was out.

The mystique surrounding many schools, not just certain Catholic institutions, was exploded and many parents began to compare their results unfavourably with their secular ‘competitors’. Head teachers do not like such ‘market’ comparisons, particularly when they are not like-for-like, but many Catholic schools suffered the consequences.

Even 40 years ago, some well-heeled Catholics sent their children to schools such as Eton: see Jacob Rees Mogg. But they were the exceptions. In the last two decades, senior figures in Catholic independent schools ruefully admit, many more Catholic parents have opted for league table-topping schools, which have eagerly responded by appointing Catholic chaplains and even establishing Catholic houses.

Leading Catholic educators warn such measures are a very poor substitute for a proper Catholic education (see Dr Whitehead’s

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comments on pages 10 and 11). But, in wider terms, it will not just be monasteries that suffer.

Catholic state schools are very popular, often over-subscribed, and they produce many excellent ambassadors for the Faith in public life. But it would be foolish to ignore the impact of leading independent schools. Looking at the current hierarchy, many bishops went to Catholic Grammar schools and a number went to Catholic independent and boarding schools. Few went to non-Catholic schools. Maybe today’s well-heeled parents would be horrified at the idea of their children taking Holy Orders? But who, for instance, will be the next Piers Paul Read (Ampleforth) or Edward Leigh MP (The Oratory) or Paul Johnson (Stonyhurst)?

Schools have adopted various strategies to cope with the changing times. Most went co-ed, believing that it was what parents wanted. It would immediately double the number of potential pupils, it was felt. And, as one former headmaster said privately: it is surely better to give Catholic girls the opportunity to benefit from the education than to fill up with non-Catholic boys. Some, such as Downside, have remained staunchly Catholic. Others have not.

It was also thought that modern parents did not want their children to be in Catholic ghettos. So, another idea, also embraced by some schools, was to become less overtly ‘Catholic’ and more welcoming to other denominations and faiths. This too would boost numbers, it was thought.

In addition, there have been dramatic improvements to facilities and huge investment was made in such things as en suite bathrooms, all-weather pitches and dance studios. And there has been hard work to improve exam results.

For reasons of history and Faith, Catholic schools are not generally as ferociously selective than the most ‘successful’ secular schools, which take only children who will get top results.

Nevertheless, as Dr Whitehead says, results are excellent. And they are. By any sensible measure, the Oxbridge successes and lists of As and A*s, at leading Catholic schools, are impressive.

And schools have been shored up by all these adaptations of recent years. The change to co-ed has brought in more pupils, widening the net has brought in others. Some institutions have grown rapidly. Worth, for instance, has increased by 50 per cent since its move to co-education.

But very popular schools such as Eton, Winchester, Harrow and Wycombe Abbey are single-sex, boarding establishments.

Parents are also flocking to St Mary’s Ascot, which has stuck to a single-sex, very Catholic education.

According to one competitor, St Mary’s decided to pursue a course for academic excellence some years ago – and it has paid off. St Mary’s compares favourably academically with its secular counterparts and it is nearly 100 per cent Catholic and boarding. It also has to beat parents off with a stick.

Some claim that St Mary’s benefits from a location close to London, unlike more far-flung institutions. But it is easy to identify several Catholic, and formerly Catholic, schools at similar distance to the capital which have fared differently.

Lingfield Notre Dame, the former girls’ boarding school, is now a highly successful, secular co-ed day school in Surrey. It has a queue of parents at its door but it should serve as a warning to Catholic schools. After the nuns left, the school was bought out by parents. Bit by bit, its Catholic identity dwindled as statues and crucifixes disappeared. Even a couple of years ago, it still boasted of its Catholic heritage, and took part in diocesan events.

Today, though, the word Catholic does not even appear on the

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history page of its website, and parents fear, it is increasingly known as ‘Lingfield’.

Elsewhere, families at some current Catholic schools are concerned that Catholicity has been sacrificed in the pursuit of numbers. One new mother at a leading Catholic school was told confidentially by an existing parent that he had been concerned about it being a Catholic school, before his boy had started.

But, he said, she need not worry because, in his experience, you hardly noticed it was Catholic. This turned out not to be an isolated attitude, whatever efforts the school made to emphasise its Catholic ethos. And when a chaplain was addressing a group of parents, about the need for spiritual time in their busy lives, one of the mothers interrupted to say that ‘me’ time was very important which was why she had a weekly manicure. (Such parents should beware, however, that each year numbers of non-Catholic pupils at such schools ask to be received into the Church.)

Changes have consequences, though. St Mary’s shows that Catholic parents will opt for a traditional single-sex Catholic education, if they are offered it. And often those being sent to other schools, are going to single-sex establishments. But results at schools such as Downside prove, says Dr Whitehead, that a Catholic education does not mean an inferior education.

Many schools are doing well, despite all the upheaval. But still some parents tell them they want to give their children the best chance in this world (if not the next), before sending them to non-Catholic schools. Some families even send their more academic children to elite non-Catholic schools while less bright siblings are despatched to a Catholic school. Naturally, schools find this irritating. But, at the same time, they must avoid driving off remaining Catholic parents by their solutions and efforts to boost numbers.

The majority of Catholic parents in Britain would be amazed at what is happening in the independent sector. They would give their eye teeth for Catholic education, free from state control, and with excellent results. But, as we know, eye teeth are not acceptable for fees.

Catholic educators would like to see Catholic families reject the ‘glamour and empty promises’ of secular alternatives, in return for a genuinely Catholic – and exceptional – education.

The dangers of choosing the alternative are clear both for the children – and also for the Catholic community in this country.

Maybe it is time for Catholic independent schools to invite others to the banquet and look to the Catholic families who really do value what they have to offer. There is clearly a demand for Catholic education. PACT educational trust, a Catholic trust, has set up two single-sex prep schools and two single sex-senior schools in the south London area in the last couple of years. And Chavagnes International College in France now offers an English-language, Catholic education for boys – at half the price.

Scholarships are available for bright and talented children, but these are few in number and often too small to make a difference. It may be time to consider radical ideas which could bolster both schools’ results and their Catholicity. Just getting in people with fat cheque books could end up being a poison pill for genuine Catholic education at some schools.

Dr Whitehead says, however, parents need to ask themselves what price they will pay for their choices: ‘There is a risk that if you send your son or daughter to a non-Catholic school, they may swiftly learn to reject Catholic values.’

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EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Fighting Fire with Fire – and Faith Interview with Downside’s first lay Headmaster, Dr James Whitehead

D

ownside, the renowned Benedictine institution and one of Britain’s oldest Catholic independent schools, recently appointed its first lay head, Dr James Whitehead. Founded, as it was, some 400 years ago in France during penal times, and with the relics of St Oliver Plunkett on site and old boys including Cardinals, Bishops and, more recently Fr Timothy Radcliffe, Auberon Waugh and Rocco Forte, Downside’s pedigree is assured.

But does the appointment of a lay headmaster, albeit one educated at Stonyhurst and previously Second Master at Worth, herald a dilution of Catholicity in this most Catholic of schools?

Absolutely not, said Dr Whitehead. In an exclusive interview with Mass of Ages, he said: ‘I am keen to be the headmaster of a school which creates leaders in society, who are confident in expressing their Catholic identity.’

Dr Whitehead maintained that Downside is an emphatically Catholic school. He said: ‘People come to Downside for a

10

coherent Catholic education and high standards. We are a top performing independent school.’

He maintained: ‘Some people won’t get past the welcome page on the website due to its emphasis of Catholic spiritual values.’

Dr Whitehead, who described a proliferation of pupil-led Lectio Divina groups, pointed out that Downside offers a commitment to Catholic community values that cannot be found outside the Catholic sector.

He said: ‘Other schools may talk about some of the values we celebrate, for example, ‘integrity’ and ‘community’, but not all, such as ‘building communion’ and ‘reverence’. There are some very specific Catholic and Benedictine concepts highlighted in our guiding principles.

‘The Rule [of St Benedict] is an expression of guidance for community living.

‘There are fundamental truths you find expressed in other contexts. But in our context they have a very particular meaning; the building up of a spiritual community.

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

‘More secular schools inherited some aspects of western monastic education, that were built up over 1,500 years, but they are removed from the sense of community, prayer, and community worship.’

But can independent schools today offer a truly Catholic education?

According to Dr Whitehead: ‘Some schools, which have no dedicated chaplains, will struggle. At Downside, the spiritual integrity of the school is so palpable. It is built on the ministry of the chaplains. There is a clear and coherent sense of Catholic identity here. It helps that the school is into the high 80s in terms of the percentage of Catholics.

‘Some people say you can be a Catholic school with very few Catholic pupils but at Downside we wish to maintain our high level in order to sustain a true sense of Catholic community.’

Dr Whitehead was quick to dismiss suggestions that Catholic schools offer an inferior education: ‘Time was when it was felt that Catholic independent schools were not as successful academically. But that certainly cannot be said anymore.

Downside’s results are exceptional.’

But the new headmaster acknowledged that some Catholic parents are now opting to send their children to nonCatholic schools. And Dr Whitehead warned gravely of the consequences: ‘Some parents may look at the league tables, some look geographically. Some well known schools will provide some level of Catholic support. But I would argue that it is not in any way satisfactory. They are short-changing the pupils who attend them. These schools are not Catholic in outlook.

They might have Mass on a Sunday but what about the rest of the week?’

Downside’s new headmaster maintained: ‘It is regrettable that people send their children to other schools and certain non-Catholic independent schools have set up Catholic houses.

Some parents see that as a viable option.’

Dr Whitehead warned: ‘Having looked after Catholic pupils at an Anglican school, I can say that pupils cannot be supported coherently as Catholics outside a Catholic school community. It is not the same as being in a school that is Catholic.’

Indeed, Downside sees families arrive when children, having started in other schools, have not felt at home and their ideas have not been respected.

There is no danger of that for Catholic children at Downside.

Dr Whitehead said: ‘I am aware of the Latin Mass Society and interested in the Old Mass.

‘Downside is, I think, viewed as sympathetic in this regard.

Immense care is taken to ensure that Mass is celebrated in a dignified form.

‘The school liturgies very much reflect that traditional approach. It is a Catholic liturgy and it helps that we have an exceptionally good choir.’

Dr Whitehead maintained that, in addition to passing exams, education must emphasise the ‘poetry of life’. Quoting Blessed John Henry Newman, he said ‘With Christians, a poetical view of things is a duty. We are bid to colour all things with hues of faith, to see a divine meaning in every event.’

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7/11/2014 12:22:30 PM

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REVIEW

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

How to say a little prayer Gwen Richards

L

ook in any religious bookstore and you will find numerous books on the subject of prayer. Saints have written about prayer. The Bible is full of it. Present day writers continue the tradition, with books and leaflets. And our priests regularly tell us in the Confessional and from the pulpit that we must pray more.

As a parent, I must try to teach my children to pray; a duty accomplished, as often as not, by the curt instruction to: ‘Say your prayers and get into bed.’

But, the fact is, prayer is not always easy, and a book or a method that suits one person will be worse than useless for another. So it was a pleasure to review a new DVD from St Anthony Communications on this very subject.

St Anthony Communications has a growing list of DVD titles covering aspects of the Faith and Catholic spirituality. It uses striking visuals interspersed with clear and direct explanations, given by orthodox, dependable speakers, including in this case Bishop Mark Davies and Fr Marcus Holden of St Augustine’s in Ramsgate.

I watched the DVD with my two youngest sons and, whilst it is obviously aimed at a slightly older audience, it is a credit to the producers that the children remained fixed to the screen for the 40 minutes or so that the film lasts.

After a range of speakers give their own ‘take’ on what prayer is, the film proceeds to get down to the nitty-gritty of different methods of prayer, the difficulties of prayer and the importance of praying regularly where we feel like it or not. I found particularly useful the section on developing a personal relationship with God. Visual images of loving human relationships illustrate very effectively how our relationship with God should, and can be, one of trust, gratitude and delight. Sr Hyacinthe Defos Du Rau reminds us that repetition in prayer, like the repetition of the words ‘I love you’ between a married couple, is nothing to be ashamed of. Images of children with their parents show how the prayer of petition develops into the prayer of thanksgiving and love.

Fr Holden also expands on the importance of liturgical prayer in the Holy Mass. (MOA readers will be pleased to know that Mass, as glimpsed in this DVD, is ad orientem and Communion is received correctly.)

The Rosary, and prayer to Our Lady and the Saints is also covered, albeit briefly, together with the ultimate purpose of prayer, namely to prepare us for Heaven.

I suspect this DVD will be most useful for young people, unsure how to make the transition from the formulaic prayers they were taught in childhood to more mature adult prayer.

Plenty of young voices are heard during the film, with

12

young men and women giving examples of how prayer enriches their spiritual and daily lives.

Some may find the cut-aways to scenes of natural beauty a little clichéd, but clichés are by their very nature popular and effective for many people. Others, such as myself, may wish the sound track had a more Catholic feel. But there is much useful advice and sound Catholic teaching and, for a generation unaccustomed to spending hours with a dusty volume, this DVD is likely to be very helpful.

‘Prayer: A Surge of the Heart’ publ. St Anthony Communications Price: £9.95

Saint Anthony Communications Exciting New DVDs! Prayer: A Surge of the Heart

This inspiring presentation challenges us to make more time for God in our lives and highlights the importance of an ever-deepening life of prayer. It looks at the true meaning of prayer, the different types of prayer and how we can grow in our spiritual lives. It addresses how to overcome difficulties and temptations, how to find inspiration in the lives of the saints, the centrality of the Holy Mass, and the ultimate goal of prayer. Presenters include Bishop Mark Davies, Fr Marcus Holden, Fr Andrew Pinsent, Sr Mary Trinity, Joanna Bogle. This film will benefit anyone longing to grow in their love and relationship with God. 1 DVD (39 minutes) £9.95

Faith of Our Fathers

In Search of the English Martyrs

Presented by Fr Marcus Holden & Fr Nicholas Schofield During the English Reformation, hundreds of brave men and women suffered all manner of persecution in order to cling to the Catholic faith that had been integral to the life of the nation for over a thousand years. This film takes you on a journey to discover more about some of these heroic figures. From the lives of well-known saints like Thomas More, Margaret Clitherow and Edmund Campion, to lesser known figures like Roger Wrenno and Francis Bell, the message of the English martyrs is re-presented for a contemporary audience.

2 DVDs (114 minutes) £14.95

Tel: 01834 812643

Cheques/postal orders payable to: ‘St

www.saintant.com

Anthony Communications’

Mount Carmel, St Brides Lane, Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire SA69 9HL

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

Do we still believe in...

Catholic Education?

Fr Bede Rowe

I

n 1850 when the hierarchy was restored, the Church made the decision to prioritise school building.

Education in the Faith was the key.

Teach the young the Faith, then they will do the rest in the years to come.

This remains the case. For a child there are three essential elements: the family, the Church and the school. All three should support and uphold the Faith. If one is missing, for whatever reason, the others must compensate.

So of course, in theory, we still believe in Catholic education. I say ‘in theory’ because we have to ask if what is happening now is Catholic education in any meaningful sense.

My grandmother used to say ‘if you sup with the devil, then make sure you use a long spoon’. With education I would say that the devil in question is modern education theory, practice and content.

Catholic education is often undermined by government, teachers and even some within the Church. When there is only a percentage of Catholic teachers, then the message is not uniform. Education is not just teaching about the Faith, it is living it, and seeing those around you struggling to do the same.

I have spent the last three years teaching in a Catholic school, and what the boys respond to, what they accept, is full blooded Catholicism. And we must bear in mind that young men are the lost section in the demographic of Catholicism in the UK. The Faith is not about what feels right, or simply being informed. It must be what the Church has taught through the ages. These men are young and will make their own way in the world, but they need to know what is right and wrong, and even though this may be different from what they want to do, and indeed may be different from what they eventually end up doing, they need to have that background noise of the truth.

Rather like the dumbing down in teaching the Faith – avoiding hard questions for fear of alienating anyone – so there is a problem with the worship in schools. It has become endlessly inventive and entertaining. It has to ‘mean’ something to the children. Of course, as entertainment, the Mass is pretty poor and will never match the light entertainment industry. Why should it? It does something different.

In many schools, Mass has become something that is out of the ordinary, only every now and again. There are often just a few school Masses through the year. There must be a regularity of worship so that it becomes something as normal and everyday as breathing. The form of Mass is another question (though, interestingly, the Extraordinary Form is preferred by pupils in my school) but regularity is the thing.

And, if we really do believe in Catholic education, we need not only to put our money where our mouth is, we also need to put our manpower there as well. Priests need to be in schools full time. It is difficult to downplay or sideline the Church when there is a figure in black at every turn.

My effectiveness as a chaplain, is that the boys see me at my best and at my worst, just and unjust, brimming with life and dog-tired. They see the Church as one with them, and yet something that transforms into the supernatural grace of God. The priest is in the world, but not of the world, a sign of contradiction.

It is not just that Catholic education done badly can fail the children in our schools, it can actively undermine the faith itself.

Do we still believe in Catholic education? Yes we do.

Do we have it? Hmmmm... Now, that’s an interesting question.

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EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

HAVING IT ALL

Home Schooling – The Catholic Way

W

hy on earth would a woman in the 21st century choose to stay at home to educate her eight children?

To many, it would sound crazy, weird even.

Shouldn’t she be trying to ‘have it all’?

Kathryn Hennessey is neither crazy nor weird but she is doing just that. And it sounds as though she is ‘having it all’ - her way.

All but one of Kathryn’s eight children have never been to school, the oldest went in the sixth form (and did not like it).

Is she a control freak or someone taking helicopter parenting to the extreme? Not at all. Kathryn admits she did not want to home educate. In fact, she had every intention of sending her first child to the local Catholic primary school. Only she did not.

‘I didn’t want to do it [home educate],’ she told Mass of Ages, as her children got stuck into cooking in the background.

‘It sounded like a lot of hard work.’

Kathryn considered the local Catholic primary and, she says, it looked very Catholic but, and it was a very big but, she was not happy. There was something about the PSME programme (which deals with sex education and relationships).

And Kathryn wanted an explicitly Catholic education, one that would not undermine their family life. She was not happy with what she saw.

‘I read the encyclicals about Catholic education and how Faith should be part of who you are and it didn’t seem to be what was being offered,’ she said.

‘I thought the R.E wasn’t very rigorous and I wanted the children to know their Faith really well. Catholicism should be the whole atmosphere at the school, not just for the R.E lesson. There just wasn’t enough going on at the school.

‘The R.E programme in particular seemed to be all about “let’s look at ourselves” not catechesis.’

Kathryn was still a reluctant home educator though. So, she prayed about it and decided to keep her son out of school for a year. He was an August child, and not required to go to school until after his fifth birthday. She imagined he would go, the next September. But he did not and that was where it all started.

‘It was scary,’ she admitted. ‘I was 25-26 with no experience of educating children. But I have no regrets at all, after that initial fear.’

Seven children and 15 years later, Kathryn is now part of a thriving network of Catholic families who home educate.

‘I grew in confidence when I met other parents,’ she said.

‘There is a vibrant sub-culture of Catholic home schooling.’

This is quite distinct from the popular image of home educating circles, which involve children, who never have their hair brushed, running around with very few clothes on, daubing paint on the walls while no one ever tells them to stop because it would inhibit their natural wishes.

Catholic home schooling could not be more different. It is not borne out of a wish to allow children to run riot – quite the opposite. It is quite a new trend in this country, but it has been going strong in the US for many years. And it has mainly

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sprung out of concern among these parents over what their children are being taught in schools, in particular their wish for their children really to live and know their Faith.

‘There are problems in schools, just look at the lapsing rate among school leavers,’ said Kathryn. ‘The Church teaching is just not there. And the Bishops are beginning to see that.’

But aren’t they just trying to wrap the children in cotton wool, stop them experiencing the world as it is today? Kathryn is an excellent advocate for home schooling and argues convincingly that the children are not living in some sort of weird 1950s bubble and that they do learn and are prepared for life.

‘They live in the world,’ she said. ‘They go to clubs and cadets and meet other non-home educated children. We want them to socialise and have confidence.’

Kathryn believes she was let down herself by Catholic schools, left unable to defend her faith at university: ‘I didn’t know what the Church taught.’

She did not want it to be the same for her children: ‘I learnt my Faith by teaching my children. It has been a blessing for me… I wanted them to love the Faith. When you think like that, it becomes very personal.’

Kathryn emphasised that she does not feel home education is for all or even superior: ‘I have lots of friends whose children go to school. I don’t feel there should be any moral obligation on anyone to home educate…It’s not easy.’

There have been tough times, Kathryn is the first to admit, especially when she was on bed rest after a baby and trying to help with GCSEs. Yes, the older children do take exams.

The 16 year old is actually studying for an Open University degree in Chemistry.

But it is not easy to have 10 people living on one income.

Kathryn, however, now couldn’t imagine it any other way.

‘For me it is the right thing,’ she said. ‘I would say to parents, if you have got concern about the school, pray about it.’

But is she just a little bit of a control freak?

‘Not at all. We’re a lot less controlling than many parents whose children go to school. We’re pretty laid back really…

When our eldest son was in the sixth form he found a lot of other children were being pushed into their choices by parents. He was astonished at that…He feels he has had a lot more freedom.’

Kathryn’s approach to education would not necessarily go down well with educationalists. The children are allowed to follow their interests, so that one of the children was keen on science but not on music or languages, so he did not do much of those. The numbers of families taking the plunge, though, is testimony to the growth in specifically Catholic home schooling.

‘There are a lot of groups, some in the Reading and Oxford area,’ said Kathryn.

‘You need the support of friends who feel the same way that you do and you can encourage one another. There is a real home schooling community.’

But where do you begin?

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014 ‘There is a lot of stuff on-line. I don’t know how people home schooled before the internet. There are net schools and you can find past exam papers and so on. In the US, it’s massive. There are so many, in some cases they even have their own orchestra.’

Kathryn’s aims and wishes for her family were and are very specific. Now that she has been doing it for 15 years, can she say if it has worked?

‘I hope we have succeeded [in passing on the Faith]. We talk about Faith, we live it, it is the most important thing in family life. And we’ve never had a huge rebellion, someone saying they’re not doing this anymore.’

EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION ‘We’re still living it,’ she added. ‘But I feel very happy with what we have done. We’ll never know what the children would have been like, but for some children it would have been dangerous to their Faith to go to school.

‘And we’ve got a happy bunch of kids. I’m not sure they all would have kept their Faith, if they had gone to school.’

Kathryn has been doing this for so long now, she often gets asked for support that she once sought from others. Kathryn has not set herself up as some sort of expert but there are consequences for trail blazing. ‘I get a lot of emails,’ she said, returning to her cookery lesson.

TAKE HEART Taking on Sex Education – a reader’s true story Helen Grimer

R

eaders might take courage from our story about overturning a bad sex education programme in a Catholic primary school, even though we were the only parents to complain.

A problem facing traditional Catholic parents, who decide to send their children to Catholic primary schools, is that many of these schools teach sex education when the children are 10 turning 11.

We found that in our children’s school this programme was highly dubious. At the beginning of June, a letter was sent home saying parents could come and view the Sex and Relationships Education Materials. But, it said, parents did not have a right to withdraw their children from the biological part of Sex Education, since it was part of the Science National Curriculum. As a result of the knowledge that SPUC’s Safe at School campaign had provided over the past few years, my husband and I knew this was not the case. Over the next week, we sent emails to various contacts and gathered evidence.

We wanted nothing to do with this sex education, because I had gone to view the material the previous year (having got special permission from the Head), and was not happy.

The parents present had been shown selected clips from a BBC video aimed at 9 to 11 year olds. This video was presented by two ‘hip’ young people who said sex was illegal under 16.

The implication, that I took from that, was that it was fine once you had reached 16. There was no mention of marriage.

A video of a naked man having a shower was shown, followed by a naked woman (both full frontal views). Sexual intercourse was shown using computer graphics with a voice-over. We were told that we were not shown all of the clips they would use, so I was left wondering what we had not been shown.

When I voiced concern that the video made no mention of marriage, I was not reassured on this point at all. I asked to see any other material that my son might see (not on view at the meeting).

A week later, I was given a pack of photocopied sheets concerning the anatomy of the male and female reproductive systems and written details of how human reproduction takes

place. Among this was a Puberty Questionnaire, which asked pupils to answer true or false to several questions. One of the statements said: ‘It is wrong to play with the sexual organs.’

Pupils were meant to think about this and presumably answer that this was false! Note the ambiguity of the question with the wording ‘the’ sexual organs. We assumed that this course was in place with the full backing of the head teacher and wondered if complaining would just make us deeply unpopular. We considered keeping our son off school that week with some excuse. But, we felt, we had a duty to make a stand. On the morning of the scheduled meeting with the parents, we put a letter on the head’s desk.

We were really surprised by the effect of this letter. The head immediately sent out a text to parents cancelling the meeting.

He telephoned me and admitted that we were quite correct that sex education was not part of the Science National Curriculum in primary schools. He asked that I attend a meeting that afternoon with the teachers responsible for delivering the sex education programme.

It seems, this programme had been running since before the head arrived but he had never critically taken a look at it. At the meeting, I was determined to push for the BBC video not to be used anymore. I was helped by the fact that one of the teachers admitted that another one of the clips (that we had not been shown) made her ‘cringe’. That finally made the head teacher decide that they would no longer use the video at all. As for the awful question 11 in the Puberty Questionnaire, he was shocked this had ever been put and, he decided, the whole questionnaire would go too.

To be fair to the school, it seems they did put over the Church’s teaching on marriage. But this had not been made clear at the meeting (maybe because they were worried about offending parents who were not married). There is no longer need for a meeting, since there is nothing to show the parents. We hope, over the next few weeks, to give arguments for use of a truly Catholic course which encourages any talk about this delicate matter to be done where it should be – in the home.

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PARISH PROFILE

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

A PLACE APART St James’s Spanish Place

S

panish Place is one of those names you cannot help but come across when you are looking into churches where Mass in the Extraordinary Form is celebrated.

It is not Spanish nor is it in a place. In fact, this quintessentially Catholic church has made it into Simon Jenkins’s ‘England’s Thousand Best Churches’ – quite an achievement for a Catholic church.

But you only have to visit, to realise that can be no surprise.

Just off Oxford Street, St James’s ‘Spanish Place’ is one of the gems of the Catholic Church in England and has an interesting and chequered history, beginning as a chapel under the auspices of the Spanish embassy in penal times.

Its splendid Gothic architecture and its very Catholic atmosphere make it a draw for Mass goers and tourists alike.

According to the rector, Fr Christopher Colven, it is an unusual parish with many churchgoers coming some distance to attend Sunday Mass, particularly given the excellent choir and music for which the church is renowned.

St James’s is also well known as one of the few churches where it has been possible to hear an Old Rite Mass since the 1970s. The parish priest of the day, Monsignor Miles, was the secretary to Cardinal Heenan. And permission was sought from Rome to allow him to restart services in the Extraordinary Form in the 1970s. Permission was duly given and Spanish Place has been ahead of the trend ever since.

This indult has drawn many to seek out St James’s, even though there are eight other places were Mass is said within walking distance of the church’s front door, according to Fr Colven.

‘People are fairly well catered for,’ he said. And this applies both to the number of churches and the different Masses at Spanish Place.

With some 1,400 churchgoers each Sunday and back-to-back Masses, including an EF Mass at 9.30am and a sung Mass at 10.30am, Fr Colven and his fellow clergy are kept busy, not least when they have to do a quick change of liturgical colours and even the entire character of the church because of the different calendars of the two Rites.

Around 200 people attend the Sunday morning Extraordinary Form Low Mass at 9.30am, according to Fr Colven. The Mass

16

is usually said by Fr Michael Cullinan, since Fr Colven sings the 10.30am, but he has helped out in the past.

People come specifically for the Old Rite Mass and there is not that much crossover with congregations for the other Sunday Masses at St James’ss.

As a central London parish, Spanish Place sees people come from far and wide for particular services, on a Sunday or holydays, and sometimes churchgoers will catch a Mass at one of the many other churches where the EF Mass is said. From the Brompton Oratory to Maiden Lane to St Etheldreda’s to St Mary Moorfields and beyond, it must be the best area in the country, for those seeking an EF Mass, although only the Oratory and Spanish Place have an Old Rite Mass on a Sunday.

Roger Wemyss Brooks, the Westminster rep. for the LMS, is a regular at St James’s and one of the few who actually lives in the heart of the parish. But he maintains there is a thriving community among the Extraordinary Form congregation.

‘We see many of the same faces,’ he said. ‘Although we also have a huge number of visitors, many from overseas such as French and Americans. The footfall is enormous but there is such an atmosphere of prayer.’

According to Roger: ‘It is a completely mixed bunch: single people, married, families, quite a lot of people from the Philippines.’

Breakfast is served for as many as 40 people after Mass.

‘It’s very important,’ said Roger. ‘They’ve all been fasting since midnight.’

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

FEATURE

An Extraordinary Journey Fr Robbie Low

F

resh from the glorious exuberance of the HCPT pilgrimage to Lourdes, I arrived at Belmont Abbey to partake of the glorious exuberance of the ancient Rite. You could almost hear the crunching of the gears on my cultural psyche as I tried to translate ‘Rise, Shine, give God the glory, glory’ into dog Latin.

The setting of the Abbey, the beauty of the church and its splendid acoustic, the welcome of the brothers and the staff, the excellent grub and the enthusiasm of the tutorial team coalesced to reduce the nerves of even the most fearful neophyte (me).

The conference was oversubscribed with priests of all levels of experience (and ignorance) enjoying both the company and the challenge.

We were tutored in groups of three in the side chapels in the arcana of the ritual, the forensic detail of which would leave the average freemason gasping in admiration. For those of us unfamiliar with ecclesiastical millinery, even the tactical removal and replacement of the biretta proved a challenge.

The beginners’ class was rightly restricted to Low Mass instruction but the key moment of understanding, for me at least, came during the Solemn Mass on the second day when the devotional flow of the liturgy was caught up by, and expressed in, the beautiful chant.

It became clear why Pope Benedict XVI had encouraged the rediscovery of the foundational Rite which, where it had not been utterly abandoned, had been effectively suppressed, and why he saw it as part of the reform of the ‘Reform’. Ancient or modern Rite, the worshipper should always be in some danger of being caught up into the worship of Heaven.

It is, of course, easy to see how the Extraordinary Form could be caricatured as mechanistic if it is performed rather than prayed. It is not an accident that many older people’s memories are of a hasty, largely incomprehensible celebration best coped with by praying the Rosary.

As the instruction unfolded, I was left with questions that history cannot now answer. Why did the liturgical creativity of the post-Conciliar age not extend to refining or simplifying the Tridentine Mass and its accessibility rather than opt for wholesale abandonment and the inevitable pastoral wounds that inflicted?

Could the preparatory prayers have returned to their original place in the sacristy or on the journey to the sanctuary? Why is so much of the beautiful mother tongue of the Western Liturgy unheard by the congregation? There aren’t 10 competing altars these days, so cacophony and confusion is not an issue.

The first, and perhaps most profound, change is, of course, orientation.

The altar is where it used to be and the priest faces east.

Nothing in the Second Vatican Council, of course, mandated

a westward-facing liturgy. Indeed, very little in liturgical history would seem to have encouraged this development.

Though there were arguable exceptional cases, for what is now normative, produced by Guardini and the Liturgical Movement, they cannot have foreseen the wholesale desecration of sanctuaries as their self appointed successors, all too often, argued with ancient architecture, subverted symbolism and festooned naves with what looked like garishly draped, oversized coffee tables. Meanwhile, ancient altars, those that survived, were abandoned or used as a stand for flower vases.

With the restoration of the original orientation, the God-ward flow of prayer and the Man-ward flow of divine encounter recalibrates the devotional relationship between altar, priest and people. The potentially enclosed, self-regarding hazard of the westward orientation, locked into the horizontal and local dimension, can be opened into the possibility of the vertical and the universal.

This is certainly one way in which, it is clear, Pope Benedict, (then writing as Cardinal Ratzinger), hoped that the ancient practice could eventually influence and inform modern usage.

While the instruction at Belmont was thorough and immensely helpful, I was left with the question as to how I would encourage people to experience the Extraordinary Form and, more telling, how they could actively participate. (Yes, I know, that is not about singing hymns or having a constant liturgical dialogue but when I have been previously, as a congregant, to celebrations, I have struggled to locate and focus because of the paucity of clues for the modern seeker.)

And I write this recently returned from the Pentecost Mass in Capella Palatina, the jewel in the crown of Norman Sicily.

There, the Mass was sung, in Latin, with the glory of the language fully heard and we were enabled to follow and fully participate spiritually.

I appreciate that I am a ‘Johnny-come-lately’ and these are simply my instinctive reactions and questions as a sympathetic priest.

The conference at Belmont helped all of us engage, at a deep and joyful level, with our spiritual history and our sacramental roots. The four of us who came from our Deanery went away grateful for the experience and the generous hospitality of the LMS. We are also determined to keep in touch, to take further instruction, as opportunity allows. We would like to move towards a situation where the Extraordinary Form is not a ‘hole in the corner’ affair, attainable only by travelling unreasonable distances at peculiar times (when there is an ‘R’ in the month). As important, it should not be the preserve of the cognoscenti.

Ghettoisation is not good for the Church or for the soul.

It should be a possibility for all who seek the full riches of the liturgical treasury of the Catholic Faith, as we seek to deepen our devotion to and love for the Lord Jesus Christ in the supreme mystery of the Mass and proclaim His glory in the world.

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LMS CONFERENCE

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Not Made up

‘Entirely of Loonies’

The Latin Mass Society’s Second London Conference A fascinating day of talk and debate, with leading international speakers, was had by a 200-strong audience at the Latin Mass Society’s second one-day conference in May. Five top level speakers, including a leading liturgy specialist, a renowned author and a university professor, addressed the crowded hall in central London.

The series of fascinating talks encompassed everything from Yehudi Menuhin’s support for the Traditional Mass to the significance (and dangers) of Vatican II to the need for more

reverence in Mass to the importance of St Cyril’s day to a final barnstorming speech on salvation.

Exhausted but buzzing, those who attended the conference maintained it was even better than last time. And many said they would like to see a conference every year.

Speaking from the platform, Dr Joseph Shaw, the Society’s Chairman, said he hoped people would realise the LMS was not ‘made up entirely of loonies’ or that they were ‘nice loonies’ at any rate.

Joseph Pearce

Mr Pearce concluded by describing dismay at the ‘mania’ to get back to the early Church. He said JRR Tolkein asked why the sapling is considered superior to the fully grown tree and two thousand years of tradition. And, even if the sapling were superior, you would not find it by cutting down the tree – you would just kill the tree.

author and academic Joseph Pearce, the former (and very repentant) member of the National Front, now a US-based author and Catholic educator, opened the conference with a wide ranging talk. He spoke about the rebirth of Catholicism in Britain following the conversion of the Blessed John Henry Newman in 1845 which came at the same time as the Irish famine drove a Catholic working class population to these shores. After Newman, said Mr Pearce, it became ‘fashionable to convert’ and he pointed to a host of well known figures, such as Oscar Wilde, who joined the Church.

In the 20th century, Mr Pearce said, the conversions continued with leading authors such as Evelyn Waugh heading the list.

But, he said, many people warned of the consequences of the abandonment of centuries of liturgy and what it would mean for the Church. Mr Pearce, a convert himself, appeared baffled as to why Latin was abandoned at a time when people were travelling more than ever.

Opposition came from all quarters, he said, including from Waugh and Graham Greene, another famous convert. And Mr Pearce quoted the actor Alec Guinness, who although he did not object to a simpler Mass, said the translation had a ‘supermarket quality’ and he disliked hand shaking and embarrassed smiles. He described it as being ‘like a BBC radio broadcast for tiny tots’.

Mr Pearce said that, in 1971, a large group of well known people including Anglicans, Jewish people and agnostics, wrote to the Vatican expressing their dismay at what had happened.

The list included some surprising names, including two Church of England Bishops, Vladimir Askenazy, Agatha Christie, Neville Coghill, Osbert Lancaster, Yehudi Menuhin, Nancy Mitford, Iris Murdoch, Ralph Richardson and Kenneth Clarke.

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Professor Thomas Pink King’s College London Speaking as a philosopher, Professor Pink gave a detailed talk about the traditional relationship between religion and state, and how this fundamentally changed as a consequence of the Second Vatican Council. He explored the implications of this for believers and for the Church as a whole.

The severing of the relationship, Professor Pink maintained, has effectively reduced the Church to the position of a ‘hobby’ or a club within society. The special treatment of religions that had hitherto been enjoyed for generations, has lost any purpose in a society where religion has no connection with the state.

According to the Professor, the inevitable consequence is that the state will look at the Catholic church as a ‘hobby’ and potentially say, for instance, that you cannot have a have a situation where there are only ministers of one sex.

In his thought-provoking address, Professor Pink outlined the historical theory of Church-State authority, where the Church exercised authority within its realm and the state in its, sometimes lending its authority to the Church when necessary. Christianity was embodied in laws and traditional Catholic teaching held this connection to be essential. To do justice to Professor Pink’s words, however, it really is necessary to listen to the whole of his speech (see link opposite).

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Bishop Athanasius Schneider The renowned liturgical specialist made an impassioned speech, urging reverence in the liturgy at Holy Communion and in our manner of praying at Mass.

Bishop Schneider used numerous sources to support his arguments and quoted from, among others, early Popes, including St Stephen I and from divine scripture, including the Book of the Apocalypse, from the documents of the Second Vatican Council and from St John Paul II who, he said, maintained that the celebration of the liturgy should be an act with the ‘profound sense of the sacred’.

The bishop’s scholarship and mastery of Latin enabled the native German speaker easily to translate for the benefit of the audience into English. And he offered a persuasive case both for resisting innovations in the liturgy, for the reception of the Blessed Sacrament kneeling and on the tongue and for the celebrant facing the same way as the people, especially during the Eucharistic prayer.

‘God has no need of our praise,’ maintained the bishop, who pointed out that Jesus, Our Lady and St Joseph all would observed have ancient laws of divine worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. He argued for Christ to be placed at the centre of worship – rather than the celebrant ‘like in a school lesson or a theatrical performance’. The bishop said there is an urgent need for this to change.

In the past, Bishop Schneider suggested, such disrespect for the liturgy would be regarded as heresy.

‘There should be no innovation, unless it is transmitted,’ he quoted from Pope St Stephen.

And there must be ‘no innovation’ unless it is for the good of the Church, Bishop Schneider quoted from Vatican II documents.

The bishop also pointed out that silence in worship was not a medieval invention. In the early Church, he maintained, there was half an hour of silence for prayer. But he reserved his most impassioned plea for respect for the Blessed Sacrament and he said the ‘horrible facts’ of disrespect could not be concealed.

Chris Hodkinson Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge The director of the Schola Gregoriana in Cambridge gave a fascinating talk about the place of music in the liturgy. And he argued convincingly that chant had been used as an effective way to preach the Gospel, especially in a Europe where most people were illiterate.

But Mr Hodkinson did not confine himself to talking about music, he spoke engagingly about the liturgy: ‘Ideally liturgy should be changing the wider culture, rather than the other way around.’

LMS CONFERENCE He said there is no reason to fight against the popular culture in all things, for instance 14 February is, of course, the feast day of St Cyril and St Methodius. And Mr Hodkinson maintained that our culture is not going to be transformed by the liturgy itself but by the participants in it.

But he argued that the changes made to the liturgy, in the name of increasing participation by the laity, followed an earlier movement to increase participation in the Old Rite. And, he said, the Pope of the time, Pius XII, warned what might happen, if the laity were forced to abandon their traditional practices in the name of fuller participation in the Mass.

Mr Hodkinson maintained that there is nothing wrong with ‘old ladies saying their rosary during Mass’. He argued convincingly that ‘participation’ is a matter of perception and that priest and laity have different roles and prayers in the Mass. He pointed out that Christian liturgy is full of things derived from Judaism, where the priests in the Temple would enact holy worship. Indeed, in antiquity, he said, the canon of the Mass would be said behind a curtain.

Mass had been, he said, a union of the lives of the faithful and the prayers of the priest.

Fr Michael Mary Transalpine Redemptorists – Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer Last but, by absolutely no means, least came Fr Michael Mary, the superior of the Transalpine Redemptorists on Papa Stronsay.

Taking the conference by storm, he delivered an impassioned address which held the entire audience, Bishop Schneider included, entranced.

It would not be unkind to say that he spoke in the manner of an old-fashioned revivalist preacher, taking his congregation with him on a journey of faith through rhetoric. He reminded the packed hall at points throughout his oration that: ‘We all wish to be saved. We all aspire to a Blessed Eternity.’

And he warned: ‘Your upward flight requires all the effort.

Plunging down is easy…We are on our way to one place or another. There are two places, only two, nothing in the middle… Salvation is not certain.’

He asked everyone to consider their own position: ‘Who of you can say I am one of the elect…You don’t know if you’re worthy of love or hatred.’

Concluding, Fr Michael Mary enthusiastically urged his listeners to three key actions: saying the Hail Mary three times every morning and every evening; devotion to the infant Jesus and to examine the truths. And, he said, we should use frequently the ancient prayer, that was already old at the time St Benedict included it in his Rule : ‘Incline unto my aid, O God. O Lord make haste to help me.’

This, he pointed out, was good enough for the saints and was an historic Catholic prayer. It should be good enough for us.

You can listen to all the speeches in full at: http://latinmasssociety.podbean.com/ 19

BISHOP SCHNEIDER

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

The most popular, unpopular

BISHOP SCHNEIDER ON TRAITORS AND SCHISM...

‘If some clergy and bishops start to collaborate with the pagan world today in this dissolution of the sixth commandment and in the revision of the way God created man and woman, then they are traitors of the Faith…’

‘Unfortunately, for some decades some clergy have accepted these ideas of the world. Now however they are following them publicly. When these things continue, I think, there will be an interior split in the Church of those who are faithful to the Faith of their baptism and of the integrity of the Catholic Faith…

‘One can presume that such a separation will affect each level of the Catholics: lay people and even not excluding the high clergy.’

ON THE BLESSED SACRAMENT...

B

ishop Athanasius Schneider attracted worldwide attention, during his Latin Mass Society visit to this country in May, for voicing concerns about abuses in the Church and his belief that we are heading for schism in the face of a ‘new paganism’.

In an interview in the Catholic Herald, the Bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan argued that we are currently in the fourth great crisis of the Church, comparable with the Arian heresy.

Hundreds of people responded to the Bishop’s strong words, published on the Catholic Herald’s website, the vast majority backing his stance with messages such as: ‘Brilliant, long may the good bishop reign’ and ‘We need more men like him in leadership positions in the Church. God bless bishop Schneider’.

Bishop Schneider, who grew up in the Soviet Union, attended a number of LMS occasions during an eventful tour, including the annual pilgrimage to West Grinstead, the Society’s first pilgrimage to the shrine of St Augustine of Canterbury at Ramsgate and he spoke at the LMS London conference. He also visited Oxford and the London Oratory and addressed the Conference of Catholic Clergy.

In the interview, Bishop Schneider, who is well known for his views on the Blessed Sacrament, maintained that some in the Church are siding with the forces of secularism and could force a schism. The entire interview can be read on the LMS website. See below some edited highlights.

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‘To my knowledge and experience, the deepest wound in the actual crisis of the Church is the Eucharistic wound…

‘Many people are receiving Holy Communion in an objective state of mortal sin… ‘Some people who go to Holy Communion live in irregular moral situations, which do not correspond to the Gospel. Without being married, they go to Holy Communion. They might be divorced and living in a new marriage, a civil marriage, and they go nevertheless to Holy Communion. I think this is a very, very grievous situation.’

‘There is the grievous fact of the loss of the Eucharistic fragments… And the fragments of the consecrated host are crushed by feet. This is horrible! Our God, in our churches, is trampled by feet!

‘And this is happening on a large scale. This has to be, for a person with faith and love for God, a very serious phenomena.

‘We cannot continue as if Jesus as God does not exist, as though only the bread exists…The modern practice of receiving Communion in hand contributes gradually to the loss of the Catholic Faith in the Real Presence and in the Transubstantiation.’

ON SPEAKING OUT...

‘It is quite insignificant to be popular or unpopular.

For every clergy the first interest is to be popular in the eyes of God and not in the eyes of today or of the powerful. Jesus said a warning: Woe of you when people speak good of you.’

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

ON THE FORTHCOMING SYNOD OF BISHOPS ON FAMILY MATTERS...

‘The idea of changes in marriage and moral laws… at the upcoming synod of bishops in Rome, comes from mostly the anti-Christian media. And some clergy and Catholics are collaborating with them in spreading the expectations of the anti-Christian world…

‘It is an attack by the anti-Christian world and it is very tragic and sad that some clergy are collaborating with them. To argue for a change the law of God, they use in a kind of sophism the concept of mercy. But in reality this is not mercy, this is cruel… If someone has a disease to leave him in his miserable condition.This is cruel.’

‘If the bishops admit the divorced and remarried to Holy Communion, then they are confirming them in their errors in the sight of God…They will push them more into the irregular situation only for the sake of this temporal life…

‘This topic will be discussed in the synod. This is on the agenda. But I hope the majority of the bishops still have so much Catholic spirit and faith that they will reject the above mentioned proposal and not accept this.’

ON THE FUTURE...

‘I am not worried about the future. The Church is Christ’s church and He is the real head of the Church, the Pope is only the vicar of Christ. The soul of the Church is the Holy Spirit and He is powerful. However we are now experiencing a deep crisis in the Church as has happened several times in 2,000 years.’ ‘…we will see the rising of a renewed Church. This is already preparing. Then this liberal clerical edifice will crash down because they have roots and no fruits.’

‘I would say [we are], in the fourth great crisis, in a tremendous confusion over doctrine and liturgy. We have already been in this for 50 years. Perhaps God will be merciful to us in 20 or 30 years?’

ON POPE FRANCIS...

‘Thanks be to God, Pope Francis has not expressed himself in these ways that the mass media expect from him. He has spoken until now, in his official homilies, very beautiful Catholic doctrine. I hope he will continue to teach in very clear manner the Catholic doctrine.’

ON A STATE CHURCH...

‘It will be better not to have such a structure when the State is governing the life of the Church, such as for instance the appointments of the clergy or the bishops…

‘Such an influence of the State can corrupt spiritually and theologically the Church, so it is better to be free from such an established state church.’

BISHOP SCHNEIDER

ON THE CRISIS IN THE CHURCH...

‘This issue of the reception of Holy Communion by the remarried will blow up and show the real crisis in the Church… anthropocentrism, forgetting the Christocentrism… This is the deepest evil, when man or the clergy are putting themselves in the centre when they are celebrating liturgy and when they are changing the revealed truth of God.’ ‘Our first duty as human beings is to adore God, not us, but Him. Unfortunately, the liturgical practice of the last 40 years has been very anthropocentric.

Participating in liturgy is firstly not about doing things but praying and worshipping, to love God with all your soul. This is true participation, to be united with God in your soul. Exterior participation is not essential.’

‘We are living in an un-Christian society, in a new paganism.The temptation today for the clergy is to adapt to the new world to the new paganism, to be collaborationists. We are in a similar situation to the first centuries, when the majority of the society was pagan, and Christianity was discriminated against.’

ON SHARING COMMUNION WITH ANGLICANS AND OTHERS...

‘This is not possible. There are different faiths. Holy Communion is not a means to achieve unity. It is the last step, not the first step. It would be a desecration of the Holy.’

‘Of course, we have to be one. Yet we have differences in belief, some substantial differences. The Eucharist is a sign of the deepest unity. It would be a lie, it would be contradictory to logic sharing Holy Communion with non-Catholics.’

ON WOMEN...

‘Women are called the weaker sex, given they are physically weaker, however they are spiritually stronger and more courageous than men. It is courageous to give birth. Therefore God gave the woman a courage that a man doesn’t have…

‘The true power of the Christian and Catholic woman is the power to be the heart of the family, the domestic church, to have the privilege to be the first who gives nourishment to the body of her child and also to be the first who gives nourishment to the souls of the child, teaching it the first prayer and the first truths of the Catholic Faith. The most prestigious and beautiful profession of a woman is to be a mother, and especially to be a Catholic mother.’

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FEATURE

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Art for Souls Harriet Tait

F

or centuries, art has been both connected with, and patronised by, the Catholic Church. It can be seen from mosaics in the early Christian basilicas, to great artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael, whose work was commissioned by the Church, to priests and religious, including Dominicans today, who use art as a form of preaching.

Closer to home, Fr Armand de Malleray, of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP), is the leader of a series of tours, that are open to all and designed to spread the Faith; aptly named ‘Art for Souls’. Held in galleries and exhibitions throughout London, these events are popular, as evinced by enthusiasts travelling from as far as the Isle of Wight and Liverpool.

January 2014 – The Wallace Collection, Manchester Square, London: With maternal majesty, she cloaks her silken cobalt mantle around Him, the infant: Our Blessed Lord. ‘The Divinity of the Child in intimate context with His Mother,’ was the subject of the New Year tour. The Madonna of Giovanni Sassoferrato in The Virgin and Child, painted between 1640 and 1685, is simplicity epitomised compared to the other works of art with which it shares space. No pearls, jewels or crown adorn her head, but a loose white veil with just a wispy curl of hair across her cheek. No golden ring, but the sun itself is her halo, reflecting on the sleeping child’s face. No angels or dominions make this a busy scene, and all is peaceful.

Although the image avoids casualness or lack of grace, and as Fr de Malleray’s observations revealed, the dichotomy between the last painting and another depiction of the Blessed Mother and Child is startling. The tour’s first painting, The Adoration of the Shepherds (c.1640s) gives tragic hints of what will happen to Christ. Its artist, Philippe de Champaigne, worked for Queen Marie de Medicis and Cardinal Richelieu, for whom he decorated the Palais Cardinal and the dome in La Sorbonne. Though Our Lord, in this painting, is presently in His Mother’s arms, the crossed angle of the crooks held by two of the shepherds foreshadows an event that is to come, as is the bound lamb at Our Lady’s feet. A dog watches St

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Joseph, spikes protruding from the collar; or are they nails, reminiscent of The Cross? The Murillo version of the same tableau has much gentler features. With the rough planks of the crib and the meagre rafters of the shelter, that ‘wooden perpendicularity’ is still present, as is the bound lamb; yet this creature has the comforting hand of a shepherd on its body.

The Adoration of the Shepherds of Bartolomé-Esteban Murillo, painted between c. 1665 and 1670, has the additional portrayal of a child shepherd, looking adoringly at his mother. Surely a reflection of the love between the Divine Son and Our Lady; indeed, to the right of them, The Virgin nurses the Child and worships God at the same time.

A group of three paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries are equally familial in subject, yet exclude the harsh prophecy of the nativity scenes. Giovan Battista Naldini’s The Rest on the Flight to Egypt (late 1560s to 1570s), Fr de Malleray stated, demonstrates the balance between adoration and motherly care as Our Lady feeds the Infant Jesus with ‘unprecedented grace’ St Joseph, in his rôle of protector, looks on tenderly.

An almost identical display is to be found in Pompeo Cesura’s The Holy Family (c. 1560 – 1571), with the great difference of Our Lady reading a book, almost certainly the Word of God, the prophecies, our guide advised. The last of this trio, The Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist by Andrea del Sarto (c. 1517 – 1519) includes Our Lord’s extended family of St Elizabeth and a curly-headed St John the Baptist in a camel-skin. The Christ child is standing with His Mother, an Infant, yet powerfully muscular as befits the strong Saviour of mankind. Although not part of the Biblical event, a praying monk kneels in the background as if on our behalf, that we may imitate him and spiritually gain access to this holy scene.

There we would all wish to dwell.

May 2014 – The Raphael Cartoon Room of The Victoria and Albert Museum: Most of the tours feature religious artists from varying eras and in different styles, so a tour of art solely by Raphael (1483 – 1520) was a unique diversion. All were painted between 1515 and 1516 and were commissioned by Pope Leo X. The tapestry of The Miraculous Draught of the Fishes shows the barque of St Peter so loaded with fish that it is almost sinking, and among many other things, it is when we are low down that Our Blessed Lord calls us and helps us. In a more famous cartoon, Christ’s Charge to Peter, Our Lord hands St Peter a key, while His right hand points to His flock, demonstrating, as Fr de Malleray explained, Divine power to put God in harmony with men, as well as the power administered through the rite of ordination to priests. A trying episode for St Peter, as it was a public acknowledgement of his Master’s question, ‘Do you love me?’ later denied three

AT MASS WITH

At Mass with...

Maria Young M

aria Young qualifies several times over to be included in this issue of Mass of Ages. She is involved in education, as a teacher at a leading Catholic independent school, and she is a convert – a fully paid-up member of the Ordinariate, no less. She has also recently attended several Masses in the Extraordinary Form.

But it might all have been so different. Maria has come a long route to the Old Rite, for she once seriously considered becoming an Anglican priest. Now, she is contemplating wearing her Spanish grandmother’s mantilla – which she pronounces, as do Continentals and converts, in the Spanish way.

Maria was, in fact, baptised a Catholic but her Spanish father died while she was an infant and she was raised as an Anglican by her English mother. She was always aware of Catholics, though, since the church they attended was used by local Catholics for Mass. Maria, an organist from a young age, played at both Anglican and Catholic services.

And, it was music that eventually brought Maria to the Traditional Mass. But it was an earlier chance phone call that led her to convert.

‘I was in my 40s,’ she said. ‘And I despaired of the loss of Tradition [in the Anglican church]. I felt alienated.’

It was then that Maria simply decided to pick up the telephone to the nearest Catholic priest, who was a member of the Ordinariate, (and who is now about to launch a monthly EF Mass for his parish).

‘I knew I’d come home,’ said Maria of going to Mass.

Music then led Maria, the music teacher, to become involved in EF Masses.

‘I was asked to sing at several EF Masses at Ramsgate,’ she recalled. ‘My very first impression of the EF Mass was that the music had a deeper meaning and resonance if you experienced it in the liturgical context.’ As with many other musicians and singers, Maria had sung sacred music as part of her musical education. But she took the decision to attend an EF Mass as an ordinary Mass goer, rather than as a member of the choir.

And Maria attended the LMS pilgrimage to West Grinstead in May. ‘I really enjoyed the Mass at West Grinstead, and the music was very helpful in setting the contemplative mood. But I also liked the fact that I was spending most of the service in silence.

It was a much more prayerful experience.’

Maria added: ‘It is just as valid to participate by watching, listening and praying in silence. The Mass is God’s action at work, not ours: the EF mass draws me into that action, through prayer. I also love the dignity of the EF mass, and the sense of participating with a group of people in something that is so rooted in Catholic history.’

Maria said that her spiritual journey had been a search for authenticity. But, she said, that does not mean she doesn’t see the Ordinary Form as authentic as well.

‘I wouldn’t necessarily want only to experience the EF Mass,’ Maria said.

She maintained: ‘But the full meaning of the Ordinary Form Mass becomes clearer to me each time I attend an EF Mass.’

times. A reminder that authority is not always constructed on merit, our guide said. Symbols in The Healing of the Lame Man reveal a continuation of that authority, where the columns of the church in the city of Jerusalem represent the apostles; columns which Raphael appropriately based on antique examples from St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Paul Preaching at Athens is a dramatic depiction of a time where philosophical thought was the god of the cultured world, when St Paul, not a scholar but an unknown, humble man spreading the Gospel of an as yet unknown Christ, is being listened to and honoured by a receptive audience, some of whom have been evidently converted. A demonstration of how only Christ is the truth, our priest insisted. We must never think that

the Church does not have all the answers; it perpetually adjusts itself according to the times. Lastly, another edifying work of art is enough for us to go out into the world with a renewal of faith: The Conversion of the Proconsul. A sorcerer, who in trying to prevent St Paul converting the proconsul Sergius Paulus, has been struck blind because he is obstructing the Gospel, which; in fact, the proconsul had everything to lose by embracing it.

Yet it is what is gained by embracing Christ and His Church that is to be our ultimate reward and happiness.

If you would like to nominate someone to appear in this column, please contact the editor at editor@lms.org.uk or via the LMS office

The next ‘Art for Souls’ tour will be held in the autumn of this year. Please visit www.fssp.org.uk/england for details to follow.

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ART AND DEVOTION

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

ART & DEVOTION Caroline Shaw

I

n this season of high summer and early autumn we celebrate several important Marian events, including the feasts of the Assumption and the Nativity of Our Lady.

In addition, 20 August is the feast of St Bernard of Clairvaux, a saint well known for his devotion to the Mother of God. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to contemplate Filippino Lippi’s beautiful and fascinating image of Our Lady appearing in a vision to St Bernard, which was painted c.1485 for a small monastery on the outskirts of Florence.

This intense image, with its rich palette and abundance of detail, depicts St Bernard, wearing the white habit of a Cistertian monk, sitting on a hard wooden plank in a rustic, open-air study, with a tree-trunk as his lectern, and a rock providing a shelf for his books. The artist conveys the asceticism of St Bernard’s life and the rigours of the monastic routine he established at Clairvaux. A hair-shirt sleeve speaks of his penance and the grey pallor of his skin hints at the deprivation of sleep and lack of nourishing food he insisted upon throughout his life. A scroll on a rock above his head, contains a verse by the 1st century Stoic philosopher Epictetus: Sustine et abstine ‘Carry on and abstain’, which clarifies further St Bernard’s approach to the monastic life.

The painting records a particular moment in the saint’s life: his writing of ‘Sermons on the Virgin Mother’. The open book in the centre of the composition clearly shows the text of the Annunciation from St Luke’s Gospel. St Bernard hesitates.

He experiences a moment of weakness, a lack of focus, and he looks up for inspiration. At that moment, he sees a vision of Our Lady, flanked by a small group of angels, charming in their curiosity and youthful beauty. Mary gently places her hand on the book, giving St Bernard both her blessing and her help, restoring his courage and endowing him with the strength to finish his work. St Bernard gazes at Our Lady with amazement, a dawning understanding and, most moving of all, a look of overwhelming love. His sermon, inspired by the vision, is charged with a mystical intensity and a poetic beauty. He writes of Our Lady as a virgin, ‘not newly discovered, nor discovered by chance, but chosen from eternity, foreknown and prepared for Himself by the Most High, guarded by angels… announced from afar by the prophets.’

The encounter in this scene is a kind of Annunciation in reverse: Our Lady appears to St Bernard, just as the Angel Gabriel had appeared to her. Our Lady’s face and gestures express above all her humility, an attribute upon which St Bernard wrote at length in his sermons: ‘If you cannot imitate the virginity of the humble Mary, at least imitate the humility of the virgin Mary. Very desirable is the virtue of virginity, yet humility is more necessary.’

The artist concentrates the encounter between Mary and St Bernard in the foreground of the image, with the dramatic rocks forming a barrier protecting them from

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the rest of the world. In the top right, we see four of St Bernard’s Cistercian brothers, two of whom gaze at a bright golden light in the sky. Behind St Bernard, hidden in a dark cave, is the figure of a devil gnawing on his chains. The saint rendered the demons powerless that tormented him through his steadfast sacrifice and prayer. The chained demon is also possibly a reference to a line from ‘Ave Maris Stella’, the plainsong hymn attributed to St Bernard, which celebrates Our Lady as the liberator of humanity from the chains of our sins: Solve vincla reis.

In the bottom right-hand corner is the figure of a man kneeling in prayer, who shares, with us and with St Bernard, the vision of Our Lady. This man is the donor, and an inscription on the frame suggests the meaning that the painting had for him: In rebus dubiis Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca. (In matters of doubt, think of Mary, invoke Mary). The painting is, therefore, above all, a meditation upon the way in which Our Lady comes to the aid of the saints and of us, the ordinary faithful, helping us to overcome temptation, deepen our understanding of the mysteries of the Gospels and thereby intensifying our love for her most blessed Son.

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

ART AND DEVOTION

Filippino Lippi (c. 1457-1504) The Vision of St Bernard, c. 1485 – Badia Fiorentina, Florence

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LMS YEAR PLANNER

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

– LMS NOTABLE EVENTS – Thursday, 21 to Sunday, 24 August 2014 Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham

Saturday, 4 October 2014 Michael Davies Conference St Mary Moorfields Parish Hall, Eldon Street, London EC2M 7LS. To mark the tenth anniversary of the death of the great Catholic writer and apologist for the Old Rite, a one-day conference is being organised in London. Speakers include Adrian Davies (Michael Davies’s son), Dr John Rao, Michael Matt, Christopher Ferrara and James Bogle. There will be a Solemn Requiem Mass in the Old Rite in St Mary Moorfields Church in the afternoon at 4.15pm. This is not an LMS event, but we are selling tickets for it (£15 per person) on our website www.lms.org.uk or you can phone the office.

Saturday, 6 September 2014 Pilgrimage to Brinkburn Priory, Northumberland High Mass at 12 noon at this beautiful medieval site by the river in the Northumberland countryside. For more details contact local reps David and Theresa O’Neill on 0191 2645771.

Saturday, 11 October 2014 Pilgrimage to Aylesford Annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of St Simon Stock (founder of the Scapular) at Aylesford Priory in Kent. Sung Mass, spiritual talk, Marian devotions. Details and times to be finalised.

Our now well-established three-day, 55 mile, walking pilgrimage from Ely to Walsingham for the conversion of England. Traditional High Mass every day, with traditional devotions and prayers en route. Deadline for booking: Tuesday, 12 August 2014.

Saturday, 31 August 2014 Tyburn Walk, London To commemorate the route taken by the many Catholic Martyrs from Newgate prison to Tyburn gallows.

Starting from St Sepulchre’s Church in the City, moving on to Ely Place, then to Kingsway in Holborn, via Soho Square on to Oxford Street finishing at Tyburn Convent on the Bayswater Road, just beyond the end of Edgware Road. The start time will be 2.30pm and we would expect to reach Tyburn at around 4pm.

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Saturday, 25 October 2014 Pilgrimage to Oxford Pilgrimage in honour of the Catholic Martyrs of Oxford.

High Mass in the traditional Dominican Rite at 11.00am at Blackfriars, St Giles, Oxford. After lunch there will be a procession to Oxford Castle, to the site of Bl. George Napier’s martyrdom in 1610.

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

LMS YEAR PLANNER

2014 ROLLING YEAR PLANNER now home to a well-known order of Traditional Benedictines. The price for all the above is £580 per person. Please note that this does NOT include any surcharges and you will have to arrange your own travel insurance. Further details and booking information are available on the LMS website. Deadline for booking: Wednesday, 10 September.

Saturday, 8 November 2014 Annual Requiem Mass Bishop John Arnold, auxiliary of Westminster, will celebrate a Pontifical High Requiem in Westminster Cathedral at 2.00pm for the repose of the souls of all our deceased members.

Sunday, 26 October 2014 High Mass in Portsmouth Cathedral

Saturday, 15 November 2014 Confirmations in Traditional Rite

High Mass starting at 3pm in St John’s Cathedral, Portsmouth.

Our annual Confirmations in the Extraordinary Form take place at St James’s, Spanish Place at 11.30am. The Sacrament will be conferred by Bishop John Arnold, auxiliary of Westminster. Please contact the office on 020 7404 7284, if you are interested in registering your child, or yourself, or to obtain information and advice.

22 to 26 October (Wed to Sun) Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to Rome This is an annual event organised internationally by supporters of the Old Rite. Events include Mass celebrated

by Cardinal Burke. The LMS has arranged accommodation and travel for anyone from the UK who wishes to attend what should be an impressive series of events. Our package includes air travel from Gatwick, transport from and to Rome Fiumicino Airport, four nights’ accommodation (breakfast and evening meal), plus a coach trip to Norcia,

Saturday, 22 November 2014 Towards Advent ‘A Festival of Catholic Culture’ at Westminster Cathedral Hall from 10am to 4pm. The LMS will have its regular stall there.

Come and visit us!

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FEATURE

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

In Good Company Why so many converts find the Old Rite a new joy

C

onverts to Catholicism in this country have been many and varied over the years. They include Blessed John Henry Newman and Cardinal Manning as well as luminaries such as Evelyn Waugh, Alec Guinness and Graham Greene. In more recent times, there has been Ann Widdecombe along with the former Anglican Bishop of London, Graham Leonard, and, even more recently, Tony Blair and many others, laity and clergy.

Interestingly, anecdotal evidence suggests, quite a few have made the journey straight from ‘Protestantism’ to being the most Catholic of Catholics, even with a preference for Mass in the Extraordinary Form. It is a far from scientific observation, but one, nevertheless, noted by many.

Mr Waugh, of course, was one of the founders of the LMS and well known for his dislike of the changes to the Mass.

And today, the Society boasts as one of its patrons, Charles Moore, the commentator, and well known convert. We are grateful that we have contributions in this issue from a number of others, including Fr Robbie Low, who has recently learnt to say a Traditional Low Mass, and Dylan Parry, who writes movingly about his pilgrim’s progress.

So how does someone go from being a good protestant, sometimes even a prayer book protestant, into a ‘trad.’ Catholic with a taste for the Old Rite Mass? Strange as it may sound, it is not that strange or unusual at all.

Of course, those who are new to something are often more punctilious than their habituated brethren. And many recent converts have been on the conservative side of Anglicanism, more Catholic than the Pope, according to wags. Indeed, those with fondness for ritual in the Anglican

Late Have I Loved You A Convert’s Search for the Traditional Mass – Dylan Parry

I

t was probably one of the strangest things that ever happened to me. One light blue morning, as the sun began to hover in the sky and a local farmer herded his sheep in the pasture outside my bedroom window, I dropped to my knees and wept. This was the beginning of what I call ‘my conversion’. It was the beginning of my life.

It was Anglesey in the early 1990s. And I was a timid and rather eccentric 15-year-old boy, just preparing to study for my GCSEs. Until that moment, I had hardly given God a second thought. In fact, for most of my childhood, I was probably a nominal atheist, the default position of too many. My parents were nominal Protestants, but a love of a truncated form of ‘science’ and the joys of the ego were my driving forces, and I thought my parents’ loyalty to Christianity, albeit weak, was weakness itself. Yet, I did occasionally wonder what it was all about. Was there more to this world, was there a purpose to it, or was it all one big swirl of nonsense?

Until the day I dropped on to my knees in tears, I had assumed, rather arrogantly – especially for such a puny boy – that existence itself was the latter: ‘one big swirl of nonsense’.

A joke without an author; a mistake without a maker. The best thing to do in life was to indulge the senses, make as much money as possible, and to hell with the consequences. I even longed to be a politician – of the Francis Urquhart variety.

Then sin came on the scene, or at least an awareness of it. Slowly, as I realised that larking about the school-yard would soon be a thing of the past, I became acutely aware, thank God, of the fact that I was not a very nice person. To

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ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

FEATURE Left to Right: Henry Edward Manning, Evelyn Waugh, Monsignor Graham Leonard, Alec Guinness.

church, who have left over changes in recent years, may just feel very comfortable – and more than that – with the ancient rituals of the Catholic Church. The opportunity to become conversant with the Old Rite Mass, for someone searching for the authentic and with a liking for the historic, may prove irresistible. After all, you can get a lot more ancient than Hymns Ancient and Modern when it comes to the Extraordinary Form.

On top of this, as converts say, they have no ‘hang ups’ when it comes to the Extraordinary Form. Having lived with the ASB and the KJB, former Anglican clergy do not have a problem with the idea of more than one Rite. And they were never part of the push against the Traditional Mass.

They were never taught that it was wrong. Quite simply, they cannot see what all the fuss is about.

As Fr Robbie said in the last edition, of his decision to learn the EF: ‘I am not going because I dislike the new…

I am not doing this as an act of self-gratification… I do not count myself among those who think Jesus invented the baroque and am not taken with lace on men… if the Church says she offers something then, as one of her priests, I ought to be in a position to do just that.’

Converts in the past have also proved more Catholic than cradle Catholics. In the 19th century Ultramontane converts, including Henry Manning, are said to have irritated the longstanding Catholic community with their fervent attachment to Rome. This in part led to the declaration of Papal infallibility on spiritual matters at the time of the First Vatican Council. And, as one convert explained of his preference for the OId Rite: ‘I didn’t convert to Catholicism to become a Methodist.’

use a theological term, I accepted that I was a ‘sinner’. I felt bad, for I had done bad things. The courtroom of my mind convinced me that I was guilty of ‘sin’. If there were evil, surely there must be goodness? If there is sin, surely there must be punishment? What would my punishment be? So,

Calvinist Methodists, plain Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists… and so on. They all seemed to be on their last legs and squabbling over technicalities that were beyond my needs. I just wanted to do the will of God and follow Christ – to belong to the Church he had founded.

The best thing to do in life was to indulge the senses, make as much money as possible, and to hell with the consequences.

by the prevenient grace of the Holy Spirit, I came to God. My eyes were opened to my wretched state. Sin convinced me of the argument for salvation. The reality of evil compelled me to seek the face of God. My parents, not for any reason bar lack of time, had not baptised me into any church or denomination. And I knew enough of my Bible to know that I needed to be baptised. This sacrament would wash away my sins and give me a new start in life. I wanted to repent and to get to know God. I sought his face in the waters, I sought his peace in the font. But where and how to do it?

After considering my paternal grandfather’s Baptist church, and finding it too stark and gaunt, I tried other denominations.

There were plenty to choose from in Wales at that time:

I attended a few Anglican services. I loved the buildings, and the liturgy. At one point it appeared inevitable that the Church in Wales would be my home. An old schoolmaster, himself an Anglican, had heard of my longing for God. It had become something of a scandal in the school! And he asked if I would like to visit some old churches with him.

I jumped at the chance. As we left one early medieval church, the teacher turned to me and said: ‘To think that this place was once Catholic!’ The penny dropped. It dawned on me: why not investigate the Catholic Church? Surely, she had a real historical claim to go back to the founding words of Christ?

Around the same time, as part of his work, my father was demolishing an old convent school. Until then, I had never seen a Catholic church, or even knew there were Catholics

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FEATURE

An Old Rite Mass at St Mary Moorfields.

on Anglesey, a place, at the time, not famed for its tolerance of ‘Papists’ (as Catholics were, and often still are, called in Welsh). One day, I visited my father at his workplace. An old nun was standing there, handing out what I now know to have been Miraculous Medals. She asked me if I would like to visit their chapel.

‘Yes,’ I exclaimed, before she had had time to finish asking.

Nonconformist chapels had felt empty to me. They were mere human meeting halls. Anglican churches had the feeling of centuries of prayer, but long lost prayer: orisons from another era. When I walked into that Convent chapel, though, I felt real and tangible spiritual power. I felt the presence of Christ.

I got on my knees and wept for the second time. I had found the Lord’s own House.

The face of God is beauty itself, and what I thirsted for as a young convert was that something ‘ever ancient, ever new’, an unchanging but ever fresh magnificence. I longed for church buildings that were visual antechambers to Heaven, bridal suites where the Lamb is truly enthroned upon the altar of sacrificial love. I rejected Protestantism, to embrace beauty and mystery. I longed for liturgies that surpassed the cosy worship that had touched me during my dalliance with the Church in Wales. I desired to be swept up in the liturgy of the Angels and to be immersed in the sweet-smelling clouds of God’s House. To be one, now and now again, with the whole joyful company of the lovers of God. After becoming Catholic, I became more and more interested in liturgy. It was a particular treat to hear Latin once or twice a year, Christmas and Easter would usually herald the Gloria in Latin. Such tantalizing treats helped me connect to a deeper past, to the communion of saints, and to a worship that transcended everyday language. Oh, what joy. Some new found Catholic friends spoke of an ‘Old Mass’, whispering of how things had changed so much since they were young. They described a reverence that had once helped them worship Almighty God with greater dignity… But they also told me that it was now ‘illegal’ to go to an ‘Old Mass’, if, that is, it were ever celebrated.

Like Jason, charged with finding the Golden Fleece, I was urged by my love for the beauty and mystery of God to worship, at least once, according the Traditional Latin Mass. A quest that is accomplished within days is not worth perusing… So my mission to attend an Old Rite Mass was a truly worthy cause.

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ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014 It took me 13 years to achieve. It was at St Mary Moorfields on a Wednesday evening. The sky was grey and the chill of the night was painful.

I had been in London for the day and was about to head back to Norwich, where I then lived, when I remembered that I had once read that the Mass was offered in the Old Rite in a church near Liverpool Street on the last Wednesday of the month. [This now happens on the evening of the last Friday and on every Friday morning].

As I walked down Eldon Street, the words of the psalm came to my mind: ‘And now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem’.

I entered into silence. I knelt… The chanted Introit, the clouds of incense, the mystery, the Lord’s face, as we all faced him. Home again.

And I wept a third time. I had found what I was looking for, and a seal had been placed upon my original conversion all those years before.

“His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him…

Yes, Lord, I love you.”

Dylan Parry is the Editor of the Westminster Cathedral magazine, Oremus, and also works for the Friends of the Ordinariate. He was recently co-opted to the LMS Committee.

  -         

-

NEWS FEATURE

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Preston’s Great Skyscraper

by Paul Waddington

A

mission is to be established by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest at the great church of St Walburge’s in Preston.

Rising 301 feet and topped by an eight-foot iron cross, the spire of St Walburge’s dominates the skyline of the Lancashire city of Preston. The spire is, in fact the highest of any parish church in England, only exceeded in height by the cathedrals of Salisbury and Norwich. And since the church stands on high ground, the spire can be seen from many miles away.

The height of the spire is not the only impressive feature of St Walburge’s. Designed to seat a 1,000-strong congregation, and known to have accommodated 1,700 in its heyday, St Walburge’s was built on a grand scale. And, as one of the master works of the great Victorian, Catholic architect, Joseph Aloysius Hansom, this outstanding architectural edifice certainly justifies its Grade I listing.

Preston, on the northern bank of the River Ribble, is located in a part of the country where adherence to Catholicism, if not the church buildings, was left relatively unscathed by the Reformation. As Preston expanded as an industrial centre in the 19th century, it attracted thousands of Irish immigrants to the town’s cotton mills. This influx reinforced Preston’s status as the most Catholic town in England, a position maintained to this day.

St Wilfrid’s church was founded by the Jesuits in Chapel Street in 1793, only two years after the Catholic Relief Act of 1791, which legalised the building of Catholic churches. Built of plain brick and with the appearance of a nonconformist chapel, it was designed to be inconspicuous, a practice that was common in this period, especially in Lancashire. It was nearly 100 years before a remodelled St Wilfrid’s was extended, refurbished and given a stone and terracotta cladding, creating the very fine church that exists today.

The next Catholic church to be built in Preston, again by the Jesuits, was the Church of St Ignatius in Meadow Street. This opened in 1834 and its architect, Joseph John Scoles, had no inhibitions about designing an impressive church. Built in the gothic style, St Ignatius’ had a lofty but narrow nave, lit by large clerestory windows, side aisles and a substantial spire.

It was enlarged on two occasions. The renowned J A Hansom extended its length by five bays in 1858, and a baptistery and side chapel were added in 1912.

Only 20 years after the opening of St Ignatius’ Church, the Jesuits had to start building a third church. Following the Irish famine of 1844, a fresh wave of immigrants had settled in the poor housing that had sprung up in the Maudlands area to the west of the town. (The area took its name from the St Mary Magdalene Leper Hospital that had occupied the area in medieval times). Following their new flock, the Jesuits

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St Walburge’s dominates the Preston skyline.

looked for a site in this area for the new church. The plot they chose was on high ground, the proposed church would be a prominent feature of the townscape.

The chosen architect was Joseph Aloysius Hansom, a native of York who was then living in Preston. He first came to prominence, aged 27, as the architect of the Birmingham Town Hall, and later became famous as the designer of the Hansom Cab. By the time that he was commissioned to design the new church in Preston, he had built several Catholic churches, although most were modest in size Hansom was the right man to respond to the challenge of building a landmark church. He would later be the architect of the church (now cathedral) of Our Lady and St Philip Neri in Arundel and Plymouth Cathedral (opened 1858), St Joseph’s in Leigh, the Immaculate Conception in Devizes and, perhaps his greatest work, the now abandoned Mount St Mary’s in Leeds. However, St Walburge’s established his position as the premier designer of prestigious Catholic churches in the second half of the 19th century.

A debate was raging at the time between the advocates of gothic and classical churches. The supporters of the gothic style, took their lead from Augustus Welby Pugin, whose principles lived on long after his death in 1852. They were winning the argument, although many, including some bishops and notably the Oratorians, took the opposing view. Opponents of Gothic style deplored the restricted sightlines available to many of the congregants in Gothic churches, especially large ones with side aisles. Side-aisles were necessary in large Gothic churches, because the building materials and methods of the time limited the width of the nave to about 40 feet.

Hansom’s sympathies lay with the Gothic side of the argument, although he was prepared to work in the classical style, as he did at Birmingham Town Hall.

For their new church, the Jesuits wanted a building that could seat 1,000, and where the high altar could be seen by

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

every member of the congregation. Hansom chose to solve this problem in an innovative way. He designed a church in the gothic style with an exceptionally wide nave and no side aisles. The nave was 55 feet wide and 165 feet long (almost exactly the same length as the nave at Westminster Cathedral).

He overcame the difficulty of supporting the roof over such a wide nave, by employing no fewer than 14 hammer beams.

Hammer beams are rarely found in churches, but had been used in baronial halls.

St Walburge’s roof was to be steeply pitched, rising to 83 feet at the apex, even before the spire was added. This presented many difficulties for Hansom. Because the roof was so heavy, and in the absence of support from side aisles, Hansom had to made the walls of the nave exceptionally thick. And they were braced externally with stout buttresses.

NEWS FEATURE

When entering St Walburge’s, one gets the feeling of a vast open space, but the proportions of height and width are such that it is not uncomfortable. Although all the windows contain stained glass, there is sufficient clear glass in the huge windows, for the interior to be bright and airy.

The Jesuits continued until 1995, when the church was handed over to the Diocese of Lancaster. Nowadays, there is no resident priest, as the parish has been merged with two others and the three churches are served by a single priest residing at the Church of the Sacred Heart which is about a mile away. The presbytery now houses the Catholic chaplaincy for the University of Central Lancashire.

Although St Walburge’s remains very much as it was designed

by J A Hansom and extended by S J Nicholls, it did not entirely escape the attention of post-Vatican II reordering. However,

The Institute of Christ the King is expected to take control of St Walburge’s in October and the Traditional Mass will be restored at Preston’s great Skyscraper church Such a heavily-engineered construction might have detracted from the appearance of the church, but the external profile is actually very attractive.

The stone used for the main body of the church was a local red sandstone, with the dressing stones of a more natural colour. Tall three-light stained glass windows in each bay of either side of the nave provide a generous lighting, and, at the west end, there is a rose window, 22 feet in diameter, a size made possible by the width of the nave. When originally built, Hansom provided a five-light window above the altar at the east end, with stained glass made by Hardman and Co of Birmingham.

St Walburge’s had to wait until 1867 to get its spectacular spire. Unusually, it is located alongside the main body of the church on the south side. The tower, which contains a single bell weighing 31cwt can be climbed as far as the foot of the spire, by a spiral stairway of 149 steps located at one corner.

When the church opened in 1854, it had no separate chancel, the sanctuary being accommodated within the main body of the nave, the area only being differentiated by the communion rail and a change in level of six steps. The high altar was located against the east wall, with side-altars on either side, which were separated from the sanctuary by openwork iron screens. In 1873, a London architect, S J Nicholls added a semi-octagonal apse to the eastern end with its floor level raised by a further three steps, making the sanctuary, and indeed the church, even more spacious. The effect was to enhance the position of the high altar as the focal point of the whole church.

In his determination to provide perfect sight-lines, Hansom designed a high level pulpit cantilevered out from the north wall of the church with clear space beneath it. Access was by an arcaded stairway contained within the thickness of the wall.

There are also three confessionals built into the north wall, although it has been said that these must have been designed for very slim penitents.

this was, for the most part, carried out in a restrained and sensitive way. A new sanctuary was provided by creating a platform extending from the original sanctuary steps into the main body of the church.

On this was placed a rather fine and appropriately sized free standing altar. Regrettably the communion rails have gone without trace, although the original high altar and the two side altars remain in place. It would not be a huge job to reverse these changes. Old photographs show that interior walls were richly decorated with coloured designs and paintings. These have disappeared behind ubiquitous whitewash. No doubt, modern technology could be used to uncover these.

Slum clearances during the 1960s were the start of the decline of the parish of St Walburge. The number of Sunday Masses reduced from four to one, and by the start of the 21st century, the congregation at this Mass became so small that the threat of closure loomed.

Some supporters of the Old Rite had encouraged the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest to take an interest in St Walburge’s, and permission was granted for Canon Hudson to celebrate a Sunday Mass there. However, there was opposition from some in the parish, and the Institute decided to establish their Sunday Mass a couple of miles away at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Penwortham (in the Archdiocese of Liverpool).

It seems that the Institute’s interest in the church of St Walburge was not easily extinguished. In a pastoral message issued on 6 April this year, the Bishop of Lancaster, the Rt Rev Michael Campbell, announced that agreement had been reached to establish a foundation of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest at St Walburge’s. The Institute of Christ the King is expected to take control of St Walburge’s in October and the Traditional Mass will be restored at Preston’s great skyscraper church.

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REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

DIOCESAN DIGEST Mass of Ages quarterly round-up, Summer 2014

Bishop Athanasius Schneider leads the Ramsgate pilgrims during his visit to these shores in May: Photo by Joseph Shaw

Arundel and Brighton Anne-Marie Mackie-Savage In A&B, as I’m sure you have seen elsewhere, we have had the great joy of the West Grinstead Pilgrimage. The Mass was beautiful, the talk inspiring and the attendance remarkable, with a full church and many newcomers attending from near and far.

It was also great to be able to chat with people at the picnic lunch, share some horror stories and boldly look to the future. In my more miserable moments, I seriously wonder what the point of slogging away trying to get someone, anyone, interested in the Extraordinary Form, Old Rite, whatever tag you wish to give the Mass. There is such an ideological divide that it seems impossible that the beauty and richness of it will ever be known more widely.Then there was the Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Consolation, when

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you can realise you are not a complete weirdo, entirely on your own. It was clear from the high turnout, that there are people of all ages out there who feel the same way, and who are prepared to get down on their knees, mantilla up, and show it.

Thank you to all who came! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and to the servers, choir, and the priests who generously gave up their time. Special thanks to Bishop Schneider, whose words at the homily and at the afternoon talk were so encouraging, and sent us all home with hope.

Tel: 01323 411 370 Email: amacsav@sky.com Web: www.arundelbrightonlatinmasssociety.blogspot.com

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

Beds and Bucks (South Northants)

Birmingham & Black Country

Eric Friar

Louis Maciel

Weekly Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Chesham Bois, at 8am continues under the care of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. The weekly Sunday Mass at 5pm and monthly, last Thursday Mass at 7.30pm, at Sacred Heart, Flitwick, continue thanks to the generosity of Canon Dennis McSweeney. Meanwhile, the monthly 3rd Friday Mass at St Francis of Assisi, Shefford, at 7.30pm, continues thanks to the enthusiasm of Canon Bennie Noonan and the commitment of Fr Gerard Byrne.

As new representative for the area, my focus in this quarter has been on becoming more familiar with the Traditional Mass community, and getting to know our priests. The weekly and monthly Masses at Chesham Bois, Flitwick, and Shefford seem stable. One of the main challenges we have is the availability of experienced servers and singers.

We are very grateful to Eric Caudle and Mike Mason, as well as the Di Falco, Windsor, and Grimer families for their assistance in ensuring that the Mass is served with beauty and dignity.

Bournemouth Tim Fawkes Our Old Rite Mass at Our Lady Immaculate, Westbourne, Bournemouth continues to be offered on the third Sunday of the month at 7 pm with Confessions beforehand, from around 6 pm. Please remember to join us, if you are visiting the Bournemouth area on holiday. You will be very welcome.

Tel: 01202 730200 Email: t.fawkes136@btinternet.com

Brentwood Mark Johnson As I expect many members know, Pope Francis has appointed Fr Alan Williams SM, formerly the Director of the National Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham, as the seventh Bishop of Brentwood. I am hopeful that Bishop Williams will be open and accommodating towards the Traditional Mass in the diocese.

As many of you know, Fr Stewart Foster unfortunately remains indisposed recovering from illness, and in his stead Fr Patrick Hayward CRL, Fr de Malleray FSSP and Fr Goddard FSSP have celebrated the Sunday and other Masses at St Margaret’s Convent Chapel, Canning Town.

I would like to express our deep gratitude to these priests for their willingness to come to help. I would also take this opportunity to ask for your continued prayers for Fr Foster’s recovery.

I am hopeful of having a new Brentwood Latin Mass Society website up-and-running by the next edition of Mass of Ages but, in the meantime, I would strongly recommend that members visit the Society’s main website to check for any changes with Mass schedules etc.

On 17 May 2014, the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite returned to St Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham with a High Mass celebrated on the Saturday closest to the 4th Tuesday after Easter, the Feast of the Translation of St Chad.

Unfortunately, this event clashed with a certain Bishop’s invitation to the UK by the LMS, so attendance was lower than we hoped. My gratitude goes to all those who made this possible.

As usual, the Oratorians held an evening High Mass for Ascension Thursday and on Corpus Christi Thursday, celebrating both again as external solemnities on the following Sunday as part of their weekly High Mass schedule. A couple of extra Masses were also celebrated at the Oratory for the Octave of Pentecost.

Another High Mass was celebrated on 9 July at St John Fisher church in West Heath for the Old Rite patronal feast day of the church. This may be the last one, because Fr George is moving on in the Autumn and the future of the Friday Mass is uncertain, at the time of writing. Similarly, we cannot guarantee the provision of the Maryvale Mass past August, although I am pleased to say that a special Mass was celebrated for the benefit of Year 4 students at Maryvale primary school. You may be aware that this previously happened for St John Fisher pupils in West Heath. Please follow the website below or the parish websites for further updates on these Masses.

Tel: 07855 723445 Email: louis.maciel@gmail.com Web: http://birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk/

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REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

Clifton Ken and Carol Reis We have been doubly blessed with two High Masses this quarter. First, on 31 May a Solemn Mass was celebrated for the Silver Jubilee of Dom Boniface’s ordination. The Mass, which took place in the Abbey Church at Downside, was well attended.

The celebrant was Dom Boniface Hill O.S.B., the Deacon was Fr Martin Queenan and the sub deacon was Fr Jean-Patrice Coulon M.S.F.S. The St John’s Festival Choir provided the music, which was very uplifting.

Dom Boniface’s homily reflected on his 25 years as a priest.

He began by explaining that it was the martyrs that first drew him to Downside. He reminded us that the priesthood has been handed down from Jesus to his disciples at the Last Supper and then through the centuries via the Bishops and he ended by saying: ‘All priests are an icon of Jesus Christ.’ And, as a human being, he felt strengthened by the saints praying in Heaven for him and all of us. He also thanked God for his 25 years as a priest.

The second High Mass was held on Corpus Christi at Our Lady of Lourdes church, Weston Super Mare. We would like to thank the priests, servers and choir who helped to make these Masses a memorable experience.

The annual Paris to Chartres Pilgrimage took place over the Pentecost weekend of 7-9 June. The Clifton Diocese was well represented with about six parishioners and two priests taking part, Fr Alex Redman from St Dominic’s, Dursley and Fr Bede Rowe who is currently the Chaplain at Chavagnes International College, France.

The weather was mixed over the three days with periods of bright sunshine and temperatures in excess of 30 degrees Celsius interspersed with hail showers and violent storms.

Walking through the mud proved difficult, but the overall experience was spiritually uplifting and many graces were received during the pilgrimage. There seemed to be more pilgrims this year, which was lovely to see. Well over 60 came from the UK. Please continue to pray for Fr Kevin Knox-Lecky, who is recovering from an operation to have a brain tumour removed.

The Old Rite Masses at Our Lady and St Alphege’s in Bath are suspended for the foreseeable future.

Tel: 07896 879 116 Email: felisbenglaensis@gmail.com Web: www.lmsclifton.blogspot.com

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ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

East Anglia Kevin Marshall

This page and left the Chartres Pilgrimage 2014. Photos by Joseph Shaw.

It was a great pleasure to be able to attend Mass on 28 June at the church of All Saints, Elton, near Peterborough.

The occasion was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fr Frederick William Faber, hymn writer, theologian, convert from Anglicanism and founder of the Brompton Oratory in London. The Missa Cantata was sung by the Oratory’s Fr Edward van den Bergh and the music, Byrd’s Four Part Mass, was performed by a small but magnificent Schola, from the Brompton Oratory. The Mass was very well attended by some 60 souls.

Please note that the fortnightly Masses at St Thomas of Canterbury church, Woodbridge, Suffolk, have been temporarily suspended. Hopefully, the suspension will not last too long. Old Rite Masses continue in Cambridge, Peterborough, and Ipswich. During term-time only, Old Rite Masses are now being celebrated at Fisher House, Cambridge at 8.30 am. Mass according to the Dominican Rite continues on Sundays at 9.15 am at Blackfriars, Cambridge. We are most grateful to the friars for their continued support. I would urge all local members to continue in their support for these Masses.

We continue to pray that our Cathedral in Norwich may soon permit the celebration of Mass according to the Extraordinary Form within its walls. I would ask you all to pray for this intention.

Tel: 01440 708 416 Email: fammarshall@aim.com Web: lmseastanglia.blogspot.co.uk

Hexham and Newcastle David and Theresa O’Neill High Mass was celebrated at St Joseph’s in Gateshead for the feast of Corpus Christi on Thursday 19 June. There followed a procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the streets surrounding the church and Solemn Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The celebrant was Fr Michael Brown with Fr David Phillips as deacon and Deacon Andrew Bunce as sub-deacon. The altar team was led by Leo Darroch and the music Corpus Christi procession Gateshead.

Patricia McGregor Newcastle Diocese provided by the Westland Singers from Sunderland.

There were a number of new attendees, including a lady from the area who was not aware that the EF Mass was celebrated twice weekly at St Joseph’s. In view of her comments, regarding the prayerfulness of this form of the Mass, we hope she will attend more frequently.

Also very welcome were two ladies from the Ordinariate parish at Gainford nr Darlington. A further High Mass

is planned for Saturday 26 July to mark the 420th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bl John Ingram in Gateshead (on this date in 1594). There will be a procession from the approximate site of his martyrdom to St Joseph’s Church, High West Street, Gateshead NE8 1LX where Mass will be celebrated at 12 noon. The celebrant will again be Fr Brown with Fr Phillips and Deacon Bunce as the other sacred ministers. The music will again be provided by the Westland Singers. All will be most welcome.

Fr Brown has expressed his wish and intention to celebrate further High Masses at St Joseph’s in future and, to that end, he is hopeful that a polyphonic choir might be started in the parish. One or two singers have offered their services but there is still a long way to go.

Saturday 6 September sees the celebration of our annual High Mass at Brinkburn Priory, situated between Morpeth and Rothbury in the beautiful countryside of Northumberland.

Mass will begin at 12 noon and the music on this occasion will be provided by the Rudgate Singers of York. The priory is in a beautiful riverside setting with well cared for grounds and we are usually blessed with good weather. Why not come along and bring a picnic lunch to enjoy after Mass?

Tel: 0191 264 5771 Email: david-oneill3@sky.com Web: latinmasshexhamnewcastle@blogspot.co.uk

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REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

Cardiff Andrew Butcher

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Nottingham North (Notts, Derby and Lincs) Jeremy Boot

On Monday 12 May, the Archbishop of Cardiff, George Stack, conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Extraordinary Form at Saint Dyfrig’s Church, Treforest, Pontypridd. He was assisted by the Parish Priest, Fr Allan Davies-Hale and deacon Michael Doyle. This was the first confirmation (to my knowledge) in the Old Rite since the changes in 1970.

Congratulations to the young man and his family.

On the Solemnity of the Ascension, Mass was celebrated at Saint Teilo’s, Whitchurch, Cardiff by very kind permission from the Parish Priest. This Mass marked the first time the Extraordinary Form of Mass had been celebrated there since the changes.

And, although this Mass was organised only a few days before, it was very well attended.

Tel: 07905 609 770 Email: Andrew.butcher@lmscardiff.org.uk Web: www.lmscardiff.org.uk The Latin Mass Society has now appointed Mrs Marion Luscombe and Mr Shaun Bennett to look after the Herefordshire area and I will continue to look after the rest of the Archdiocese. I am looking forward to working with them in the Archdiocese for the continuing promotion of the Traditional Latin Mass. Please keep them in your prayers as they take-up their office.

Please continue to pray for our priests and in particular Dom Antony Tumelty OSB who is not well at this time.

We are losing Fr Chris Thomas of Corpus Christi, Clifton, Nottingham, who has celebrated our monthly sung Mass for the last 12-plus years, to the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales where he is to be secretary. Their undoubted gain is our loss and this means that the Traditional Mass on the first Sunday of the month is now no more. We thank Fr Thomas most sincerely for his generosity and good will during all these years and we shall miss him greatly. We wish him every success and happiness in his new role.

Other Masses remain in place at The Good Shepherd (Sat before 2nd Sunday, 4.45pm); Our Lady and St Patrick’s, The Meadows, Nottingham (3rd Sun, 2pm) and the Cathedral 3rd Wed 6.15pm in the Blessed Sacrament chapel. Note: There are no Masses scheduled for August, as usual at any venues to allow for holidays.

The uncertainty over who will replace the Clifton Mass, is unresolved as I write. The Lord has always provided in the past, so we must have confidence in a happy outcome. The absence of a Bishop in the diocese does not help, however.

Those good souls who support the Masses often do so at some cost and effort, we all know. But I have to appeal again to members who do not attend but could do so with a little effort, excluding those incapacitated by age or infirmity of course. The times can be awkward and places inconvenient.

If this could be changed, it would be.

We also need more servers. We function on people: priests, servers, choir, organist, who stretch their time and resources to the absolute limit. We have been able to welcome, and we thank, students who have trained during their time with us. But they move on.

Finally, please ask yourself whether you encourage other Catholics to come to Mass, give them a lift or tell them of the Masses available. How can we claim a need under Summorum Pontificum, if we cannot show it? You can make a difference.

Tel: 0115 913 1592

Hertfordshire Nicandro Porcelli Eric Friar and I took over formally from Mike Mason and Eric Caudle at Easter. We are thankful for the many kind wishes we received. I had been assistant rep in Cardiff, and want to thank Andrew Butcher for the experience the See gave me.

Diocesan Low Masses at St Bartholomew’s in St Albans are well attended and will be one year old on the Parish Saint’s Feast.

Thanks to the support of Bishop John Sherrington and dedication of Fr Tim Edgar and servers. Sung Low Masses commenced, due to the hard work of Peter Johnson and the choir, and we pray these will be regular on Holy Days.

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St Edmund of Canterbury Chapel at Old Hall Green has suffered from a lack of available priests and Masses are now irregular. We thank Fr Duncan Campbell OP for his support recently and the continuing support of Monsignor Read. We pray we can regularise these again soon. Nearby, Saturday Masses are celebrated every second month in Hertford by Fr Terrence Phipps and we thank him for his support in promoting Masses and Retreats in the area.

Further up the Great North Road, Extraordinary Form provision becomes rarer. Canon Bennie Noonan travels from Bedfordshire to Baldock to celebrate First Sundays with the blessing of the Parish Priest, Fr Denis Sarsfield.

We are thankful and pray for our Priests, Bishops and all those who have, do and will support and promote Old Rite Masses here and everywhere.

Email: nicandroporcelli@hotmail.co.uk

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

Isle of Wight (Portsmouth Diocese) Peter Clarke We were pleased to have a Mass and Corpus Christi Procession in St Mary’s church, Ryde for the 12th consecutive year. Over the Corpus Christi weekend, we were pleased to welcome Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP for his first visit to the Island for four years.

Fr de Malleray offered a Requiem Mass in St Mary’s on 20 June for Fr Kenneth Walker, FSSP, the young priest in Phoenix, USA, who was tragically killed. Fr de Malleray was able to offer this Requiem Mass at the exact time that Fr Walker’s funeral was taking place in Phoenix. In his sermon, Fr de Malleray spoke about the tragedy of a young priest going about his priestly duties when he was attacked and killed by an Fr de Malleray. intruder: ‘The death of this young priest reminds us of the brevity of our lives. We do not know when Almighty God will call us. We have to be ready for his calling and be constantly prepared for the day when we will meet our Maker and Saviour.’

On the following day, Fr de Malleray offered Mass for the Feast of St Aloysius Gonzaga. In a brief sermon, he reminded the faithful that St Aloysius is the Patron saint of Catholic youth: ‘The virtue of purity is very prominent in the life of this great young saint. He is a wonderful example for young people who are frequently tempted in today’s society by the allurements of promiscuity.

We should pray that young people, like St Aloysius, will not succumb to the temptations of the flesh and remain pure in mind and body.’

This Mass marked the start of a Day of Recollection, appropriately for this weekend, on the theme of the Eucharist. Fr de Malleray gave two talks, heard Confessions during Exposition and concluded with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The parish priest, Fr Anthony Glaysher, was delighted to be asked by the LMS to celebrate the annual High Mass at Westminster Cathedral on 12 July.

In Ryde he continues to offer an Extraordinary Form Mass at St Mary’s on Tuesday at 12.30pm and Thursday at 7.00pm, as well as on alternate Sundays at 7.45am. Why not combine a day visit on a Tuesday and include an EF Mass at 12.30pm with a guided tour of our beautiful Victorian church in Ryde?

To arrange this contact Peter Clarke.

Tel: 01983 566 740

Kent Marygold Turner The wonderful ancient liturgy of the Catholic Church flows on in Kent, and our beloved priests come at great inconvenience to minister to us.

We were most honoured to have Monsignor Conlon with us on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. We are unable to have many sung Masses as we are so short of singers.

Fr Richard Whinder, an old friend, came on the feast of Corpus Christi to celebrate Holy Mass at Headcorn. We supported Fr Marcus Holden in Ramsgate in May for his celebrations in honour of St Augustine. He is a great inspiration.

Monsignor Conlon will be with us again on the feast of the Assumption on 15 August. With the new appointment of Fr Finigan to Margate, to be replaced by Fr Fisher at Blackfen, we are very lucky in Kent. We also welcome Canon Luke Smith at Maidstone in September. We shall have Mass at Noon on both All Satins and All Souls at Headcorn Tel: 01580 291 372

Lancaster Jane and Bob Latin First, a correction.

In our last report we stated that the new parish in Carlisle was called Christ the King. It is, in fact, Our Lady of Eden. Apologies all round.

The Traditional Mass continues to thrive in Carlisle with a range of evening, Saturday and Sunday Masses being offered in the three centres in the city. The Solemn High Mass in honour of St Petronilla on 31 May was in the presence of Bishop Michael Campbell OSA, who also preached.

Forthcoming Masses in Carlisle include, at Our Lady & St Joseph, High Mass of Our Lady of the Snows on Tuesday 5 August, the feast of the dedication of the church, and Low Mass on Saturday 20 September. Please note, the latter is at 8.00am and is part of the 40 Hours’ Devotion. Masses at Our Lady & St Wilfrid, Warwick Bridge, also include a Requiem, for those buried at the church, on Friday 7 November at 7.00 pm. See Mass Listings for dates and times of all Masses.

At St Peter’s Cathedral, Fr Stephen Pearson has been appointed as the new Dean. We introduced ourselves to him and he was very happy for us to continue to have a monthly Mass there. Many thanks to him for his support and to Canon Ruscillo for being willing to continue to offer these Masses.

Please note there will be no Traditional Mass at Christ the King, Carlisle, or St Peter’s Cathedral in August.

Two Masses were offered at Sizergh Castle chapel, on 9 May by Fr John Millar, and on 18 July by Fr Mark Lawler. Our thanks to them and to the Strickland family for their hospitality once again.

Tel: 01524 412 987 Email: lancasterlms@gmail.com Web: latinmasslancaster.blogspot.com

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REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Lincolnshire

North Staffordshire

Mike Carroll

Alan Frost

Lincolnshire continues to have one Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St Mary, Brigg, with Benediction at 4.15pm and Low Mass at 5pm. Please check the LMS Lincolnshire website for priest’s holidays during August.

This period has been spent contacting local priests and specific members to see if Old Rite Masses are viable in the more populated areas of Lincolnshire.

The real surprise came, however, from a more rural area.

We can now confirm that the EF Mass will return to Holyrood Catholic Church, Market Rasen. Somewhere in the region of 60 Summorum Pontificum signatures, at the last count, have been collected for the return of the Old Rite Mass.

Most of the signatures came from Holyrood itself, with additional signatures coming from the sister parishes of Caistor and Hainton. Dr David Lightfoot, a parishioner of Holyrood, is owed a great deal of thanks for all the work that has gone into this wonderful initiative.

This wonderful news comes at the same time as the Sixhill’s Treasures have just been discovered. Sixhill’s Monastery was situated in Mid-Lincolnshire and was dissolved at the reformation. Items discovered include a vestment, incorporating panels from a medieval chasuble, and a chalice. We will be able to give you more information at a later date, and hopefully some photos.

This church has just undergone a wonderful restoration and in many respects represents the most apt setting for Mass in the Old Rite in this part of Lincolnshire. The Marian side altar is particularly stunning. I will post photos of the interior of Holyrood on the website shortly. http://lmslincolnshire.blogspot.com http://lincolnshiremartyrs.blogspot.co.uk/

We had cause for concern recently, when Fr Chevasse, Cong. Orat. and P.P at Our Lady of the Assumption church, Swynnerton, was suddenly taken into hospital. Fr Chevasse celebrates a Traditional Mass for us each Sunday, and none of us knew his situation when we arrived for Mass. Fortunately, he had contacted the Dean and Fr Howell, not in the best of health himself, celebrated at very short notice. Even so, we still had to find the person with a key to the church. And, belatedly, by the grace of God and the hand of Our Lady, perhaps, Mass was celebrated. Relief and smiles all round.

The experience reflected an obvious point, but a cheering one: just how special and precious the Old Rite Mass is to us all, and what a sense of loss and disappointment we collectively and individually feel if it is denied for some reason. Happily, Fr Chevasse was back with us the following Sunday. But he is still undergoing checks and your prayers for his full recovery are asked. We look forward to the great feast , after which the Swynnerton church is named: Our Lady of the Assumption.

The date is also the birthday of one of our young altar servers, Ignatius Scorey.

Fr. Dykes and Fr. Howell continue to celebrate the Old Rite in St. Wulstan’s, Wolstanton and the Benedictine Oulton Abbey.

Tel: 01270 768 144 Email: Alan.jfrost@btopenworld.com

Menevia Luigi Dimaio Our efforts to promote the Extraordinary Form, by scheduling Masses in different churches in Menevia, so as to make it easily accessible to those parishioners not previously acquainted with it, has not made a significant difference in the numbers who regularly attend.

EF Masses are now being concentrated in the parish churches of those priests who offer them, and will no longer be regularly scheduled at St Benedict’s, Clydach, or St Benedict’s, Sketty.

We are invited to consider what more we, as an organisation and as individuals, can do to help promote the EF in Menevia, given the unavoidable limitations we have at present, since EF Masses are additional to parish Sunday schedules.

In theory, there is no obvious reason why the two equal forms of the Roman Rite should not be available and accepted on an equal basis, with one parish Mass in the EF and another in the Ordinary Form. In some parts of the country,

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steps are laudably being taken in that direction. And, in the neighbouring Archdiocese of Cardiff, the principal Sunday Mass at Abergavenny was, twice a year, in the EF, with no riots in the street.

However, local conditions vary and we have to trust the judgment of those priests who offer the EF to progress, or not, as they see appropriate. In the meantime, we continue to offer them our full support. And I would ask members in Menevia to give some thought over the summer, as to what more we might be able to do to further promote the EF. Possibilities could include a pilgrimage, a Day of Recollection or a short retreat.

Masses have continued mainly as scheduled, since the last edition of Mass of Ages, but local members please be alert to changes and cancellations during the summer, particularly in August and September, due to holidays and supply. These will be communicated locally.

Tel: 07864-578192

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

Middlesbrough

Oxford Area

Paul Waddington

Joseph Shaw

The Oratory priests have a Sung Mass at 5pm every Sunday at the church of St Wilfrid in York. Occasionally, it will be a Solemn Mass, as it was on the feast of Pentecost, when Fr Stephen Brown, visiting from Bradford, was one of the ministers. There will also be Masses at 6pm to mark major weekday feasts and special occasions. Coming shortly are a Solemn Requiem Mass on 4 August, to commemorate the centenary of the start of the First World War, and on 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption.

Meanwhile, at the church of the Sacred Heart in Redcar, Sunday Masses continue at 6pm. Anyone planning to attend one of these Masses should check in advance, as we are reliant on a retired priest, Mgr Heslin, and have no substitute if he is unavailable.

Whilst not strictly a Latin Mass Society event, the Oratorian priests organised an impressive Corpus Christi procession through the streets of York on the Sunday following the feast day. They are proposing to take a longer route next year.

Tel: 01757 638027 Email: paul@gooleboathouse.co.uk Web: latinmassmiddlesbrough.blogspot.co

Mass of Ages has received a request to correct an omission in the last edition, which featured articles about GK Chesterton’s great detective, Fr Brown.

Parishioners from Heckmondwike, in Yorkshire, have written to ask that we do not forget that the inspiration for the fictional detective was the parish priest of their town, Fr John O’ Connor, a great friend of the author.

Holy Spirit church, now a grade II listed building, was built 100 years ago under the supervision of Fr O’Connor, who even sold his own art collection to fund the building. About 100 people attended a Missa Cantata in June, in celebration of the centenary. Fr John Abberton, the current parish priest, offers Mass in the Extraordinary Form every first and third Sunday at 4pm.

Corpus Christi in Oxford. Photo by Joseph Shaw.

The Oxford area has had a very active Spring and early Summer.

Notable were our first ever High Mass in the chapel of Milton Manor, thanks to Fr Anthony Conlon, Fr Guy Nichols Cong.

Orat. and Fr Daniel Lloyd; the annual High Mass for Easter Monday in St Birinus, Dorchester-on-Thames, and a series of lovely Sung and High Masses in SS Gregory & Augustine in Oxford itself, including a High Mass in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament, Exposed for Corpus Christi. We are truly blessed in the Oxford area, and I would like to thank all the clergy, servers, and singers, who make these things possible, and our members and supporters for assisting.

South of Oxford we will soon be welcoming two new Parish Priests able and willing to say the Traditional Mass: Fr Anthony Conlon, who is retiring from the Oratory School, at Goring, and Fr Phillip Harris at Didcot.

Coming up is our big annual event, the Oxford Pilgrimage, when we honour those priests and laymen who were martyred in Oxford itself for the Catholic Faith. This will take place on Saturday 25 October. There will be a High Mass in the traditional Dominican Rite at Blackfriars, Oxford, at 11am.

After a break for lunch, there will be a procession through the streets to one of the sites of martyrdom, and Benediction.

Please note the date and support it if you can. This year we will be going to the site of the Castle Gallows, where Bl George Napier died in 1610.

The Oxford Oratory’s annual High Mass of Requiem is will be on Friday 7 November at 6pm. The now-annual Requiem at St Benet’s will be on Saturday 29 at 11.30am. I hope there will be a Requiem in the University Chaplaincy, following the very successful precedent of last year.

We are in need of singers, servers, and people interested in needle craft, to keep the show on the road in the Oxford area: training is available for all of these. Another important paraliturgical activity is the monthly Pro-Life Witness with watching before the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction. Please do not be shy about getting involved, but get in touch with me.

Tel: 01993 812 874 Email: joseph.shaw@philosophy.ox.ac.uk www.oxfordlmsrep.blogspot.com

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REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Portsmouth

Reading Area

Peter Cullinane

Adrian Dulston

I am pleased to report a slowly growing congregation at the 8am Sunday Mass in St John’s Cathedral. About three dozen now attend, including several regular young people.

As before, one teenager frequently serves with his father so, happily, the ability to serve is being passed on.

Again, we can only offer our sincere thanks to Fr McNerney who has to return speedily after each Mass to his own parish duties.

I should like to draw everyone’s attention to High Mass on the feast of Christ the King, at 3 pm on Sunday 26 October, when we hope to repeat the great success of last year.

Please come if you can possibly do so in order that the traditional movement is seen to have critical mass.

Winchester continues each month, of course, by kindness of Canon Griffiths with the congregation touching forty on occasion.

Tel: 0239 247 1324

Bishop Schneider paid a visit to St William of York and celebrated a rare Pontifical Low Mass on Sunday 18 May, reiterating in his sermon the importance of Sacred Tradition.

We were reminded that the Parish is an extension of a wider community when, as I am sure you are aware, the FSSP suffered the murder of one of their priests in the USA on 11 June: Fr. Kenneth Walker R.I.P. Fr Walker was just 28 years old, and only two years a priest. Please say a prayer for the repose of his soul.

I was present at a Requiem Mass at St William of York offered for this young and apparently holy priest. We then suffered the loss of a Traditional Mass-going stalwart Mrs Lucy Jebb R.I.P, who frequented the daily Old Rite Mass at St William of York.

There is Traditional retreat for the Youth from Sunday 27 July through to Thursday at Douai Abbey, run by Fr de Malleray.

There continues to be activity in the Basingstoke area and I advise you to look anything up on http://lmsreading. wordpress.com/.

We get many outside visitors passing through St William of York. But it is noticeable that parishioners of local Catholic churches tend to stay clear. We pray, of course, for a change of attitude which is, perhaps, based on suspicion. Certainly, I hope our local priests read the interview with Bishop Egan, in the last edition of the Mass of Ages magazine, in which he encouraged them to learn the Extraordinary Form.

Finally, and as a general reminder, there is much going on at St William of York. There are daily EF Masses; Confessions; funerals; baptisms; spiritual direction; writing of articles; preparation for the Sacraments; instruction of converts; visits to the faithful and clergy; men’s group; women’s group; adolescents’ group; family catechism day and; Holy Hour with Benediction. See the FSSP website for further details.

Email: adrian.dulston@btinternet.com Web: http://lmsreading.wordpress.com/

Nottingham North (Nothamptonshire) Paul Beardsmore Fr Byrne continues to offer Mass every Saturday at Corby. Masses were also celebrated on Easter Sunday, the Ascension, Corpus Christi and the feast of SS Peter and Paul.

Tel: 01858 434 037

Nottingham South (Leicestershire & Rutland) Paul Beardsmore

Friday 6 June was a big day in one LMS household. Joanna Nutter made her First Holy Communion at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Michael, Uxbridge. It was the regular First Friday Mass and the celebrant was Fr Nicholas Schofield. Joanna’s two brothers, Edwin and George, were among the servers at the Mass.

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The feast of the Ascension was celebrated with a Sung Mass at Holy Cross Priory, Leicester, and Sung Masses have also been offered at St Peter, Leicester, for the feasts of Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart and SS Peter and Paul. The usual regular Masses continue, every Saturday and First Fridays at St Peter’s, every Friday at St Joseph, Oakham, and, of course, daily at Holy Cross Priory.

Leicester may not be the most attractive city in England, but it must have done something worthy to have become one of the very few places in the country to have a daily, public Old Rite Mass. Enormous thanks are due to Frs David Rocks and Neil Ferguson (now prior and sub-prior) for maintaining this exacting schedule. Please support them if you can.

Tel: 01858 434 037

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

REPS’ REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

The Mayor of Wirral, Cllr Steve Foulkes joining Canon Amaury Montjean for tea after a heritage tour of the iconic Dome of Home on 17 June.

The mayor was among guests to view the restoration work on the shrine of Sts Peter, Paul and Philomena, of which Canon Montjean is rector and the Institute of Christ the King custodians. Sponsorship and donations are needed for the enormous task of restoring the landmark church to its former glory. See the LMS website for details of how to give.

Shrewsbury Anthony Sibert As this report will be my last, I would like to thank everybody who has given me so much help and support over many years.

When I was first involved on the Wirral, Old Rite Masses were single events by special request. Then came monthly Masses, then Mass each Sunday. But they were in different churches and at different times.

To reach the present situation, of having a daily Traditional Mass, followed a remark by an LMS member in a parish. She

told me her parish priest might say the Masses. I followed up the information, which eventually led, first to the monthly Masses then the weekly Old Rite Masses.

Finally, The Institute of Christ the King was asked by our new bishop to serve the Shrine church of SS Peter, Paul & Philomena, which has given us a daily Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

I am grateful to the priests and to those who support them at the EF Masses of Altrincham, Tarporley and Shrewsbury.

Westminster Roger Wemyss Brooks A very busy season. The major feasts of Easter, Ascension, Corpus Christi and Sacred Heart required the provision of clergy, servers and musicians and the attendance of the faithful at many ceremonies.

On the traditional Corpus Christi Thursday, for example, Masses were offered in most, if not all, of our centres with a procession in Covent Garden. The month of May saw a well attended pilgrimage to Our Lady of Willesden, where the Traditional Mass is now offered every Sunday – centred around a High Mass of Our Lady’s Queenship, sung by the Shrine Rector.

This year’s LMS conference attracted a large audience but, sadly, the Low Mass which preceded it at the beautiful Warwick Street shrine was poorly attended. Likewise, a magnificent High Mass of Requiem at Spanish Place for the Society’s former President and Patron, Prince Rupert Loewenstein, merited better attention.

Arranging such events, often at short notice, requires considerable organisation and we depend upon a small pool of priests and men. They deserve greater support.

0207 224 5323

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FEATURE

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Wrexham Kevin Jones My last report ended with the good news that Fr David Murphy, a keen supporter of the Traditional liturgy, had arrived from the Archdiocese of Galway on loan to Wrexham. Sadly, the loan period has come to an abrupt end and Fr Murphy has returned to Ireland. We wish him well.

Due to additional parochial duties, Fr Edmund Montgomery was not able make the journey to celebrate the May Mass at Holywell. And I am thankful to Canon Brendan Hoban for stepping in at late notice.

Masses went ahead at Buckley and Llay in June and we marked the feast of Ss Peter and Paul with a Missa Cantata at Holywell on 29 June. Just a week later, and Holywell was again the focus of attention as the LMS pilgrimage took place. Numbers on a par with last year attended a Pontifical High Mass. The Abbot of Belmont, Fr Paul Stonham OSB was assisted at the Faldstool by Fr Geoffrey Marlor, deacon, and Fr Francis Wadsworth, subdeacon. Canon Amaury Montjean ICKSP was Assistant Priest. Michael Haynes was principal MC and Philip Russell, secondary MC. Music was polyphony by William Byrd with Gregorian proper.

The rain that morning gave way to dry conditions – which ensured that the Rosary procession and veneration of the

44

Holywell pilgrimage at Wrexham. Photo by Joseph Shaw.

relic at the Well took place. My sincere thanks to anyone who assisted in any way to ensure this Mass took place. Particular thanks go to our Vice President, David Lloyd, whose experience is priceless.

Tel: 01244 674011 Email: lms.wrexham@outlook.com

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

MASS LISTINGS

The Latin Mass Society

Mass Listings

Supplement to Mass of Ages 181 Autumn 2014 While the Latin Mass Society makes every effort to ensure that these listings are accurate, we cannot guarantee that they are free of errors or omissions and acknowledge that some Masses can be cancelled at very short notice.

WESTMINSTER Westminster Cathedral, Victoria Street, VICTORIA, London SW1P 1QW Sat 8 Nov (Annual Requiem) 2.00pm Pontifical High Requiem

2nd Saturdays (Lady Chapel) 4.30pm Low Mass The Oratory, Brompton Road, LONDON SW7 2RP

Sundays Mon to Sat (St Joseph’s Altar) Saturdays (usually in St Wilfrid’s Chapel)[1]

9.00am 8.00am 12.15pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass

St. James’s, Spanish Place, LONDON W1U 3QY

Sundays Holy Days of Obligation Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

9.30am 11.00am 11.00am 11.00am 11.00am

Low Low Low Low Low

Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, COVENT GARDEN, London WC2E 7NA

Mondays 2nd Fridays Mon 4 Aug Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

6.30pm 6.30pm 6.30pm 6.30pm 6.30pm

Sung Mass Low Mass Sung Requiem Sung Mass Sung Requiem

St Etheldreda, Ely Place, LONDON EC1N 6RY

1st Fridays

6.00pm

Low Mass

St. John the Baptist, 3 King Edward’s Road, HACKNEY, London E9 7SF

1st Fridays

6.00pm

Low Mass

St Mary Moorfields, Eldon Street, LONDON EC2M 7LS

Fridays Last Fridays Sat 4 Oct

7.45am 7.30pm 4.15pm

Low Mass High Mass High Requiem

Holy Trinity and St Augustine, London Road, BALDOCK, Herts SG7 6LQ

1st Sundays

3.00pm

Low Mass

St. Edmund of Canterbury & English Martyrs, Farm Lane, Old Hall Green, Sun 20 Jul Nr. WARE, Hertfordshire SG11 1DT Sun 27 July

Other Sundays TBA[2]

3.30pm 3.00pm 3.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass

Our Lady of Lourdes & St Michael, Osborn Rd, UXBRIDGE, UB8 1UE

1st Fridays

7.00pm

Sung Mass

Our Lady and St Catherine, 177 Bow Road, Bow, LONDON E3 2SG

Thursdays[3]

TBA

Low Mass

St Bartholomew’s, 47 Vesta Avenue, ST ALBANS AL1 2PE

Sundays[4] Sun 24 Aug (Patronal Feast) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

5.00pm 5.00pm 7.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass

Our Lady of Willesden, Acton Lane, WILLESDEN, London NW10 9AX

Sundays Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

5.30pm 12.45pm

Low Mass Low Requiem

Immaculate Conception and St Joseph, 23 St John’s Street, HERTFORD SG14 1RX

Sat 13 Sep Sat 15 Nov

11.00am 11.00am

Low Mass Low Mass

St Bonaventure, 81 Parkway, WELWYN GARDEN CITY, AL8 6JF

Thu 14 Aug (Vigil of Assumption) 7.00pm Fri 31 Oct (Vigil of All Saints) 7.00pm

Mass Mass Mass Mass Requiem

Low/Sung Low/Sung

[1] Phone 020 7808 0900 to check before travelling. [2] Check before travelling – 07810 778160 or 07920 122014. [3] Check Parish newsletters for correct times. [4] No Masses on 10th Aug, lifts to 5pm Flitwick Mass possible on request – contact LMS Rep Nicandro Porcelli (07920 122014).

ARUNDEL AND BRIGHTON St Pancras, Ireland’s Lane, LEWES, Sussex BN7 1QX

1st Sundays Saturdays Fri 15 Aug (Assumption)

12.30pm 10.00am 7.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass Sung Mass

St Mary Magdalene, Upper North Street, BRIGHTON BN1 3FH

Sundays Fridays

6.30pm 7.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass

St Mary, Surrenden Road, BRIGHTON BN1 6PA

Thursdays

7.00pm

Low Mass

St Thomas More, Sutton Road, SEAFORD Sussex BN25 1SS

3rd Sundays

3.00pm

Low/Sung

Our Lady of Consolation, Park Lane, WEST GRINSTEAD RH13 8LT

2nd Sundays

3.00pm

Low Mass

Christ the King, Bramber Road, STEYNING BN44 3PB

4th Sundays

9.00am

Low Mass

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MASS LISTINGS

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

BIRMINGHAM The Oratory, Hagley Road, BIRMINGHAM B16 8UE Sundays

Fridays

Saturdays

Holy Days of Obligation

Fri 15 Aug (Assumption)

Tue 30 Sep (Forty Hours)

Sun 2 Nov

(External Solemnity of All Saints)

Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

10.30am 6.00pm 9.30am 6.00pm or 7.00pm 7.00pm 7.00pm

High Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass High Mass High Mass High Mass

10.30am 7.00pm

High Mass High Mass

St John Fisher, 1 Cofton Road, West Heath, BIRMINGHAM B31 3QT

Fridays[1]

6.30pm

Low Mass

Maryvale Institute Chapel, Old Oscott Hill, BIRMINGHAM B44 9AG

Wed 13 Aug[2]

7.00pm

Low Mass

Our Lady & St Kenelm Cobham Road, HALESOWEN B63 3JZ

Wednesdays[3]

12.00pm

Low Mass

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Cannock Road, WOLVERHAMPTON WV10 8PG

Fridays

6.30pm

Low Mass

The Oratory, Woodstock Road, OXFORD OX2 6HA

Sundays Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Sat 18 Oct (Forty Hours) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls) Fri 7 Nov (Fathers’ & Brothers’ Requiem)

12.15pm 6.00am 12.15pm 12.15pm 6.00pm

Low Low Low Low Low

8.00am

High Mass

SS Gregory & Augustine, 322 Woodstock Road, OXFORD OX2 7NS

3rd Sundays 12.00pm Wednesdays 6.00pm Fridays 6.00pm 1st Thursdays 12.00pm Wed 6 Aug (Transfiguration) 6.00pm Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) 6.00pm Mon 3 Nov (All Souls) 6.00pm Mon 8 Dec (Immaculate Concep) 6.00pm Fri 12 Dec 6.00pm

Sung Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Sung Mass Sung Mass Sung Mass Sung Mass

St Birinus, DORCHESTER-ON-THAMES, Oxfordshire OX10 7JR

Saturdays Fri 5 Dec (St Birinus)

Low Mass High Mass

Blackfriars, St Giles, OXFORD OX1 3LY

Sat 25 Oct (Oxford Pilgrimage)[4] 11.00am

High Mass

St Benet’s Hall Chapel, 38 St Giles, OXFORD OX1 3LN

Sat 29 Nov (Annual Requiem)

11:30am

High Mass

St Wulstan, Wolstanton, NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME, Staffordshire ST5 0EF 1st Fridays

7.00pm

Low Mass

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, REDDITCH B98 8LT

Mondays

6.30pm

Low Mass

St Mary & Egwin, High Street, EVESHAM Worcestershire WR11 4EJ

Tuesdays

7.00pm

Low Mass

St Ambrose, Birmingham Road, KIDDERMINSTER DY10 2BY

1st Sundays Saturdays

3.00pm 9.00am

Low/Sung Low Mass

St John Baptist, Spetchley Park, WORCESTER WR5 1RS

Sundays[5]

10.45pm

Low Mass

Our Lady of the Assumption, 8 Weaver’s Walk, Swynnerton, nr STONE, ST15 0QZ

Sundays Saturdays Fortnightly[6] Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints)

6.00pm 10.00am 7.00pm 10.00am

Sung Mass Low Mass Low/Sung Low Mass

Oulton Abbey, Kibblestone Road, Oulton, Nr STONE ST15 8UP

3rd Sundays[7]

3.00pm

Sung/Low

9.30am 7.30pm

Mass Mass Mass Mass Mass

[1]Please check with parish or calendar on http://birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk/ before travelling. [2] Normally 2nd Wednesdays but Masses in September and October need to be confirmed. [3] no Mass on 27 August. Mass on 6 August will be at 8.00am. Please phone 0121-602 1972 prior to travelling. [4] Procession at 2.00pm, starting at north end of Cornmarket Street, followed by Benediction at 3pm at Blackfriars. [5] In August, no Mass on the 2nd, 3rd & 5th Sundays. In September, no Mass on the 14th and 21st. Check with Parish on 01905 345109 before travelling. [6] Phone Local Rep on 01270 768144 to confirm dates. [7] Monthly Masses - check for future dates on http://north-staffs-lms.blogspot.co.uk or call Local LMS Representative, Alan Frost, on 01270 768144. Subject to cancellation, so check blog above before travelling.

BRENTWOOD Our Lady of Lourdes & St Joseph, Leigh Rd, LEIGH-ON-SEA, SS9 1LN

1st Sundays

4.00pm

Sung Mass

Our Lady Immaculate, New London Road, CHELMSFORD CM2 0AR

1st Fridays

7.30pm

Low Mass

Church of the Assumption, 98 Manford Way, HAINAULT IG7 4DF

Most Mondays[1]

6.30pm

Low Mass

St. Mary Immaculate and the Holy Archangels, KELVEDON CO5 9AH

1st Saturdays

12.15pm

Low Mass

St Margaret’s Convent Chapel, Bethell Avenue, CANNING TOWN, London E16 4JU

Sundays

6.00pm

Sung Mass

[1] Please telephone 020 8500 3953 to confirm before travelling or email nda.hainault@btinternet.com

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ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

MASS LISTINGS

CARDIFF Poor Clare Convent, Much Birch, HEREFORD HR2 8PS

Sundays

6.30pm

Low Mass

Most Holy Trinity, New Street, Ledbury, HEREFORD, HR8 2EE

2nd Sundays[1]

5.00pm

Low Mass

St Francis Xavier, Broad Street, HEREFORD HR4 9AP

Last Sundays[2] Fridays[2]

12.15am 6.30pm

Low/Sung Low Mass

Our Lady & St Michael, Pen-y-Pound, ABERGAVENNY NP7 5UD

Fridays

7.00pm

Low Mass

University Chaplaincy, 62 Park Place, CARDIFF, CF10 3AS

1st Thursdays[3]

7.00pm

Low Mass

[1] This will begin on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. [2] Please note the change of time. [3] The monthly Mass at the Chaplaincy will continue from October 2014. Masses may take place on the following Feasts: Assumption, All Saints, All Souls (3 Nov) – you will need to contact Andrew Butcher (Local Representative) on 07905 609770 or andrew.butcher@lmscardiff.org.uk or visit the website www.lmscardiff.org.uk for more information and full listings. For the Herefordshire area contact Marion Luscombe (01432 760896) or Shaun Bennett (07917 577127).

CLIFTON Holy Cross Church, Dean Lane, Bedminster, BRISTOL BS3 1DB

Sundays 1st Wednesdays Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

12.30pm 6.30pm 12.45pm 7.30pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Solemn Requiem

St Dominic’s, Jubilee Road, DURSLEY, Gloucestershire GL11 4ES

Sundays[1] Mondays & Tuesdays Wed - Sat (inclusive) Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Mon 8 Sep (Nativity of the BVM) Sun 14 Sep (Exaltation of the Holy Cross) Sun 26 Oct (Christ the King) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

5.30pm 9.00am 8.00am 8.00am 9.00am

Low Low Low Low Low

Mass Mass Mass Mass Mass

5.30pm 5.30pm 8.00am 9.00am

Low Low Low Low

Mass Mass Mass Mass

St George’s, Boreham Road, WARMINSTER, Wiltshire BA12 9JP

One Saturday per month[2]

9.30am

Low Mass

SS Joseph & Teresa, 16 Chamberlain Street, WELLS, Somerset BA5 2PF

Tuesdays [3] Fri 15 Aug (Assumption)

6.00pm 6.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass

Our Lady & St Kenelm, STOW-ON-THE-WOLD, Gloucestershire GL54 1DR

Saturdays[4] Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

10.00am 7.00pm 7.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass

Prinknash Abbey, CRANHAM, Gloucestershire GL4 8EX

1st Sundays Saturdays[5] Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints) Sun 2 Nov (All Souls)

3.00pm 11.00am 8.15am 8.15am 3.00pm

Low Low Low Low Low

Our Lady of Lourdes, 28 Baytree Road, WESTON-SUPER-MARE BS22 8HQ 4th and 5th Sundays

11.30am

Low Mass

9.30am

Low Mass

St Benedict’s, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, RADSTOCK, nr. Bath, Somerset BA3 4RH 1st Sundays

11.15am

Low Mass

Our Lady of Glastonbury, Magdalene Street, GLASTONBURY, Somerset BA6 9EJ

3rd Sundays

12.30pm

Low Mass

Our Lady & St Alphege, Oldfield Lane, Oldfield Park, BATH, BA2 3NR

Suspended[6]

St Gregory’s, 10 Saint James’ Square, CHELTENHAM GL50 3PR The Holy Ghost, 73 Higher Kingston, YEOVIL, Somerset BA21 4AR

1st Wednesdays Fridays (not during Aug) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

7.00pm 6.00pm 12.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass

All Saints, WARDOUR CASTLE, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6RR

Quarterly 3rd Saturdays[7]

11.00am

Low Mass

Holy Redeemer, Fotherby Crescent, SALISBURY, Wiltshire SP1 3EG

Quarterly 3rd Saturdays[8]

11.30am

Low Mass

1st Thursdays

Mass Mass Mass Mass Mass

[1] Missa Cantata first Sunday of each month. [2] Please check with Parish Office on 01985 212329. [3] Phone 01749 673183 to confirm before travelling. [4] Phone 01451 830431 to confirm before travelling. [5] Phone Fr Damian on 07742 659106 to confirm before travelling.

[6] Owing to the ill health of the parish priest. Please contact 01373 301691 for an update. [7] These Masses will continue quarterly (February, May, August, November) until further notice. Please call 01373 301691 before travelling. [8] Quarterly (March, June, September, December).

Please call 01373 301691 before travelling.

EAST ANGLIA Blackfriars, Buckingham Road, CAMBRIDGE CB3 0DD

Sundays

9.15am

Low Mass

University Chaplaincy, Fisher House, Guildhall St, CAMBRIDGE CB2 3NH

Sundays (during term time)

8.00am

Low Mass

St Peter & All Souls, Park Road, PETERBOROUGH, Cambs PE1 2RS

1st Fridays

7.00pm

Low Mass

St Mary Magdalene, 468 Norwich Rd, IPSWICH IP1 6JS

Wednesdays[1]

12.00pm

Low Mass

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MASS LISTINGS

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

St Pancras, Orwell Place, IPSWICH, Suffolk IP4 1BD

2nd Sundays 2nd Thursdays

5.30pm 10.30am

Low Mass Low Mass

St Thomas of Canterbury, St. John’s St, WOODBRIDGE, Suffolk IP12 1EB

Temporarily Suspended[2]

11.00am

Low Mass

St Etheldreda’s Church, 19 Egremont Street, ELY CB6 1AE

Fri 22 Aug

6.15am

High Mass

The Chapel, Oxburgh Hall, OXBOROUGH, nr Swaffham, Norfolk PE33 9PS Sat 23 Aug

8.00am

High Mass

2.00pm

High Mass

Chapel of Reconciliation, Catholic National Shrine, Houghton St Giles, WALSINGHAM, Norfolk NR22 6AL

Sun 24 Aug (Pilgrimage)

[1] Please phone 01473 741975 for more information. [2] The 2nd and 3rd Sunday Masses at Woodbridge have been temporarily suspended, please contact the Rep on 01440 708416 or see lmseastanglia.blogspot.co.uk.

HALLAM St Marie’s Cathedral, Norfolk Row, SHEFFIELD S1 2JB

2nd Saturdays[1]

10.00am

Sung Mass

St Teresa’s Church, Prince of Wales Road, SHEFFIELD S2 1EY

Last Sundays[1] Tue 30 Sep Mon 3 Nov (All Souls) Sat 15 Nov Thu 25 Dec (Christmas Day)

4.00pm 7.30pm 7.30pm 11.00am 7.30pm

Sung/High High Mass High Requiem Sung Requiem High Mass

12.00pm 11.00am 7.00pm 11.00am 7.00pm

Low/Sung Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass High Requiem

St. Mary’s Church, Birch Road, BARNARD CASTLE, Co. Durham DL12 8NR Sundays

Holy Days of Obligation[2]

Tuesdays

9.00am 7.30pm 7.30pm

Low Mass Low/Sung Low Mass

Sacred Heart & English Martyrs, THORNLEY, Co. Durham DH6 3HA

Sundays

9.30am

Low Mass

St Patrick, Smith Street, Ryhope, SUNDERLAND SR2 0RG

3rd Wednesdays

7.30pm

Sung Mass

SS Joseph, Patrick & Cuthbert, Church Street, COXHOE, Co Durham DH6 4DA

Thursdays Holy Days of Obligation Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

12.00pm 12.00pm 12.00pm 12.00pm

Low Low Low Low

St Augustine’s, 30 Coniscliffe Road, DARLINGTON DL3 7RG

2nd Wednesdays

7.15pm

Low Mass

3.00pm 3.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass

Christ the King Catholic Church, Winton Cres., Harraby, CARLISLE CA1 3JX 1st Sundays[1]

6.00pm

Low Mass

Our Lady & St Joseph, Warwick Square, CARLISLE CA1 1LB

Tue 5 Aug Sat 20 Sep

6.00pm 8.00am

High Mass Low Mass

Our Lady & St Wilfrid, WARWICK BRIDGE, near Carlisle CA4 8RL

Sun 17 Aug Sun 14 Sept Sat 11 Oct Fri 7 Nov

6.00pm 6.00pm 10.00am 7.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass High Mass

Leeds University RC Chaplaincy, 5–7 St Mark’s Avenue, LEEDS LS2 9BN

5th Saturdays

4.00pm

Low Mass

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Harrogate Road, LEEDS LS17 6LE

1st Fridays

7.30pm

Low Mass

St Mary’s, Gibbet Street, HALIFAX, Yorkshire HX1 5DH

Saturdays

6.00pm

Low Mass

St Joseph’s, Pontefract Road, CASTLEFORD, Yorkshire WF10 4JB

Sundays

3.00pm

Low Mass

The Sacred Heart, Broughton Hall, SKIPTON, Yorkshire BD23 3AE

Sundays[1] Monday-Saturday inclusive[1]

11.00am 9.30am

Sung Mass Low Mass

St Peter’s, Leeds Road, Laisterdyke, BRADFORD, Yorkshire BD3 8EL

2nd Sundays

3.00pm

Sung Mass

[1] Please phone 0114 2332801 for more information or visit our Facebook page (Hallam lms) for updated events.

HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE St Joseph’s, High West Street, GATESHEAD NE8 1LX

Sundays[1] Saturdays Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Sat 1 Nov (All Souls) Mon 3 Nov (All Saints)

Mass Mass Mass Requiem

[1] Sung Mass on 1st & 3rd Sundays. [2] Please confirm with Rep before travelling (0191 264 5771).

LANCASTER St Peter’s Cathedral, Balmoral Road, LANCASTER LA1 3BT

Sun 14 Sep Sun 19 Oct

[1] No Mass in August.

LEEDS

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ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

MASS LISTINGS

Holy Spirit, Bath Road, HECKMONDWIKE, Yorkshire WF16 9EA

1st & 3rd Sundays

4.00pm

Low Mass

St Ignatius, Storrs Hill Road, OSSETT WF5 0DQ

Last Mondays

7.30pm

Low Mass

[1] Anybody wishing to attend these Masses is advised to ring 01756 793794 or visit www.lmsleeds.blogspot.com.

LIVERPOOL St Anthony’s, Scotland Road, LIVERPOOL L5 5BD

Sundays[1] Holy Days of Obligation Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

3.00pm 12.00pm 12.00pm 12.00pm 12.00pm

Low Low Low Low Low

Mass Mass Mass Mass Requiem

Our Lady Star of the Sea, 1 Crescent Road, Seaforth, LIVERPOOL L21 4LJ

Sundays[2] Holy Days of Obligation[2] Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls) Sat 8 Nov

9.30am TBA 7.00pm 12.00pm 7.00pm 12.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Requiem Solemn Requiem

St Joseph, Bolton Road, ANDERTON PR6 9NA

Saturdays[3] Sat 1 Nov (All Saints)

9.10am 9.10am

Low Mass Low Mass

Holy Spirit, 66/68 Poulsom Drive, BOOTLE L30 2NR

Tuesdays[4]

7.00pm

Low Mass

St Mary Magdalene, Leyland Road, PENWORTHAM PR1 9NE

Sundays

9.00am

Low Mass

St Catherine Labouré, Stanifield Lane, Farington, LEYLAND, PR25 4QG

Sundays[5] Tuesdays Saturdays Holydays of Obligation[5] Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)

11.30am 12.00pm 12.00pm 7.00pm 7.00pm 7.00pm 7.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Sung Mass Sung Mass Sung Requiem

[1] For all Masses, please phone 0151 426 0361 before travelling. [2] Additional Masses may be announced on the parish website www. olstarofthesea.com. Please phone Fr Wood on 0151 928 2338 before travelling. [3] Please phone Fr. Ian O’Shea 01257 480237 before travelling.

[4] Please check with Fr John Harris 0151 928 0040 before travelling. [5] Additional Masses may be posted on Fr Henry’s blog (offerimustibidomine.blogspot.com). Please phone Fr Henry 01772 421174 before travelling.

MENEVIA St Joseph’s Cathedral, Greenhill, SWANSEA SA1 2BX

4th Sundays

12.00pm

Low Mass

Sacred Heart, School Road, Morriston, SWANSEA, SA6 6HZ

Saturday before 1st Sundays[1] 3rd & 5th Sundays[1]

5.00pm 3.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass

[1] Please check with Local Rep, as there may be cancellations - 07810 778160.

MIDDLESBROUGH St Wilfrid’s, Duncombe Place, YORK YO1 7EF

Sundays Fri 15 Aug (Assumption)

5.00pm 6.00pm

Sung Mass Low Mass

Sacred Heart Church, Lobster Road, REDCAR TS10 1SH

Sundays[1]

6.00pm

Low Mass

St Brendan, Beanfield Avenue, CORBY NN18 0AZ

Saturdays Fri 15 Aug (Assumption)

9.30am 7.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass

Sacred Heart, Pope Close, FLITWICK, Bedfordshire MK45 1JP

Sundays Last Thursdays[1]

5.00pm 7.30pm

Low Mass Low Mass

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Amersham Road, CHESHAM BOIS HP6 5PE Sundays[2]

8.00am

Low Mass

St. Francis of Assisi, 25 High Street, SHEFFORD, Bedfordshire SG17 5DD

7.30pm 7.30pm

Low Mass Low Mass

1] Please check before travelling (01642 484 047).

NORTHAMPTON

3rd Fridays Fri 15 Aug (Assumption)

[1] There is no monthly Thursday Mass in August. [2] Phone 01494 727469 before travelling. Sung Mass on 1st Sundays.

NOTTINGHAM St Barnabas Cathedral, Derby Road, NOTTINGHAM NG1 5AE

3rd Wednesdays[1]

The Good Shepherd, 3 Thackeray’s Lane, Woodthorpe, NOTTINGHAM NG5 4HT Saturday before 2nd Sundays

(anticipated Mass of Sunday)

6.15pm

Low Mass

4.45pm

Low Mass

49

MASS LISTINGS

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Our Lady and St Patrick, Launder St, Meadows, NOTTINGHAM NG2 1JQ

3rd Sundays

2.00pm

Low Mass

Holy Cross Priory, 45 Wellington Street, LEICESTER LE1 6HW

Sundays Mon - Sat inclusive Mon 4 Aug (St Dominic) Fri 22 Aug

12.30pm 8.00am 7.15pm 1.30pm

Low Mass Low Mass Sung Mass Sung Nuptial

St Peter’s Church, Hinckley Road, LEICESTER LE3 0TA

1St Fridays Saturdays Fri 15 Aug (Assumption)

6.00pm 11.00am 7.00 pm

Low Mass Low Mass Sung Mass

St Joseph, Station Road, OAKHAM, Rutland LE15 6QU

Fridays[2]

7.00pm

Low Mass

St Mary’s, 12 Barnard Avenue, BRIGG DN20 8AS

Sundays[3]

5.00pm

Low Mass

Masses at Corpus Christi, Clifton, have now ceased. [1] Cathedral Mass is followed by a social for young Catholic adults (18-35), organised by Juventutem Nottingham. For more details contact Corinna on 07791 041442. [2] Check newsletter at www.stjosephs-oakham.org. [3] Check newsletter at St. Mary’s Brigg, or ring 01652 652221, for possible alterations in August if you are travelling far.

PLYMOUTH Plymouth Cathedral, Wyndham Street West, PLYMOUTH PL1 5HW

1st Sundays Most Saturdays[1]

3.00pm 12.00pm

Sung Mass Low Mass

Blessed Sacrament Church, Fore Street, Heavitree, EXETER EX1 2QJ

3rd Sundays

3.00pm

Sung Mass

Exeter University Catholic Chaplaincy, Boniface House, Glenthorne Road, EXETER EX4 4QU

Fridays

7.30pm

Low Mass

St Cyprian’s Chapel, Ugbrooke House, nr CHUDLEIGH, Devon TQ13 0AD

4th Sundays[2]

3.00pm

Sung Mass

Lanherne Convent, St Mawgan, Nr NEWQUAY, Cornwall TR8 4ER

Sundays & Holydays of Oblig.

Mondays to Saturdays inclusive

10.00am 7.30am

Sung Mass Sung Mass

St Mary’s, Old Mill Lane, MARNHULL, Dorset DT10 1JX

Thu 7 Aug

12.00pm

Low Mass

Buckfast Abbey (St Michaels Chapel), BUCKFASTLEIGH, TQ11 0EE

Fri 22 Aug (Queenship BVM)[3]

12.00pm

Low Mass

Mon 15 Sep (OL of Sorrows)[3]

12.00pm

Sung Mass

Tue 7 Oct (OL of the Rosary)[3]

12.00pm

Low Mass

Mon 10 Nov[3]

12.00pm

Requiem

Tue 9 Dec (Votive BVM)[4]

12.00pm

Low Mass

[1] Please telephone 01752 361239 or the Cathedral 01752 662537 for information. [2] No Mass in August. [3] Mass preceded by Rosary or Devotioons at 11.30am. [4] Bishop Mark O’Toole will lead the Rosary before Mass at 11.15am and will sit in choir for the Mass.

PORTSMOUTH St John’s Catholic Cathedral, Edinburgh Road, PORTSMOUTH PO1 3HG

Sundays Sun 26 Oct (Christ the King)

8.00am 3.00pm

Low Mass High Mass

St William of York, Upper Redlands Road, READING RG1 5JT

Sundays Mondays Tuesdays to Thursdays[1] Fridays Saturdays Holy Days of Obligation[1]

11.00am 12.00pm 7.00am 7.30pm 8.00am 7.30pm

Sung Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Sung/Low

St Joseph’s Church, St Michael’s Road, BASINGSTOKE, RG22 6TY

Sun 5 Oct Sun 14 Dec

6.00pm 6.00pm

Sung Mass Sung Mass

Our Lady Immaculate, Westbourne, BOURNEMOUTH BH4 9AE

3rd Sundays

7.00pm

Low Mass

St Peter, Jewry Street, WINCHESTER, Hampshire SO23 8RY

2nd Sundays

12.15pm

Low/Sung

St Mary’s, High Street, RYDE, Isle of Wight PO33 2RG

Sundays Tuesdays Thursdays

7.45am 12.30pm 7.00pm

Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass

St Michael’s Church, Walls Road, BEMBRIDGE, Isle of Wight PO35 5RA

1st Fridays

9.15am

Low Mass

[1] Please check before travelling - 0118 966 5284 or visit www.fssp.co.uk/england for details.

SALFORD St. Chad’s, Cheetham Hill, MANCHESTER M8 8GG

Sundays

4.45pm

Low Mass

English Martyrs, Alexandra Road South, Whalley Range, MANCHESTER M16 8QT

Saturdays

10.00am

Low Mass

St Osmund’s, Long Lane, Breightmet, BOLTON BL2 6EB

1st Thursdays

7.30pm

Low Mass

St Marie’s, Manchester Road, BURY BL9 0DR

Fridays

7.30pm

Low Mass

50

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

MASS LISTINGS

SHREWSBURY St Winefride’s, Crowmere Road, Monkmoor, SHREWSBURY SY2 5RA

Sundays

12.15pm

Low Mass

St Vincent de Paul’s, 2 Bentinck Road, ALTRINCHAM WA14 2BP

2nd Sundays

3.00pm

Low Mass

SS Peter & Paul and Philomena, Atherton Street, NEW BRIGHTON, Wallasey CH45 9LT

Sundays[1] Mondays-Thursdays[2] Fridays[2] Saturdays and Bank Holidays[2] Holy Days of Obligation[3] Sat 2 Aug (LMS {Pilgrimage)

11.30am 9.00am 7.00pm 10.00am 7.00pm 11.30am

Sung Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass Sung/Low High Mass

St Thomas Becket, Nantwich Road, TARPORLEY CW6 9UN

3rd Sundays

12.30pm

Low Mass

[1] Preceded by Confession and Rosary. Sunday Vespers & Benediction at 5.00pm. [2] Confessions are heard and the Rosary is recited half an hour before Mass. In the evening Vespers is said at 5.30pm followed by Adoration. [3] In accordance with the Calendar of the 1962 Missal.

SOUTHWARK (NORTH) St George’s Cathedral, St George’s Road, Lambeth, LONDON SE1 7HY

Sat 26 Jul (St Anne)

10.30am

Sung Mass

Our Lady of the Rosary, Burnt Oak Lane, BLACKFEN, Sidcup, Kent DA15 8LW

Sundays Saturdays[1] Fri 15 Aug (Assumption)[2] Thu 2 Oct (Dedication of church)[2] Tue 7 Oct[2] (OL of the Rosary) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints)[2] Mon 3 Nov (All Souls)[2]

10.30am Sung Mass 10.30am Low/Sung 8.00pm Sung Mass 8.00pm Sung Mass 8.00pm Sung Mass 10.30am Sung Mass 8.30pm Sung Requiem

St Bede’s 58 Thornton Road, CLAPHAM PARK, London SW12 0LF

Sundays Mondays – Fridays (inclusive) Thursdays Saturdays

10.45am 7.00am 12.30pm 9.00am

Sung Mass Low Mass Low Mass Low Mass

St. Mary Magdalen (East Hill), 96 North Side, WANDSWORTH COMMON, London SW18 2QU

Sundays

11.00am

Low/Sung

St Mary, 28 Crown Lane, CHISLEHURST, Kent BR7 5PL

3rd Sundays Fridays

11.00am 7.30pm

Sung Mass Low Mass

St Mary Magdalen, 61 North Worple Wy, MORTLAKE, London SW14 8PR

1st Fridays

7.00pm

Low Mass

[1] Sung Mass on first Saturdays of the month. [2] Please check with parish before travelling - 020 8300 2697.

SOUTHWARK (KENT) St Augustine’s Church, St Augustine’s Road, RAMSGATE, Kent CT11 9PA

Sundays Fridays[1]

12.00pm 9.30am

Sung Mass Low Mass

St Ethelbert, 72 Hereson Road, RAMSGATE, Kent CT11 7DS

Wednesdays[2]

9.30am

Low Mass

St Thomas of Canterbury, Station Road, HEADCORN, Kent

4th Sundays Most Fridays Fri 15 Aug (Assumption) Sat 1 Nov (All Saints) Mon 3 Nov (All Souls) Mon 8 Dec (Immaculate Concept) Thu 25 Dec (Christmas Day)

12.00pm 9.30am 12.00pm 12.00pm 12.00pm 12.00pm 8.30am

Low Low Low Low Low Low Low

St Augustine’s, Crescent Road, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, Kent TN1 2LY

Wednesdays[3]

7.00pm

Low Mass

St Francis, Week Street, MAIDSTONE, Kent ME14 1RL

1st Sundays

12.30pm

Low Mass

St Simon Stock, Brookfield Road, ASHFORD SOUTH, Kent TN23 4EU

2nd & 5th Sundays

12.15pm

Low Mass

St Andrew, Ashford Road, TENTERDEN, Kent TN30 6LL

3rd Sundays

12.30pm

Low Mass

Mass Mass Mass Mass Mass Mass Mass

[1] Then Exposition, Confession & Benediction at 10.00am. [2] Preceded at 8.30am by Exposition & Benediction. [3] Check on 01892 522525.

WREXHAM St Francis of Assisi, Llay Chain, Llay, nr. WREXHAM LL12 0NT

2nd Sundays[1]

12.30pm

Low/Sung

Our Lady of the Rosary, Jubilee Road, BUCKLEY CH7 2AF

2nd Saturdays

12.30pm

Low/Sung[2]

St Winefride’s Catholic Church, Well Street, HOLYWELL CH8 7PL

4th Sundays

11.30am

Low/Sung[2]

[1] No Mass at Llay in August. [2] Dependent on availability of cantor.

51

COMMENT

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

In Illo Tempore Tellingly retold, from our magazine archives, a regular look-back at key LMS developments over the decades 15 years ago On the 450th anniversary of the Western Rising, opposing the Book of Common Prayer – in which some 4,000 West Country men died.

‘On 18/19 June a group of laymen, who felt these martyrs of the faith should not be forgotten, organised a two day pilgrimage in their honour. It began with Mass in the remains of the Benedictine Priory of St Nicholas in Exeter, followed by a visit to Fenny Bridges, where the first serious battle of the campaign took place on 28 July 1549. The rosary was prayed in the ‘Bloody Meadow’ near the bridge, which legend states was ankle deep in blood after the ferocious battle. On Saturday 19 June, the pilgrims went to Sampford Courtenay, where the Traditional Latin Mass was celebrated and followed by a rosary procession around the narrow country lanes.’

20 Years ago ‘Anglican clergy: A question was put about the recent influx of Anglican clergy into the Church. Many of these are by nature traditional and if they became priests we could perhaps invite them to join us.

‘In a very entertaining reply, Michael Davies recollected a visit to the USA some nine years ago, when a group of convert

priests he met were much more traditional than the Catholic priests he met of that diocese and most of their congregations were traditionally minded. Several converts have been received at the Birmingham Oratory and if they become priests and offer to help that would be a marvellous thing.’

30 years ago Count Neri Capponi addressed the AGM about the situation in his homeland of Italy.

‘You must consider the Latin Mass Society lives in a situation of privilege. Thanks to your martyrs, who died for the Mass, the old one not the new, and to Our Lady…you were accorded an Indult by Pope Paul VI of unhappy memory.

‘The English Indult is also known as the Agatha Christi Indult, so called because your great Archbishop of Westminster, John Carmel, Cardinal Heenan was instrumental in drawing up a petition to the Holy Father for the preservation of the Old Rite which was signed by a number of very prominent people of all religions: scientists, peers, bishops (Anglicans) etc. He presented it to Pope Paul whose glance passed, unmoved over all the great names but stopped suddenly at the name of the famous writer of detective stories and said: “Ah Agatha Christi” and gave the Indult.’

Mass of Ages Crossword (AF2) August 2014

Answers to Issue 180 Across: 1 Duruflé, 5 Basil, 8 Con, 9 Leviticus, 10 Adoro, 11 Quo Primum, 14 Richeldis, 18 Elegy, 21 Consolata, 22 Una, 23 Mayne, 24 Leyland.

Down: 1 Dictator, 2 Ransom, 3 Filioque, 4 Ex Voto, 5 Bath, 6 Sacrum, 7 Lust, 12 Rosemary, 13 Maryland, 15 Colney, 16 Derail, 17 Hecuba, 19 Scam, 20 Voce.

The winner of the Spring Issue’s prize was David O’Neill of Newcastle.

He won a copy of Matthew Schellhorn’s debut solo CD ‘Stations’, which was released earlier this year.

52

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

COMMENT

Family Notebook Sara Harvey-Craig

I

recently read in The Times that actress Kate Winslet intends to preserve her children’s innocence as long as possible by avoiding smartphones and the internet. She stated: ‘If I see another child under five playing on an iPhone, I will cry’.

If a secular figure such as Kate Winslet is so worried about the loss of childhood innocence, why aren’t we Catholics? Of course many Catholic parents are, but not all.

Another mother describes her dissatisfaction with today’s culture in her Faith in the Home blog. In it, the author describes steering her young son away from the newspaper rack at the petrol station and supermarket: ‘How many parents really want their children to be exposed to the front page of newspapers and magazines, which have some poor exploited woman being exhibited, or a salacious headline? Why are these papers being shown in Morrison’s, Tesco or Sainsbury’s at child’s eye level?’.

Meanwhile, a friend, a father of two, revealed that when his 11-year-old son, started secondary school in Middlesex last September, he had a mini breakdown due to immense peer pressure to download pictures of naked women.

How does one tackle this insidious culture of impurity?

By keeping close to God, by receiving the Sacraments regularly; having a substantial prayer life and having recourse to the saints.

Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP writes with great devotion about St Maria Goretti, calling her ‘a martyr of holy purity’, in the latest edition of Dowry. But another saint renowned for her purity is St Philomena. On Saturday 2 August, the Latin Mass Society will be conducting its first pilgrimage to the ICKSP Shrine of SS Peter, Paul and Philomena in New Brighton where a first class relic of St Philomena will be venerated. We can also encourage children to choose their

own particular saint to keep them on track as regards this important virtue.

Having two girls aged 12 and nine, who are fast approaching adolescence, I feel particular concern. I have to admit there is a silver lining to putting on a good deal of weight in recent years, it has made me dress more modestly. But the real advantage, is that my girls have followed suit (not in the weight department, Deo gratias!) but by choosing, of their own accord, to wear long skirts and dresses when their peers opt for the ubiquitous skinny jeans or mini skirts. My eldest, who is now fast outgrowing children’s clothes, has a tough time trying to find skirts aimed at her age group which come anywhere below thigh-length!

As for boys, I was heartened to read an article by Fr Bede Rowe, the Chaplain of Chavagnes International College. He mentioned: ‘Every night we pray “that we may become the men that God calls us to be” educationally, morally, emotionally and religiously’.

Positive role models, be they saints or sinners, are of course essential. But let us not forget that for the growing child the Sacrament of Confirmation is key. God willing, my eldest will make her Confirmation in the Traditional Rite this Autumn. She will receive, by God’s grace, all the fruits of the Holy Ghost, the twelfth fruit notwithstanding: purity.

Winslet ‘won’t let children lose innocence’

by John Simpson, Friday April 4 2014 The Times Homeschooling and Purity

by Elizabeth Dulston, Issue 16 Faith in the Home http://faithinthehome.blogspot.co.uk Editorial: Blessed are the pure in heart

by Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP, Spring 2014 Dowry A Chaplain Abroad

by Fr Bede Rowe, Christmas 2013 The Annunciation

Across 1 Room for music? (7) 5 Book of the Old Testament (5) 8 Part of circle of St. Joan? (3) 9 ‘Sursum corda’ / ‘……. .. Dominum’ (7,2) 10 ‘….. of Gerontius’, famous poem by J.H. Newman set to music by Elgar (5) 11 Practice of not deviating from the established teachings of the Church (9) 14 See 4 Down (9) 18 Shoulder vestment worn by priest under chasuble (5) 21 I talian composer of a famous and beautiful Stabat Mater who died only 26 in 1736 (9) 22 Achieve Transalpine movement (3) 23 Italian city associated with St. Catherine (5) 24 Haircut associated with traditionalist monks (7) Down 1 Roman Emperor between the reigns of Caligula and Nero (8) 2 City associated with Charlemagne where most Holy Roman Emperors who were German kings crowned (6) 3 Gigantic beast, from the Book of Job (8) 4 & 14 Across: Saint (Forty Martyrs), priest poet ancestor of former LMS chaplain Fr. Andrew (6,9) 5 Note first half of prayer to the Blessed Virgin associated with St. Bernard (4) 6 Jesuit-educated former Caribbean island dictator (6) 7 Skin to keep in concealment? (4) 12 Something offered in worship (8) 13 Ancient British winter period subsequently associated with the days of Christmas (8) 15 Shadows of Latin known to astronomers! (6) 16 Saint of Iona, contemporary of venerable Bede, and name of early English King (6) 17 Guinea-…..., African republic with a Catholic minority population (6) 19 Musical work not necessarily in Latin! (4) 20 ‘Come Rack, Come ----‘, Catholic classic by R.H. Benson, the title taken from St. Edmund Campion letter (4)

Entries for the this edition’s prize crosswords, compiled again by our own Alan Frost, will be a copy of Bishop Schneider’s latest book: ‘Corpus Christi: Holy Communion and the Renewal of the Church’. Entries must be submitted by 31 August 2014. to the Mass of Ages Crossword Competition, Latin Mass Society, 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH.

53

COMMENT

ISSUE 181 - AUTUMN 2014

Macklin Street Michael Lord, LMS General Manager

L

ocal representatives are at the sharp end of what we do as an organisation – campaigning and working to get more Traditional Masses across the country that ordinary Catholics can actually get to at a sensible time on a Sunday. It, therefore, always encourages me when we have new people volunteering to become reps. This has happened three times since the last edition of Mass of Ages.

In Herefordshire, which is the English part of the Archdiocese of Cardiff, two people have come forward, namely, Marion Luscombe and Shaun Bennett. That part of the country has been without a rep since the death of the much-missed Pat Lauria. Marion has already been in action by organising the coach from Hereford up to the Holywell pilgrimage in July.

She and Shaun will, no doubt, make a great team. Further north, the diocese of Salford has a new rep in the shape of Professor Bernard Richards. He takes over from Neil Walker, who was attempting the Herculean task of covering both Leeds and Salford dioceses simultaneously. Neil’s work in Salford has been much appreciated and he continues his efforts in Leeds. Bernard is already active in Salford as an MC at three different centres for the Old Rite, so he knows the territory.

We wish him, and Marion and Shaun, the very best with their new responsibilities.

Last time, I announced in this column that we had a vacancy on the LMS National Committee which was up for election. In the event, we had one nomination and so I’m delighted to tell you that Kevin Jones, our local rep in the Wrexham diocese, joined the Committee for a three-year term from this year’s AGM in July. If you didn’t know, Wrexham covers north Wales, from Anglesey in the west to the border with England in the east. Kevin was one of the main organisers of this year’s Holywell pilgrimage in July and has been active in what has not historically been a happy hunting ground for the Traditional Mass. It will be good to have Kevin on the Committee to bring a fresh perspective.

Earlier this year, another of our Committee members, Michael Morton from Wiltshire, had to step down because of ill health. In such situations, the constitution allows the Committee to co-opt someone to complete the remaining term of office, in this case two years. The Committee has, therefore, co-opted Dylan Parry, who is based in London and brings a wealth of interesting and relevant experience to the Committee.

Dylan writes elsewhere in this edition about his own conversion to Catholicism and his discovery of the Old Rite, which fits in nicely with the converts theme running through parts of this issue of the magazine. By day, Dylan is also editor of Oremus, the Westminster Cathedral magazine. Again, this fresh blood on the Committee will be very welcome.

A brief plug for a couple of the services that the LMS office provides for Catholics attached to the Old Rite: our shop and second-hand missal service. If you didn’t already know, our website (lms.org.uk) has an online shop, selling missals, DVDs and books about various aspects of the Traditional Mass.

Why not have a look?

We also have a second-hand missal service. If you aren’t ready to splash out on one of the new re-published missals for the Old Rite that are now in print, you can buy a used missal for a bargain price (usually around £5 or £10, depending on its condition). We publish updated lists of our stock several times a year and if you happen to be in London during the week, you are welcome to pop into the office and browse through the missals we have. Failing that, we’re happy to advise over the telephone and suggest a missal for your particular needs. On the other side of the equation, if you have an old missal or missals that you no longer need, please consider donating it to the LMS so that we can give it a new, and appreciative, home.

One final shop-related announcement, we now sell mantillas (black or white) which are made in England by an LMS supporter.

LMS Annual Walsingham Pilgrimage on Sunday, 24th August 2014 There will be a coach leaving from central London for the final Mass, which starts at 2pm.

To book a seat phone 020 7404 7284 or visit lms.org.uk 54

PHOTOFINISH

Pope Francis Makes Progress 5+ million Catholics in South Korea

4 Thousand Catholics in North Korea

3 Hundred thousand Catholics in Albania

W

hatever anyone says, anticipation is already building in respect of October’s Synod of Bishops in Rome.

Despite strong signals that significant changes are highly unlikely, including Archbishop Mc Mahon’s emphatic ‘no’ on page 5, hopes remain high – outside the Church at least – that something big will happen in terms of marriage, divorce and same-sex unions.

The Synod follows last year’s much-talkedabout questionnaire from the Vatican, asking for thoughts on matters relating to the family.

In the event, few people actually answered the 29 questions. Indeed, they were written in such complex ecclesial language, that many people, clergy included, wondered if the questionnaire was ever intended to be sent to the laity at all but should really only have been sent to the bishops for their comments.

How useful the whole exercise has been is a moot point. Many non-Catholics took the opportunity to have their say, apparently. But, according to senior figures, the conclusions are very much what would be anticipated.

Later this month, Pope Francis is set to make an historic visit to South Korea, the first Pontiff to visit Asia since St John Paul II in the 1980s.

The Holy Father has long had an interest in the Far East, apparently joining the Jesuits with the intention of becoming a missionary to Japan, in the footsteps of his Jesuit predecessor, St Francis Xavier.

Some 10 per cent of the South Korean population is Catholic and the numbers are growing. Sadly, the same cannot be said for their neighbours on the Korean peninsular.

South Korea’s totalitarian neighbour in the North, led by the hereditary dictator, Kim Jong-un, is said to have the worst anti Christian persecution record in the world. Not a single Catholic priest is understood to have survived the persecution that has taken place since 1945 and there are now fewer than 4,000 members of the Church in the isolated country.

His Holiness is also shortly to make his first European visit, a day trip to a former totalitarian state and one of the continent’s few non-Christian countries: Albania. There are some three million Albanians, of whom 10 per cent are Catholic.

The majority Muslim, Balkans nation used to be the world’s only atheist state and all churches and other places of worship were closed in 1967 not to reopen again for more than 20 years. During that time, Albania was the most secretive nation on Earth. Enver Hoxha, known as the ‘Artful Albanian’, was the dictator whom even other Communist leaders thought was extreme.

Beards were banned and men would be shaved on the border. The Bible and the Koran were also prohibited and believers faced heavy penalties – even death for preaching the Gospel. Many of the faithful were tortured and killed.

Unlikely bedfellows: Enver Hoxha, St Francis Xavier, the Synod in Rome and Pope Francis Pictures of the Holy Father and the last Synod of Bishops, courtesy the Catholic Church of England and Wales.

55

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5556 - £950

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5432 - 5 piece green Low Mass Set - £1,995

5558 - Red Cope - £1,550

5498 - Detail from Brussels Lace Superfrontal. 500cm x 17cm. - £450