Mass of Ages Autumn 2021

Mass of Ages The quarterly magazine of the Latin Mass Society

Issue 209 – Autumn 2021 – FREE

Back to the Catacombs?

Traditionis Custodes and what it

means for Traditional Catholics The Sisters Adorers

Cardiff Oratory: one parish’s experience of 2020-2021 Plus: news, views, Mass listings and nationwide reports

CLASSIFIED

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AUTUMN 2021

Contents

CONTENTS

4 LMS Year Planner – Notable events 5 Chairman’s Message

Joseph Shaw on Pope Francis’ recent Apostolic Letter 6 Liturgical calendar 7 Cardiff Oratory

Fr Sebastian Jones on one parish’s experience of 2020-2021 8 Traditionis Custodes and the accompanying Letter to Bishops

By Joseph Shaw 10 Catholic Police Guild 11 World News

Paul Waddington reports on what’s happening around the globe 12 The Augustine Camino

James Bogle with a Canterbury tale of traditional pilgrims 15 Roman report

lberto Carosa on the anti-traditionalist lobby in the Vatican and the A surge in attendance at Traditional Masses throughout the World

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16 Reports from around the country

What’s happening where you are 28 Family matters

The future of humanity passes by way of the family, says James Preece 29 Letters

Readers have their say 30 Art and devotion

Caroline Farey on a fresco by Filippino Lippi (1457-1504) in the Carafa

Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome 32 Contemplate with Mary the face of Christ

Fr Timothy Finigan on the Rosary, a form of Christian meditation 33 Obituary

Leo Darroch remembers Fr Wilfrid Arthur Elkin 34 Mass listings 39 His fertile pen…

Charles A. Coulombe remembers Catholic novelist Bruce Marshall 41 Wine

Sebastian Morello reports from a land where most wineries are still owned by monasteries 42 Called to the Poor Clares

Mary O’Regan on the Venerable Margaret Sinclair 43 Lectio Divina

Edward Kendall on the transformative practice of sacred reading 44 The Sister Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus

Paul Waddington reports on the remarkable growth of this order

of nuns 46 Crossword 46 Classified advertisements Pontifical High Mass at the High Altar of Westminster Cathedral (2019) celebrated by Rt Rev Michael Campbell OSA, Bishop Emeritus of Lancaster © John Aron

The Latin Mass Society 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH Tel: 020 7404 7284 editor@lms.org.uk Mass of Ages No. 209 Due to the considerable volume of emails and letters received at Mass of Ages it is regrettably not always possible to reply to all correspondents.

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

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

Registered UK Charity No. 248388

MASS OF AGES: Editor: Tom Quinn Design: GADS Ltd Printers: Cambrian DISCLAIMER: Please note that the views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Latin Mass Society or the Editorial Board. Great care is taken to credit photographs and seek permission before publishing, though this is not always possible. If you have a query regarding copyright, please contact the Editor. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission.

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YEAR PLANNER

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

LMS WALKING PILGRIMAGE TO WALSINGHAM.

We plan to hold our annual pilgrimage from Ely to Walsingham over the August Bank Holiday weekend, 26-29 August.

If you wish to take part, please register via our website. The deadline for registering is Tuesday 24 August. For those unable to undertake the walk but would like to take part in a day pilgrimage, a coach will leave central London on the Sunday, arriving in Walsingham in time to meet the walking pilgrims for High Mass in the Chapel of Reconciliation. To reserve a seat on the coach, please see our website.

REQUIEM FOR FR CHARLES BRIGGS. To mark the anniversary of the death of Fr Briggs, there will be a High Mass of Requiem in St Mary’s, 28 Crown Lane, Chislehurst, Kent BR7 5PL on Saturday, 28 August at 12 noon.

PILGRIMAGE TO THE SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF CONSOLATION, West Grinstead RH13 8LT. Monday,

30 August Sung Mass at 2pm.

MISSA CANTATA IN SNAVE. Our annual visit to St

Augustine’s Church in Snave, on Romney Marsh, takes place on Saturday, 25 September 2021 at 12noon, by kind permission of The Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust, who are entrusted with the care of this, now redundant, church. All welcome!

ST TARCISIUS SERVER TRAINING DAY. Saturday,

25 September from 10.30am in St James Spanish Place, 22 George Street, London, W1U 3QY. Men and boys will be able to learn all roles for Low Mass and Sung Mass, and High Mass if there is demand. Booking is required, see our website for details.

PILGRIMAGE IN HONOUR OF THE CHIDEOCK MARTYRS. Saturday, 16 October. Sung Mass at 11.30 am

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs & St Ignatius, North Road, Chideock DT6 6LF.

LMS ANNUAL REQUIEM MASS WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL. Saturday, 6 November at 2.30pm. Celebrant

Rt Rev. Michael Campbell OSA, Bishop Emeritus of Lancaster.

MASS OF REPARATION FOR ABORTIONS. Shrine of

Our Lady of Guadalupe in Holy Child and St Joseph’s, Brereton Road, Bedford MK40 1HU. Saturday, 13 November 12 noon.

GUILD OF ST CLARE: AUTUMN 2021 SEWING RETREAT AT DOUAI ABBEY, 12-14th November, with

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

ST TARCISIUS SERVER TRAINING DAY. Saturday,

20 November from 10.30am in St James Spanish Place, 22 George Street, London, W1U 3QY. Men and boys will be able to learn all roles for Low Mass and Sung Mass, and High Mass if there is demand. Booking is required, see our website for details.

NEWS Write for us!

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

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

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

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

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CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

Back to the Catacombs?

By Joseph Shaw

P

ope Francis’ Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes appeared online just as I stepped foot into the British Museum’s special exhibition on St Thomas Becket. I read it, and started replying to journalists’ requests for comments on it, sitting opposite a beautiful enamelled reliquary box illustrating St Thomas’ martyrdom.

The exhibition was characterised by a very open-minded attitude to the Church’s traditions. It did not condemn St Thomas’ opposition to the King, but noted the enormous popularity and prestige he attained in death. It did not dismiss the devotion of pilgrims as superstition, or his miracles as frauds, but left visitors to make up their own minds. I was impressed that it made the connection between St Thomas Becket and St Thomas More, both servants of the king who suffered for their fidelity to God. I was even more impressed that it noted the faithful continuation of the cult by Catholics through Penal Times.

Such exhibitions are indications of the attitude of the cultural elite towards the Faith. The official hostility of the Protestant curators of old has given way to a genuine fascination with the achievements of believers, and a detachment from truth-claims. No doubt this is not the ideal attitude, but it creates an opening for the Faith to make an appeal to a new generation.

The open-mindedness of the Church towards the ancient liturgy, on the other hand, has now given way to official hostility towards the Traditional Mass.

The canonical advice we have received indicates that there is nothing to stop bishops from allowing celebrations to continue exactly as before, and early indications are that the majority are doing exactly that, at least for now. The new attitude of the Holy See nevertheless represents a serious danger in the medium term.

Just as there was no telling how long the Summorum Pontificum era would last, there is no telling how long the Traditionis Custodes situation will endure. We must be prepared to

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endure through this, with confidence that the Church will not, ultimately, repudiate her past, her integrity, and her patrimony.

It is not for our own satisfaction that we work for the preservation of the Traditional Mass, but for the good of souls. We know, because we have seen it in ourselves and in many others, that it has the power to soften the hardened heart, to stimulate the jaded imagination, and to appeal to the closed intellect. We feel under a duty to preserve and to pass on to future generations this spiritual treasure.

And this is something for which we must be prepared to suffer.

In the coming months and years some of us will have to travel further to attend Mass, and some will be deprived of access to it altogether. We will find our motives impugned and our devotion mocked, not by open enemies of Christ, but by our fellow Catholics, and even by priests and bishops.

The Latin Mass Society’s work has always been to maximise the availability of the ancient Mass within the framework of the Church’s law.

Readers may wonder what they can do, and I have had many touching offers of help. We appreciate these offers and will try to make use of all the talents and resources available to us.

We should all make the most of the opportunities which continue to exist to attend Traditional Masses and devotions, and to go on pilgrimages.

We should, further, maximise our understanding of the Tradition by learning about it: for example, the book I edited, The Case for Liturgical Restoration, available in the LMS shop, presents the case for it in the context of the documents of Vatican II and the subsequent magisterium. You can also listen to our podcasts and, if close to London, attend our Iota Unum talks which are to resume in September.

Whether or not you can thread a needle, you can make a practical difference by assisting the Guild of St Clare in making and mending

vestments. Many of their events are paired with the training of altar servers by the Society of St Tarcisius. We also advertise online Latin courses.

Participation in such things serves not only the spiritual and practical goals specific to the event, but builds up the network of friendship and mutual support among the Society’s members and supporters. In the coming months, we are all going to need this human contact and solidarity.

In the end, the Tradition will survive because it is living, and is lived. Living it in a time of prolonged crisis, even a time of persecution, means two paradoxical things.

First, it is penitential. We must not forget the penitential side of the liturgy, and we must rediscover the penitential aspect of the Catholic life. God is calling us to atone for our sins, and to make reparation for the sins of the Church and of our society.

Secondly, it is filled with joy. We must acknowledge the joyful side of the liturgy, develop our enjoyment of our great Catholic culture, and cultivate the virtues of friendship and liberality.

Penance and joy are akin to respiration in the Catholic life. This is the life the Tradition is calling us to live.

English alabaster of the martyrdom of St Thomas Becket, c.1450, on display in the British Museum's exhibition: 'Thomas Becket: murder and the making of a saint' (until 22 August). We hope to include more reviews of important exhibitions in future editions.

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LITURGICAL CALENDAR

Liturgical calendar SUN 15 ASSUMPTION OF THE BVM I CL W MON 16 S JOACHIM FATHER OF THE BVM II CI W TUE 17 S HYACINTH C III CL W WED 18 FERIA IV CL G THU 19 S JOHN EUDES C III CL W FRI 20 S BERNARD AB C D III CL W SAT 21 S JANE FRANCES FRÉMIOT DE CHANTAL

W III CI W SUN 22 XIII SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G MON 23 S PHILIP BENIZI C III CL W TUE 24 S BARTHOLOMEW AP II CL R THU 26 FERIA IV CL G FRI 27 S JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS C III CL W SAT 28 S AUGUSTINE B C D III CI W SUN 29 XIV SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G MON 30 S ROSE OF LIMA V III CI W TUE 31 S RAYMUND NONNATUS C III CL W

SEPTEMBER 2021 WED 1 FERIA IV CL G THU 2 S STEPHEN K C III CL W FRI 3 S PIUS X P C III CL W SAT 4 OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV CL W SUN 5 XV SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G MON 6 FERIA IV CL G TUE 7 FERIA IV CL G WED 8 NATIVITY OF THE BVM II CL W THU 9 FERIA IV CL G FRI 10 S NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO C III CL W SAT 11 OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV CL W SUN 12 XVI SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G MON 13 FERIA IV CL G TUE 14 EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS II CL R

WED 15 THU 16 FRI 17 SAT 18 SUN 19 MON 20 TUE 21 WED 22 THU 23 FRI 24 SAT 25 SUN 26 MON 27 TUE 28 WED 29

THU 30

OCTOBER 2021 FRI 1 SAT 2 SUN 3 MON 4 TUE 5 WED 6 THU 7 FRI 8 SAT 9 SUN 10 MON 11 TUE 12 WED 13 THU 14 FRI 15 SAT 16 SUN 17 MON 18 TUE 19 WED 20 THU 21 FRI 22 SUN 24 MON 25 TUE 26 WED 27 THU 28 FRI 29 SAT 30 SUN 31

SEVEN SORROWS OF THE BVM II CI W SS CORNELIUS P & CYPRIAN B MM III CL R FERIA IV CL G S JOSEPH OF CUPERTINO C III CI W XVII SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G FERIA IV CL G S MATTHEW AP EVANGELIST II CL R EMBER DAY II CL V S LINUS P M III CL R EMBER DAY II CL V EMBER DAY II CL V XVIII SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G SS COSMAS & DAMIAN MM III CL R S WENCESLAUS DUKE M III CL R DEDICATION OF S MICHAEL ARCHANGEL I CL W S JEROME PRIEST C D III CL W FERIA IV CL G HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS III CL W XIX SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G S FRANCIS C III CL W FERIA IV CL G S BRUNO C III CL W BVM OF THE ROSARY II CL W S BRIDGET W III CL W S JOHN LEONARDI C III CL W XX SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G MOTHERHOOD OF THE BVM II CL W FERIA IV CL G S EDWARD K C II CL W S CALLISTUS I P M III CI R S TERESA V III CL W S HEDWIG W III CI W XXI SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G S LUKE EVANGELIST II CL R S PETER OF ALCANTARA C III CL W S JOHN CANTIUS C III CL W FERIA IV CL G FERIA IV CL G XXII SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST II CL G FERIA IV CL G FERIA IV CL G FERIA IV CL G SS SIMON & JUDE APS II CL R FERIA IV CL G OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV CL W OLJC THE KING I CL W

NOVEMBER 2021 MON 1 ALL SAINTS I CL W TUE 2 COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE

FAITHFUL DEPARTED I CL B WED 3 FERIA IV CL G THU 4 S CHARLES BORROMEO B C III CL W FRI 5 FERIA IV CL G SAT 6 OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV CL W SUN 7 V SUNDAY REMAINING AFTER EPIPHANY

II CL G MON 8 FERIA IV CL G TUE 9 DEDICATION OF THE ARCHBASILICA OF

THE SAVIOUR II CL W WED 10 S ANDREW AVELLINO C III CL W THU 11 S MARTIN B C III CL W FRI 12 S MARTIN I P M III CL R SAT 13 S DIDACUS C III CI W

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FEATURE

Cardiff Oratory Fr Sebastian Jones on one parish’s experience of 2020-2021

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ockdown brought with it many insights and steep learning curves, not least dealing with miles of cable for streaming and telephone lines for the faithful to follow the daily Masses in both forms. There was much to do: distributing the weekly six-page parish newsletter collectible from pickup sites in weatherproof dispensers on the church gates, door to door delivery in the parish; postal delivery to those further out, or who became virtual parishioners viewing Masses, daily Rosary and daily reflections online, or on the phone, as well as the nearly three hundred newsletters being emailed weekly to parishioners.

Easter Day

Faithful during Holy Week 2020 and the great festivals that followed was awful for everyone.

The Eucharistic hunger felt by those accustomed to daily Mass or Sunday Mass told its own story in letters and, once the church re-opened, in numerous conversations.

Requiem Masses were offered, initially without family or body present, and latterly with small groups. What felt like wartime constraints brought into clear focus that without access to daily Mass, to be consoled by the Word of God and nourished by the Blessed Sacrament, the faithful experienced a recusancy not known for centuries.

Looking back over this period, with the psalm upon our lips we may pray, "How shall I repay the Lord for His goodness to me, the cup of salvation I shall raise.

I will call on the Lord’s Name”.

Immaculate Conception

There was a need for positive news, catechesis and focus on Christ in His Church as well as the reassurance that while the church doors were locked, the Worship of God and His Praises never ceased within. The Liturgical year 20202021 unfolded with the ever-present need for prayerful preparation and catechesis as the beauty of the Mystery of the

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Incarnation unfolded over the changing seasons. The mutual enrichment and the hunger of the Faithful for the Mass and especially Holy Communion was tangible. The Faithful approached for Confession and the Sacrament of the Sick, at times their anxiety for their own wellbeing and that of their priests was deeply moving. The absence of the

Quarant’Ore

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TRADITIONIS CUSTODES

Traditionis Custodes and the accompanying Letter to Bishops

By Joseph Shaw

O

n Friday 16 July Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter ‘motu propio’ entitled Traditionis Custodes, accompanied by a lengthy Letter to Bishops giving his reasons for it. These document have potentially grave implications for the celebration of the ancient Latin Mass all over the world.

Key points from Traditionis Custodes

The terminology of ‘Ordinary’ and ‘Extraordinary’ ‘Forms’ of the Roman Rite is replaced by the ‘1962 Missal’ or ‘former Missal’, and the ‘reformed Mass’.

Bishops are to regulate the celebration of the 1962 Missal, determining where, when, and by whom, it is to be celebrated. They are prevented from setting up new ‘personal parishes’ for the celebration of the EF, or (perhaps equivalently) to establish new ‘groups’ attached to it. They are also directed to move celebrations for existing ‘groups’ away from parish churches, something which would be quite easy in Italian dioceses, but impractical in this country and many others. Groups attached to it should be respectful of the ‘legitimacy of the liturgical reform.’

The Epistle and Gospel are to be read in the vernacular (presumably, as well as in Latin). (Articles 3 and 4.)

We have been advised that the provisions of Article 3 pertain to ‘groups’, such as those granted rights under Summorum Pontificum. The Apostolic Letter does not, therefore, prevent priests simply celebrating the ancient Mass in their parish churches, and people attending it.

In general, the faithful are not impeded from attending celebrations

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of the 1962 Missal, and no mention is made of pilgrimages, funerals, the other sacraments, blessings, the Office, and so on. Since restrictive regulations must be interpreted narrowly (Canon 18), this implies that these remain permitted. Similarly, the right of priests to celebrate privately is not removed.

Priests ordained after the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes are to be permitted to celebrate the Traditional Mass with the approval of the bishop ‘who shall consult the Apostolic See before granting this authorisation’ (Article 4).

The role of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in regulating matters in relation to the Old Mass is transferred to the Congregations for Religious and for Divine Worship (Article 7).

Key points from the Letter to Bishops The Letter argues that the unity of the Church is expressed by liturgical uniformity: ‘a single and identical prayer’, and it is towards a situation of uniformity that Pope Francis wishes to move. This contrasts with the view of Vatican II’s Unitatis Redintegratio (4): Let all, according to the gifts they have received enjoy a proper freedom, in their various forms of spiritual life and discipline, in their different liturgical rites, and even in their theological elaborations of revealed truth. In all things let charity prevail. If they are true to this course of action, they will be giving ever better expression to the authentic catholicity and apostolicity of the Church.

Added to this, the Letter claims that the results of the Survey of Bishops on the implementation of Summorum Pontificum indicated a clear desire among the episcopate that the Traditional Mass be entirely suppressed. This is very surprising, since those who have had sight of the reports have consistently told enquirers that the results were broadly positive. The bishops of France produced a summary report, which found its way into the public domain, and while it contains some quite hostile assessments it stops far short of demanding a complete end to the ancient Mass, and indeed they have responded to the Apostolic Letter with a statement which reassures Catholics attached to the 1962 Mass of the bishops’ continuing ‘esteem’. We can be sure that many bishops in North America, England and Wales, Poland, and other countries where Summorum Pontificum has been more warmly received, will have been positive about its results.

The final plank of the Letter’s justification for suppressing the Traditional Mass is the claim that those attached to it are characterised by ‘the rejection of the Church and her institutions in the name of what is called the “true Church.”’

While troubled and extreme individuals can be found in every area of life, the claim that such an attitude is somehow representative of the typical Traditional Mass congregation is puzzling, to say the least, since people with attitudes of this kind generally shun celebrations organised under the bishops.

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TRADITIONIS CUSTODES Interpretation and Statement from the Latin Mass Society The Latin Mass Society would like to underline three things about the Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes.

First, it does not forbid the celebration of the ‘1962 Missal’, or attendance at it. On the contrary, where there are ‘groups’ attached to it, it instructs bishops to find locations for it, times for its celebration, and celebrants (Articles 2.2, 2.3, 2.4). As noted above, outside the context of these ‘groups’, it remains permissible for priests to celebrate it freely, if they personally have permission to do so.

Secondly, it does not abrogate the 1962 Missal. In Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict observes that its nonabrogation itself establishes a right of priests of the Roman Rite to celebrate it, notwithstanding the role of bishops as moderators of the liturgy in their dioceses. It is with the latter point that Traditionis Custodes is concerned (Art 2).

Thirdly, as Pope Francis’ accompanying Letter emphasises, Traditionis Custodes, like all the Church’s legislation, aims at the good of souls, and it must be interpreted in that context. When ecclesial legislation has serious implications for the good of souls contrary to the expectations of the legislator, this is not merely a practical consideration to be taken into account when applying the law: within the Church’s tradition it is a legal consideration in understanding what the law itself demands.

Thus, for example, Canon 87.1 of the current Code of Canon Law states: A diocesan bishop, whenever he judges that it contributes to their spiritual good, is able to dispense the faithful from universal and particular disciplinary laws issued for his territory or his subjects by the supreme authority of the Church.

Traditionis Custodes is a disciplinary law, making this canon applicable.

To priests who celebrate the Traditional Mass The Latin Mass Society would like to underline its support for priests who celebrate the Traditional Mass in England and Wales and beyond.

Certain expressions in Traditionis Custodes and the accompanying Letter

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appear to attribute to such priests a frivolous attitude in initiating regular celebrations, and a lack of fidelity to the unity of the Church. For the vast majority of priests attached to the older Missal this is a gross injustice, which we entirely reject.

We recognise that priests may have very difficult decisions to make in the coming months and years. They must make these decisions according to their conscience and the dictates of the virtue of prudence. The Society calls on all its members and supporters to give our priests all possible moral and spiritual support at this time, and as a Society we will support in practical ways the continued celebration of the ancient Mass with all the resources at our disposal.

To lay Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass The Latin Mass Society, like Una Voce groups around the world, is a lay-led organisation by design, since the laity have the freedom to speak and act in ways which are difficult or impossible for the clergy.

Pope Francis makes explicit, in his Letter to Bishops, his aspiration to end the celebration of the Traditional Mass entirely, though he acknowledges we ‘need time’ to make the transition. This takes us back to the situation faced by the founders of the Latin Mass Society in 1969, when the venerable Mass was to be permitted only to aged priests unable to learn the new one, and for occasional use in old people’s homes and the like, until entirely phased out.

Our predecessors did not accede to Pope Paul VI’s famous ‘wish’ that all Catholics attend the reformed Mass exclusively. Similarly, and with the greatest respect to the Papal Office, the Society will not be facilitating the fulfilment of Pope Francis’ aspiration.

This does not make us bad Catholics, because wishes and aspirations are not binding on the consciences of the Faithful. Given that Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI expressed diametrically opposed wishes and aspirations, it would clearly be absurd to imagine that they did.

In this situation, however, how are we to argue for the continued availability of the Old Mass? Pope Francis recognises that the immediate worldwide banning of the Traditional

Mass would be contrary to the good of souls, and for this reason he allows it to continue, though under more stringent control than before. It is for us to explain to our pastors that the good of souls is best served by its continued celebration, in as many places and as frequently as possible.

At the same time, we must recognise that a certain characterisation of the lay faithful attached to the ancient Mass, quoted above, as of the clergy who serve them, is cited by Pope Francis as one reason for the new restrictions.

This amounts to the claim that those who have for fifty years and more been seeking an explicit legal provision for the celebration of the ancient Mass, under our bishops and with the approval of the Holy Father, actually reject the Church’s unity, her legal order, and the authority of her lawful pastors. I leave to readers to judge the coherence of this allegation. It remains important, however, that what we do now serves to underline the injustice of this claim, and not make it true after all.

As already indicated, this does not imply that we submit to what is not binding. It does mean that we continue, as we always have, to exercise our rights with due respect for persons, with patience and charity, and to accept the suffering which the Lord permits in a spirit of reparation.

Let us pray for our priests, our bishops, and for the Holy Father.

A longer commentary on the Apostolic Letter, Some Notes on the Application of Traditiones Custodes in light of Canon Law from the Latin Mass Society, is available on our website.

'The Society calls on all its members and supporters to give our priests all possible moral and spiritual support...'

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FEATURE

The Catholic Police Guild

T

he prayer of the Catholic Police Guild reads: ‘...Grant that we may this day, and every day, overcome all temptations, especially to injustice and disloyalty, and with our minds inflamed by Thy Holy Spirit perform all our duties in such a manner as may be pleasing to Thy Divine Will so that when called to report for the last time we may not be found wanting ...’

Police officers and staff, like all of humanity, will be charged at their Judgement. In the meantime, policing and Catholics therein have unique powers over the temporal affairs of society – a very great duty and responsibility. Sir Robert Peel’s policing-by-consent model is based on the principle that ‘the police are the public, and the public are the police’ which should provide some solace that the police act with impartiality in the best interests of all. And yet when is it possible to satisfy all?

Founded in 1914 on the Feast of Corpus Christi, about six weeks before the out-break of the Great War, the Guild derived from the inspiration of Monsignor Howlett, Administrator of We s t m i n s t e r C ath edral . I n those days large numbers of Irishmen (then part of the United K i n g d o m ) had settled in London and many as police officers with the Metropolitan Monsignor Howlett Force. A Guild could provide Catholic pastoral support particular to policing, partially to counter-balance anti-Catholic hostility and partially to help Catholic officers to police Man’s law, increasingly divergent from God’s law, whilst personally living out the latter.

The Guild today and since 1974 is a national organisation with a constitution approved by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. It has five stated objectives: • to provide a fraternal environment through which members may exercise their professional roles and duties within the teachings of the Roman Catholic faith.

• to provide a focal point of opportunity for all employees of

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the police service of England & Wales to refer when in need of spiritual guidance in respect of their professional duties.

• to foster respect and love within the family.

• to foster the belief in justice and loyalty.

• to encourage integrity, sincerity, truthfulness, kindliness and strength of character.

For the first fifty years the Guild was a significant organisation mustering more than 500 officers, and a marching band, to parade through London each November for the annual Requiem at Westminster Cathedral.

But as the Catholic Herald noted in 1977, “since the early 1960s the numbers have been dwindling [with] fewer practising Catholics, a mounting disinclination to take part in avoidable parades, fewer Irishmen seeking to better themselves within the ranks of England's various establishments. Take your pick.” Since then, the Guild has had variable membership, but has continued with fraternal support, pilgrimages, papal audiences, stewarding at major events and often carrying the statue for the Rosary Crusade of Reparation.

In the last decade membership and activity has been centred in the Northwest of England. During Lent this year, the London region acquired a new Chairman and committee to help rejuvenate the Guild for all London police forces. Building from a very low base, they are offering the First Monday Masses in the Extraordinary Form at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, for the

Guild and policing. Further Masses, catechesis, talks, fraternal events, pilgrimages and devotions will help to build virtue amongst Catholic officers and staff when exercising their duty.

And in time, God willing, the Guild will find its voice to help policing answer modern conundrums with supernatural and enduring truths. As above, when is it possible to satisfy all? In policing it seems never! But the real answer is when there is a common understanding of natural law and God’s law as the foundation of family and society.

Society needs Catholics to stand-up and participate, to be knowledgeable about the Faith and unerring Truth, to be compassionate and unbiased. Catholics within policing are on the front-line in this regard with societal hostility for the institution without and ideological hostilities within. The Guild, more than ever, is needed now to help officers and staff, and to pray for those departed who lived out this heavy burden.

Anyone with a connection to policing (either serving, retired or as an associate) can join the Guild for free at www.catholicpoliceguild.co.uk/join.

If you are not formally associated with policing, remember Sir Robert Peel’s founding principle that the ‘police and the public and the public are the police’ – and add your prayers for the just work of the police on your behalf helped by a successful Guild. Let us also pray that one day hundreds of officers, supported by thousands of the faithful, might again be on parade for the most solemn of ceremonies at Westminster Cathedral.

The 1938 Annual Requiem Parade after Mass, outside Westminster Cathedral

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NEWS

World News Paul Waddington reports on what’s happening around the globe Vatican moves against the Latin Mass The big story of recent weeks – covered in depth elsewhere in this issue of Mass of Ages - is the decision of Pope Francis to impose restrictions on the Latin Mass. It seems to have support from several cardinals as well as Pope Francis.

In May, the Italian traditionalist website, messainlatino.it, published a story stating that Pope Francis had addressed a plenary session of the Italian Bishops’ Conference in which he had talked about limiting the freedom of priests to choose to celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form. The report went on to state that Pope Francis was involved in further discussions with a smaller group of Italian bishops. The story was taken up by the American journalist, Diane Montagna, who added some detail in an article in The Remnant.

She stated that the Vatican had produced a document, which was in its third draft, and did indeed propose restricting some of the provisions of Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum.

Referring to the document, Diane Montagna stated: “In its present form, communities and diocesan priests who already offer the Mass in the Extraordinary Form may continue to do so, but diocesan clergy who wish to begin offering the Traditional Mass would have to obtain authorization.”

Rumour and speculation became fact when Pope Francis’ Traditionis Custodes was promulgated on 16 July.

(For more on this see our Chairman’s Message, Roman report on page 15 and pages 8-9.)

been asked to leave by September.

Archbishop Minnerath, is a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and is likely to have knowledge of Pope Francis’ proposals to restrict the spread of the Latin Mass.

The expulsion has caused outrage amongst the supporters of the FSSP in France, and a petition of protest rapidly attracted 5,000 signatures. On 26 June, the Archbishop addressed a delegation of protesters outside the diocesan offices.

This has been captured on video, and the Archbishop states a number of times that the Fraternity are being removed because of the unwillingness of their priests to concelebrate Mass with other priests of the diocese. He also says: “You will have a new motu proprio in the coming days or weeks.”

It is understood that the Archbishop intends that a diocesan priest will offer a single Latin Mass on Sundays in the Basilica of Fontaine-les-Dijon after the FSSP have departed, but the protesters point out that this does not adequately serve their needs. They accuse the Archbishop of lacking any charity in the matter.

Traditional Ordinations June is a month when many priestly ordinations take place. This year, nine new priests have been ordained for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, five in

the USA, one in Mexico, two in Bavaria and one in New Zealand. The total is a little down on recent years, but the prospects for next year look good, with 17 newly ordained deacons entering their final year at seminary. These include Gwilym Evans who comes from Wales and is well known to many LMS members.

Eight priests were ordained for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in Florence by Cardinal Burke on the Feast of the Most Precious Blood. France and the USA each contributed three, while Canada and Spain contributed one each.

Again, the Institute can expect plenty of priestly ordinations in future years.

Two days earlier on the Feast of St Peter and St Paul, 22 seminarians received the cassock, having completed their first year of studies.

Also on the Feast of St Peter and St Paul, Bishop Athanasius Schneider ordained two priests for the Institute of the Good Shepherd.

In further news from traditional seminaries, the Personal Administration of St John Vianney, a quasi-diocese based in Campos, Brazil, has 27 seminarians and averages two or three priestly ordinations each year. The LMS has in the past given financial support to this administration, and their bishop, Fernando Rifan, has visited England twice at the invitation of the Latin Mass Society.

Priestly Fraternity of St Peter expelled The Archbishop of Dijon in the Burgundy region of France, Roland Minnerath, has expelled the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter. For the past 23 years, the Fraternity have offered the Traditional Latin Mass in two churches of the archdiocese, but have now

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The eight new priests of the ICKSP at their ordination

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The Augustine Camino

James Bogle with a Canterbury tale of traditional pilgrims Photographs by Raja and Jeremiah Wolstenholme

When April with his showers sweet with fruit The drought of March has pierced unto the root…

Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage…

Of England they to Canterbury wend, The holy blessed martyr there to seek…

(Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales) After April, May is the time for pilgrimage.

April has fulfilled its role of piercing to the root the drought of March, all the wildflowers are freshly out - daisies, buttercups, bluebells, St Anne’s lace and the haw is white on the hawthorn bush – the orchard blossoms are in bloom and the fattening lambs gambol in the fields, bleating plaintively, an image of the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God. More importantly, it is the month of Mary and we have not long since crowned her with blossoms as Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May. Thus, it is only fitting that we should celebrate her by going on pilgrimage, in time-honoured fashion, to the shrines of England, her ancient dowry.

Anglia dos Mariae, dos tua Virgo pia haec est, "England the dowry of Mary, this is thy dowry, O Holy Virgin", as

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reads the famous altarpiece from the time of King Richard II and the Wilton Diptych of 1395. It was a devotion that helped sustain the recusant Catholics of England during the Penal times, when Catholics were so cruelly persecuted by a deeply hostile Protestant government.

Even more importantly, it was the Feast of Whitsun, happily coinciding with Mary’s month of May this year, for it is at Whitsun that many traditional Catholics in Britain gather together to travel to France for the annual pilgrimage from Notre Dame de Paris to Notre Dame de Chartres, a trip that many of us have been doing since the middle 1990s.

For this year and last year, on account of the Covid virus and the lockdown, we have been unable to attend the Paris to Chartres pilgrimage organised by our good friends and fellow pilgrims at

Notre Dame de Chretienté (Our Lady of Christendom), the French foundation which organises the Chartres pilgrimage.

Last year, our leader of 20 or more years, Francis Carey, together with our leader on the day, Timothy O’Callaghan, organised a one-day pilgrimage from St Augustine’s, Ramsgate, to Canterbury.

It was such a success that, this year, it was decided that we would be a little more ambitious and attempt a three-day imitation of the Chartres pilgrimage, on English soil, from St Augustine’s, Ramsgate, via Canterbury Cathedral and the shrine of St Thomas Becket, to the Friars, Aylesford, ancient home of the English Carmelite Friars.

This friary is where St Simon Stock, our English Carmelite, was Prior, he who, in a vision, had received the Brown Scapular of our Lady of Mt Carmel, from the hands of our heavenly Mother herself.

This meant, once again, following what they now call “the Augustine Camino”, named after St Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle of the English, but using the name the Spanish give to their famous pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, the Camino de Santiago.

This time we had some 80 pilgrims, all joining us at short notice since we were not sure until the last minute that the authorities would allow us to undertake the journey.

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FEATURE We had three chapters – Our Lady of Walsingham, the Juventutem chapter of St Alban, and a French chapter of Notre Dame de France.

We also had with us four of the Marian grey friars from the Diocese of Portsmouth, including Rev. Fr Faustinus Timpe and Rev. Fr Philomeno Gilfoyle, our own Geordie priest.

We began at St Augustine’s Church, Ramsgate, the famously splendid and authentic 19th century neo-Gothic church built by the great Catholic architect, Augustus Welby Pugin, famous pioneer of Gothic revival architecture and designer of our Houses of Parliament in the same style.

St Augustine’s Church is a neo-Gothic masterpiece, as is St Augustine’s Abbey, next door, also built by Pugin in the same style, as was his own home, the Grange, directly opposite.

The Grange remains in private hands, but the Benedictines have since left the abbey which is now home to the Vincentians.

The Parish Priest of St Augustine’s church is our own Rev. Christopher Basden, previously PP of St Bede’s, Clapham Park, and a longstanding supporter and participant in the Chartres pilgrimage. He exchanged parishes with Rev. Marcus Holden, previously PP at St Augustine’s and now PP at St Bede’s.

Fr Christopher permitted us to have a High Mass in the church and our scratch choir sang the Mass of Whitsun Eve

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without a hitch, ably led by our French choirmaster, Colonel Gregoire Bondet de la Bernardie.

Our Royal Navy “liaison officer”, Commander Neville McNally, kindly came all the way up from Portsmouth to join us and sing and our contingent of grey friars also sang, together with Timothy O’Callaghan and myself.

With Mass over, we were off and marching, heading for St Augustine’s Cross, near Cliffsend, some three miles and an hour’s walk away.

After a brief stop, we began again heading for St Mildred’s Convent, Minster, home of the Benedictine sisters whom we have visited in previous years.

Next, we set out across the countryside via Monkton to our lunch stop at the curiously-named hamlet of Pluck’s Gutter. We were handsomely looked after at the Dog and Duck Inn. Then came our afternoon trek across the beautiful Kent countryside to the walled city of St Thomas Becket.

Upon arrival we were taken, in groups, on a tour of the famous church of St Martin, the oldest church building in Britain and the oldest parish church in the English-speaking world.

Indeed, it had been a Roman and Celtic church for centuries before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and evidence of the terra cotta tiles used by the Romans for building are still extant. It was the private chapel of Queen Bertha of Kent before St Augustine arrived in 597 AD.

Bertha was the Frankish princess who married Anglo-Saxon pagan, King Aethelberht and eventually converted him to Christianity.

St Bede the Venerable says that the building had been in use in Roman times but had fallen into disuse and was restored by Queen Bertha and dedicated to St Martin of Tours, a city near her birthplace in France.

St Augustine used the church as his mission headquarters and baptised King Aethelberht there.

We were shown round by two very informative and kind Anglican ladies who seemed very happy to have some pilgrims visiting.

Our French chapter and the braver souls camped in the Canterbury camp site, whilst others took the comfort option at the Premier Inn. Next morning, we were up with the lark in preparation for the great Feast of Pentecost.

Thanks to the persuasive powers of both Francis Carey and Fr Basden, we were permitted by the Cathedral authorities to celebrate this great feast with a Mass in the ancient Cathedral chapter house. Our altar was placed in front of the ancient stone seat of the archbishops of Canterbury perhaps used by the great martyr St Thomas, himself.

Mass was sung by Fr Philomeno who also preached a barnstorming sermon reminding us both of the great Feast of Pentecost and of the many visions and

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ROMAN REPORT

prophecies that seemingly are being realised in our time.

It must be some time since the great Golden Sequence (Veni Sancte Spiritus, the Sequence of Pentecost) has been sung in that chapter house and it was a great joy and privilege to be able to hear it there.

The Golden Sequence is attributed to either Pope Innocent III or, much more likely, Cardinal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. Thus, it could hardly have been more appropriate to be singing it now in his own chapter house.

Fittingly, in a corner of the chapter house was his stained-glass image which more than made up for the stained-glass images of King Henry VIII and Thomas Cranmer which featured in the main window.

That morning took the pilgrims through some of the most beautiful Kent countryside, through woods and orchards and spring-flower-lined country roads.

Stopping briefly at a pub or two en route, the pilgrims passed Faversham and made their way on to the night’s stop at Doddington, south of Sittingbourne.

At Doddington, we were greeted by Graham, the owner of the Palace Farm Hostel and campsite, who, being a Christian himself, was very pleased to be hosting us pilgrims, not least our party of grey friars. The nearby Chequers Inn very kindly made room for all of us to dine and looked after us wonderfully.

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After a stormy, windy night, we were again up early and off on our travels, heading in the direction of Maidstone across more glorious Kent countryside.

With a little advance negotiation, the Black Horse Inn at Thurnham, north of Leeds Castle, allowed many of the pilgrims to use its beer garden for a lunch stop whilst others sat on the grass.

Soon the weary pilgrims were on their way again for the last stretch of the journey, passing the M20 on the way to Aylesford.

Meantime, at Aylesford Friary the main outdoor altar, but rarely used, was set up for High Mass celebrated by Canon Martin Edwards, Fr Basden and Fr Timothy Finigan.

After another cracking good sermon, this time from Fr Finigan, the sun broke through and shined upon all of God’s pilgrims as they gave thanks to God, His Mother and foster father, St Joseph, prayed for the graces of the pilgrimage and – as ever – concluded the holy journey with our old favourite song from Chartres to our Lady, Chez nous soyez Reine – “In our homes, be Queen”.

It was once again a foretaste, remembrance and happy augury presaging our return next year on pilgrimage with our Lady of Christendom.

Our Lady of Christendom pray for us all!

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ROMAN REPORT

Under pressure Alberto Carosa on the anti-traditionalist lobby in the Vatican and the surge in attendance at Traditional Masses throughout the World

O

ne of the most striking and extraordinary stories of "conversion" to the Vetus Ordo is undoubtedly that of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

It is interesting to note how, on several occasions, the archbishop has touched on the theme of the liturgy, not hiding his joy at having rediscovered the treasures of the ancient rite. But he has also spoken with great concern about the possibility that the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum could soon be modified, if not abrogated.

As the author of a 2010 study on the enemies of Summorum Pontificum , I never imagined that I would hear rumours from the Vatican of moves to prepare to decree its demise, at least legally.

As rightly observed by Mgr Viganò, in 2007 Benedict XVI recognized the full right of the Tridentine liturgy, giving it back that legitimacy it had been denied for fifty years. In his Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum he declared: “It is therefore permitted to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass following the typical edition of the Roman Missal, which was promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962 and never abrogated, as an extraordinary form of the Church’s Liturgy. […] For such a celebration with either Missal, the priest needs no permission from the Apostolic See or from his own Ordinary.”

In reality, Mgr Viganò continues, “the letter of the Motu Proprio and of the implementing documents was never fully applied and the cœtus fidelium that today celebrate in the Apostolic rite continue to turn to their bishop for permission, essentially applying the dictate of the indult of the previous Motu Proprio, Ecclesia Dei of John Paul II”.

Unfortunately, the bishops' response is usually still negative, especially here in Italy, as I can testify from personal experience. In fact, my parish priest said he was willing to celebrate the Traditional

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The writer’s 2010 study of the enemies of Summorum Pontificum

Mass himself, but the Ordinary, in this case that of Avezzano, the capital of the Diocese of Marsi where I live, said no.

There is no doubt the Tridentine Mass did much good, says Mgr Viganò, nourishing the spirituality of millions of people and bringing many souls closer to the Faith who did not find the reformed rite fully suited to their spiritual needs.

According to Mgr Viganò, the antitraditionalist lobby that currently seems to prevail in the Vatican could have continued to tolerate the status quo only if these traditional faithful consisted mostly of small groups of nostalgic elderly people or eccentric aesthetes. But if the Extraordinary Form becomes the norm for thousands of families and young people, and even diocesan priests, then it is a sort of red alert for the enemies of the Old Rite, a situation further aggravated by the consequences of the pandemic, which for various reasons, not least the obligation of communion in the hand, has led to a surge in attendance at Traditional Masses throughout the world.

In a circular letter on the results of the 2020-2021 prayer crusade promoted by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, its Superior General Don Davide Pagliarani revealed that “in many places of worship, the number of faithful has even doubled”.

Some might argue that his testimony is not very convincing, as it is not impartial.

But what can we say when the founder and director of the American portal Catholic World News, Phil Lawler, certainly no fan of the Old Mass, speaks of “explosive growth” in attendance at traditionalist parishes, especially by young families?

Mgr Viganò fears that restrictions may affect diocesan priests and Ecclesia Dei institutes, whose members exclusively celebrate the ancient rite, but which in the future could be obliged to that bi-ritualism that the Vatican authorities have tried unsuccessfully to introduce in the past.

He says: “Obviously, those who manoeuvre behind the scenes in the Vatican to eliminate the Catholic Mass see decades of work compromised in the Motu Proprio.” He continues.: “The same priests and bishops who, like me, have rediscovered that inestimable treasure of faith and spirituality – or which by the grace of God they have never abandoned, despite the ferocious persecution of the post-council – are not disposed to renounce it, having found in it the soul of their Priesthood and the nourishment of their supernatural life”. And it is disturbing, he concludes, “that in the face of the good that the Tridentine Mass brings to the Church, there are those who want to ban it or limit its celebration on the basis of specious reasons”.

At the beginning of the liturgical reform, older priests were granted the right to continue celebrating the old rite in private, probably with the hidden hope that once they passed away, the old Mass would gradually and painlessly die out with them. Instead, exactly the opposite is happening: the seminaries and convents where the Novus ordo is in force are increasingly empty, while the Traditionalist Institutes have to reject candidates for the priesthood because they have no place, paradoxically with the risk that in the future the Novus Ordo might cease being celebrated for lack of celebrants.

And it is a risk, however remote it may be, that the powerful anti-Vetus Ordo lobby clearly does not intend to run.

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

DIOCESAN DIGEST Mass of Ages quarterly round-up Our Local and Assistant Representatives submitted their reports before the publication of Traditionis Custodes. Appended to some of these report is an update on the current situation in their area/diocese as we go to press.

Arundel and Brighton Huw Davies aandb@lms.org.uk This summer saw the happy resumption of Extraordinary Form Masses at Our Lady of Ransom in Eastbourne at 10am on Saturdays and at 7.30am on Tuesdays, the latter of which replaces the Mass at Christ the King in Langney, where the regular Ordinariate celebrant has departed the diocese. We are blessed to have two priests at Our Lady of Ransom in Fr Bruno Witchalls and Fr Tristan Cranfield who are enthusiastic about celebrating the Traditional Form of the Mass in this beautiful church.

There was also cause for celebration at St Hugh of Lincoln in Knaphill, where on the feast of Corpus Christi five children received Holy Communion for the first time at Mass, followed by a procession in the streets of Knaphill and ending with Benediction. St Pancras in Lewes also saw a joyful first Holy Communion in the EF, for Penelope, on the feast of SS John and Paul, 26 June. We keep all these children in our prayers and hope that there can be repeats of these occasions in future years, and remain thankful that at both of these churches Mass is offered in the EF every Sunday.

The first EF Mass at Our Lady of Consolation and St Francis in West Grinstead since the start of the pandemic restrictions took place on Whit Sunday, with Fr James Hurley from the Archdiocese of Southwark celebrating a Missa Cantata. Please keep Bank Holiday Monday, 30 August, free for the next Mass, which will be a Pilgrimage Missa Cantata at 2pm, followed by refreshments and then Rosary and Benediction. There will also be a Missa Cantata on Remembrance Sunday at 3pm.

Masses also continue on Wednesdays at Sacred Heart, Caterham, where pleasingly the Traditional Form of the Mass is held in public once again, as does the established and very popular celebration on Saturdays at St Barnabas in Molesey.

STOP PRESS Following the publication of the Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes, Bishop Richard issued all priests of the diocese who currently have a public Mass in the Traditional Form with a faculty to continue, so at present there is no change to the published Mass schedule.

Birmingham and Black Country Louis Maciel 07392 232225 birmingham@lms.org.uk birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk/ In addition to the weekly Sunday High Mass, High Mass was offered at the Birmingham Oratory for the Feasts of the Ascension, Corpus Christi and SS Peter and Paul, replacing the usual weekday 5.45pm Low Mass on these days. A High Mass was also celebrated for the Patronal Feast of St Philip Neri on the Spring Bank Holiday, transferred from the 26 May due to

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the Octave of Pentecost. Low Mass continues to be celebrated at 9am on Saturday and at 7.30am on Sundays.

An additional Low Mass was also offered on the Ascension at St Mary-on-the-Hill in Wednesbury, complementing the usual 11.30am Sunday Low Mass. As a result of the gradual removal of restrictions, communion is now distributed at these Masses.

The weekly first Friday Mass at Acocks Green continues and is increasingly well attended. The third Friday Mass at St Dunstan’s in Kings Heath also continues to attract a decent sized congregation, with a Sung Mass taking place in the month of June in honour of the Sacred Heart.

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Wolverhampton continues to offer Low Mass each Friday night at 6.30pm, only interrupted in this quarter by the Novena preceding the patronal feast day on the 27 June, with Mass being celebrated on Saturday morning at 8am during this period.

Birmingham (Oxford) Joseph Shaw oxford@lms.org.uk oxfordlmsrep.blogspot.com/ I am happy to report that both Archbishop Longley of Birmingham and Bishop Egan of Portsmouth rapidly confirmed that celebrations of the 1962 Mass could go ahead in their respective parts of Oxford, and I am expecting all the Sundays, weekdays, and feast days listed in the quarterly listings to go ahead.

On behalf of all the Traditional congregations of the area I would like to express my gratitude to both Archbishop Longley and Bishop Egan for their pastoral concern, and to the priests of Oxford who celebrate this Mass.

I am also hoping to confirm some extra Masses.

I will inform our local members and supporters about these and also of any disruption by email: please ensure that I have your email address if you wish to be kept informed.

Birmingham (North Staffs) Alan Frost A sad occasion for the regular worshippers at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Swynnerton, was the funeral of David Ashley, an immense support to the people and practice of the Traditional Rite in North Staffs since his conversion in 1998. The Requiem Mass (Missa Cantata) was celebrated by Fr Anton Guziel, P.P. of Birmingham Oratory, long-standing friend of David, with Fr Chavasse in choro. The Oratory organist attended and led an improvised schola.

David died, aged 68, after suffering severely from cancer and requiring a (successful) brain tumour removal. He was lucid and aware of his time being short, but kept making it to Mass to near the end. His unstinting kindness up to his suffering at the end, suggest for this writer a likening to our

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY martyrs. He left a remarkable collection of traditional Catholic books and music. Rest in peace, David, a good man in every sense.

At St Augustine’s, Meir, Stoke, Fr Stefak has gone to some pains to put together a pamphlet for all parishioners explaining the ‘Traditional Mass of the Catholic Church’, as well as one on ‘Receiving the Lord’ on Holy Communion, promoting receipt upon the tongue, with a section on preparation for Confession.

He has also provided a handout explaining Rogation Days.

Birmingham (Worcestershire) Alastair J. Tocher 01684 893332 extraordinarymalvern.uk@btinternet.com extraordinarymalvern.uk Facebook: Extraordinary Malvern Firstly, my apologies for the lack of a report last quarter: whilst prepared in time it was for some reason bounced by the email system and by the time I realised this the deadline for copy had passed. This report therefore covers the past six months.

St Gregory the Great, Cheltenham before Mass on the parish Patronal Feast We remain starved of public Latin Masses in Worcestershire, but I am pleased to report that Missae Cantatae – serving those in the south of Worcestershire at least – have continued to be celebrated every Sunday since the second Sunday of Advent, along with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day just over the south-western diocesan border at Most Holy Trinity, Ledbury (Archdiocese of Cardiff). All of the Holy Week services there this year have also been fully sung: Maundy Thursday by two cantors; Good Friday by a reduced and socially distanced Schola Gregoriana Malverniensis and including Popule Meus (Victoria) and Crux fidelis (John IV of Portugal); the entire Easter Vigil by solo cantor; and Easter Sunday by a reduced Schola once again and including Haßler’s Missa super Dixit Maria. Many thanks for all these Masses are due not just to the parish priest, Fr Adrian Wiltshire, but also to all servers and singers who have contributed to those liturgies, including Joseph and Columba Shaw who kindly assisted during Holy Week. It is encouraging to note that Sunday attendance has continued to grow throughout the past six months with Easter Sunday’s Mass at a record high.

Whilst the move to Ledbury has proven a move too far for a few former Schola singers, I am delighted to report that a recent recruitment drive in anticipation of church singing restrictions easing has attracted three new prospective Schola members, including one for a proposed new Men’s Schola

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which would sing Mass once a month. Whilst we already have a regular pool of five servers, a further two more young men have also recently expressed interest in learning to serve and it is hoped to hold a Server Training session soon.

A further and unexpected local highlight took place just over the southern diocesan border at St Gregory the Great, Cheltenham (Diocese of Clifton) where a further Missa Cantata – believed to be the first of its kind to be celebrated there in over 50 years – was celebrated by Fr Philip Thomas and sung by a solo cantor from Malvern for the parish Patronal Feast of St Gregory the Great (12 March). It is to be hoped that the next such Sung Mass there might not have to wait another fifty years!

As Covid restrictions ease let us pray that public celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass will also return across Worcestershire.

STOP PRESS With reference to Pope Francis recent announcement, although as yet unconfirmed, Sunday Sung Masses are expected to continue.

Brentwood (East) Alan Gardner alanmdgardner@gmail.com Gradually, Laus Deo, we are seeing some return to former provision in this ‘country’ part of the diocese. What a joy to be officially allowed to receive Communion on the tongue – at Corpus Christi, of all occasions! Also, a joy to experience a Missa Cantata at Our Lady of Lourdes, Leigh, for Corpus Christi – some of the congregation there hadn’t heard Lauda Sion sung in many years…

Not all good news, sadly – we have an instance of complaints about EF provision from a few OF Catholics; one assumes this stems from misunderstanding rather than anything else.

Initial attempts to address this have been unsuccessful; your prayers would be most welcome, please, as we endeavour to resolve this problem positively and compassionately.

As we return to former provision, could we please think, pray, and act regarding servers and singers? In general, those who support the Mass in this way are ‘getting on’ (including myself!), so unless we do something about this, there will come a time when Missae Cantata and Solemnis can no longer be celebrated; it has already been difficult on occasion. If you yourself could contribute, or you know of someone who could, please do take action. Those with a lot of experience and those with none are equally welcome; guidance and encouragement is readily available! Please contact me if help or advice is needed.

This is a large region, so please keep me informed about developments in your local area so that I can circulate details – particularly as arrangements are still in flux. If you are not currently on my local email (bcc!) circulation list (you should be receiving something from me at reasonably regular intervals), do please feel free to get in touch.

East Anglia (West) Alisa and Gregor Dick 01954 780912 cambridge@lms.org.uk Sunday Masses continue at Blackfriars in Cambridge. For now, these are still being celebrated in the cloister with a combination of indoor and outdoor seating, but when in due course it ceases to be necessary to restrict the capacity of the chapel, we shall return there.

Many blessings attend the regular influx of new faces that is in the nature of a university city, but as those faces flow out

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY again at the same rate, we must now once again make a plea for new servers and singers. If you would like to do one or both of these, please either make yourself known to us in person, or via the contact details above.

STOP PRESS As we went to press, we had not heard from Bishop Hopes regarding the provisions of the Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes. For the time being, Masses are continuing according to the usual schedule.

East Anglia (Withermarsh Green) Sarah Ward 07522 289449 withermarshgreen@lms.org.uk As national restrictions ease, the Chaplaincy has seen a steady increase of people, particularly young families, attending Sunday Masses. There is now a monthly Sung Mass (usually the last Sunday of the month), led by cantor Daniel Wright and he is joined by the fledgling Withermarsh Green Schola.

The summer months have seen a rise in the number of tasks that need to be undertaken to maintain the fabric of the Chaplaincy and it has been very pleasing to see people’s generosity in giving of their time and energy to mow lawns, clean the Church and presbytery, wash and iron the cassocks and linens and help to raise much needed funds. The new charity “Friends of Withermarsh Green Latin Mass Chaplaincy” (Registered Charity number 1191466) has been hosting refreshments after 11am Sunday Masses, with a monthly cake sale to coincide with the Sung Mass. The charity exists solely to provide financial support to the Chaplaincy – online donations can be made at the CAF Bank Account 00033944, Sort code 4052-40.

Other fundraising events have included a Tolkein Quiz and Barbecue (unsurprisingly, Father Henry Whisenant’s team were the victors!) and a Summer Fete to mark a year since the establishment of the Chaplaincy.

STOP PRESS In respect of the Moto Proprio, there is no news as to any changes to the provision of the traditional Latin Mass at Withermarsh Green.

East Anglia (Walsingham) Tom FitzPatrick 07803 166293 walsingham@lms.org.uk Many of the informal Masses said at the Slipper Chapel by visiting priests with small groups of pilgrims use the Traditional Rite. But of course, this means that they are not always known to people living locally who are attached to the Traditional Rite. Following many requests, the Bishop approved a regular Traditional Rite Mass, usually celebrated by one of the Franciscan Friars attached to the Shrine, to be offered every second Saturday of the month at 9am. This has been taking place since February 2021 in the Chapel of Our Lady of Reconciliation and the numbers attending have been very good, with families well represented. We are very grateful to Bishop Alan and our Franciscans for promoting this initiative and we continue to hope and pray that this will eventually lead to weekly Masses in the Traditional Rite to meet a real need for both residents and visitors in this part of the Diocese.

STOP PRESS We expect the status quo to continue for the present, as we pray for both the election of our new Bishop and for the Holy Father.

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Hallam Nicholas Ross hallam@lms.org.uk We remain very grateful to one of the priests of the Diocese for his open and proactive position with respect to having a Low Mass (possibly a Missa Cantata, server-permitting), at least on a number of feast days. At the time of writing, I am in talks with two priests who would vsit the diocese to say these Masses.

However, as an edit in light of recent events, it may be necessary for me to arrange to meet with the Bishop and convey your earnest wishes for there to be some provision made for the TLM in Hallam, and present to him the plans we had in mind. No doubt by the time of publication we'll have a clearer idea on how to handle this unfortunate situation.

Hexham and Newcastle Keith McAllister 01325 308968 07966 235329 k_mcallister@ymail.com Availability of Traditional Rite liturgies has continued as before, with some encouraging signs that the diocese may see an uplift in provision. First we welcome Fr Thomas Mason from Chichester & Eastbourne to installation at Barnard Castle within the Walsingham Ordinariate arrangements. Fr Thomas is able and willing to offer the Latin Rites. We give thanks for our new Priest, Father Luke Wilkinson, following his ordination in St Mary’s Cathedral, Newcastle on the Solemnity of SS Peter & Paul. Our Bishop Robert Byrne presided and the Dewhurst Choir presented the Missa de Angelis etc .The ceremonials were streamed on the diocesan YouTube Channel and at the date of writing, are still available. On 4 July Fr Luke offered his first Missa Cantata with the Dewhurst choir support adding music from Palestrina and Piton; he vested with an uncommon, beautiful vestment set sourced in Mexico. He has been assigned to St Mary’s Hexham and its affiliated parishes / villages; we pray for his success and happiness in this Priestly journey—ad multos annos! Vespers commenced at St Joseph’s Gateshead on the same date, a first for the diocese since Vatican II, with the Dewhurst choir and intention to offer Vespers every 1st Sunday: Deo volente! There are planned dates for Latin Rite First Communions, plus Baptism, at Thornley, thanks to Fr Paul Tully. Masses at Cheeseburn are not yet operating, although arrangements are well advanced.

Again, we appeal for new (younger) servers to replace the old geriatrics past their use –by date! Careful, patient training / guidance willingly given!

Lancaster Bob & Jane Latin NB new phone number: 01772 962387 lancaster@lms.org.uk latinmasslancaster.blogspot.com John Rogan 01524 858832 lancasterassistant@lms.org.uk We are at last resident in our new home in Preston and very happy to be taking part in the life of the traditional community. During this last quarter we have had some wonderful feast days at St Walburge's and English Martyrs.

Ascension Thursday was celebrated with a Solemn High Mass at English Martyrs, including beautiful singing from the Sisters Adorers and some rousing music on the organ played

by Canon Scott Tanner. Pentecost Sunday included the singing of the Prophecies and the scattering of rose petals from the ceiling above the high altar. We have also been able to have (socially distanced) processions following Mass: on the last

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY Sunday in May a relic of Our Lady's tomb was solemnly carried in the streets around St Walburge and was followed by the crowning of Her statue. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, Mass was followed by a procession of the Blessed Sacrament in the streets around English Martyrs. A live-streamed procession also took place inside St Walburge's on the following Sunday in lieu of the usual outdoor deanery procession. On the Feast of the Sacred Heart there was High Mass at English Martyrs and that evening we had 7-cope Vespers with Canon Montjean.

Following that, Canon Montjean gave a talk about the Sacred Heart Society, the lay association within the spiritual family of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest These occasions have all been most uplifting and have no doubt been encouraging to the increasing number of visitors and 'refugees' who return having discovered that there is life beyond Covid. Indeed the Canons are doing their best to keep things as 'normal' as possible, including forging ahead with much needed fund-raising for the restoration of St Walburge's.

There are plans (government restrictions permitting) to hold a Summer Fair (1 August) and an organ recital (21 August).

Please see their website (icksp.org.uk/preston/) for full details and support them if you can.

St Benedict's Academy, Preston, now in its fifth year, has recently released an excellent publicity video (available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_8u4aypBIU), and having had a tour of the Academy ourselves we can vouch for the accuracy of its presentation: the enthusiasm of the children and staff is tangible and contagious! The Academy also held an Open Day in June for interested families and there will be around 20-25 children on the roll in September 2021. Work has been going on in the English Martyrs complex to make ready an additional classroom.

The Academy meets on Mondays and Thursdays (all day) and Fridays (mornings). The rest of the time the children have homeschooling. Each day begins and ends with prayers in front of the Tabernacle, and each class also begins and ends with prayer.

Study subjects include English Language & Literature, Maths, Science, History, Latin, Greek, French, Art, Catechism, Logic, Rhetoric and Gregorian Chant – one wonders how they manage to fit all that into only eighteen hours a week! The staff include the Canons and Sisters of the Institute, professionally trained teachers, and volunteers. On Fridays each week the children participate in the 12 noon Mass and Sister Bianca Marie leads them in singing the parts of the Mass. At the end of Mass there are devotions to the English Martyrs.

An increasing number of boys wish to serve at St Walburge's and English Martyrs due to the growth of the Academy and the number of families moving to Preston. An appeal has been launched to raise funds for another 6 cassocks for the new altar boys. The boys do really well, even the youngest, some of whom have not yet made their First Holy Communion. Some of the more experienced ones (though not necessarily the oldest) are learning to take on the rôle of MC. At the end of June, 22 First Year seminarians received the cassock at the Institute's seminary at Gricigliano in Italy.

Among them were two Irish, Raphael Lacken and Darrell Lally; two British, Charles Jordan and Patrick McGinnis, and one Australian, Boniface Hewson. They can now be addressed as “Abbé” as they have also received the clerical tonsure. These had been candidates at the House of Discernment in Preston in 2019-20. Also receiving the cassock and tonsure as his first commitment in his vocation of oblate was Juan Camilo, who has spent the last year in Preston.

On 1 July, eight ICKSP deacons were ordained by Cardinal Burke to the Sacred Priesthood 'for all eternity' in Florence, including Canon Francisco Palomar Andres who spent

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time with us in Preston last year. Finally, the four 2020/21 candidates, Charles Morris, Liam Cain, Matthew Bird and Radek Rybak, will be entering the seminary this Autumn. On 26 June, Rev. Stuart Chapple was ordained for the Lancaster Diocesan clergy and has been appointed Assistant Priest at the Cathedral. He often took part in the Traditional Masses so we hope that he may sometimes be able to offer an EF Mass.

Please keep all these young men in your prayers.

There will be clergy moves within the next couple of months which will affect the EF provision within the Diocese.

Fr Daniel Etienne, who has been offering Monday morning Masses at St John Vianney, Blackpool, has been appointed Assistant Priest to Canon Luiz Ruscillo at Our Lady of Help, Carlisle. Fr John Millar, currently parish priest at St Joseph's Preston, who has sometimes assisted at Solemn High Masses, will be leaving Preston in August.

Lastly, we have lost one of our most faithful members and supporters of the Institute, Jim Aherne. At his Requiem Mass, Canon Cristofoli, whilst asking for prayers for his soul, also gave his opinion that the Institute would not be in Preston if it had not been for Jim's diligent work behind the scenes. This was endorsed by the following portrait from LMS members Jim and Joyce Lyons: “To describe Jim Aherne's part in the Traditional Mass provision in Preston you have to go back to the days of 'spot the Latin Mass if you can'. Masses were very dispersed. There was one being held at Salmesbury but after a while this fell by the wayside. Jim decided to speak to the parish priest at St Walburge, Fr (now Bishop) Paul Swarbrick and asked if it would be possible to have a Mass there and after some diplomatic negotiations this was arranged. The Mass was said

by Canon Hudson ICKSP and some 150-200 people attended.

The response was so good that people asked if they could have another one the following week, which they did. Then, for one reason or another, there were no more. Nothing daunted, Jim approached his own parish priest, Fr Griffiths, at St Mary Magdalen, Penwortham, and asked if it would be possible to have an 8.30 am Mass on a Sunday. With the agreement of the Archbishop of Liverpool this was arranged and this Mass was offered by the Canons of the Institute every week, together with Christmas Day and Holy Days, until the church was closed last year because of the Covid lockdown. In compensation, Canon Cristofoli scheduled a 6.30 pm Mass on Sundays at St Walburge instead.

“Canon Hudson had fallen in love with St Walburge's when he said Mass there, and there followed discussions behind the scenes between the-then Bishop of Lancaster, Rt Rev. Michael Campbell and the Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, Msg Gilles Wach, which resulted in the church being handed into the care of the Institute in 2014.

“Jim was known to all the parish priests, was very well informed and was not afraid to argue points of religion or Canon Law with them. He was a gentleman who would give the last penny from his pocket to anyone in need.” Requiescant in Pace.

Lancaster (North) Nicholas Steven 07715 539395 warwickbridge@lms.org.uk Attendance at our Saturday 10am Masses at St Margaret Mary’s in Carlisle now regularly exceeds forty souls. This includes a goodly number of families with young children and also recent converts to the Faith, all of which bodes well for the future of Tradition in our area.

There is a marvellous concordance of quiet devotion during Mass and cordial conversation outside afterwards. As one

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY wag quipped, “It’s the converse of the Novus Ordo, where we used to chat in church and then rush away after Mass without speaking to each other.”

Here are two other impressions.

“It was a lovely surprise to hear Mass being sung from beginning to end on Saturday 8 May. It reminded me of monks chanting in a Monastery - calming and meditative. Thank you very much!”.

“As a convert, I went to my first Traditional Latin Mass a few weeks ago, determined to hate it. Instead, I was amazed and fell in love with the Extraordinary Form. I felt a connection to heaven, to the prophets of the Old Testament, to the disciples of the New and to all the faithful who have attended this Mass throughout the ages. The reverence and majesty activates my thanksgiving to God. I have never felt so free as a woman as when I wear the mantilla….” (N.B. A supply of mantillas and good Catholic books are now available for purchase thanks to Catherine Pattinson.)

The vitality of the liturgy is energizing our growing community, with more and more of us hoping and praying for a Sunday TLM. EF-enabled priests are continuing to be attracted to visit our area - a further fifteen private Masses have been offered at Our Lady and St Wilfrid since the last report.

In addition to our weekly Mass in Carlisle, Canon Watson continues to celebrate the usus antiquior at Our Lady & St Michael's in Workington, normally once a month.

The forthcoming Masses, on 10 September (St Nicholas of Tolentino), 8 October (St Bridget) and 12 November (Low Requiem), will all be streamed at www.mcnmedia.tv/camera/ christ-the-good-shepherd With the kind consent of Canon Luiz Ruscillo, the Cumbria Purgatorial Society has now been inaugurated. Under the patronage of Our Lady & the Cumbrian Martyrs, this pious association is dedicated to assisting the poor souls in Purgatory and those who might sojourn there one day. Our next report will detail the website address and schedule of Masses.

Finally, we have been informed that Fr Etienne, currently serving in Blackpool, will be joining our Parish in September.

This is wonderful news, as his reputation for devotion to Tradition goes ahead of him. Father, we await your arrival with great joy!

Liverpool Neil Addison liverpool@lms.org.uk This has been a disappointing period for the Traditional Mass in Liverpool. The Archdiocese has been engaged in a wideranging Synod process. Originally one of the proposals for the Synod had been that there should be an increased availability of the Extraordinary Form but unfortunately that proposal did not make it into the final recommendations. Apparently, it had not gained the support of over 50% of the Synod delegates who made this decision without ever asking LMS what their views were on the matter. The irony is that in another section of the Synod recommendations the Synod members were exhorted to avoid ‘unconscious bias’ with relation to peoples sexual identity or orientation but it would seem that in Liverpool at least ‘unconscious bias’ is perfectly acceptable when it relates to the Traditional Mass.

On balance however the Synods failure re Tradition is just one part of an overall failure to come up with any specific proposals to ensure the future of the faith within Liverpool. All the final recommendations ended up as a set of meaningless platitudes which could be used to justify almost anything. It’s a shame that so much time and effort has been expended on so little.

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As has been the situation since the first lockdown in 2020 we continue to be dependent on the FSSP and ICKSP for Sunday Masses. Fr Simon Henry is offering a midday Traditional Mass on Tuesday and Saturday in his Church in Leyland but that is the only Diocesan Church where the traditional Mass is currently offered. I am writing this just before restrictions are fully lifted in England so it is impossible to say whether Churches will return to the pre-lockdown normal and whether some Priests will be tempted to offer a Traditional Mass again.

The LMS locally own Vestments and Altar Missals to assist any local Priest who wants to test the water in his local Church and we stand ready to help in any way we can.

STOP PRESS The Archbishop has made no public comment on Traditiones Custodes, however FSSP Services at St Mary’s continue as before. The regular Latin Masses at Leyland have however ceased for the moment.

Liverpool (Warrington) Alan Frost At St Mary’s there are now three Masses established on Sundays. Attendance for Masses and other services is high and continues to increase. Confession is available before each of the Masses, and before the evening Mass there is also sung Vespers and Benediction.

There is a vibrancy and dynamism to the Priory complex with the Academy opening in September (TheAcademyStMarys@ gmail.com) and boys’ and girls’ summer camps in the peak District planned for August. Various groups meet weekly, there are adult converts classes and advice is available for people wishing to move to Warrington to be near the Shrine Church.

It is hoped that the last hurdles can be surmounted concerning the hiring of a contractor for Priory Court conversion work.

Rector Fr De Malleray gave a talk to a Juventutem group at a pro-life gathering nearby at the end of May. His latest book is now available: ‘Near Missed Masses’, a light-hearted account of places and events across the globe nearly causing Mass not to be offered (aroucapress.com/near-missed-masses). The latest issue of ‘Dowry’ (no. 49) has also just been published.

A cause for celebration is the recent appointment as Fraternity Chaplain of Fr Seth Phipps, FSSP, ordained at St Mary’s in 2018, by Archbishop McMahon, as is the clergy’s expression of ‘heartiest congratulations’ to a couple, John and Simone Sunderland, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in May with a special blessing after Mass. Lastly, a young student who lived at St Mary’s these past six months has just been admitted at the Fraternity’s seminary in Bavaria starting this autumn.

STOP PRESS Following the Pope’s letter restricting the celebration of the Latin Mass, things are continuing as normal at present, though the FSSP, whose priests serve St Mary’s Shrine, have expressed their disappointment.

Menevia Elaine Sharpling meneviastabatmater.blogspot.com/ Thanks to the ongoing determination and commitment of Canon Jason Jones, Fr Paul Brophy and Fr Liam Bradley, Masses have continued in Menevia over the past few weeks albeit with some challenges along the way.

Fr Brophy has been unwell and we pray for a speedy recovery so that he can return to his priestly ministry filled with strength and renewal. Meanwhile the parish priest at Haverfordwest, who kindly allowed Fr Liam to offer the Traditional Mass on the 4th Sunday, is on his way to a new parish and we are unsure if our arrangement will continue

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY after August. Fortunately, Fr Liam has some ideas in mind should a move have to happen and so we continue in hope.

Another welcome development is that new cameras have been installed at Sacred Heart, Morriston which means that the sanctuary and the Divine Mercy Chapel can be viewed 24/7 and all Masses and devotions are now live-streamed. Please check the parish website for the live-stream link.

Just a reminder that Holy Mass at Sacred Heart, Morriston has been moved from 4pm to a new time of 1pm – typically Mass in Morriston is on the 1st, 3rd & 5th Sundays.

At the moment, it is essential to book a place at Mass before travelling although we think that restrictions will be lifted soon. We continue to post information on our blogspot so please check here for the latest information: meneviastabatmater.blogspot.com/ STOP PRESS At present, all Masses are suspended whilst we wait for permissions to be granted by Archbishop Stack.

Canon Jones has formally submitted a request for Holy Mass to continue at Sacred Heart, Morriston based on the existence of a stable group and the designation of the church as the Divine Mercy Shrine (Wales). We await news.

Middlesbrough Paul Waddington 01757 638026 paul@gooleboathouse.co.uk The York Oratory continues to offer Mass in the Extraordinary Form every day of the week. On Sundays, it is a Sung Mass at noon. Low Mass is at 8.15am Mondays to Fridays, and at 9.15 on Saturdays. There will be additional Sung Masses at 6pm on the Feasts of the Assumption, St Wilfrid, All Saints and All Souls.

As is usual, there will be no Sunday Vespers during August, although there will be Second Vespers of the Assumption on 15th.

There will also be First Vespers for the Feast of St John Henry Newman on Friday 8 October and First Vespers of St Wilfrid on Monday 11 October.

Also, Fr Massie offers a Low Mass on Thursday evenings at 7.30pm in Hull. On two occasions recently, when there has been a Holyday of Obligation on a Thursday, Fr Massie has offered a Sung Mass.

I had hoped to have information about additional Masses in the diocese, but, due to Covid, these have not yet been announced.

STOP PRESS Bishop Drainey has let it be known that he does not wish there to be any changes in the programme of Latin Masses in the diocese as a result of Traditionis Custodes.

Northampton North (Northamptonshire) Paul Beardsmore 01858 434037 northampton@lms.org.uk Fr Byrne, at St Brendan, Corby, is now celebrating a regular First Friday Mass in addition to the Sunday Mass, and the longestablished Saturday morning Mass. There were additional Masses for the Feasts of the Ascension, Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, SS Peter and Paul and the Precious Blood.

Northampton (South) Barbara Kay 01234 340759 mbky3@outlook.com It has been business as usual at Bedford in the last three months, including well attended Holyday Masses for the Feasts of the Ascension, Corpus Christi and SS Peter and Paul. In fact we celebrated Corpus Christi twice, as we kept the following

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Baptism of Erin and Cassia Montgomery, Christ the King, Bedford Sunday as an External Solemnity. On this day six of our children celebrated their First Holy Communion. We have also had several births and baptisms lately and at the time of writing, are looking forward to the marriage of Francis Wanjiru and Celia Mendes from our parish Legion of Mary. Appropriately, they have chosen the day before the Feast of the Assumption as their wedding day.

Thanks to our FSSP priests coming from Warrington and Reading each weekend, we continue to be able to have two hours of Confessions each Saturday afternoon from 3pm to 5pm, with a steady stream of penitents each week. Our normal 8.30 am Mass still needs to be booked as it is so popular, and it is lovely to see many young families coming along despite the early hour. As we are unsure about future restrictions, our extra 12.30 pm Mass will continue at the moment to accommodate everyone who wishes to come. Sunday Mass at Chesham Bois continues at 8am.

Later in the year, for All Saints, we will have our usual 11am Mass at Chesham Bois, and 7.30 pm Mass at Bedford.

The priest will stay over in Bedford to say trinated Masses for All Souls starting at 10am. We also have a date for the Mass of Reparation for Abortion at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is Saturday 13 November at 12noon. This is the fourth time we have been privileged to welcome the Latin Mass Society to the beautiful Victorian church in Bedford which houses the Shrine. Monsignor Gordon Read, National Chaplain to the LMS, has very kindly agreed to celebrate this Mass, and Fr Gabriel Diaz, who regularly celebrated the Latin Mass at Bedford a few years ago, will be among the Sacred Ministers. We are hoping for a large congregation without restriction on numbers this year.

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

STOP PRESS By kind permission of Bishop David Oakley, everything will continue as before in Bedford and Chesham for the time being.

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY Nottingham Central Jeremy Boot 07462-018386 jeremy.boot2@gmail.com The good news is that we have weekly Masses at St Joseph’s Church, Burton Road, Derby DE1 1TJ at 8am (Low Mass). This is the first regular Mass in Derby for decades. We also continue to have monthly Sung Mass at The Good Shepherd, Thackeray’s Lane, Nottingham NG5 4HT (4.30 Sat. before 2nd Sunday).

There is Mass most Wednesdays at 6.30pm at St Mary of the Annunciation, 97 Ashby Rd, Loughborough LE11 3AB. In addition, we have had Sung Masses there too for the Feasts of St Joseph, the Annunciation, Ascension, Corpus Christi, and SS Peter and Paul. The next Sung Mass at Loughborough will be at 12 noon for the Transfiguration (6 August).

Our other ‘regular’ at Masses at the Cathedral and Our Lady and St Patrick, Nottingham are still on hold until the Covid restrictions allow them to restart. I anticipate this should happen in September. August (excepting Derby and Loughborough) Masses are traditionally suspended because of absences and holidays. Our thanks as ever to all our friends, clergy and lay, who help in any way to allow all our Masses to go ahead.

STOP PRESS At the time of writing no final decision has been made on Traditionis Custodes. We pray for and anticipate a charitable and understanding stance by our Bishop. Our record locally has been exemplary and any loss of our current Masses (some still impeded by the pandemic arrangements) would be keenly felt and appealed if necessary. Bishop Patrick is consulting with interested diocesan clergy.

Nottingham South (Leicestershire and Rutland) Paul Beardsmore 01858 434037 northampton@lms.org.uk The only regular public Masses in Leicestershire at the moment are those at Loughborough, reported on elsewhere by Jeremy Boot.

One interesting development has been the placing of St Mary's church, Husbands Bosworth, into the care of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The church, which is owned by the Constable-Maxwell family, has suffered little from "re-ordering", and, whilst the weekly Sunday Mass will of course be according to the Ordinariate's rite, it is hoped that a monthly vetus ordo Mass can be established there in due course.

Plymouth (Cornwall) Stefano Mazzeo cornwall@lms.org.uk Lanherne has a small chapel that seats only fifty people, with a further eight in the choir loft. Therefore, to comply with recent restrictions an extra Mass was added at 8:30 on Sundays.

Masses on Sunday are at 8.30 and 10am. During weekdays, Masses are at 8am each day with an extra Mass at 6.15pm on Thursdays. Confessions are on Sundays between 9.15 and 9.45, and on Saturdays at 3pm.

The project to renovate Lanherne chapel and St Joseph's Hall continues, with plans produced and funding being sought, therefore if anyone would like to help please contact the chaplain Canon Scott Smith on 07366 321039 or email canon. smith@institute-christ-king.org.

Our next Christendom Rising video magazine programme from Lanherne is dedicated to why the youth and young adults are flocking to the Traditional Latin Mass. Why are Traditional Catholic families much larger than others and why they are following Catholic moral theology more closely than most. In

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this episode, we have contributions from Bishop Schneider, on why young people prefer tradition; Canon Smith continues his talk about renovation of Lanherne chapel, the grounds, and St Joseph's hall. Our presenter, Sophie Oliver, also gives us her impressions of the Chartres Pilgrimage (which she has walked six times). We have used clips from EWTN's documentary on the pilgrimage In Search of Christendom - The Chartres Pilgrimage to augment Sophie's talk. The LMS rep for Devon and Dorset, Maurice Quinn, gives an interesting talk on what's happening there. He also asked me to mention that the Institute of Christ the King will oversee the new designated Shrine Church of the Holy Angels in Torquay, and he has great news that Bishop Mark O'Toole will celebrate a Latin Mass at Chideock on 16 October, for further details please see Maurice Quinn's report. Fr Gribbin gives a talk on St Cuthbert Maine, who said Mass at Lanherne in penal times. My co-producer on EWTN's The Message of Lourdes docudrama, Ellen Plumridge, has a call for extras, please contact Ellen at ellen3859@outlook.com. Sophie and Mrs Josephine Ford continue their discussion on bringing up a Traditional Catholic family in the modern world.

To view our latest episode please put Christendom Rising in your search engine. It looks like Google/YouTube may have restricted access to our last video for some reason, probably too Catholic for them, so keep trying.

STOP PRESS In the light of the recent letter from Pope Francis, our Bishop writes: “The pastoral provision of the celebration of Mass in accordance with the 1962 Missale Romanum should continue in the Diocese in the places in which it is being celebrated”.

Plymouth (Devon) Maurice Quinn 07555 536579 devon@lms.org.uk At the time of writing, the proposed ending of the lockdown looms on the near horizon, and, as such, we are working hard to pick up the pieces, especially in the Exeter and Chudleigh areas. We hope to restart our regular monthly usus antiquior Masses at Blessed Sacrament in Exeter, and at St Cyprian’s, Ugbrooke House, Chudleigh in August. However, being hopeful that things will have changed, I have included these venues in the Mass Listings, but do please contact me for confirmation before travelling any great distance to attend.

Very good news from St Edward the Confessor in Plymouth, a Latin Mass venue where it has been ‘business as usual’ every Sunday afternoon regardless of the virus situation. A big treat was on offer for those who attended on Pentecost Sunday, as the first Traditional Latin High Mass for decades took place on the main altar, celebrated by Fr Anselm Gribbin, supported by Canon Scott Smith ICKSP as Deacon, with seminarian Patryk as Sub-Deacon (see photo). The altar servers, led by Mat Villa Real, were Alajandro and Oliver Proctor, whose father Andrew supplied the music. It is also pleasing to report that on the Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul, an extra Mass was celebrated at St Edward’s at 6.30 in the evening by Fr Anselm, who looked after Lanherne Convent in Cornwall and St Edward’s while Canon Scott Smith was away. If you would like to be included in the emailing list for St Edward’s, please contact Canon Scott on canon.smith@institute-christ-king.org and you will be included.

We are still eagerly awaiting the arrival of the ICKSP to Holy Angels in Chelston in Torquay during September, where they will be celebrating the usus antiquior daily, and where they will be making a valuable pastoral contribution to the area.

Please keep this new project and the Canons of the Institute in your prayers.

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY Do read the Dorset report for valuable information regarding the forthcoming Chideock Latin Mass Pilgrimage scheduled for October, and make sure that you put this unmissable event in your diaries, and, while you are at it, put ‘Christendom Rising’ in your search engine to access that new online video magazine, where you can see Bishop Athanasius Schneider being interviewed, and in which I make a small contribution regarding the Devon and Dorset Latin Mass scene.

As usual, if you wish to receive regular Devon and Dorset Latin Mass updates via email, please furnish me with your contact details, and remember to share details of ‘Christendom Rising’ with as many people as possible.

Plymouth (Dorset) 07555 536579 devon@lms.org.uk Once again, we have pleasant memories from our times attending the Traditional Latin Mass celebrations and socially distanced lunches shared between like-minded friends in Dorset. However, all good things come to an end, and this is nowhere more so than at Our Lady’s in the village of Marnhull, where the parishioners are to lose Fr Martin Budge due to his impending retirement. Sadly, this being the case, the very last usus antiquior at this beautiful and humble location will take place on Thursday

Our Lady of Lourdes & St. Cecilia in Blandford Forum, during Corpus Christi

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY 5 August – Dedication of the Basilica of Our Lady of Snows – at the usual time of 12noon, followed by a social lunch for those who wish to partake. Fr Martin has provided good pastoral care for his parishioners, and I have had the privilege of serving on the sanctuary with Fr Martin at Our Lady’s in Marnhull, and at Wardour Castle when needed.

We thank Fr Martin for his unstinting loyalty to the Old Rite over the years, especially as his was a lone Latin Mass witness in the ‘wilderness’ until the arrival of Dom Thomas Reagan OSB at Our Lady of Lourdes & St Cecilia in Blandford Forum, subsequently succeeded by Mgr Francis Jamieson. However, Dorset’s loss is Devon’s gain, as Fr Martin is to reside at the cathedral in Plymouth.

We have to thank Mgr Francis Jamieson at Blandford Forum for offering to take up Fr Martin’s Latin Mass celebrations, which means that, from September onwards, in addition to his every Saturday morning Latin Masses, the Mgr will offer one weekday Mass every month at the usual time of 12noon. As a very special treat, on 7 October, at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary we can look forward to Holy Mass followed by Rosary and Benediction.

A ‘must do’ is to attend the forthcoming Latin Mass Pilgrimage in honour of the Chideock Martyrs at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs & St Ignatius at Chideock, scheduled for 11.30am on Saturday 16 October, the Mass being celebrated by Bishop Mark O’Toole of Plymouth, followed by Veneration of the Relics. This will be the first time that a Bishop of Plymouth has publicly celebrated a usus antiquior in the diocese, and in that particular – and beautiful - historic church, for decades.

Bring a packed lunch (tea and coffee will be available), and take the opportunity to tour the church building, pop into the museum, take in a visit to the hidden chapel in the loft where Mass was offered in secret during recusant times, and see the stunningly beautiful wall-painted sacristy – a thoroughly cracking not-to-be-missed day out for the whole family! It is envisaged that this special occasion will be filmed, and will help to put a bit of joy into a month that leads us into the dark November days.

As always, do contact me if you have any concerns or questions regarding any of the above, and, if you wish to receive regular email updates, just send me your contact details.

Hopefully, I will see some of you at Chideock in October, if not sooner, and finally, remember to put ‘Christendom Rising’ in your search engine to access the new online video magazine (see the Devon report for more details).

Portsmouth Peter Cullinane pmcullinane@hotmail.com As reported in the last issue, progress continues to be made in the Marian Franciscans parish of St Joseph's, Copnor, on Portsea Island PO3 6AN. The sorely needed income is starting to come in, so please consider making a donation with gift aid. Please follow the website: www.themarianfranciscans. org if you can possibly help.

The parish is now home to quite a number of Polish families who are anxious to involve their children in the life of the Church at the earliest opportunity. The boys are being gently trained by the younger Friars as altar servers to join others of a similar age. How exciting it must be for a 7- or 8-year old altar boy to be put in charge of the bell, telling grownups what to do next!

The girls, all under 10, are joining in the choir in the Latin parts of the Mass, combining this with helping their parents look after younger siblings. Anyone observing these activities cannot but be impressed by their ability and reverence.

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The old rite in the city of Portsmouth is now happily well provided for in contrast to some 15 years ago, there now being two Masses on Sundays.

A word of advice to visitors attending for the first time, whereas there is plenty of parking in the Cathedral carpark for the 8 am Mass, (for which we need more attenders to make it viable), those visiting Copnor at 11 am should allow a good 20 minutes to find parking as the church is in a heavily builtup area with no visitor parking on site. Happily, side roads are generally not resident-only. Visitors should try residential roads to the north and east of the church, avoiding south and west as these lead to the more congested city centre.

Turning to Gosport, the Franciscan nuns are close to establishing a charity similar to Copnor and they seem to have no shortage of vocations.

Anyone who has attended Sung Mass in Gosport will know the immense contribution made by the nuns to the choir and your generous donations are requested for this purpose- please email: sisters.bridgemary@gmail.com for advice about donations.

Portsmouth (Isle of Wight) Peter Clarke EF Masses continue on the Isle of Wight, mainly at St Thomas’s, Cowes. These are offered on Thursdays at 12noon

by Fr Jonathan Redvers Harris. On the Feast of St John the Baptist (24 June) Father celebrated the 10th anniversary of his Ordination as a Catholic priest and 30th anniversary of his Ordination as an Anglican priest In his sermon at Mass at St Thomas’s, Cowes, Fr Jonathan reminded people that John the Baptist was a colossus in terms of biblical figures:“He straddles both the Old and the New Testament. He is the precursor of Christ, who was filled with the Holy Spirit whilst still in his mother’s womb. His message was that he (John) must decrease, whilst the One who comes after him (Christ) must increase. So it is in our own lives. We must decrease, whilst the Lord must increase.”

Fr Jonathan Redvers Harris with a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, presented to him on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his Ordination

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY At a small (socially distanced) reception in the church garden after Mass, Father was presented with a Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Please ring for confirmation of these Masses if you are coming from the mainland. Tel. 01983 566740 or 07790892592.

STOP PRESS In the Portsmouth Diocese, E.F. Masses are continuing as scheduled, for the time being.

Salford Alison F. Kudlowski I wish to convey my thanks to the Latin Mass Society Committee for appointing me to the role of representative for the Diocese of Salford.

This report is the first since 2017, and since then there have been a number of changes with respect to venues celebrating TLM. What follows is a retrospective look outlining changes as they occurred from 2017, bringing us to the situation to date.

Spring 2017 saw four venues that held TLM, but at the start of 2018 this reduced to three: namely St Chad, Cheetham, St Marie, Bury, and St Osmund, Breightmet, Bolton. The following year of 2019 saw several changes. The provision of the TLM at St Osmund ended, following the death of the priest, Fr Geoffrey Hilton, RIP, but the TLM began to be celebrated at St Mary, Heaton Norris, Stockport in the late summer of that year. In the late autumn the parish priest of St Marie, Bury moved to Sacred Heart parish in Rochdale. This meant that the TLM ceased at Bury, but was started at Rochdale.

The Covid pandemic altered the scene rather dramatically, with the March lockdown leading to the cessation of all public Masses. Lockdown guidelines being lifted in July, Manchester Oratorians based at St Chad’s was the one remaining parish in the diocese offering the TLM, with Low Mass at 4.45pm on Sundays. The second lockdown in November 2020 again led to a four-week suspension of Mass at St Chad but, by December, the TLM was restored on Sundays at the usual time of 4.45, and this remains the case today. The other TLM parishes have to date not reverted to pre-Covid timetables.

Shrewsbury Victoria E Keens 01743 891592 shrewsbury@lms.org.uk Masses at St Winefride’s Monkmoor and Shrewsbury Cathedral continue as per the Mass Listings. For possible changes and additional events please check our website.

As Covid measures come to an end, we expect to schedule a number of talks and events which have had to be postponed due to the restrictions imposed by those measures. We recommend checking the ICKSP website regularly for any changes and new events at: https://icksp.org.uk/shrewsbury and you can view the weekly newsletter at: https://icksp.org. uk/shrewsbury/ Shrewsbury (Wirral) Neil Addison liverpool@lms.org.uk The renovation of the Dome continues and at times it has felt like we have been attending Mass in a building site with scaffolding filling the Church. However, scaffolding or not we realise we are fortunate compared to many other areas. The Canons of the Institute have continued to offer daily Mass and 2 Masses on Sunday combined with other devotions. In May we had the crowning of Mary but sadly we were not able to have our usual procession around the Church and the local square we hope to be able to do so next year .

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We have said goodbye to Abbe Juan Mercado who has returned to the Institute Seminary after a year working and studying in the Wirral, we wish him well for his future and hope he has found his time with us worthwhile. This year 8 Priests were ordained at the Institutes Seminary in Gricigliano and 22 new Seminarians enrolled 6 of whom are apparently from Britain and Ireland. In the Dome we are very much made to feel part of the Institute ‘family’ joining in their pleasure as new Institute Churches and Seminarians offer hope for the future.

In July the re-painting of the Sanctuary was completed and it was necessary to turn all our pews around to face the front again. For the past 8 months the sanctuary has been filled with scaffolding and we have heard Mass said at the side altar of St Philomena with all the pews turned to face the right side of the church. The side altar has given sterling service in that role but we are glad to be back facing our beautiful, and freshly painted, Sanctuary again. The moving was done on a Saturday after Mass when we had a great turn out of volunteers to move the pews which are big, solid and heavy. It was a tough job but a very companionable day for all of us and a feeling at the end that it was a job well done.

Definitely a case of ‘muscular Christianity’ in action.

Like everyone else we were shocked by Traditione Custodes.

Bishop Mark has indicated that all services at the Dome should continue as before. Like everyone else we have to wait and see what happens long term but we know that we are luckier than many other areas of the country.

Southwark (St Bede’s, Clapham Park) Thomas Windsor claphampark@lms.org.uk Firstly, I would like to thank Fr Holden our parish priest, for arranging priests for our daily Masses, providing a variety of excellent catechetical courses online, excellent sermons, and for his encouragement to the Traditional Community here. Thanks are also due to Fr Pullicino, for his sermons and for happily singing Mass for us on the numerous feasts that have occurred on weekdays over this quarter. Finally thanks are also due to our other priest, Fr Shenouda, who has been learning to celebrate the Traditional Mass and has been a vital link in keeping the daily Mass going at St Bede’s.

Congratulations are due to Cormac McCall one of our former altar servers who was ordained Deacon on the 11 June. Also congratulations to the 8 children who made their (Covid delayed) First Holy Communion, on the former Feast of the Most Precious Blood. This year this fell on 4 June, the External Solemnity of the Dedication of our church. The children’s choir sang the chant Ordinary and the adult choir polyphonic propers and motets.

I must also thank Fr Finigan who kindly celebrated the full Vigil of Pentecost with us. The choir sang the Palestrina's Sicut Cervus / Sitivit Anima mea, the Byrd three-part Mass and Ave Verum, and Witt’s Regina Coeli. Please remember Fr Finigan in your prayers.

Our choir has been busy singing the following, the Feast of St George (Byrd three-Part), a Requiem for Rachel Ward (chant), St Mark (Palestrina Missa O Quam Gloriosum, & Motet Cum esset Isaac), the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross (Byrd Three-Part) with procession with the Relic of the True Cross, The Ascension (Byrd Three-Part and Ave Verum), Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension (Missa super Dixit Maria, Hassler, and motets Ascendens Christus, Handl & Ave Maria, Parsons), Trinity Sunday (Palestrina Missa O Quam Gloriosum, and motets O Sacrum Convivium, Pergolesi, Benedicimus Deum, Issac).

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY On the Ember Saturday of Pentecost we had a Solemn High Mass, for the repose of a benefactor of the Latin Mass Society, John Edward Arnell. The LMS has also sponsored a new side-altar at St Bede's in his memory, complete with a specially commissioned painting of St Bede, by the Catholic artist James Tyldesley. The excellent music for the High Mass, was provided by Matthew Schellhorn, formerly the Society’s Director of Music for London. A few days later we celebrated the feast of our Patron with another sung Mass, with procession or our newly acquired Relic of St Bede. We had Sung Mass and procession inside the church on Corpus Christi, and the following Saturday we had another Sung Mass and procession with the Blessed Sacrament outside around the grounds.

Our Sung Masses continued with the Feast of St Peter and Paul, the Precious Blood, Visitation of the BVM and the Feast of our Dedication, bringing another busy week for our choir and servers to a close.

Southwark (Thanet) Antonia Robinson 01843 845880 07961 153963 thanet@lms.org.uk It may (so far) have been an unprepossessing summer weather-wise in England, but it seems as though the sun always shines on the Shrine of St Augustine in Ramsgate. As the country unfurls from Covid-19 restrictions we have seen a steady stream of visitors joining the ever-growing Latin Mass community. Three Traditional Baptisms in May were a particularly joyful counterpoint to the low-level nuisances of social distancing and mask wearing, and it is always a treat to see Pugin’s intricate baptismal font in use. Queen Victoria was so impressed by the font, with its soaring carved oak canopy, at the Great Exhibition of 1851, that she granted a generous lifelong pension to Pugin’s widow.

Traditional Baptism at St Augustine’s. Godmother and server are from same family

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Sung Masses on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation continue and we are grateful to Shrine Director of Music Ben Scott who has managed not only to keep the musical life of St Augustine’s alive and thriving, but has also orchestrated the technology that allows our liturgies to be shared all over the world through the Shrine’s YouTube channel. The layout of St Augustine’s has allowed for good numbers of congregants (particularly as many are family ‘bubbles’) within the permitted distancing rules, but we are looking forward to being able to use all the pews again. St Ethelbert’s, our parish church, continues with Wednesday morning Masses in the Traditional Rite, as well as the occasional Feast Day Mass in the evening.

One of the benefits of being a Shrine, is that St Augustine’s is a destination for pilgrimage. A large cohort of English pilgrims, young and old, who were unable attend the Chartres Pilgrimage this year came through Ramsgate before Pentecost, stopping for a splendid High Mass on a route that included Aylesford and Canterbury. We have had seminarians David Hunter and Patrick Breeze (both of whom will be ordained this summer, Deo volente: please keep them in your prayers) in choir and assisting with Masses, and we look forward to welcoming David Hunter back as the celebrant of High Mass for the Assumption with Rev. Dr Przemyslaw Zgorecki (formerly of St Bede’s) and Fr Christopher Basden assisting as Deacon and Sub-Deacon. A recent ‘first’ was Fr Gerard Bradley, former Pastoral Director of the Seminary at Wonersh, celebrating his first Missa Cantata. A sad note: as a community we are praying for Fr Timothy Finigan, formerly PP in the nearby town of Margate, who suffered a stroke in May but is making a strong recovery. The Traditional Mass and community in this part of the country owes much to his prayerful stewardship over the years.

The Shrine Church of St Augustine is fortunate in having outdoor as well as indoor spaces, which meant that, as a community, we were able to meet and speak and see one another beyond Zoom as restrictions eased. A picnic after Sunday Mass in early July was a particular source of joy to our much-loved and gregarious Parish Priest Fr Christopher Basden, for whom the lockdowns have been a torture. In addition to the families, children and teenagers all being able to socialise, this event allowed people who had started coming to the Traditional Mass in recent months to get to know their fellow congregants. The event was so popular that all hope it will become a regular fixture.

At a time when many churches are closing their doors, Fr Basden’s infectious energy and enthusiasm carried the Traditional community of St Augustine’s through the dark recent months with a mixture of cheerful determination, sound liturgy and robust preaching. The sun continues to shine on Ramsgate, and the future of the Shrine as a centre for Traditional Catholicism looks increasingly bright.

Southwark (Wandsworth) Julia Ashenden The number of regular Tridentine Masses has been increased over these last months and can now be seen in the Mass Listings of this magazine, which is wonderful news.

There has been a significant rise in the numbers attending these Masses and I would like to mention that one of them is a Sung Latin Mass at 10.30 am for the First Saturday Devotions.

In this last quarter, Masses have continued as advertised, while on Corpus Christi Thursday, Canon Edwards celebrated a Sung Latin Mass, after which he led a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament outside around the local block. This was followed by celebratory drinks in the historic Huguenot Cemetery next to the Church, which has been a useful outdoor space for Catholic gatherings whilst indoor ones are forbidden in these days of Covid.

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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY On the External Sunday Solemnity of Corpus Christi, David Guest’s professional singers came to add to the festivity, as they do once a month. As I have reported before, on the other Sundays several musical parishioners sing a Missa Cantata from the choir loft.

The Traditional Mass attendance is flourishing across all the age groups and it is a pleasure to witness this.

STOP PRESS The situation in Wandsworth is that there is no change. The Archbishop has given permission for all previously scheduled Masses to continue as before.

Southwark (Kent) Marygold Turner 01580 291372 A very difficult time for all of us but we have been very well looked after by Fr Gabriel Diaz, who now lives in my cottage.

All my Masses are centred in Tenterden, where Fr Behruz makes us very welcome. The choir loft has been very useful and Ben Bevan has given us a couple of Sung Masses a month. They are the very best and Andrew Czaykowski most generously funds these Masses.

When Fr Diaz has been away some of my old priest friends have supplied, such as Fr Neil Brett, Fr Michael Cullinan, Fr Basden, who sang Mass last Sunday, also Fr Alexander, who is a stalwart friend.

Since I began this report the Pope has tried to pull the rug from under our feet by dispensing with Pope Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum. We shall have to see how these draconian measures pan out. With the child abuse and homosexuality in the Church, one might have thought he had better priorities than persecuting Traditionalists.

I am delighted to be able to say the Snave Mass will go ahead on Saturday 25 September at 12 noon as planned.

Westminster Spanish Place Roger Wemyss Brooks It is a great joy and relief to have Old Rite Masses restored and again pretty well back to normal. Congregations are building back towards previous levels. Many of the congregation have been grateful to find refuge meanwhile at the London Oratory and Warwick Street where the usus antiquior is also treasured.

In light of the return of Masses we are in urgent need of servers in order to assist both Fr Michael and Fr Mark with the reverent offering of the Holy Sacrifice. We are fortunate to have a beautiful church where the Old Rite has been faithfully offered every Sunday and many Holydays since the days of Mgr Miles.

Training days, particularly for learning to serve Low Mass, are being organised here at St James's on 25 September and 20 November. All men are most welcome to attend regardless of experience. Please contact the LMS Office on 020 7404 7284 or see the Society’s website. The training days are free. You will find your attendance at Holy Mass much enriched.

STOP PRESS I understand that Cardinal Nichols has written to Diocesan clergy saying that established groups may continue to attend current provision of EF Masses. Let's hope that other pastors follow his lead. Deo gratias.

Westminster (Willesden) Anna Grayson-Morley willesden@lms.org.uk 07710 472295 We are currently getting positive responses to our EF Mass with new attendees, including a young family that travels all the way in from Slough. Where a couple of years ago we

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struggled at times to find servers, we now have, in addition to our regular server Brandon, two brothers who regularly serve and two parishioners who are in training to serve.

I am also very happy to report that our Assistant Priest, Father Andrew Jaxa- Chamiec has now completed his study of the Extraordinary Form and will hopefully start celebrating the Sunday evening Mass sometime in July.

As the threat of the pandemic recedes, and its attendant regulations are eventually removed, we pray that we will have continued growth in interest. With a stronger, reliable attendance and support for our EF Mass, it is our hope to be able to introduce a regular Missa Cantata.

STOP PRESS Following the publication of Traditionis Custodes, the Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden will continue the published schedule for the Traditional Latin Mass until further notice.

Wrexham Kevin Jones e-mail: wrexham@lms.org.uk web: lmswrexham.weebly.com My supplied report for the last Mass of Ages was unfortunately omitted but I have carried forward some items.

Firstly, it will be well known by now of the passing of Canon Brendan Hoban to his eternal rest on the 29 March. Canon, a former Vicar General in the Diocese of Shrewsbury, was a great friend to the Society in times when Priests celebrating the Extraordinary Form were few and far between. On a number occasions, Canon Hoban came to Wrexham Diocese to celebrate the Usus Antiquior at my request. Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine. Et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace.

So far as Extraordinary Form Masses are concerned, Covid-19 and the ever decreasing pressure upon the regular pro Old Rite clergy, who are advancing in age but with absolute and remarkable dedication to their vocations in large parishes with multiple churches, has meant that resumption hasn’t yet occurred.

Due to the uncertainties over the pandemic, there was again no annual pilgrimage to Holywell in July. This is a massive personal disappointment. I can assure members and readers that efforts to make it happen this year did take place but sadly Holywell Parish were reticent, and given the slower pace of restriction relaxation in Wales, I can understand their position.

All this demonstrates that the Society does not hold all the cards when it comes to the organisation of the regular Masses and events. We are dependent on venue availability and even more so on clergy for the staple of regular Masses.

As I have warned in these columns previously, priestly numbers are precarious.

A visit to the Wrexham Diocese website shows that there are just 15 diocesan priests; of those three are working outside the diocese, leaving just 12 active diocesan priests.

While, there are 25 priests from Religious Orders, many of these live in community and do not tend to travel, even if they did, 37 priests to cover the geographical expanse of North Wales is still a tank running on empty!

And all this is before we even consider the implications of Traditionis Custodes! It is my intention to write to Bishop Brignall to initiate a discussion.

Finally, at Easter, the Diocese bade farewell to Canon Emeritus Simon Treloar from Wrexham Cathedral who is now resident in the Diocese of Portsmouth. Fr Treloar was very helpful in the organisation of Masses at the Cathedral and I thank him sincerely for his help and I wish him well.

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FAMILY MATTERS

How tradition works The future of humanity passes by way of the family, says James Preece

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his November marks forty years since Pope Saint John Paul II published his apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio, just a few months after the opening of the Humber Bridge. Plenty of other things happened in 1981 but the opening of the Humber Bridge is only one I can think of without consulting Wikipedia. At that time, the Humber Bridge was the longest single span suspension bridge in the world, an incredible feat of engineering that spans 4,626 feet between the two main supports.

Since then, the record has been broken and the Humber Bridge isn’t even in the top ten. The longest single span suspension bridge is now the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan which spans 6,532 feet. That’s more than a mile of expressway soaring over the Akashi Strait, while an even longer bridge is already under construction in Turkey. We’ve come a long way since somebody put a log across a stream to keep their feet dry.

In the face of such technological progress, it’s easy to assume that everything follows a similar pattern - the new ways make the old ones obsolete.

Do you know what else happened in 1981? Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first Indiana Jones movie. Some of you may recall the famous scene in which an expert swordsman flourishes his weapon in readiness to attack, only to be dispatched nonchalantly with a single shot from the hero’s gun. It’s a moment that really sums up the spirit of the age. The hard work and dedication of a traditional martial art, easily overtaken by modern technology.

It is in this context that traditional Catholics are often understood. Sure you can go to all the trouble of learning Latin, but why bother when you can just have Mass in English? Bang! Problem solved. The new ways are so much better than the old! Duh. So what does this all have to do with Familiaris Consortio? Well, just as the Humber Bridge has been usurped by longer spans, Familiaris Consortio

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appears to have been overshadowed by a longer Apostolic Exhortation. I refer, of course, to Amoris Laetitia – subtitled “On Love in the Family”. A document which appears to replace Familiaris Consortio as the definitive Church teaching on the family. Out with the old, in with the new.

So is Familiaris Consortio obsolete?

Some people might say so. The four ‘Dubia Cardinals’ felt it necessary to ask their first question on this very topic.

Familiaris Consortio 84 is clear: “the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried” and that absolution can only be given to those who “are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage”.

Amoris Laetitia on the other hand says that people “in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable” could be “receiving the Church’s help” and “In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments”. As the first Dubia asked: “Can the expression “in certain cases” found in Note 351 (305) of the exhortation Amoris Laetitia be applied to divorced persons who are in a new union and who continue to live more uxorio?”

So far Pope Francis hasn’t provided an answer, but traditional Catholics don’t need one – we know what the answer is: No. Of course it can’t.

Familiaris Consortio tells us it can’t.

Amoris Laetitia doesn’t specify which ‘certain cases’ allow access to the sacraments, but Familiaris Consortio is clear about which do not.

This is how tradition works. The deposit of faith is not replaced by a new edition every time a Pope puts pen to paper. Rather, the new is understood in light of the old. Amoris Laetitia doesn’t replace Familiaris Consortio any more than Familiaris Consortio replaced the Gospel according to St Matthew.

Tradition doesn’t therefore mean being ‘stuck in the past’ but rather that the past and the present are stuck together.

All of which is a very long-winded way of saying Familiaris Consortio has not been replaced and is very much still worth reading. Catholic teaching on the family is essential to the Faith. Without families, how can we understand the meaning of “God the Father”?

Without families, where does the next generation of priests come from?

So I will end by repeating Pope Saint John Paul II’s words at the end of Familiaris Consortio. It is “indispensable and urgent” to “save and foster the values and requirements of the family”. Especially the clergy: “They must show the family special love. This is an injunction that calls for concrete action.”

“The Future of Humanity Passes by Way of the Family”

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LETTERS

Letters to the Editor Slower Mass The perception that EF Masses can seem rushed when said in Latin, (letter MoA Summer) is not comparing like with like.

English and Latin do not share the same rhythms or delivery.

Nor do other languages; French, for example, without the strong tonic accents of English sounds – and is – spoken more quickly.

The Missa Dialogata of the early 60s introduced congregational recitation and responses which of necessity slowed down how it was delivered. The problem does not arise with Sung Masses because the Propers, Common, Preface and other sung parts are set to music which dictates its own timing.

This, I suggest is much of the problem.

The authentic form of the old rite is in its sung form.

Low (said) Mass was introduced originally in monasteries to accommodate monks’ needs, not as the usual form of public worship, which it has become by default in many places.

In the fifty years I have been associated with the arranging of Latin Masses, I have never come across priests offering EF Masses in any manner either rushed or lacking in reverence. I agree in Fr Duddleworth’s day there was the odd ‘express train,’ but the one back-handed advantage of the attempted suppression of the old rite we have fought to restore all these years, has been that only priests who choose to celebrate the old liturgy do so, and with probably much greater devotion and care than before.

Jeremy Boot (LMS Rep, Notts, Derby)

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The fault in our ears…

I do sympathise with complaints that the Traditional Mass can seem very rushed, but the fault lies, I fear, with our ears and understanding rather than with the priestly delivery.

As a young man I can remember gradually getting to grips with French. I was sent to France as a teenager for six months to live with a French family and learn the language – my parents thought this a far better way than trying to learn through the medium of the printed page.

At first, I found that the family with whom I stayed were always speaking at an incredible pace and it was only as I came to be more fluent that I realised they were not speaking quickly at all!

So, all of us who love the Traditional Mass should try one of the excellent courses run by the LMS and learn a little more of the Latin language especially as it is spoken.

Donal Kelly London

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

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FEATURE

Annunciation and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Caroline Farey on a fresco by Filippino Lippi (1457-1504) in the Carafa Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome

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his magnificent fresco painting by Filippino Lippi, including all the architectural pillars and arches, is painted on the back wall, directly behind the altar, of the Carafa chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome.

Cardinal Oliviero Carafa was the patron of this chapel which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St Thomas Aquinas.

This back wall is dedicated especially to the Blessed Virgin while the two side walls of the chapel are dedicated to St Thomas Aquinas.

The first thing to point out perhaps is that, sadly, there are many blank areas where the plaster has been affected by damp and the fresco has fallen away. Once these gaps have been noted, however, they do not seem to diminish the glory of the painting which still stunningly portrays its rich message.

The key to the whole wall painting is the half-hidden, black funeral pall stretched across the sky via two thin ropes. These are tied onto a pole from which the pall hangs like a dark roof just behind the ‘temple’ of the Annunciation.

Patches of fresco have fallen away at each end of the pole to obscure this, but one can still see that these ropes are held at the top end by little cherub ‘putti’ sitting on the pilaster ledges at the sides of the chapel wall. The putti sit next to shields of red and white stripes which are Cardinal Carafa’s personal colours, thus indicating that this is his funerary chapel.

The funeral pall and its ropes, symbolising death, thus separate the earth below and heaven above; life before death and, in hope, life beyond death in heaven.

The ropes create the finest of dividing lines between the upper register and the lower.

In the upper register, the highly animated, musical and colourful dance of the angels around the Blessed Virgin symbolises the eternal life of joy in heaven.

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In the background of the lower register, the struggling trees and vegetation amidst the fields and barren rocks, symbolise earthly life, especially perhaps that of Carafa, as well as of the apostles. As a Cardinal, Carafa’s life also included the role of politician and diplomat, and even a military leader since he was admiral of the papal fleet at one point, which fought against the Turks and defeated them.

Central to the panoply of life and death portrayed here, is the mystery of the Annunciation. The scene is placed in its own temple architecture immediately above the altar since it is there that the Word becomes flesh for us, as it did in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This temple structure may be deliberately to affirm Mary as the true ‘temple’ of the Holy Spirit, replacing the temple of the goddess Minerva (or some say Isis) on whose site this church is built over (Santa Maria sopra ‘over’ Minerva).

The artist, Filipino Lippi, was apparently present at the unearthing of some Roman ruins taking place at this time, from which he copied directly the ornate decoration of the columns. These pagan patterns are now placed to serve the true God made man in Mary.

The background to this annunciation scene is unusual. The Blessed Virgin is more often viewed in her bedroom or in a setting of Church architecture. Here she is in a library similar to Carafa’s own, with books behind her displaying his expansive personal interest in the arts and humanities. In accord with these interests, the pillar just behind Mary marks the ‘golden ratio’ between the two outer walls of the little building. It is sometimes called the ‘golden section’ or ‘divine ratio’ of perfect proportion. This ratio can be found throughout the natural world as a proportion of perfect harmony

and therefore of beauty. It was used in ancient architecture and reapplied in the renaissance period in architecture and the fine arts.

Also, at the back of the room one can make out a glass carafe holding an olive branch which has a double meaning.

Mary is the totally pure glass that contains the olive branch of the peace of the Holy Spirit. It also signifies the patron, whose full name is ‘Olivero Carafa’. Cardinal Carafa is the man kneeling in front of Mary contemplating the scene, with St Thomas Aquinas behind him.

The Church’s understanding of all the great mysteries of Mary, flows, above all, from the Scriptural text of the gospel of St Luke describing the annunciation of the angel Gabriel ‘to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the House of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you.’ (Luke 1:26-28).

In this sacred account, the Church has seen from the earliest times that Mary, ‘Full of Grace’, was ‘without sin’ from the beginning of her life and ‘ever virgin’ and that this was because she was chosen to be the ‘Mother of God’. By the presence of the Holy Spirit and these exceptional graces she continued in perfect grace all her life and so did not deserve death; which Scripture calls the ‘wages of sin’. The Eastern Church celebrated the feast of the ‘Dormition’ or ‘falling asleep’ of Mary from the earliest centuries. In the West this same belief was called the Assumption of Our Lady, body and soul, into heaven, after, as it were, having fallen asleep.

The doctrine of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady, in the upper register of this wall painting, depends entirely, therefore, on the Annunciation painted immediately below it. The Assumption of Mary is the

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FEATURE

entrance of one who is not God, but the spouse and the bride of God, that is the Church, into heaven. Mary’s Assumption is a sign of the promise that, by the blood of Christ, the gates of paradise have been opened once more to mankind.

And it is the flesh and blood of Christ that are made present at the altar directly in front of the Annunciation scene and the entire vision surrounding it. The Liturgy on earth is being joined to the liturgy in heaven where angels as acolytes swing their thuribles, carry candles and

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form the clouds of incense and of prayer that make up the footstool under, and canopy around, the Blessed Virgin. Other angels sing and play musical instruments that indicate the polyphony that is just beginning to accompany the liturgies of the Church.

Returning to the foreground, we see the apostles gathered around an empty tomb just on the left of the temple of the Annunciation. They point or look upwards, leading those at Mass in this chapel to do the same and to keep their

eyes fixed on the eternal world to come, with our Blessed Mother.

It is Mary herself, from her place in heaven, who unites herself with her beloved apostles on earth via her gaze of love towards the apostle John. He is on the right, clutching his red cloak, with his head bent back and his right hand open and raised towards his new mother who was given to him by Christ from the cross.

He is our guide par excellence, for keeping our eyes fixed on Mary, the fulfilment and culmination of all the promises of God.

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COMMENT

Contemplate with Mary the face of Christ Fr Timothy Finigan on the Rosary, a form of Christian meditation

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y bank frequently sends me promotional emails. It usually tries to persuade me to pay some money for a special account, or to take out a credit card. Recently, it has offered me a new benefit: free access to a selection of meditations. I clicked on the first one and closed it quite soon; the meaningful encouragement to breathe in and out reminded me of some of the dafter activities that formed part of “human formation” for the priesthood.

We need to be on our guard when looking at secular forms of meditation.

There are many practices known as meditation which have nothing to do with Christian prayer, and some which actually work against it. Christian meditation is not simply stillness or “mindfulness”, it does not consist of emptying our minds of everything, it does not teach us focus on ourselves, and the purpose is not relaxation and freedom from stress. We should especially avoid anything that aims to merge our spiritual nature as creatures with any kind of one world “soul” or universal consciousness.

In Christian meditation, which is simple and accessible to all, we focus on God, often on the person of Jesus Christ. If we try to empty our minds of other preoccupations, it is not in order to achieve an artificial psychological state, it is to allow God to fill our minds and hearts which are usually distracted by worldly cares and concerns. We only focus on ourselves in order to repent of our sins and give thanks to God for His gifts of grace. We seek above all these things, to give praise and adoration to God and to thank Him, for His great glory.

Pope John Paul II gave the best summary description of the Rosary when he said, “To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ.” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae n.3) This captures the centrality of the place of Christ in our

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prayer and at the same time perfectly encapsulates the place of Our Blessed Lady in assisting us in our prayer as our Auxiliatrix, Advocatrix and Mediatrix of all graces. As Co-Redemptrix, she also actively co-operates with Our Lord in His work of redemption.

Our Lady encourages us to say the Rosary because it is suitable for all kinds of people. A brilliant academic, a simple labourer, an active pro-life campaigner, a conscientious mother who teaches her children to pray, or a self-employed business owner, can all benefit from the Rosary according to their own character, temperament, and intellect.

For those who celebrate and assist at the traditional form of the Church’s Liturgy, participation is not limited to following every word of the text. We certainly receive sound nourishment from the texts; the Liturgical Year of the great Abbé Guéranger is but one example of an explanation which has fed the spiritual lives of saints such as St Thérèse of Lisieux and her family.

However, it is also legitimate to use the mysteries of the Rosary to engage with the mysteries that are made present at

the altar. When he was ill during his later years, and could no longer celebrate the Pontifical ceremonies, Pope John Paul was seen to move his Rosary in his hand while attending Mass celebrated by one of the Cardinals. Leading by example, the Pope removed any plausible excuse for disparaging the recitation of the Rosary at Mass as though it were a second-rate form of participation.

Outside of Mass too, the Rosary aids our liturgical life because either in preparation or in thanksgiving, or simply as part of our daily life of faith, it takes us to the heart of making our own offerings in union with the ends for which Our Lord offered Himself on the cross and offers Himself daily on our altars through the liturgy of the Church. These ends are: adoration, thanksgiving, propitiation, and impetration. In our offerings, the propitiation and impetration of the Redeemer are mirrored by our sorrow and supplication. If we train ourselves to make our own offering in this way, worthily, attentively, and devoutly we will steadily deepen in our union with Christ who offers Himself on our altars.

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OBITUARY

An old hand at the Mass Leo Darroch remembers Fr Wilfrid Arthur Elkin

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ather Wilfrid Elkin was born in Gateshead on 2 May 1935 and entered Ushaw College as a junior seminarian at age 11. He was ordained on 19 July 1959 for the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle and went on to serve in parishes in Sunderland, Newcastle, Consett, Ryhope, and Barnard Castle.

In his younger days, he and his father would go sailing off the Northumberland coast. Aptly, the boat was named The Welkin, derived from his name and was also a nickname given to him in seminary [Welkin: the celestial abode of God].

He was in Consett parish when the changes in the liturgy were introduced.

At the time he was enthusiastic and encouraged everyone to welcome them.

The congregation, however, was not as enthusiastic. He would sing “The Lord be with you”, and the response would be, “Et cum spiritu tuo”.

From Consett he was given his first parish at St Patrick’s, Ryhope, and was so admired by his parishioners that they successfully petitioned the bishop on one occasion to extend his stay there.

In many ways he was content with his simple life as a priest and was not one for golf or priest gatherings. He always had a dog for companionship and always from the local dogs’ home. He had diverse interests ranging from walking to keeping Koi carp, but he also kept up to date with modern technology and had a blog – named, appropriately, The Welkin.

Despite being active in his community and being supportive of numerous activities he was naturally modest and reserved. He once said that he had no favourites among his parishioners – everyone deserved the same equal respect. But he also said, “I am obliged to love my parishioners, I am not obliged to like them”.

In the early 1990s the Latin Mass Society obtained permission for a weekly Sunday Mass at St Dominic’s Priory in Newcastle and Fr Elkin volunteered to assist. He said he had to look out his Latin books to refresh his memory, but he quickly got back into the swing of things. He then started to celebrate Mass regularly in his parish at Ryhope and trained his teenage servers in the rite. He was transferred to Barnard Castle in 2001 where, of course,

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Fr Elkin offering Mass in St Cuthbert’s Chapel, Ushaw College

he also reintroduced the ‘old Mass’. He commented once that as soon as he uttered the words of consecration, he envisaged the altar and sanctuary being surrounded by myriads of angels darting around like fireflies in joy in the presence of God. In April 1998 Michael Davies visited his parish at Ryhope and gave a talk on the liturgical changes. In October of that year, he went to Rome to join the pilgrimage celebrating the tenth anniversary of the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei Adflicta.

He greatly enjoyed the experience of mingling in Rome with hundreds of likeminded clergy and meeting Fr Josef Bisig, the superior of the Fraternity of St Peter.

He was a staunch supporter of the Catholic Truth Society and for more than 30 years he ran the CTS bookshop in Newcastle. This bookshop was quite independent of the diocese, and he was dismayed when he was obliged to adopt the diocesan charity number, thus losing its independence. This proved to be fatal when, in 2001, the bishop closed the CTS shop in favour of the bookshop at St Mary’s Cathedral. Fr Elkin was devastated and took legal advice on the matter but without success.

In 2010 the LMS organised a priest training conference at Ushaw College.

Fr Elkin immediately volunteered to be a trainer. As a very experienced priest, who

had been celebrating the ‘old Mass’ before the liturgical changes were introduced, he was very much the respected ‘old hand’.

One of his young priest students from Glasgow, Fr Mark Morris, remembers Fr Elkin warmly for his great kindness, that he was tutored very well and that he was both very thorough and very specific in his teaching.

Towards the end of 2010 the closure of Ushaw College was announced. Fr Elkin made the comment, “Ushaw College is my alma mater, and is an essential part of the Catholic Church in the North of England; it should not be allowed to close”. He joined The Ushaw Catholic Heritage Group, and a business plan was submitted to the relevant authorities but to no avail. Although the college closed as a seminary it has remained in Catholic hands, and its religious significance and its past as a place of education and learning has been retained.

Father was so content in Barnard Castle that he stayed there in retirement. He died on 13 March 2021 and his sung Requiem in the Traditional Latin Rite was celebrated

by Bishop Robert Burn, CO. There was a full serving team and choir and the retired Bishop, Seamus Cunningham, and ten fellow priests attended in choir dress. Requiescat in pace.

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SUMMER 2021

FEATURE

His fertile pen…

Charles A. Coulombe remembers Catholic novelist Bruce Marshall

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ruce Marshall (1899-1987) was a household name in the 1950s – and not just among Catholics.

The famed Scots author wrote forty books – most of them novels – in a career that spanned seven decades. His fiction was noted for its combination of complexity and realism, and its tendency to point out the mixed moral nature of humanity; it was filled with the irony of real life. Moreover, it was funny – a good-natured humour born of knowledge and acceptance of human nature. This acceptance was born of Marshall’s wide experience in war and peacetime, and of his Catholic Faith, to which he converted in 1917.

Born in Edinburgh, when World War I broke out Marshall enlisted as a private in the Highland Light Infantry. Perhaps partly because of his conversion, when he was commissioned in 1918, he was assigned to the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Six days before the Armistice was signed, he was seriously wounded by shellfire; despite the danger, German medical orderlies risked their lives to save him.

During his brief stint as a POW, his leg had to be amputated because of the injuries he sustained. In 1920 he was invalided out of the service. During his convalescence Marshall’s first published work appeared, a collection of short stories entitled A Thief in the Night.

Regular career Resuming his education at the Universities of St Andrews’ and Edinburgh, in 1925 Marshall received his BA in Commerce and began his ‘regular” career as an accountant.

Taking up a post with the Paris branch of a British firm, he would live in France until 1940’s German invasion.

The previous year his first novel appeared. Entitled This Sorry Scheme, it was a realistic tale of a bad marriage.

In 1928, he married Mary Pearson Clark. Although he continued to write

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Bruce Marshall: life without the Catholic Faith was doomed to failure

novels, he only found real fame with Father Malachy’s Miracle in 1931.

It is important to remember that in the immediate post-World War I era most well-known novelists either ignored religion entirely or held it up to ridicule – and this was especially true of Catholicism. Men like James Joyce shed oceans of ink in this pursuit. But Marshall’s work was different: while on the one hand joyfully affirming the objective reality of the Catholic Faith, it did not spare the foibles of the Faithful – clerical or lay. So it was that the eponymous Fr Malachy, while blessed with a genuine miracle, also had to face indifference and/or hostility on the part of the hierarchy, lay Catholics, and non-believers.

After the success of FMM , Marshall plugged away at both writing and accounting. When the Germans invaded France in 1940, he fled to England with his wife, rejoining the army. He was assigned to Intelligence and spent the war working with the French resistance. Afterwards, he worked with displaced persons in Austria, and was mustered out of the army as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1946. He and his wife relocated to the Cote d’Azur and would live there until his death.

Marshall continued his writing in his new home and became sufficiently successful to give up his accounting work. In 1944, he produced The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith . This story of a holy and believing priest in a rundown Scots industrial town has often – and rightly – been compared with Georges Bernanos’ Diary of a Country Priest . Such clerics would continue to populate such of Marshall’s works as A Thread of Scarlet, Father Hilary’s Holiday, and The Month of the Falling Leaves. But his fertile pen was far from restricted to such directly clerical topics. A steady stream of espionage, historical novels, and nonfiction flowed from Marshall during these productive years. Adaptations of his work made their way to film, television, and radio.

'In the immediate post World War I era, most well-known novelists either ignored religion entirely or held it up to ridicule...'

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FEATURE Blazed a trail It may well be said that he blazed a trail for such modern Catholic novelists as J.F. Powers and Flannery O’Connor, who like himself adopted a realistic vision of a Faith which was as firmly planted in this world as in the next.

Marshall serves as a bridge between the interwar Catholic Literary Revival and these postwar greats. Yet, his work has seemingly vanished from both the secular and the Catholic markets and is not to be seen in major anthologies of Catholic authors. Why would this be?

Part of it may be assigned to the decidedly ambiguous motives and morals of many of his characters – Catholic and non- and anti-Catholic alike. Although he certainly has heroes and villains, Marshall also gives a great many characters who are like us: mixed, uncertain, and often far more like our opponents than we would like to admit. This unsparing view of even his fellow Catholic was not calculated to win approval from those of his co-religionists who preferred to see fiction involving the Faith in pure black and white.

But an increasingly hostile secular literary establishment could not be expected to embrace him either.

Unlike such figures as Graham Greene whose own doubts were reflected in their work, Marshall offered no such indecision. His characters might be mixed, and their own faith might be tainted or even ridiculous, but not the objects of their belief. A bishop or priest might be greedy, blind, or traitorous, but the Great God Who made Heaven and Earth still came down to the altar at their bidding. So too with the faithful. Whatever their failings, their prayers went up to a Heaven that hears them.

Hostile reaction There is a third factor, however.

Even as Marshall had been a keen-eyed observer of the travails of the Church and the world through the two great wars and the period between them, so too he proved to be with both the postwar scene and the chaos that affected the Church in the wake of Vatican II. In his 1970 novel The Bishop, he lampooned the hostile reaction of trendy clergy to Humanae Vitae. Three years later came its sequel of sorts, Urban the Ninth, a “Catholic comic thriller,” which featured the Pope elected in the disastrous wake of Pope

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‘Starting in 1970, he became involved with both the nascent Latin Mass Society and Una Voce, serving as the head of the Scottish branch of the latter organisation in 1973’ Marx the First, who had vanished in an airplane crash. That renegade Pontiff is found alive and forms the subject of the next in the series, likewise named Marx the First . The returned Pope’s radicalism and the resistance to it may eerily remind the reader of certain recent developments. The last of these Catholic dystopian novels is Peter the Second, which features a Soviet apparatchik who undergoes a genuine conversion, enters the priesthood, and reverses the doctrinal and liturgical havoc wreaked by his predecessor – while allying politically with the Soviet Union.

Despite the dark comedy of this series, it does reflect the deep concern that Marshall developed for the direction in which the Church appeared to be headed. Starting in 1970, he became involved with both the nascent Latin Mass Society and Una Voce, serving as the head of the Scottish branch of the latter organisation in 1973. From then until

his death in 1987, Marshall was as deeply concerned with defending the Church’s tradition as he was with lampooning its opponents in his fiction. In today’s climate, that by itself would be more than enough to guarantee him anonymity.

For the rest of us, however, it makes him a figure to emulate. Just as he viewed the everyday world through the eyes of an unsparing Faith, so should we. While making every allowance for fallen human nature, he nevertheless held out for both wonder and redemption. For Marshall, any attempt to accurately depict or understand life without the Catholic Faith was doomed to failure – just as eliminating any other key factor would be. In essence, defending Catholicism was defending objective reality. In a world dedicated to sordid fantasy, His is a message we would do well to hear. Certainly, his books could do with a rereading.

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WINE

Well-kept secret Sebastian Morello reports from a land where most wineries are still owned by monasteries

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hen I married a Romanian, I did not know much about Romania. As a teenager I had enjoyed reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the inspiration for whose villain was Wallachia’s (not Transylvania’s, note) Prince Vlad the Impaler. That was about the extent of my knowledge concerning Romania. Around the same time as I read Stoker’s novel, I joined my school’s Expeditionary Society. Consequently, with Prince Nicholas of Romania – also a member of the Society – I trekked the Sudanese border, climbed to the summit of Mount Kenya, and hiked the coast down to Mombasa, but Nick liked to downplay his royal credentials, so I took little notice.

Soon after my wife and I married, I acknowledged the duty to educate myself on the history of Romania. My wife bought me an English translation of A Brief Illustrated History of the Romanians, which is a not-so-brief history of the three principalities by the brilliant historian and diplomat, Neagu Djuvara, a devout Catholic and Knight of Malta.

One of the advantages of belonging to an island people is that one’s national history is remarkably linear and easy to learn. Romania’s history, on the other hand, is extremely chaotic, with borders constantly moving, and so many families involved in dynastic squabbles that just learning the names of the competing houses makes one dizzy. Nonetheless, what I discovered in the pages of Djuvara’s book was the story of an amazing people, with a fascinating history reaching back to when records and myths become indistinguishable. Furthermore, I began to recognise the debt of gratitude our civilisation owes to the Romanians.

Much of Eastern Europe is not under the Islamic crescent because, for centuries, Romania’s fierce princes fought for Christ, and died for Him too.

Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu comes to mind. He formed an alliance with the Habsburgs against the encroaching Ottoman forces. Eventually Brâncoveanu was captured. Having been

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taken to Istanbul with his four sons, they were all tortured for days before execution. He led his sons through an act of contrition before he and they were beheaded at the command of Sultan Ahmed III. Brâncoveanu was the last to be executed, and so was made to watch his sons die, beginning with the eldest. The youngest son, Matei, was 12 years old. Prince Matei was so frightened at seeing the decapitation of his three brothers that he began to cry and beg for his father’s permission to renounce Christ and apostatise to Islam. Brâncoveanu replied, ‘My boy, of our kind, none have lost their faith; it is better to die a thousand times than to leave your ancient faith just to live a few more years on earth.’ The young prince regained his courage and offered his head. The four martyred sons were then joined by their father. Brâncoveanu’s name lives on with the architectural style he founded, the Brâncovenesc style, that remains one of the Balkans’ many aesthetic wonders.

It was all very well learning about Romanian history and culture from conversations with my wife, from books, Wikipedia, and eventually a tour of Wallachia and Transylvania, but alongside such a cultural education, I needed something to drink. In turn, I discovered the largely hidden realm of Romanian wine – a well-kept secret.

The Russians know about it, but we of the West remain in the dark.

Romanian wines are appreciated more by those with a liking for heavy New Worlds, like South African clarety blends or Argentine Malbecs. Romanian reds are heavy and packed with complex flavours, and have an almost magical way of drawing one into a pensive, contemplative state. When I discovered Romanian wines, I could not quite believe it. They are so tasty, and in Romania you get high quality at a low price. Most wineries are still owned by monasteries, and have grown up under the chanting of monks and the rattle of the semantron.

I made a few mistakes during my journey of discovery through the world of Romanian wines. I once bought a bottle of red solely because it had a splendid picture of Michael the Brave on the label. Having uncorked the wine with a friend, we soon accepted that the grand voivode’s portrait was the only fine thing about it. Generally speaking, however, Romanian wines are excellent.

Wine-making is in the culture. Most households make their own, which tends to be a bit rough, but has an earthy charm that deserves respect.

On my mother-in-law’s last visit to the UK, she brought me a bottle of Alira Grand Vin, made with the uniquely Romanian Fetească Neagră grapes. This was a really special wine. If you ever have the opportunity to enjoy a bottle, do not pass it up. The tasting notes attached to the wine are as follows: ‘Dominated by strong white truffle, the wine gradually opens up to black fruits, fresh and smoked plums, eucalyptus and espresso foam; dark chocolate flavour is combined with bitter cherries, soon revealing notes of blood oranges of Sicily and Cayenne pepper in a long and fruity finish.’ This description certainly reveals how ridiculous wine-speak can be. My own advice for enjoying this wine: steak. Yes, to really enjoy this wine, you require a very large T-bone steak, rare (blue, even), seasoned with nothing but salt and pepper, and some green vegetable on the side if you really must. Having filled your cheeks with red meat, just let the wine speak for itself.

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COMMENT

Called to the Poor Clares Mary O’Regan on the Venerable Margaret Sinclair The family Rosary was offered every night and Margaret and her parents were seen every day at St Patrick's, their local church. Margaret benefitted from Pope Saint Pius X's exhortation to frequent communion, and she did her utmost to receive as often as possible.

From her earliest years, Margaret had to make hard sacrifices. When her mother fell ill, she had to stay away from school and earn pennies scrubbing floors. Everything intensified when her father had to leave for France to fight in the trenches of World War I.

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first heard of Venerable Margaret Sinclair in less than ideal circumstances. I was reading about the late Jimmy Savile when I learned that Savile's mother, Agnes Kelly had prayed to Venerable Margaret when her son was ill. Agnes believed that Venerable Margaret had interceded for him.

This autumn marks the tenth anniversary of Savile's death, and those who are researching his early life may read about Venerable Margaret for the first time and may be inclined to lump sordid sinner and saint together.

Perhaps I am alone in wanting to extricate Venerable Margaret from her link to a terrible man, but in order to defend Margaret, I have had to study her life. There is an added urgency in that Pope Francis is set to visit Scotland in November and His Holiness may raise the question of furthering Margaret's cause of canonization.

Margaret was born in 1900 in a three-room basement flat in a derelict tenement in Edinburgh. She was the daughter of a dustman who had become a zealous convert to Catholicism at the urging of his devout wife. They named her Margaret to thread a link with Scotland's Catholic heritage - the stone chapel which had been the personal oratory of the Queen and Pearl of Scotland, St Margaret was not far away.

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‘She had a particular reliance on the power of the Holy Name. When she felt herself tempted, she offered the Name ten times and always felt the temptation pass’ Margaret then left school for good and became a French polisher. She was esteemed by her employers for her incredible work ethic and the quality of her craft. One day, she found a picture of Mary Immaculate on a pile of rubbish.

Promptly, she dusted it, kissed it and hung it over her workshop. Her boss took it down, but Margaret retrieved it and re-hung it.

The strikingly beautiful Margaret attracted a young man, Pat Lynch, who had been badly traumatised in the trenches and had abandoned his Catholic faith. Margaret took pains to bring him back to the fold.

Pat wanted to marry but Margaret felt a calling to be a Poor Clare nun.

She was blessed with a most astute spiritual director, Fr Thomas Agius.

When he asked her why she wanted to be a Poor Clare, she said it was because she wanted to suffer with Jesus. She had a particular reliance on the power of the Holy Name. When she felt herself tempted, she offered the Name ten times and always felt the temptation pass.

The Poor Clares of Edinburgh could not give her a place, so she went to London to the sisters of Notting Hill. The more reserved English sisters kept their distance from this emotional newcomer, but her first day tears were soon forgotten as she settled in and amazed the other sisters with her appetite for hard work. She was given the name Sister Mary Francis of the Five Wounds, perhaps the most fitting name ever for a Franciscan because it honours the founder and the wounds of Christ which Francis bore.

But Margaret was not universally popular. Her accent was sometimes mocked and at least one sister developed a great jealousy of her.

Margaret's superiors gave her the post of extern, which meant she had a role outside the convent. She solicited money and begged for food.

She walked to nearby Portobello Market and brought home donated vegetables and fruit.

One day on a London bus, Margaret sat next to a woman who seemed terribly consumptive with a wild, terrible cough, but rather than move and hurt the woman's feelings, Margaret kept her company. Soon after she became ill with tuberculosis.

She had to leave Notting Hill and go to the Vincentian Sisters in Warley where she was nursed. As she lay dying, she was stung by a bee.

Margaret said: "It is but a splinter of the Cross." She breathed her last with the Name of Jesus on her lips.

Those who pray to Margaret are astounded at how promptly she intercedes for them. She is known particularly for helping the dying.

The nun who had been jealous of Margaret all those years ago, lived into her nineties and called on Margaret to assist her in dying.

Margaret had a most extraordinary charisma and exceptional holiness; indeed, there was nothing at all ordinary about this so-called ordinary girl.

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FEATURE

Lectio Divina Edward Kendall on the transformative practice of sacred reading

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e find happiness in having a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives, which for me is rooted in a personal heart-to-heart relationship with Jesus Christ. However, to know Jesus and to spread that joy to others it is imperative that we encounter Him not only in the Sacraments, but also in the Scriptures. I have encountered the risen Lord in a particular way through the practice of reading the Gospels slowly and meditatively, paying attention to what words, images or actions strike me when reading. For example, it may be the case that an attraction to a certain action or virtue of Jesus in the Gospels is God speaking to me to emulate that in my own life.

This type of Bible-reading is commonly known as Lectio Divina.

Lectio Divina is a Latin phrase which comes from St Benedict’s Rule for monks (it is a crucial pillar of monastic life) and is often translated as ‘sacred reading.’ Pope Francis defines it as “reading God’s Word in a moment of prayer and allowing it to enlighten and renew us” (Evangelii Gaudium, 2014).

This practice is transformative and cultivates within us the attitude of the boy Samuel, who had been instructed to respond to God’s call to him with the words: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10).

This type of Bible-reading is often done as a solitary practice, but it can also be done communally. For instance, I am part of what is called a Lectio group, which means that every week I gather with a group of friends and one of us reads the following Sunday’s Gospel aloud. Reading the Gospel aloud means that everyone is involved in a shared, live experience.

Group members are encouraged by the leader to respond personally, sharing feelings and thoughts provoked by the reading. There is no need for group members to speak – it is fine to just listen. Communal Lectio Divina helps us to understand our individual and collective inner lives, round the same table, at the same time. It opens our

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Lectio Divina is a Latin phrase which comes from St Benedict’s Rule for monks

hearts to what the risen Christ wants to say to us in His Word so that we can “put it into practice” (Luke 8:21).

Lectio Divina is also an excellent way for Mass-goers to better prepare for the reception of Our Lord in both Word and Eucharist; especially if you are praying with the liturgical readings (or at the very least the Gospel) for the following Sunday or holy day of obligation. How much more meaningful will the sermon be when we have already prayed over the texts upon which it is based beforehand.

Lectio Divina with the liturgical

readings is a wonderful way to better attain that “active participation” in the Mass that the Second Vatican Council called for, regardless of whether you attend the Ordinary Form or the Traditional Latin Mass. Lectio Divina tied to the liturgical cycle of readings is a good way of tying our personal prayer lives to the weekly Sunday Eucharist which is the “source and summit of the Christian life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1344).

Dr Peter Kwasniewski, who will be known to many readers, is also a keen advocate of Lectio Divina and told me, “The untiring and ceaseless love of God, His justice and mercy, His invitations to me to renounce or to embrace, these keep coming through the divine words, and make all other human words relative, as they are and should be.”

He added, “Lectio has taught me in a practical, experiential way how the Bible is different from any other book, and I know that it has thereby joined me to all the saints of the Church who used to practice it and who acquired so much of their wisdom from it.”

In case anyone should think Lectio Divina is a practice reserved for monks or the especially pious, I will draw your attention to these words of St John Chrysostom: “‘I am not,’ you will say, ‘one of the monks, but I have a wife and children, and the care of a household.’ This is what has ruined everything, your thinking that the reading of Scripture is for monks only, when you need it more than they do.

Those who are placed in the world, and who receive wounds every day have the most need of medicine” (Second Homily on Matthew).

With these words ringing in your ears, I would encourage you to take time to listen to what Our Lord may be saying to you personally in the Scriptures and then, if you are so inclined, joining a Lectio group or starting your own in order to introduce others to the joy of encountering the risen Lord in this way.

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FEATURE

The Sister Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus

Paul Waddington reports on the remarkable growth of this order of nuns

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n 2001, an order of nuns was founded to be the female counterpart of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest. It was given the rather long title of the Sister Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus Christ Sovereign Priest. It is a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right, and the vocation of the nuns is to pray for the sanctification of priests and to support the work of canons of the ICKSP in their various apostolates. They do this in many ways including teaching in schools, singing at Mass and leading eucharistic adoration.

The sisters lead a semi-cloistered life, and their daily routine includes chanting the Office, as well as attending Mass and Benediction and reciting the Rosary. Between these, they find time for work and recreation, as well as for meals that are eaten in silence. The work, or labora, can be varied. Besides cooking and cleaning, the sisters may be involved in sacristy work, teaching, and the making and repairing of vestments. The sisters have also earned an enviable reputation for the quality of their singing.

In 2005, three sisters moved into their first house, the House of the Royal Heart, located in the village of Seici, only a mile from the Institute’s seminary at Gricigliano, near Florence. Originally named Villa Cerbiosa, this large mansion was in a very dilapidated state, but has gradually been brought up to modern standards. It remains the Mother House of the order.

Rapid growth From small beginnings, the order has grown rapidly. It now has around 60 members, and typically attracts about six recruits each year. After spending a year as a postulant, the young nuns can expect to take the habit and spend a further three years as

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novices before taking final vows.

The second house acquired by the sisters was the House of Maria Engelport, in the Rhineland region of Germany. Formerly owned by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, it is a traditional stopping point for pilgrims en route to Compostela. This large building was in good structural and decorative order, and the sisters were able to continue to run it as a guesthouse without too much work being required.

The third house to be acquired by the Sisters of the Royal Heart of Jesus was in the Jura region of Switzerland. Purchased in 2011 from the Fathers of the Holy Sacrament, this former boarding school has an idyllic location amid meadows and forests. After extensive restoration, it was renamed the House of the Eucharistic Heart, and reopened as a guesthouse and retreat centre. The extensive grounds allow youth camps to be held in the summer months.

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FEATURE Preston In 2018, the sisters were able to open a convent at Preston in England. The Canons of the Institute already had responsibility for two large churches in Preston, so it was very convenient that the Bishop of Lancaster invited the sisters to establish a convent in the presbytery of the former Church of St Augustine.

Since the convent is not too far from either of the Preston churches, the sisters are kept busy supporting the work of the canons. Most noticeably, they can be seen singing Gregorian chant every day. They also teach the school children at St Benedict’s Academy and look after the sacristies.

A major development for the sisters was their taking possession of a large convent in Naples. Placed under the protection of St Thomas Aquinas, the Naples convent has, since 2019, served as the Noviciate for the order. Besides having a large chapel, the convent boasts a central cloister and an extensive garden planted with lemon trees. The buildings were in an advanced state of dilapidation, but with help from seminarians, the sisters are gradually restoring the ancient buildings.

A further convent has been opened near Livorno in northern Italy. Set in extensive parkland, the Villa of the Sacred Heart was originally the summer residence for the seminarians of the Diocese of Livorno.

More recently, it had been occupied by canons of the Institute serving apostolates in the surrounding area.

When a church in central Livorno was entrusted to their care, the canons were able to move into the presbytery, leaving the House of the Sacred Heart available to become a convent. Five sisters moved into the villa from Germany, bringing with them their sewing equipment and skills. It has become a centre for vestment making.

The sisters first venture into the United States also occurred in 2019 when Bishop William Callahan welcomed the order to the Diocese of Lacrosse. A former guesthouse in Wausau, Wisconsin was purchased, and adapted to become the Convent of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Located near to the Institute’s Oratory of St Mary, it is well placed for the sisters to help the canons in their pastoral work.

The eighth and most recent convent to be acquired for the Sisters of the Royal Heart of Jesus is in Ireland. It was announced in April 2021 that the former convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Ardee, Co. Louth, had been purchased so that a community could be set up in Ireland. This purpose-built convent, standing in ten acres of grounds, dates from the 1850s, and has been maintained in very good condition. The sisters have yet to move into their new home in Ardee, but are expected to do so later this year.

Please pray for the souls of all members who have died recently Requiescant in Pace John Adams James Aherne David Ashley David Brady Jennifer Burke Daphne Farmar Maurice Foley John Kim Terence McAuliffe Every effort is made to ensure that this list is accurate and up-to-date. However, if you know of a recently deceased member whose name has not, so far, appeared on our prayer memorial, then please contact the LMS, see page 3 for contact details.

The LMS relies heavily on legacies to support its income. We are very grateful to the following who remembered the Society in their Will: John Kim

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CROSSWORD Clues Across 1 Saint and Order founder whose 800th anniversary is in early August (7) 5 Red reference to Norman King who disputed strongly with (St) Anselm (5) 8 ‘ On y soit qui --- y pense’, motto of the Order of the Garter (3) 9 Mercantilist contribution to building of many of Norfolk’s churches (4,5) 10 ‘----- erat in principio’, Glory Be (5) 11 Early converts linked to SS Paul, John and Mother Mary (9) 14 Small blue wildflower with traditional herbal use (8) 18 Person responsible for the cultivation of grapes (5) 21 Person who leaves this world though not spiritually! (9) 22 St John Vianney, often known as the “Curé d'---" (3) 23 Queen of, who made noted entrance in Handel’s Solomon (5) 24 Pagan practice of the black arts (7)

Alan Frost: July 2021

ANSWERS TO SUMMER 2021 CROSSWORD

Across: 1 Cranmer 5 Summa 8 Nod 9 Lancaster 10 Irene 11 Scrivener 14 Ember Days 18 Udine 21 Pergolesi 22 Oar 23 Siena 24 Messiah Down: 1 Canticle 2 Andrew 3 Malteser 4 Ringer 5 Shaw 6 Matron 7 Acre 12 Vesuvius 13 Research 15 Barrie 16 Anselm 17 Tivoli 19 Spes 20 Iota

Clues Down 1 Terminus of the Road of St Paul’s conversion (8) 2 Pagan god of the Canaanites (Deutr.) to which sacrifice made (6) 3 Abbey in Notts. (originally Augustinian Priory) sometime home of Byron (8) 4 ‘------ Patrick’, mountain and major pilgrimage site in Co. Mayo (6) 5 Saint of Cascia, Augustinian nun, Patron of lost causes (4) 6 St ------ Domitilla, granddaughter of emperor Vespasian, banished for her faith (6) 7 Ancestor of Abraham, a son of Noah (4) 12 ‘-------- Mundi’, painting by Leonardo portraying Jesus as the Redeemer of the world (8) 13 Room near the altar for storing vestments, religious items and records (8) 15 Mythological northern goddess giving name to Feast of the Resurrection (6) 16 Village near Jerusalem towards which the risen Christ walked with the unwitting Cleopas (6) 17 Of natural abilities as opposed to taught (6) 19 Member of a choir (4) 20 Leading Spanish painter sometimes upset the Church authorities (4)

Entries for the autumn 2021 competition should be sent to the Latin Mass Society, 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH or scanned and emailed to info@lms.org.uk, to arrive before Friday 10th September 2021.

The winner of the summer 2021 competition is Mrs Ross of Cornwall, who wins a copy of How to Attend the Extraordinary Form by Joseph Shaw.

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS Guild of St Clare: Oxford sewing group meets fortnightly on Thursday evenings.

Email for further information: lucyashaw@gmail.com Guild of St Clare: Bobbin Lace for Beginners. Ongoing course, fortnightly on Thursday evenings, Oxford. Email for further information: lucyashaw@ gmail.com Guild of St Clare: Autumn 2021 Sewing Retreat at Douai Abbey, 12-14th November, with Fr Tim Finigan. Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, RG7 5TQ. Now fully booked: still possible to join the waiting list through the LMS website.

Guild of St Clare: Spring 2022 Sewing Retreat at Douai Abbey, 4-6th February 2022, with Fr Stephen Morrison OPraem.

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

Online Christian Latin and New Testament Greek Courses with Matthew Spencer. For ongoing courses, email Matthew Spencer matthewjaspencer@ yahoo.com St Tarcisius Server Training Days / Guild of St Clare Vestment Mending Days: 25 September in St James' Spanish

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Place, London; 20 November in St James' Spanish Place, London. Please book on the LMS website for the Server Training; email lucyashaw@gmail.com for the Vestment Mending. In both cases all levels of skill are welcome!

Tailored online Latin lessons Informal Latin lessons offered, tailored to individual requirements, whether you want one or two lessons to help understand what's being sung at Mass; help with Latin schoolwork; or a full introduction to the language. Email Daniel Nicholls at danieljpnicholls@ gmail.com to discuss your needs.

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

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

AUTUMN 2021

BOOKS X-Ray of the Priest in a Field Hospital: Reflections on the Sacred Priesthood

By Fr Armand de Malleray, published by Arouca Press.

Fr Armand de Ma l l e r a y will be familiar to readers of this magazine. His latest book, X-Ray of the Priest in a Field Hospital, is what one reviewer called, ‘a back to basics call for the Latin clergy’.

Fr Aiden Nichols OP went on to say that the book ‘merits a wide readership’.

Other reviewers have been equally enthusiastic.

Fr James Jackson FSSP said the book is a ‘timely yet classic approach to the priesthood’. LMS Chairman Joseph Shaw wrote: ‘Fr de Malleray’s reflections on the nature of the priesthood are fascinating and perceptive, and will edify both clerical and lay readers.’

X-Ray of the Priest in a Field Hospital is available from the LMS bookshop £13.41 inc postage.

Living the faith, living the future: The Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite Declaration of the International Federation Una Voce The International Federation Una Voce (FIUV), founded in 1965, brings together associations of the lay faithful attached to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite (the Traditional Latin Mass).

In 2007, the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum recognised the vitality of the traditional liturgy, the freedom of priests to celebrate it, and of the faithful to request it. This has led to an ongoing increase in the number of celebrations of the ancient Latin Mass, and of its spiritual fruits.

During 2020 the FIUV conducted a worldwide survey of the faithful on the implementation of Summorum Pontificum. From this survey, which included results from 364 dioceses in 52 countries, we found: • The ancient Latin Mass is deeply appreciated by groups of faithful of all ages, especially families with children, young people and converts, found in all social and cultural environments, on all continents and in an ever increasing number of countries.

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• In many areas the increased availability of this Mass has favoured the normalisation of relations between the faithful attached to it and their bishops, relations increasingly characterised by mutual understanding and respect.

Nevertheless, we have noticed that, contrary to the previous policy of the Holy See, there are still people within the Church, including some bishops, who would like to see the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite explicitly suppressed, or subject to further restrictions. For this reason, the FIUV, in view of the faithful who adhere to the Latin Mass, feels the duty to express its opinion, encouraged

by Pope Francis' exhortations to the members of the Church to use parrhesia with the necessary humility.

The growth of interest in the traditional liturgy is not due to nostalgia for a time we do not remember, or a desire for rigidity: it is rather a matter of opening ourselves to the value of something that for most of us is new, and inspires hope. Pope Francis has characterised the ancient liturgy in

terms of a "sense of adoration" (Press conference of 28 July 2013), we can also apply his words to it: a "living history that welcomes us and pushes us forward" (Evangelii Gaudium 13).

Today we only wish to be part of that "great orchestra" of "unity in variety" which, as Pope Francis said (General Audience of 9 October 2013), reflects the true catholicity of the Church. The Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum continues to transform the conflicts of the past into harmony: long may it to continue to do so.

Felipe Alanis Suarez, President www.fiuv.org

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