Making good things happen - Joseph Shaw on the resurgence of interest in the Traditional Mass

In this edition of Mass of Ages, I am able to take stock of many of our most important summer events. The St Catherine’s Trust Summer School, which is supported by the Latin Mass Society, took place as it has for nearly 20 years, with the highest numbers ever in its current venue, St Cassian’s Centre in Berkshire. Our annual Latin Course, though a small-scale event, also had the highest numbers of students ever, and I was glad we took the precaution of engaging three Latin tutors for the first time since it started in 2009. Our annual walking pilgrimage to Walsingham was the largest ever, continuing an extraordinary growth spurt which has taken us from 90 pilgrims pre-Covid to 220 this year. All over the country, indeed, congregations at the Traditional Mass have grown, as has the Society’s social media presence: our Twitter/X account, @latinmassuk, now has 34,800 followers.

The resurgence of interest in the Traditional Mass is a world-wide phenomenon: record numbers have made the pilgrimages to Chartres in France and to Covadonga in Spain, for example. It is our task to try to keep up with it: to put on events, answer enquiries, offer training, engage with the media, and maintain a dialogue, whenever possible, with the hierarchy.

The success of the events just mentioned is testament to the fact that the Latin Mass Society is an organisation that makes good things happen. Indeed, these events are only some among a wide range of our activities, which include research, lobbying, and publishing: including of this magazine. All these things are needful: small but vital components in the restoration of the Traditional Mass to a place of honour in the Church.

The Society’s membership is essential to this work. The most obvious, but perhaps the least significant, is the income we receive from subscriptions. A more subtle difference members make is by giving the Society locus standi: standing, a right to speak on your behalf, in light of your needs and views.

A most important advantage of having a large membership is that we

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

From CracksintheCuria,orBrotherCholericRidesAgain by can communicate more effectively with members than with the wider public. Members naturally hear about our events, respond to our news and comment articles, and volunteer for us in all sorts of roles, far more than non-members. Again, our members represent the Society to those they meet: they can recommend our events, and feed back to us through their Local Representatives the information they learn and the attitudes they encounter. The commitment represented by joining, small as it is, is the basis of a community. It is not just that you support the Traditional Mass, but that you support the Latin Mass Society as a means to support it.

If you are reading this as a member, I offer you my thanks. If you aren’t a member yet, or have forgotten to renew your membership, please consider joining or rejoining. If you have a life-threatening allergy to joining organisations, you can subscribe to our free electronic newsletter, find this magazine in your local church, and follow us on social media. We have invested in these free channels of communication because we want as many people as possible to be in touch with us as closely as possible. We want you to know what we are doing; we want to hear from you; our events need you as volunteers.

The work of the Latin Mass Society doesn’t happen automatically: it is the result of sustained effort – effort that has been sustained, indeed, over sixty years, by the Society, which means by our members. As we gear up for our 60th anniversary next year, we must acknowledge our debt not only to our founders, but to the many who followed them, and have passed the torch on to us. We are proud of what they achieved, in the most difficult circumstances, and I think they would be delighted by what we have been able to do more recently. But the story does not end there: our work must go on. Join us, and help to make yet more good things happen.