What they said…

Here we reprint the comments of just a few of those forty-eight prominent figures who signed the petition

As the last edition of Mass of Ages was going to press back in July, a remarkable letter appeared in The Times under the headline “Latin Mass at risk”. Credible reports indicated the Vatican was poised to issue further restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass and 48 prominent figures from British national life intervened in a direct appeal to Pope Francis. They spoke of the traditional liturgy as, “a ‘cathedral’ of text and gesture” and appealed to the Pope against the “painful and confusing prospect” of its destruction.

We swiftly reassembled the magazine and were able to include the letter and commentary by our chairman, Dr Joseph Shaw. It is understood The Times letter was delivered to the Holy Father in person and what may have surprised him is the diverse range of support for the Traditional Mass existing in Britain.

The letter’s architect, the composer Sir James MacMillan, told us: “The people who have signed this letter are an impressively mixed bunch! Catholics, Protestants, Jews, agnostics, atheists - all convinced that the Traditional Latin Mass is a thing of great beauty, wonder and awe, and a profound shaper of our culture, one way or another over the centuries.”

Writing in the Spectator, LMS Patron Lord (Charles) Moore described this breadth of support, saying: “Signatories included Ian Bostridge, Nina Campbell, Lady Antonia

Fraser, Dame Jane Glover, Michael Gove, Tom Holland, Tristram Hunt, Lord LloydWebber … Fraser Nelson, Sir Andras Schiff, Rory Stewart, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.” He went on to say: “The British media almost ignored the story, but it was big worldwide.” Various signatories have gone on record describing why they signed the letter –

The economist

Economic historian Lord Skidelsky spoke about the sacrality of the Mass saying: “What prompted me to sign the letter, was my hostility to the secularisation of religion.

The argument of course is that the vernacular makes religion more accessible. I believe on the contrary that the elimination of the sense of the sacred tends to the redundancy of religion.”

The author

A. N. Wilson commented. “There is a great strength and profundity in the awe-struck silence of the rubric of the old rite, which reminds me … of the Christmas carol – ‘How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.’” He went on to remark that: “Anyone who has read David Jones’ Anathemata, which is a commentary on the old Mass, would not contemplate its abolition.”

The historian

Tom Holland said the reason he signed the letter was: “Because the Catholic Church is an institution that provides the twenty-first century with a living link to medieval civilisation, and, before that, to the empire in which Christianity itself was incubated, and the Latin Mass serves as a particularly potent manifestation of that link.”

The political commentator Rory Stewart observed: “The Traditional Latin Mass is a rare and precious connection to the deep history of the church … [extending back] to the church fathers, to the whole community of past believers and communities of worship linked through the language of the liturgy.”

The churchman

Following the petition, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, Archbishop Emeritus of Guadalajara, wrote to the Holy Father saying: “It cannot be wrong … the Mass of Saint Pius V in Latin… naturally invites one to penetrate into the Mystery of God.” He remarked: “Individuals and groups, both Catholic and non-Catholic, have expressed the desire for it not to be suppressed but preserved, because of the richness of its liturgy.” He reminded the Holy Father: “You are the guardian of the historical, cultural, and liturgical richness of the Church of Christ.”

Sir James MacMillan told The Latin Mass Society: “If Rome were to do what is rumoured, it would be grossly unjust.” He said: “Many observers outside the Church, in these difficult days of ideological and political tension, see this now as an issue of religious freedom.” Sir James explained his motivation saying: “It is surely a mark of diversity, inclusion and equity that the Church can celebrate different rites - the Old Dominican rite, the liturgy of the Ordinariate, the rites of our eastern co-religionists, the Novus Ordo and, God willing, the Traditional Latin Mass.”