There is certainly no shortage of priests and seminarians who are keen to learn
Š Joseph Shaw
Learning curve Paul Waddington reports from a successful priest and server training conference
T
he Latin Mass Society’s latest residential conference for training priests to celebrate Mass, and laymen to serve at Mass in the Extraordinary Form took place at Prior Park College, Bath from 9 to 12 April. The students were comprised of ten priests, two permanent deacons, four seminarians and fifteen laymen; and they came from nine dioceses in England, as well as two dioceses in Scotland. The Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was well represented, and there was one visitor from Malta. Tuition was given for both clergy and lay people in Low Mass, Missa Cantata and Solemn Mass, and provided by members of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter and the Birmingham Oratory, as well as diocesan priests. Serving at Low Mass was taught by experienced laymen. All students reported making good progress, with one priest able to celebrate his first Extraordinary Form Mass on the last day of the conference.
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Prior Park College has a beautiful chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows. It is built in the classical style, and has an acoustic which is perfect for sacred music. Dominic Bevan had put together an excellent polyphonic choir, which was directed by Thomas Neal, and sang at each of the daily Solemn Masses. It was pleasing that several visitors attended each of the Solemn Masses, some being so impressed, especially by the music, that they returned on subsequent days. The recent conference was the third to be held at Prior Park College, and the thirteenth to be organised by the LMS since they began in 2007. Previous conferences have been held at Merton College Oxford, All Saints Pastoral Centre London Colney, Ushaw College, Radcliffe College and at Belmont, Downside and Buckfast Abbeys. Prior Park has proved a good venue, mainly due to the splendour of the chapel, and the several side chapels which are convenient teaching locations.
Over the years, since 2007, more than 200 priests have successfully been trained to celebrate at least a Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Most of these have been from England, Wales and Scotland, but some have come from overseas countries including Ireland, Spain, Italy, Poland, the United States of America, St Lucia, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Sri Lanka and Australia. On one occasion, we were pleased to welcome Bishop Slattery from the Diocese of Tulsa in the USA. Many have commented that tutoring priests in the traditional form of the Mass is perhaps the most valuable service that the Latin Mass Society can provide in the modern Church. There is certainly no shortage of priests and seminarians who are keen to learn. The absence of any systematic teaching of the Mass of Ages in any of the seminaries administered by the Bishops of England and Wales is an omission that sorely needs rectifying.
SUMMER 2018
