Mass of Ages The quarterly magazine of the Latin Mass Society
Issue 197 – Autumn 2018
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Š John Aron
LMS National pilgrimage to Holywell A Sermon on the Most Holy Eucharist
By HE Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana Plus: news, views, Mass listings and nationwide reports
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Contents
CONTENTS
5 Chairman’s Message Joseph Shaw on how the Church continues to bury her undertakers 6 LMS Year Planner – Notable events 7 Liturgical calendar 8 A Sermon on the Most Holy Eucharist By HE Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana in St Mary Moorfields, London on 24 May, 2018
12 ‘He placed Himself in the Order of Signs’ Dr Mary A. Coghill remembers David Jones (1895-1974) painter, poet and World War I veteran
14 Poland's Catholic Church takes on its critics By Jonathan Luxmoore 16 Reports from around the country What’s happening where you are 24 Art and Devotion Caroline Shaw on Correggio’s The Madonna of the Basket 26 Comment
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Mary O’Regan laments the recent abortion referendum result in Ireland 27 Prison through the eyes of a Chaplaincy Volunteer
28 Architecture Paul Waddington visits Prior Park College, Bath 30 Simplicissimus Joseph Shaw on a new edition of the Latin Mass Society’s Latin Course Book 31 On a mission… Do we still believe in the Hierarchy? Asks Fr Bede Rowe 32 Letters Readers have their say 33 Mass listings
40 An historic first Alan Frost reports from Birmingham Oratory 41 House trained Lone Veiler on fighting for the family 42 Roman report Alberto Carosa remembers His Eminence Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos 44 Eucharistic indifference The complete restoration of Eucharistic reverence is essential to the integrity of the Church, says Laurence England 46 Crossword and classified advertisements
47 Macklin Street The Latin Mass Society 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH Tel: 020 7404 7284 editor@lms.org.uk Mass of Ages No. 197 Cover image: Holywell pilgrimage © John Aron
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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.
25 PATRONS: Sir Adrian Fitzgerald Bt, Lord (Brian) Gill, Sir James MacMillan CBE, Colin Mawby KSG, Charles Moore COMMITTEE: Dr Joseph Shaw – Chairman; Kevin Jones – Secretary; David Forster – Treasurer; Paul Beardsmore – Vice President; Paul Waddington – Vice President; James Bogle, Eric Friar; Alisa Kunitz-Dick; Antonia Robinson; 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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SUMMER 2018
CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
You should see the other guy! Joseph Shaw on how the Church continues to bury her undertakers
T
he history of the Church since the French Revolution may easily seem to be a history of failure: a succession of defeats. Recent events have done nothing to change this perception, and the prospects for the immediate future look no rosier. One can even lapse into a sense of the inevitability of the Church’s decline, a sense which can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is important to keep the larger historical narrative in view. This wider view reveals something interesting. The 16th century persecutors of the Church no longer exist: their attitudes and ideas, and to a large extent their institutions, have crumbled into dust. The Jacobins and Bonapartists who thought they had inherited the earth and would rid it of the Church, have similarly disappeared. The same goes for the Anti-Clerical parties of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Nazis, and the Communists. Like the Roman and Persian persecutors of Antiquity, as organised ideological groups they have for practical purposes ceased to exist: they are dead. The Church’s difficulties are certainly serious, and her continued existence in England is no more guaranteed than it was in 16th century Sweden or 8th century Carthage. Nevertheless, through all these difficulties she continues to bury her undertakers: those who thought that, at last, they would finish her off. You think the Church is looking a bit beaten up? You should see the other guy. Something else to notice is that if the Church in the year 2000 seems worse off than in 1500, the half-millennium between those dates was by no means an uninterrupted process of decline. During that time the Church evangelised the Americas, not only converting millions of souls, but making possible
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new avenues of art, intellectual life, and personal sanctity. In the Old World, after the disasters of the Protestant Revolt, and again after those of the French Revolution, the Church experienced periods of remarkable rebuilding. The Church in England and Wales saw an extraordinary period of growth over a century and a half starting in the early 19th century: this encompassed the restoration of Catholic institutions such as schools and monasteries, the restoration of the parish system and the hierarchy, and the reception of converts in large numbers, including a stream of public figures, writers, and intellectuals. There is nothing inevitable about the Church’s decline: it is not fixed in the stars. History is not linear: the Church experiences both headwinds and periods of stability and growth. The problems we are experiencing now will in time give way to more favourable conditions. That is not, however, an argument for sitting back and letting history take its course. On the contrary, the witness of the Church during the difficult periods is of immense importance for the succeeding age. The Catholic martyrs and confessors of Penal Times in England and Wales were, in truth, representatives of a steadily declining remnant of Catholic faithful in that period, but against the odds they maintained the continuity of the Catholic community, and their heroic sufferings were the key inspiration, and a public badge of authenticity, for the Church here when the storm had passed. The 19th century Catholic Church in England and Wales was not the Church of people who had lapsed under pressure or run away: it was the Church of those few who had stood their ground, and in many cases had died for the truth. This is why the Catholic Church’s prospects in England and Wales in, say, 1800, were so different from the Church’s prospects in Scandinavia or Saxony. The English Church’s material and human resources might have seemed close to
zero, but there was something to build on, in practical and particularly in moral terms, and that made all the difference. We might say that the importance of the behaviour of the few remaining Faithful under persecution is magnified in comparison with the efforts of Catholics in happier times. The witness of St John Fisher and St Thomas More reverberates down the ages for their fellow-countrymen, in a way that the work and witness of even major figures like St Aelred of Rievaulx or St Vincent Ferrer do not. This difficult time presents us with an opportunity to play a part in the mission of the Church of far greater significance than would be possible for us as individuals in other ages. What degree of continuity, of fidelity to what has been passed on to us, will we bequeath to our children and grandchildren? What kind of witness and inspiration will we be for the Church of the future? Redimentes tempus, quoniam dies mali sunt: ‘Redeem the time, for the days are evil.’ (Eph. 5:16).
"I expect it's something to do with the new liturgy."
From Postumous Cracks in the Cloisters by Brother Choleric (Dom Hubert van Zeller), 1962.
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EVENTS
LMS Year Planner – Notable Events AGM and High Mass: Saturday, 11 August 2018 LMS Annual General Meeting in the Cathedral Hall, Westminster at 11.30am, at which the guest speaker will be the Rt Rev. Mgr Gordon Read, LMS National Chaplain. A buffet lunch will be provided for paid-up members, for which there is a nominal charge of £5 per head. Lunch must be booked in advance via our website or by telephoning the Office. This will be followed by High Mass in the Cathedral at 2.30pm, the celebrant will be Mgr Read. Non-members are, of course, welcome to attend the Mass. Walsingham Pilgrimage: Thursday, 23 – Sunday, 26 August 2018 LMS Walking Pilgrimage from Ely to Walsingham. This will be our ninth walking pilgrimage to Walsingham for the conversion of England. Pilgrims meet at Ely on the Thursday evening and, after Mass early Friday morning, start the walk to Walsingham. Upon their arrival, High Mass will be celebrated at 2pm in the Chapel of Reconciliation, followed by a walk along the Holy Mile to the Abbey ruins in the village for final devotions. There will be a Missa Cantata in the Slipper Chapel on the Monday at 10am. We have organised a coach to take day pilgrims from London to Walsingham for Mass on the Sunday. Sign up today! York Pilgrimage: Saturday, 1 September We thank the Fathers of the York Oratory in Formation for kindly organising a pilgrimage to honour St Margaret Clitherow and the York Martyrs. The format of the pilgrimage has changed this year, please see the full-page advertisement elsewhere in this edition of Mass of Ages for details. LMS Pilgrimage to Glastonbury, Saturday, 8 September By kind invitation of Fr Bede Rowe, Rector of the Shrine of Our Lady St Mary of Glastonbury, our annual pilgrimage takes place on the Feast of the Nativity of the BVM and begins with High Mass at 11.30am in the Parish Church, followed by devotions. All welcome! Missa Cantata in Snave: Saturday, 22 September For the fourth year running, with grateful thanks to the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust, the LMS has been invited to celebrate Mass in St Augustine’s, Snave in Kent. This year Fr Marcus Holden (Rector of the Shrine of St Augustine in Ramsgate) will be with us again. Music will be supplied by The Victoria Consort, under the direction of Dominic Bevan, and will include works by Francisco Guerrero and Peter Philips. Annual Committee and Reps Meeting: Saturday, 6 October Each year members of the LMS Committee and Local and Assistant Representatives meet together to discuss the work we do around the country, share ideas and take the opportunity to get to know each other. This year the meeting be held at Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street, London, by kind invitation of Fr Mark Elliott Smith. The meeting starts
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at 11am, Mass will be celebrated at 12 noon followed by a buffet lunch (supplied by the LMS). The meeting resumes after lunch and should be finished by about 3.30pm. We would like to encourage all our Reps to be with us. Missa Cantata in Southwark Cathedral: Saturday, 20 October Mass for the feast of St John Cantius will be celebrated at 10.30am. Music by Cantus Magnus, directed by Matthew Schellhorn, is to be announced. LMS Pilgrimage to Aylesford: Saturday, 27 October Our annual pilgrimage to The Friars, the home of the Carmelites established in 1242 and the site of St Simon Stock’s mystical vision of the scapular. The complex houses the Shrine which contains the Relics of St Simon Stock. Further details about the pilgrimage can be found on our website. Annual Requiem Mass: Saturday, 3 November Pontifical High Mass of Requiem, for the repose of the soul of departed members and benefactors, will be celebrated by Bishop John Sherrington, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster at the High Altar of Westminster Cathedral at 2.30pm. Absolutions at the catafalque will follow the Mass. Please attend if you can. Confirmations in the Traditional Rite: Saturday, 17 November Bishop John Sherrington will confer the Sacrament in St James’s, Spanish Place at 11.30am. To register your child or yourself for Confirmation, please complete the registration form on our website. The deadline for registering and submitting the required documentation is Friday 19 October. Guild of St Clare Sewing Retreat: Thursday, 23 – Sunday, 25 November Following the success of their Retreat in Oxford, the Guild has organised a second retreat to take place in Douai Abbey, in Berkshire. For more information please contact Lucy Shaw on lucyashaw@gmail.com
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 AUTUMN 2018
LITURGICAL CALENDAR
Liturgical calendar AUGUST 2018 Sun 12 XII SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 13 FERIA IV Cl G Tue 14 VIGIL of the ASSUMPTION of the BVM II CI V Wed 15 ASSUMPTION of the BVM I Cl W Thu 16 S JOACHIM FATHER of the BVM II CI W Fri 17 S HYACINTH C III Cl W Sat 18 OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV Cl W Sun 19 XIII SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 20 S BERNARD Ab C D III Cl W Tue 21 S JANE FRANCES FREMIOT de CHANTAL W III CI W Wed 22 IMMACULATE HEART of the BVM II Cl W Thu 23 S PHILIP BENIZI C III Cl W Fri 24 S BARTHOLOMEW Ap II Cl R Sat 25 S LOUIS K C III Cl W Sun 26 XIV SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 27 S JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS C III Cl W Tue 28 S AUGUSTINE B C D III CI W Wed 29 BEHEADING of S JOHN the BAPTIST III Cl R Thu 30 S ROSE OF LIMA V III Cl W Fri 31 S RAYMUND NONNATUS C III Cl W SEPTEMBER 2018 Sat 1 OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV Cl W Sun 2 XV SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 3 S PIUS X P C III Cl W Tue 4 FERIA IV CI G Wed 5 S LAURENCE JUSTINIAN B C III Cl W Thu 6 FERIA IV Cl G Fri 7 FERIA IV Cl G Sat 8 NATIVITY of the BVM II Cl W Sun 9 XVI SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 10 S NICHOLAS of TOLENTINO C III Cl W Tue 11 FERIA IV Cl G Wed 12 MOST HOLY NAME of MARY III Cl W Thu 13 FERIA IV Cl G Fri 14 EXALTATION of the HOLY CROSS II Cl R Sat 15 SEVEN SORROWS of the BVM II CI W Sun 16 XVII SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 17 FERIA IV Cl G Tue 18 S JOSEPH of CUPERTINO C III CI W Wed 19 EMBER DAY II Cl V Thu 20 FERIA IV Cl G Fri 21 S MATTHEW Ap Evangelist II Cl R Sat 22 EMBER DAY II Cl V Sun 23 XVIII SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 24 FERIA IV Cl G
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Tue 25 Wed 26 Thu 27 Fri 28 Sat 29 Sun 30
FERIA IV Cl G FERIA IV Cl G SS COSMAS & DAMIAN MM III Cl R S WENCELAUS Duke M III Cl R DEDICATION of S MICHAEL ARCHANGEL I Cl W XIX SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G
OCTOBER 2018 Mon 1 FERIA IV Cl G Tue 2 HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS III Cl W Wed 3 S TERESA of the CHILD JESUS V III Cl W Thu 4 S FRANCIS C III Cl W Fri 5 FERIA IV Cl G Sat 6 S BRUNO C III Cl W Sun 7 XX SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 8 S BRIDGET W III Cl W Tue 9 S JOHN LEONARDI C III Cl W Wed 10 S FRANCIS BORGIA C III Cl W Thu 11 MOTHERHOOD of the BVM II Cl W Fri 12 FERIA IV Cl G Sat 13 S EDWARD K C III Cl W Sun 14 XXI SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 15 S TERESA V III Cl W Tue 16 S HEDWIG W III CI W Wed 17 S MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE V III Cl W Thu 18 S LUKE Evangelist II Cl R Fri 19 S PETER of ALCANTARA C III Cl W Sat 20 S JOHN CANTIUS C III Cl W Sun 21 XXII SUNDAY after PENTECOST II Cl G Mon 22 FERIA IV Cl G Tue 23 S ANTHONY MARY CLARET B C III Cl W Wed 24 S RAPHAEL ARCHANGEL III Cl W Thu 25 FERIA IV Cl G Fri 26 FERIA IV Cl G Sat 27 OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV Cl W Sun 28 OLJC the KING I Cl W Mon 29 FERIA IV Cl G Tue 30 FERIA IV Cl G Wed 31 FERIA IV Cl G NOVEMBER 2018 Thu 1 ALL SAINTS I Cl W Fri 2 COMMEMORATION of all the FAITHFUL DEPARTED I Cl B Sat 3 OUR LADY’S SATURDAY IV Cl W Sun 4 IV SUNDAY remaining after EPIPHANY II Cl G Mon 5 FERIA IV Cl G Tue 6 FERIA IV CI G Wed 7 FERIA IV Cl G Thu 8 FERIA IV Cl G Fri 9 DEDICATION of the ARCHBASILICA of the SAVIOUR II Cl W Sat 10 S ANDREW AVELLINO C III Cl W
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FEATURE
A Sermon on the Most Holy Eucharist
By HE Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana in St Mary Moorfields, London on 24 May, 2018. Photos by John Aron
Dear brothers and sisters! Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). Jesus remained with us in the sacraments, particularly in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit who stays always with us. The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, dwells in those souls who live in the state of grace. The Holy Spirit lives always in the Church, because the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. The soul gives life to the body and to each of its parts. When the souls departs from the body, the body becomes dead, without life. This applies also to the Church. The Church cannot live without the Holy Spirit. The Church cannot move without the Holy Spirit. All good and saintly deeds in the Church are accomplished with the help of the Holy Spirit.
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FEATURE
W
hich is the greatest, the most important, the most indispensable act, which the Church could accomplish? This act is the celebration of the Holy Mass. And why? Because the Holy Mass is really and substantially the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. It is the same and identical sacrifice, which Jesus offered upon the Cross for the salvation and the eternal redemption of humankind. On the Cross Jesus accomplished the most sublime act of the adoration of the Father, of the whole Holy Trinity, offering as the High Priest the sacrifice of His body and of His blood. He did this through the Holy Spirit (cf. Heb. 9:14), with the power of the eternal flame, Who is the Holy Spirit and Who burned always in the soul of Jesus.
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The sacrifice of the Cross, offered through the power of the Holy Spirit, is really and actually present in all its substance and in all its effects in the celebration of the Holy Mass. Jesus, our High Priest, offers continuously, that means without interruption, His sacrifice through His priests. The human priest is the living instrument of Christ. The human priest was made a true priest by the power of the Holy Spirit. The human priest offers in the celebration of the Mass also through the power of the Holy Spirit the immense and divine sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ is to such an extent great, that it cannot be limited in the tight frame of time and space. The sacrifice of Christ is infinite and eternal. Whenever Holy Mass is celebrated, heaven is being opened, and Jesus Christ, our Eternal High Priest, is present with His immolated body, with His blood poured
out, with His merciful heart where, without interruption, burns the flame of the act of His total surrender to the Father for the salvation of men. Hence, in the Mass we are gazing spiritually at the living Christ with His wounds, His luminous and radiant wounds like divine diamonds. The mystery of the Holy Mass shows us the truth that Jesus Christ is our High Priest “ever living to make intercession for us� (Heb. 7:25). In each Holy Mass the heaven is being opened and with our spiritual eyes we see the immense glory of God, we see with the eyes of our soul the immolated and living Lamb, before Whom prostrate all the Angels and Saints in heaven, falling
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down on their face, adoring and glorifying Christ the Lamb with joyful and awed love. When the priest offers the sacrifice of Mass in the moment of the consecration and elevation of the living and immolated body of Christ, the heavens are being truly opened. What should we do in these sublime moments? We also should fall down on our knees, offering to our Savior the affects of our love, of our contrition and of our gratitude, pronouncing in the depth of our heart may be such words as: “Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me poor sinner”, “My Lord and my God, I believe”, “My God and my all”. Then, this Eucharistic Body of Christ, filled with the immense Divine glory and with His radiant wounds is being carried by the consecrated hands of the priest in order to be delivered to our souls as Divine food in the moment of Holy Communion. And what we shall do in this moment? Without any doubt we should greet our Lord in the same manner as did the apostle Saint Thomas, who fell down upon his knees professing: “My Lord and my God!”. Saint Peter Julian Eymard said: “Has Jesus not a right to still greater honours in His Sacrament since He multiplies His sacrifices therein and abases Himself more? To Him the solemn honours, the magnificence, the richness, the beauty of worship! God regulated Mosaic worship in its minutest details, and it was only a symbol. The worship and honours paid to
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Jesus Christ are the measure of the faith of a people. Let honour therefore be given to Jesus Eucharistic. He is worthy of it; He has a right to it” (The Real Presence. Eucharistic Meditations, New York 1938, pp. 144.147). The form of the Holy Mass which we celebrate today, is the form which had been celebrated even in its details for more than a thousand years. All our ancestors, almost all Saints whom we know from the second millennium, as for example Saint Francis, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint John Marie Vianney, Saint Therese of Child Jesus, Saint Padre Pio, the young Saints: Saint Maria Goretti, Saint Francisco and Jacinta of Fatima: all were drawing their spiritual strength from this immemorial liturgy of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
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This form of the liturgy is therefore very ancient and venerable; it is the form which expresses the constant liturgical tradition of the Church. It should therefore not be called the “Extraordinary Form” of the Mass, but the “more ancient and constant form” of the Mass. The Church makes it available to us in our days. In this way we can feel as one and the same big family, which embraces Christian generations of more than a millennium. This represents for us a moving fact, which fills us with gratitude and joy. We not only have the same faith, we can as well pray and glorify God in the same liturgical manner, which has
been valid and which had been loved by our ancestors. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Come, O Holy Spirit and make our faith unshakeable, so that we may not allow ourselves to be confused in our holy convictions by whomever. Come, O Holy Spirit and kindle in our soul the flame of a deep and awed love for the Eucharistic sacrifice and the Eucharistic Body of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, stay always with us with your holy Sacrifice and with your Eucharistic Body. The Eucharist is our true sun, our true life, our true happiness, our paradise already here on earth. Amen.
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FEATURE
‘He placed Himself in the Order of Signs’ Dr Mary A. Coghill remembers David Jones (1895-1974) painter, poet and World War I veteran
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David Jones in 1914: he tried a monastic lifestyle at Capel-y-ffin in South Wales and then with the Benedictines on Caldey Island
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Latin Mass will be said for the repose of the soul of David Jones at 4pm on 13 October 2018 in the Lady Chapel at Westminster Cathedral. The Mass will be said by Father John Scott. All are welcome to attend. This is the regular monthly Latin Mass Society Mass and the dedication to David Jones is with their kind permission. David Jones was always interested in the pictorial arts and he became a prolific and well known artist. He attended Camberwell Art School before volunteering for the First World War. The photo is of David Jones as a young man just before he went to France. It is copyright of the Trustees of the David Jones Estate and is reproduced here with their kind permission. He served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and was wounded more than once. It was while he was in the trenches that he witnessed a Catholic Mass being said in a barn, with bales of straw as the altar, and this began his eventual conversion to Catholicism. After the war he completed his studies at the Westminster School of Art and often attended Mass at Westminster Cathedral nearby. Monsignor John O'Connor instructed David Jones and received him into the Catholic Church in 1921 (he also received G.K. Chesterton into the Catholic Church in 1922). It is hard to do justice to a life that was a pilgrimage of the artist’s search to express art and sacrament. His early biblical themed woodcuts and etchings are apparently simple but express a committed religious expression. His faith was interpreted through profound reading and lengthy discussions concerning his faith and art. He lived for a time with Eric Gill and The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic at Ditchling, Sussex. He then tried a more monastic lifestyle at Capel-y-ffin in South Wales and then with the Benedictines on Caldey Island.
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FEATURE His health broke down and with the encouragement of friends he began to write about his wartime experiences in what became the book length poem: In Parenthesis (Faber, 1937). He finished this book while in Sidmouth, Devon at The Fort Hotel, financially supported by friends. The poignancy of this book over-rides the difficulty with the text. His later poem The Anathemata (Faber, 1952) is a highly complex work which could only be written after David Jones had left his war-time experiences behind. It is a poem which, as its title indicates, contains a layering of sacred fragments as an interpretation of his life and faith. He provides a booklist in the Preface which includes: Jacques Maritain Art and Scholasticism, Sheed and Ward, 1932 and Maurice de la Taille, S.J. Mystery of Faith (originally Mysterium Fidelis, 1915) 1941, Sheed and Ward. De la Taille’s explication of the Eucharist at The Last Supper and the final Passion of Christ perhaps informed David Jones’ own interpretation of the sacrifice of the soldiers in the First World War. It is from the 1934 edition of de la Taille’s work that the quotation in the title of this article comes: ‘He placed Himself in the Order of Signs’. David Jones wrote about his own life and art in his book Epoch and Artist (Faber, 1959). This is a collection of essays and of particular interest is his essay entitled: ‘Art and Sacrament’, written in 1953 (pp143-179). In this essay he wrote: ‘the Tree of the Cross presupposes the other Tree, and stretches back to the ‘ “truly necessary sin of Adam” .’ Trees as the subject in Jones’ paintings often contained the religious imagery in a natural form. David Jones was a very sociable person. He was often visited by friends and frequently travelled to stay with a number of them. His health was often poor and he was afflicted with persistent insomnia. He read widely, spending many hours in his room without the need for other stimulus. After some years of living in bedrooms at a number of hotels, his health deteriorated and he went to stay at The Calvary Nursing Home in Harrow. This was run by the sisters of The Company of Mary. The home was closed in 1975. It is with the kind permission of the Order that the photo of the chapel at this home, where David Jones heard Mass, is shown for the first time.
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The Calvary Nursing Home at Harrow
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REVIEW
Poland's Catholic Church Takes on its Critics By Jonathan Luxmoore
K
rakow, Poland - On the edge of this city of 760,000, Poland's second largest, an ornate basilica rises across a sweeping hillside, shaped like a boat with a 240-foot viewing tower for its mast. In the distance, chapels and walkways punctuate the undulating landscape, while to the north the view broadens out over the gables and steeples of Krakow, a city boasting more churches per square mile than either Rome or Jerusalem. When the shimmering white complex was completed in 2002, it became the world centre of the Divine Mercy movement, long nurtured by Krakow's most famous son, Pope St John Paul II. Equipped with relics of St Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), the cult's founder, it vividly symbolised the influence of Poland's Catholic Church in the years since fall of communism. Today, that influence is being challenged increasingly, as a controversial nationalist government courts Church support in the face of threatened Western sanctions, against a background of falling vocations and Mass attendance. When the Polish Church's Statistics Office published data earlier this year, Sunday participation had dropped by three percentage points in just a year, with a third of Poles now coming regularly, compared to more than half two decades ago. Admissions to Poland's 83 Catholic seminaries are dwindling as well, along with vocations to its 104 female religious congregations, raising fears of a future clergy shortage. Inevitably, some have linked the decline to weak leadership by the country's Catholic bishops, who've been accused of being too close to the current government, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice party (PiS).
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Others vigorously reject this, and pin the blame instead on the secularising pressures at work in Poland as in other liberal democracies. The Polish Church has faced criticism on other counts as well, notably over its apparent prevarication towards new the pastoral approaches favoured by Pope Francis, and its reluctance to accept migrants and refugees from the Middle East. But it has been its ties with the PiS government which have provoked most controversy. Since its election landslide in October 2015, PiS has been under attack for making changes to Poland's judicial system and state media, which critics say will undermine democracy and legality by centralising power and restricting free speech. Government supporters insist the replacement of judges and media directors was needed to ensure greater accountability. However, the reform
package has sparked protests from the opposition Civic Platform and sanction threats from the European Union, where Kaczynski's former arch-rival, Donald Tusk, is President of the intergovernmental European Council. In November 2017, the EU's Parliament invoked Article 7 of a 2007 Treaty on European Union and demanded Poland's suspension from decision-making unless it cancelled the reforms. PiS's backers insist the dispute has been blown out of all proportion by Poland's pro-opposition media, as well as by European politicians pushing their own agendas. Zdzislaw Krasnodebski, a PiS member, now Vice-President of the European Parliament, says previous Polish governments have made parallel reforms without provoking controversy. The PiS government's international critics should take greater note of its tough pro-Western stance on defence and security, as well as the long-delayed economic and social
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REVIEW improvements now underway under President Andrzej Dudek and Premier Mateusz Morawiecki. "A good opposition should criticise government - but it should also challenge fake news about its own country," Professor Krasnodebski argues. "Instead, this absurd, alarmist picture has been allowed to emerge that rights and freedoms are being violated. In reality, there's no difference between Poland, Germany and other Western countries.” The MEP blames the Civic Platform for refusing to accept its 2015 defeat. He predicts the EU's sanctions threat will founder as Hungary, Austria and other countries oppose intervention - against a government which, for all the threats and criticisms, still leads in opinion polls. As for the Church, Krasnodebski dismisses claims about its close ties with PiS as another "media confabulation". In reality, Poland's bishops have kept a careful distance from Kaczynski's party, knowing public opinion won't tolerate a politicised Church. On several occasions, the bishops have harshly criticised the PiS government. In September 2017, when PiS leaders backed calls for new war reparations from Germany, Church leaders warned against their "thoughtless decisions and rashly spoken words". And when the Israeli Government and Jewish organisations condemned a new PiS-backed law in late January, criminalising claims about Polish complicity in the Holocaust, most bishops maintained a studied silence - condemning a wave of anti-Semitism touched off by the dispute, and later welcoming the government's June decision to modify the law. Professor Jan Zaryn, a Polish senator and top historian, agrees most bishops will naturally prefer PiS to other parties, given its supportive attitude to the Church. In its resolution last November, the European Parliament also threatened action if Polish MPs voted for a bill to curb abortions on handicapped foetuses - an initiative backed by 830,000 people in a petition to the Polish parliament. That PiS has vowed to resist such interference and will clearly win the bishops' favour, Zaryn concedes. But they'd favour other parties equally if they similarly defended Poland's Christian heritage. "The Church doesn't have a duty of loyalty to any political force - and there are certainly contrasting political sympathies and antipathies within the Bishops’ Conference", the historian says. "But
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while the impression remains that EU officials are trying to steer developments in Poland and muzzle Catholic views, it's obvious there'll be areas of agreement." The Polish Church's image hasn't been helped by its sometimes over-emotional language. In late June alone, one bishop, Stanislaw Stefanek, told Catholics at the Jasna Gora national sanctuary that Europe's democratic system was being maintained by "intrigues and infidelities... judicial crimes and lying parliamentary findings". Meanwhile, the Bishops’ Conference President, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, celebrated the 1050th anniversary of Poland's first Christian see by accusing Europe of succumbing to "flabby totalitarianism" and a "dictatorship of materialism". Communism and consumer society shared the same materialist aims, Archbishop Gadecki added - to manipulate human beings by a "powerful bureaucratic and media system, and a language modified by propaganda". If Europe's system of parliamentary democracy no longer relied on violence, it still sought, like communism, to "deprive the person of identity and responsibility". Malgorzata Glabisz-Pniewska, a senior Catholic presenter with Polish Radio, nevertheless believes pluralism has now taken root in the Church, ruling out a uniformity of views. While all Polish bishops are united around key issues such as abortion, euthanasia and faith in the public sphere, she says, some are ready to acknowledge and confront current problems firmly and openly. In May, Poland's Catholic Primate, Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Gniezno, warned that some parishes risked "turning into ghettos", composed of "selfsatisfied people who isolate themselves from others". Another Archbishop, Grzegorz Rys of Lodz, cautioned his Church that it risked losing support from young people unless it drastically revised its pastoral approach. "We've turned God into a collection of notions, abstractions and definitions", the Archbishop told journalists. "We need to switch from working in mass groups and percentages to working in an individual, personal dimension. It's a lesson we must learn in the Polish Church as quickly as possible.” In this changing environment, phrases like "the Church says" or "the
Church thinks" no longer carry much meaning, Glabisz-Pniewska argues. Last December, the Polish Bishops’ Conference launched a glossy Twitter feed to counter criticisms, while its Catholic Information Agency (KAI) ran an inventory of appeals for unity and harmony by the country's bishops. Although this isn't likely to appease the Church's opponents, some Catholics see positive signs. More than 60 percent of Poland's 10,000 parishes now have their own internet sites, suggesting the Church is keeping up with technology. And while participation may be falling overall, the Church's data show higher numbers are now receiving sacraments. In some dioceses, such as Tarnow in the southeast, Mass attendance still runs at two-thirds, a figure which would be the envy of the Church in other countries. Fr Wojciech Sadlon, the Church Statistics Office director, thinks Polish Catholicism is witnessing a transition from quantity to quality, as falling numbers combine with deeper commitment. "These figures shouldn't fuel a sense of guilt that things were better before - the Church remains itself, whatever its size and strength," Fr Sadlon told the KAI agency. "Of course, it doesn't always fulfil its apostolic mission perfectly, and often lacks evangelical witness both from priests, religious and lay faithful. But its responsibility lies in being able to spot its weaknesses and make improvements." Those "improvements" will certainly include seeing problems and challenges in a calmer, more rational way, and moving away from rhetorical simplifications and stereotypes. But while these are still resorted to by some Polish bishops, they abound in other quarters too. "Though certain processes are driving secularisation here, Polish Catholics are still propping up Church life in many parts of the world", says Jan Zaryn, the Polish historian. "We have to get used to knowing there's room for various tendencies and preferences in the Church, and that priests and bishops, like all citizens, have different views and ways of expressing them". Jonathan Luxmoore covers Church news from Oxford and Warsaw. His twovolume study of communist-era martyrs, The God of the Gulag, is published by Gracewing. Vol I: Martyrs in an Age of Revolution and Vol 2: Martyrs in an Age of Secularism are available from the LMS shop, £20 each + p&p
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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
DIOCESAN DIGEST Mass of Ages quarterly round-up
ARUNDEL & BRIGHTON Anne-Marie Mackie-Savage 01323 411370 We have recently been lucky enough in the Diocese to have enjoyed Missa Cantata in West Grinstead, Seaford, and Eastbourne in addition to our regular monthly Masses. Thanks to all the priests who give so generously of their time! We sadly lost another member of the LMS recently. Miss Barbara McIlvenna was one of the first members of the LMS, and profoundly knowledgeable regarding all things traditional. A wealth of wisdom and information, she is missed by all her friends. It is also incredibly sad that she did not receive the Requiem Mass she stipulated. In spite of her wishes, her family overruled them. It's an uncomfortable truth that for many of us with lapsed or NO family, this may very well happen to us. Even when clearly spelled out, people are not getting the Requiem Masses they request. Personally, I think I need to be more pro-active, and a re-write of my Will might be in order. Unless I am given the Requiem I ask for, Aid to the Church in Need or another worthy cause will receive any inheritance I might be able to leave. So please, if you want a Requiem, don't assume it's a done deal, not everyone sees its importance.
BIRMINGHAM (City and Black Country) Louis Maciel; Tel: 07392 232225 louis.maciel@gmail.com birmingham-lms-rep.blogspot.co.uk This quarter saw two rather special events at the Birmingham Oratory: firstly, on the spring bank holiday High Mass was celebrated in the Extraordinary Form for the first time on the feast of their patron, St Philip Neri, which was possible because the feast in the Ordinary Form fell during the Octave of Pentecost. On Pentecost itself, Fr Dominic celebrated the weekly 10.30am High Mass as his First Mass, after being ordained the day before during the Royal Wedding, the first time a First Mass has been celebrated in the Extraordinary Form at the Oratory and possibly uniquely outside the exclusively Traditional Orders. The Sacred Heart was well celebrated, with Low Masses on the Friday at the Oratory, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Wolverhampton and St Mary on the Hill, Wednesbury, and High Masses at St Augustine’s in Solihull and, as an external solemnity on the Sunday, the Birmingham Oratory. The Mass at St Augustine’s could be known as the Mass of three choirs, successfully combining the church choir with a chant group from St Dunstan’s and a Palestrina Mass sung by the choir of St Alphege. St Dunstan’s also celebrated a Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart a week later. Corpus Christi and SS Peter and Paul saw the now regular pattern in the region of a Low Mass at St Mary on the Hill
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and a High Mass at the Birmingham Oratory. The former also celebrated Low Masses for the feasts of SS John Fisher and Thomas More, the Transfiguration, and several votive Masses for the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturdays during June. Our Lady of Perpetual Succour celebrated its quarterly High Mass on the Feast of the Visitation. The regular Friday Mass was moved to Saturday morning during the novena.
BIRMINGHAM (North Staffordshire) Alan Frost 01270 768144 Masses continue each Sunday and Saturday (fortnightly) at Our Lady’s, Swynnerton, courtesy of Fr Paul Chavasse, Cong. Orat. An unusual addition to the Saturday Masses was the celebration of the Mass by an Oratorian brother of Fr Paul’s in July - Fr Richard Bailey, based in Manchester, Fr Paul being a member of the Birmingham Oratory. Fr Bailey brought along confrere Br Gerald, as well as a number of the congregation who attend the weekly EF Mass at St Chad’s in Manchester (Cheetham Hill). Fr Chris Miller continues to offer the Traditional Mass each First Friday at Sacred Heart, Tunstall in Stoke-inTrent, though, like Fr Paul in recent months, he has medical surgery to undergo in the near future. Nevertheless, he will be celebrating a Requiem Mass in the EF at Sacred Heart Church on the Feast of the Holy Souls. We might pray for the success of the operation Fr Miller has to undergo, and also for a dear friend of the LMS and celebrant of the EF Mass for many years, Fr Joseph Tynan, who is seriously ill. BIRMINGHAM (Oxford) Joseph Shaw 01993 812874 oxford@lms.org.uk NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS The Oxford area has seen many Traditional Masses in the last quarter, including our annual Mass in Milton Manor House and, over the diocesan boundary in Portsmouth Diocese, occasional Sung Masses celebrated by Fr Philip Pennington-Harris in the English Martyrs, Didcot, which are gradually attracting more parishioners. In the next quarter the annual LMS Oxford Pilgrimage takes place, on Saturday 20th October, in honour of Oxford's Catholic martyrs. There will be a High Mass in the Dominican Rite in Blackfriars at 11am, and other devotions. All the important feasts will be marked by Sung Masses at SS Gregory & Augustine at 6pm: see the Mass listings. Regular Masses continue at the Oratory, SS Gregory & Augustine's, St Birinus, and (in Portsmouth Diocese) Holy Rood, Abingdon Road.
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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY At Holy Trinity, Hethe, Sung Masses on the 2nd and Last Sundays are arranged over the Summer, but the situation there is under review, so please check the local website. A new initiative in the last quarter was a Mass of Reparation for abortion, and in particular the Irish Referendum, which was celebrated in SS Gregory & Augustine: the Votive Mass pro remissione peccatorum. On November 28th a Votive Mass in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be celebrated there for the same intention (Sung Mass at 6pm).
BIRMINGHAM (Worcester) Margaret Parffrey Tridentine Rite Masses continue at our Mass centres in Kidderminster & Evesham, both have their own priests Fr Lamb & Fr Christopher. At Redditch we depend on visiting priests, we are grateful to Fr Lamb & Fr Christopher who have helped. Our future at Redditch depends on finding that person who can save our Mass Centre on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 6pm. Our Lady of Fatima save us. Mass at Kidderminster 1st Sunday of the month at 3pm. Mass at Evesham every Tuesday at 7 pm.
CLIFTON James Belt & Monika Paplaczyk 07890 687453 lmsclifton@gmail.com lmsclifton.blogspot.co.uk Sunday 1 July saw the return of the Traditional Mass to Bristol. Fr Rupert Allen, Chaplain to Bristol University and the University of the West of England, now celebrates a Low Mass every Sunday at 12:30pm, in the University Chaplaincy. This was the first time the Old Mass had been celebrated in a Diocesan church or chapel in Bristol since the closure of Holy Cross, Bedminster, in February last year. Around 25 faithful were present, some of whom had not attended the Latin Mass since before the changes of the 1970s. We are grateful to Fr Allen, and to Bishop Declan Lang, for this new initiative. Fr Allen also led a day of recollection at the Chaplaincy the following Saturday, 7 July, focusing on the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The day began with Low Mass and the Rosary, after which Father gave some talks. We finished the day with Exposition, devotions to the Precious Blood and Benediction. The newly-ordained Fr Seth Phipps, FSSP, celebrated two First Masses in Clifton, his home diocese, during the week following his ordination. The first of these was a Low Mass in his parish church, St John the Evangelist, Bath, followed two days later by a High Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes, WestonSuper-Mare. The annual LMS pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Glastonbury will be on Saturday 8 September this year. There will be a High Mass in the Shrine Church at 11:30am, followed by lunch. We will pray the Rosary at 2pm, then finish with Exposition, Confessions and Benediction.
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EAST ANGLIA (West) Alisa and Gregor Dick 01223 322401 The Masses at Blackfriars continue as usual. We recently had a Missa Cantata at Pentecost; thank you to everyone involved. Our congregation continues to grow, especially with families and a good number of students. We are, however, still in need of more choir members and servers. The children learning Latin and Greek are progressing steadily as well, with three earning the Omega Medal, two the Epsilon Badge, and one the Beta Badge. HEXHAM & NEWCASTLE Keith McAllister 01325 308968 07966 235329 k_mcallister@ymail.com Latin Mass provision has continued as before, with the exception of St Mary’s Barnard Castle, where, sadly, the deteriorating health of Fr Wilfrid Elkin has halted the Sunday & Tuesday Masses. For Corpus Christi we had Low Mass and Benediction celebrated at Coxhoe by Fr Shaun Swales. There was also a Sung Mass with the Durham Juventutem group, celebrated by Fr Michael Brown at St Cuthbert’s in the city. In the absence of an organist the student choir sang acapella enthusiastically. Following the withdrawal of English Heritage permission for the annual Brinkburn Priory Mass, Fr Michael Brown is trying to arrange a Mass in Ushaw College chapel instead. LANCASTER Bob & Jane Latin 01524 412987 lancasterlms@gmail.com latinmasslancaster.blogspot.com John Rogan 01524 858832 john_rogan@yahoo.co.uk We had a record turnout of 34 people at our first Mass at Sizergh Castle this summer, which nearly filled the chapel. Many thanks to Canon Cristofoli ICKSP for offering this Mass and for encouraging some of his flock from St Walburge's to come along. We were very pleased to see him after his absence from his difficult illness. One more Mass will have taken place in July and a third is scheduled for 7 September. Thank you also to Canon Ruscillo for continuing to say a monthly Mass for us at Hornby. The small congregation is very appreciative of this. There will not be a Mass in August but it will resume in September (see Mass Listings for autumn dates). Fr Etienne continues to say two Masses a week at St John Vianney, Blackpool, please note that the Friday evening Mass is now at 6.30 pm. There has also been a change in Carlisle: the First Sunday Mass now takes place at St Margaret Mary, Scalegate Road, but is still at 6.00 pm. St Benedict's Academy in Preston is now in its second term and “is a sign of hope for young families and for those who care deeply about the formation of their children”. For further information and to make a donation to this wonderful initiative go to www.saintbenedicts.org.uk.
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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY After the disastrous and discouraging abortion vote in Ireland, it was heartening to see it reported that whilst there are currently no diocesan seminarians, there are over 20 from the traditional institutes. As Fr Z would say, “brick by brick”. LIVERPOOL Jim Pennington 0151 4260361 pennington893@btinternet.com The regular Sunday and Holyday EF Masses in the parishes of St Catherine Laboure, Farington, St Mary Magdalen, Penwortham, and St Anthony’s, Scotland Road, Liverpool continue. The St Anthony’s Mass continues to attract locals and visitors, rather than our LMS members, with new faces appearing most weeks, though the congregation is never huge – generally twenty to thirty. Several of our members attended the overnight vigil before the Blessed Sacrament on 24 to 25 May at St Mary’s in Warrington, to pray for a good outcome of the Irish 8th Amendment referendum. Sad to say, the outcome was not as we hoped, but no prayer is wasted; God’s will shall be done in His own time. On 12 July, Fr O’Shea offered the first of his planned Thursday Traditional Rite Masses at 7.30 pm at his church of St John’s, Standishgate, Wigan. Father was one of our regular celebrants at St Anthony's until the duties of his new appointment made it no longer possible. It is quite some time since we had a Traditional Rite Mass in Wigan, when Fr Johnson occasionally used to offer the Mass at St Mary's, further up Standishgate; and it was encouraging to see a good attendance at this first Mass at St John’s. It is a joy to see a regular Old Rite Mass in Wigan again, so if you can possibly attend Fr O'Shea's Mass, please do. We need to give all the support we can to priests who reintroduce the Traditional Mass in their parishes. We plan to have Traditional Rite Masses at St Anthony’s at 9 am on the Friday and Saturday of the forthcoming ‘Adoremus’ Eucharistic Congress in Liverpool in September. This should give traditionally-minded visitors the opportunity to attend the Mass of their choice before the Congress events. Sunday Mass will be at the usual 3 pm time, and will be a Missa Cantata followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. LIVERPOOL (Warrington) Alan Frost 01270 768144 The major event in recent times at the Warrington Shrine was the Ordination in the Traditional Rite of Fr Seth Phipps on the 9 June by the Archbishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev. Malcolm McMahon O.P. (photos of the Ordination Mass can be seen on-line at www.flickr.com/photos/138056205@N08/ albums.) The Dominican Archbishop also administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to eight candidates on 20 June at St Mary’s Shrine. The following Monday a Requiem Mass was held for Fr Michael Murphy, a former member of St Mary’s Choir. In a busy month, members of the Shrine Church joined in an Annual Walk with other Christians to the Warrington Town
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Hall as witnesses to the belief in the Person and teaching of Jesus Christ on 29 June. The daily Holy Mass at St Mary’s can be watched for 24 hours, and the Sunday Mass for the whole week, on www.livemass.org. One of the priests at St Mary’s, Fr Lowenstein, as representative of the Warrington Shrine, attended the ordinations of five new priests at the FSSP European seminary. Joining Rector Fr de Malleray and the priests at St Mary’s, is the recently ordained Fr Phipps, and the presence of several priests at the Shrine now means the daily availability of the Traditional Mass and the Sacrament of Confession, makes the proximity of the Shrine a desirable place to live for the traditional faithful. Permanent accommodation for those who would wish to live close by can now be arranged by administrators for St Mary’s. MIDDLESBROUGH Paul Waddington 01757 638027 paul@gooleboathouse.co.uk The noon Mass every Sunday at St Wilfrid’s Church in York continues to be well attended. Choral scholars from York University sing a polyphonic setting of the Mass most Sundays during term time. When they are not available, the parish’s own schola sing a plainsong setting. During the summer months at least half the congregation is made up of visitors, many being from abroad. So a wide spectrum of people are being introduced to the Traditional Mass, although it would be difficult to assess how well it is received. Regrettably, the monthly Sunday evening Mass at Hedon, near Hull, only attracts a very small congregation. I think this is due both to the location and the timing. Unfortunately, with the shortage of priests in the diocese, there is little that can be done to make the Mass more popular. The northern part of the diocese remains without any provision for Latin Masses, and, again, I can see no remedy with the present resources of the diocese NORTHAMPTON (South) Barbara Kay 01234 340759 mbky3@outlook.com Nick Ross 07951 145240 nick@efmass.co.uk Just a reminder of the Latin Masses in the Northampton Diocese: Christ the King, Bedford (weekly on Sunday at 8.30 am), Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Chesham Bois (weekly on Sunday at 8 am) and St Francis of Assisi, Shefford (3rd Friday of the month at 7.30pm). Exciting developments are taking place at Christ the King, Bedford: Matthew Schellhorn, a professional musician well known in Traditional circles, has made an agreement with our FSSP apostolate to sing Mass for us twice a month. Matthew both plays the organ and sings and the experience is highly uplifting. He started this in May and after a summer break, is resuming in September. He will be singing on the third Sunday of each month and one other Sunday, which
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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY will vary; details can be found on https://www.facebook.com/ bedfordlatinmass/. The schola will continue to sing on the first Sunday of each month. This means there will normally be three sung Masses a month at Bedford. The Mass is also sung at Chesham Bois, usually on the first Sunday of each month. We have now completed the five First Saturdays of Family Catechism and Fatima Devotions at Bedford. Although much appreciated by those who attended, numbers were not great enough to justify a priest coming from Reading for an extra day, and so we are running a survey to see how catechism, and possibly other devotions, will be delivered from September onwards. This is likely to be on Sunday mornings after Mass. Similarly, there is a survey for Chesham. Details of all this, and much more, can be found under the Bedford and Chesham pages on the FSSP website: https://fssp.co.uk/. Looking back over recent months, Bishop Peter Doyle both celebrated and preached at the Bedford Mass on 13 May; the preaching was scheduled but the celebration was not and came about due to unforeseen circumstances. We are very grateful to Bishop Doyle for helping in this way. Another bishop, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth, confirmed one of our adult altar servers, Francis Wanjiru, at the FSSP’s apostolate in Reading on 12 June; some of the Bedford congregation were present and were delighted to see a Traditional Confirmation and the beautiful liturgy surrounding it. We also had a Traditional Baptism in Bedford on 8 July; receiving this Sacrament was Sebastian Bozzino, the fourth son of Grace and Justin. Looking to the future, plans to set up the UK’s first ‘Regina Caeli’ Traditional Catholic home schooling academy are well in hand; a Board of Directors has been formed and a venue found. God willing, this will open this academic year. Please see our Facebook page as above if you are interested.
NOTTINGHAM Jeremy Boot 07462-018386 Masses continue at 6.15pm on the third Wednesday of the month (followed by a Juventutem meeting) at the Cathedral; Mass on the Saturday before the 2nd Sunday of the month (4.45pm) at The Good Shepherd Church, Arnold, Nottingham –fulfils the Sunday obligation - and at Our Lady and St Patrick, Nottingham, for the 3rd and 4th Sundays of the month at 2pm (sung/said). We were very pleased to have a Missa Cantata at St Mary’s Loughborough for the feast of the Sacred Heart on Friday 8 June with Fr Paul Gillham as celebrant. Servers and others kindly lent their services for serving, singing and the organ, which all were much appreciated. Attendance was good and the Mass well received, it is reported. (See photos for more). We look forward to another such Mass at the same venue for the feast of the Transfiguration on 6 August 7.30pm. As I write we have a priest who has kindly substituted for us at Nottingham but who will be shortly posted elsewhere, but in wishing him well, we still hope occasionally to be using his good offices. Thanks as usual to our celebrants of all Masses as well as to those who selflessly give their time in whatever way to maintain these Masses.
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PLYMOUTH (Devon) Maurice Quinn 07555 536579 mq018q1057@blueyonder.co.uk Once again, the Traditional Latin Mass scene in Devon has borne good fruit over the Summer months, and this is especially true in the Exeter area. Our regular third Sunday of the month Sung Mass at Blessed Sacrament (Heavitree, Exeter), for example, although being well attended by regulars and summer visitors, was facing major problems due to having only one server. This precarious situation was remedied, however, by the welcome addition of three men offering themselves to participate on the sanctuary. John Tristram, who kindly stepped in to serve a ‘one off ’ Mass in March (see previous issue of Mass of Ages) has become a regular, and has since been joined by two others, Joseph Jones and Kevin Burgess. We have to thank the three of them for helping us to ensure that our Missa Cantata celebrations are reverent, dignified, and properly served. Joseph and Kevin attended a couple of training sessions locally (Sacred Heart), so we have to thank Fr Harry Heijveld for getting involved with this and for making it happen in the first place. The Blessed Sacrament (Exeter) third Sunday of the month Missa Cantata, preceded by Asperges, has been celebrated by Monsignor Adrian Toffolo and by Fr Harry Heijveld, both of whom are on the rota and deserve our thanks. After some of these monthly celebrations, Benediction has become a feature (Fr Harry), something which is much appreciated by those attending. We are also blessed with our organist, Tegwyn Harris, and the choir members without whom we could not have a Missa Cantata. Also deserving of our thanks are the two ladies, Shelagh Jess and Joan Ware, both of whom regularly provide genuine smiles along with refreshments after Mass in the well-equipped and spacious adjacent church rooms. If you are new to the area or if you are a visitor, we will be pleased to meet you over tea. We also have to thank Fr Harry for celebrating an extra Low Mass for us at a different venue - Sacred Heart, Exeter - as he did last year on the Feast of St Boniface. It was fitting that this Mass was celebrated at midday on the beautiful St Boniface side altar, below stunning stained glass windows that recount the story of the Saint’s fruitful life. I am happy to report that the excellent serving team at St Edward the Confessor is still going strong, but Andrew Proctor, the organist, ‘solo choir’ and Musical Director, is still looking for singers to help out on Sundays. If any reader is able to help with the choir please feel free to speak to Andrew before Mass, and know that your much needed help will be appreciated. If you are thinking of attending a Latin celebration at this venue, you may be pleased to know that before every Sunday Mass, Fr Pillari allows time for individual confessions in the pre-Vatican II format. Fr Pillari had to be away for quite a number of weeks during the Summer months, but the regular Sunday morning Missa Cantata went ahead as usual due to an impressive list of priests willing to stand in for him. These priests are Fr Peter Cox, Fr Thomas Crean O.P., Fr Anselm Gribben, Fr Reginald O.P. and Fr Harry Heijveld, all of whom are deserving of our thanks. The happy, family oriented nature of the St Edward’s congregation was seen once again with the First Holy Communion of Anna Fernandes – resplendent in her beautiful white dress and veil - on the Third Sunday after Pentecost.
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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
The happy, family oriented nature of the St Edward’s congregation was seen once again with the First Holy Communion of Anna Fernandes – seen here resplendent in her beautiful white dress and veil - on the Third Sunday of Pentecost For this wonderful occasion, Fr Pillari was able to celebrate the beautiful Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, (although the feast itself was on the previous Friday). In addition to the usual 11.30am Sunday Missa Cantata, Mass is also offered on Holy Days of Obligation in the evenings at this venue, the Feast of SS Peter and Paul being no exception, when Fr Peter Cox was the celebrant. Do check out these extra usus antiquior celebrations at St Edward’s on www.tlmplymouth. co.uk before travelling so as not to be disappointed. Although this year has been packed with special events marking the 1000th anniversary of monastic life on the site of St Mary’s Abbey, Buckfastleigh, our monthly mid-week Vetus Ordo has taken place as usual with no interruptions. We are fortunate that this Mass is still alternately celebrated by Fr Guy de Gaynesford (Rector of the School of the Annunciation), and by Fr Tom Regan OSB in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel with the beautiful eye-catching stained glass window that dominates the East wall. Fr Guy (see above) celebrates our fourth Sunday of the month Missa Cantata at St Cyprian’s Chapel, Ugbrooke House, Chudleigh. Being without organist and choir members on more than one occasion, it is thanks to Dr Andrew Beards (School of the Annunciation) singing all the choral parts himself that the usual Sung Mass went ahead as planned,
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and as such his efforts have been very much appreciated, especially by our visitors, some of whom were from as far afield as New Zealand and Canada. We were also pleased to see Colin Harte at the May Mass; Colin had travelled up from Blandford Forum where he regularly serves the Old Rite for Mgr Francis Jamieson. St Cyprian’s Chapel at Ugbrooke House is one of Devon’s ‘hidden gems’, so attending a usus antiquior here has to be highly recommended to everybody, where in the Summer months tea can be had in the Orangery after Mass. PLYMOUTH (Dorset) Maurice Quinn 07555 536579 mq018q1057@blueyonder.co.uk. It was a joy for me to be present once again at the Low Mass celebrated by Mgr Francis Jamieson at Our Lady of Lourdes and St Cecelia in Blandford Forum, Mass being served by Colin Harte. Colin was recruited and trained this year by Mgr Francis specifically for the purpose of serving at Blandford Forum on a regular basis, which he does with great reverence and dignity, and as such he is greatly appreciated.
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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY Mgr Francis has long been trying to get people to stay for a little social lunch after this Mass - as happens successfully at Marnhull - so it was particularly pleasing to see that this happened for the first time on the Feast of the Ascension. Lunch is free, and a number of ladies had soon spread out a fine table of goodies to be shared, during which ensued lively conversation in a convivial atmosphere. If you do manage to attend the usus antiquior at Blandford Forum – which is to be highly recommended - please remember that Mgr Francis would be pleased to meet you afterwards at the social lunch. At Marnhull (St Mary) in June (St Basil the Great) the Low Mass was celebrated as usual by Fr Martin Budge immediately after the Angelus at 12 noon. For some reason, the last few months has seen a reduction in the number of people attending this Mass, a situation that we hope will soon improve. We must thank Suzzette Glover and Mary Quinn for the social lunch after Mass, where we discovered that Dominic Predergast, our server at Marnhull, had only just returned from taking part in the Chartres Pilgrimage for the 22nd time. We were also pleased to see that Ronnie Bird was able to be present for the first time this year and was in good health. In the last issue of Mass of Ages I briefly mentioned the death of Ronnie’s wife, Joan, a well-respected former LMS Rep for Dorset. Joan’s Traditional Rite Requiem was celebrated by Fr Martin Budge in All Saints Chapel, New Wardour Castle in Wiltshire. With a full congregation, Fr David Lacy - a relative of the deceased - sat in choir, whereas the parish priest of Wardour Castle, Fr Robert Miller, gave the homily. The Mass was served by myself and Dominic Prendergast, along with Sebastian Orr (grandson of the deceased) as Cross Bearer. We have to thank Fr Peter Cox for the loan of Plymouth Cathedral’s beautiful new black pall to drape over Joan’s coffin, which was much appreciated by Joan’s family. After Joan’s interment at Wardour Castle’s cemetery, and at the request of family members, Latin Marian hymns were sung by the graveside, reflecting the deceased’s great devotion to Our Lady. PORTSMOUTH Peter Cullinane 02392 471324 pmcullinane@hotmail.com I am delighted to report that numbers have grown steadily this year- 50 or even 60 on average now attend 8 am Sunday Mass. I am always pleasantly surprised to meet quite a few travellers, often students, who somehow or other manage to find their way from the Continental ferryport, through the brutalist architecture and confusing waste land down to the Cathedral. Recently we had a family of American visitors whose obviously well-instructed three-year-old was racing between the statues at the end of the Cathedral after Mass, “looking for Jesus” I was told. We met at the enchanting painted wooden life-size statue of a seated St Peter, dating from about 1850 and probably installed in the Portsea chapel before St John’s Cathedral was opened in the 1880s. How fitting that they came from Peterburg in Virginia - we did comment on this!
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A little later I met a visiting American lady and her teenage son who had quite simply dropped in hoping to hear Mass and who had never experienced the Old Rite before. They were captivated by the reverence and dignity and I reflected that this is the same rite which a regular correspondent in one of the Catholic weeklies never misses an opportunity to caricature and denigrate if he can. We have just heard some rather sad news: Fr Joe McNerney is leaving us shortly to exchange his hospital chaplaincy at Portsmouth for Southampton but we have been assured that one of the Gosport Friars will continue his ministry to us. More of this next time. PORTSMOUTH (Bournemouth) Tim Fawkes 01202 730200 Our regular first Friday Masses continue at the time of 6 pm and it is usual for vigil Masses to be offered on the eve of Holydays of Obligation and major feasts. In the last quarter there were Masses on the feast of the Annunciation, and a Vigil Mass for the feasts of the Ascension and of the Sacred Heart. Fr Dominic Jacob was also pleased to offer a Funeral Mass in the Extraordinary Form for Richard Lovesey RIP at the church of St Anthony of Padua in Broadstone on 9 July at the request of his family. A further funeral Mass is arranged at St Mary’s church in Poole on 27 July for Hugh Fitzgibbon RIP. SHREWSBURY (Chester) Andrew Nielsen Third Sunday sung monthly Masses are continuing at St Clare's, celebrated by priests of the Institute of Christ the King. The Institute are also leading a procession on Saturday 21 July through Chester in honour of St John Plessington who was martyred in Chester in 1679. The procession will be preceded by Mass and veneration of St John’s Relics and will end at the site of the Saint's martyrdom. SHREWSBURY (The Wirral) Stefano Mazzeo 0151 638 6822 It is clear that our congregation has increased by about 20% over the last 4 years, during which time there has also been an increase in churches that are solely dedicated to the Traditional Latin Mass, especially at Warrington and in Preston in the North West. It is heartening that these Masses have not impacted on our congregation numbers, this show the need for even more Latin Mass churches. There have been three priests who have been ordained from our church during these years, this year we offer our congratulation to Canon Piaggio. He will offer his first Solemn High Mass on Sunday 2 September at 10.30 am at the Dome. We are an active church with many events and initiatives going on all the time. We are aware of the pressures that the modern world is creating for Traditional Catholics, so a large number of our congregation took part in Rosary on the Coast. One of our great successes has be the audio tour which I was
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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
Filming the Martyrdom of St Margaret Clitherow, with Maria Scott in the lead role asked to direct, we were very pleased that this has won the Marsh award for innovation in Christian outreach. I would like to say well done to everyone involved, especially to Anne and John. At the moment we have been filming of EWTN's Reformation with members of the Shrine church of SS Peter & Paul and St Philomena's and members from the church have proven themselves to be natural actors. We filmed Martyrdom of St Margaret Clitherow with Maria Scott in the lead role. We also filmed Council of Trent at Chester Cathedral and by the time you read this we will have filmed Council of Nicaea at the Dome itself. Also many thanks to Mother Prioress and the sisters at Carmel Monastery Birkenhead for creating the cell of St Teresa of Avila, with Jo Jones playing St Teresa, as a set for our filming. I would like to say a very big thank you to all involved in filming on the Wirral and Chester. The Carmelite Monastery celebrates its 100 years of their foundation in Birkenhead, congratulations to Mother and the Sisters. I am hoping to produce another little video for them to commemorate this event. SOUTHWARK (Kent) Marygold Turner 01580 291372 Our most recent main event has been a Missa Cantata for Corpus Christi. We were very lucky to entice Charles Finch and his choir Cantores Missae down to Headcorn, and the unlovely little church was filled with the most perfect chant. Many thanks to David Hurley for collecting money towards his fee from his friends, and thanks to them for being so generous. We had a superb thought-provoking sermon from Fr Edward van den Bergh, and Jonathan Hague and David Hurley provided expert serving. I invited 20 back to lunch, largely paid for by a most generous friend, who insisted we had champagne: I needed no pressure! We prayed to Our Lady for a fine day and She answered our prayers when we came back from Holy Mass (She had teased us in the morning with some rain!) and we sang ‘Sweet Sacrament Divine’ before the statue of Our Lady in my garden, which was idyllic. The Institute continues to inspire and flourish, and I was lucky to be invited by Canon William Hudson to his school’s
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performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘Patience’, in Brussels, which I had never seen. As ever, it was a triumph and included some spectacular Irish jig dancing. It was all extremely well done, as is everything in which Canon Hudson is involved. The weather was lovely (for once!) and he keeps a wonderful house in Brussels, with 2 young priests, as I write. Fr Whinder, an old friend, came to celebrate SS Peter & Paul for us – such an inspiring sermon. I find that our Traditional priests always teach and inspire us – Deo gratias. We also thank Fr Neil Brett, who is coming to celebrate Mass on the Feast of the Assumption. The next important event is on 22 September at Snave (on the Marsh) where we are having another Missa Cantata with the Bevans singing for us. We hope to please once again the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust, to whom we are very grateful for permission to celebrate Mass there. Fr Marcus Holden will be the celebrant. When our beloved clergy come down to us (sometimes at great trouble and inconvenience) we always give them lunch, which is a pleasure – either in a local pub or here in my house. Cardinal Burke will be celebrating his 70th birthday at the end of August and I have been invited to Gricigliano for the celebrations. As we all know, he is our great champion. SOUTHWARK (St Bede’s, Clapham Park) Thomas Windsor This quarter started with a very quiet Low Sunday, with half of our Altar boys serving the yearly Mass in Dartford, and half our choir and other servers at the excellent St Catherine’s Trust weekend. Thanks to favourable traffic the minibus back from Reading delivered our choir ready to sing Vespers of Low Sunday later that day. After such a busy weekend many returned the following day for a Sung Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation. The former Solemnity of St Joseph saw three of our boys make their first Holy Communion, for this occasion our choir sang the Missa Dixit Maria, Hassler including the Credo, Offertory motet, O Sacrum Convivium Pergolesi, Communion, Modicum, Issac and the Ave Verum, Byrd, finishing with the Regina Caeli, Lehmann. After Mass we had a shared lunch followed by our usual Easter Vespers and Benediction. The following day the Feast of St George saw yet another happy event, the wedding of Joseph & Farzana. This gave our first Holy Communicants their first opportunity to serve a Sung Mass. The first Bank Holiday in May being a Rogation Day gave us the opportunity to have a Sung Mass and procession around the church grounds. This was very well attended with plenty of servers and singers giving up their holiday, many returned a couple of days later for a Sung Mass for the Feast of the Ascension. The following Sunday our choir sang some more polyphony the Ascendens Christus, Handl and the Regina Caeli, Witt. After another shared lunch we had our annual May Procession on the 13th! with a statue of Our Lady being crowned and carried around the church and grounds. The following week we had our usual Sung Liturgy for the Vigil of Pentecost, special thanks must go to the 14-year-old cantor and a choir member that traveled from Cambridge arriving ready to sing before 9am!
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REPORTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY The end of May was just as busy for us as the beginning with Fr Rowe with Australia visiting us for Trinity Sunday and the transferred Feast of St Bede. For the Feast of our Patron we had a Solemn High Mass, with the first use of a pair of dalmatics that have been beautifully remade over the last couple of years by our Guild of St Clare. May ended with yet another Sung Mass and Procession for the Feast of Corpus Christi. The Fridays of June have seen Sung Masses for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, a Requiem for Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, and the Solemnity of SS Peter and Paul. June also saw the third baptism of the year, and yet another boy to further increase the imbalance between numbers of boy and girls. Members of our choir and servers have continued to make the regular journey over to the neighbouring parish of St Mary Magdalen, Wandsworth, for Sung Masses on Good Shepherd Sunday and the Feasts of St John the Baptist and SS Peter and Paul. Prayers would be welcome for the growing community here at St Bede’s, with the possibility of a new Parish Priest on the horizon. SOUTHWARK (Wandsworth) Julia Ashenden Sung Masses continue on the first Sunday of each month at 11 am, with a professional choir under the direction of Mr David Guest. In addition, since our last report, we have had extra Sung Masses, once or twice a month, as visiting choirs have been welcomed to our parish. Low Mass is said on Holydays of Obligation at 6.30pm; although Canon Edwards was able to arrange a Missa Cantata for the Feast of SS Peter and Paul. The presence of a transitional Deacon in our parish has meant that we have been able to arrange a High Mass here for the first time in many years. The external Solemnity of our Patronal Festival was celebrated with a High Mass, at which two young clerics acted, for the first time, as Deacon and Subdeacon at a Traditional Mass. Please note that Canon Edwards will be away in the first week of September, and consequently the next Sung Mass here will be a High Mass on Sunday 16 September. SOUTHWARK (Thanet) Antonia Robinson 01843 845880 07961 153963 robinsonantonia@icloud.com Things have been fairly quiet in Holy Thanet with the regular Sunday Sung Masses in Margate and Ramsgate continuing with good attendance as well as the Low Masses in Margate (Mondays) and Ramsgate (Tuesdays). There was a beautiful High Mass in St Austin and St Gregory, Margate on the Feast of the Precious Blood with Fr Patrick Hayward (Celebrant), Fr Timothy Finigan (Deacon) and Fr David Phillips (Subdeacon) while music was provided by the parish schola. Both parishes are looking forward to the St Catherine’s Trust Summer School which will be in Ramsgate this year. A large cohort of students will be coming to Sunday Mass at St Austin and St Gregory on the morning of 29 July and the beautiful Pugin church of St Augustine will be used for the Summer School Masses.
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A number of local families who attend the Traditional Masses in Margate and Ramsgate will be attending the school as well as students from throughout the UK and Europe. WESTMINSTER (Spanish Place) Roger Wemyss Brooks wemyssbrooks@outlook.com Attendances have continued to be strong and growing. The provision of Ordinary Prayers booklets and Propers for the Mass seems to be appreciated. Members are encouraged to help visitors and newcomers to use these aids to the Mass. The attendance at the Feast of the Holy Apostles was particularly gratifying, especially to hear the excellent homily on St Peter by Fr John Hemer. We need volunteers for serving, for collections and for providing refreshments. It would be most helpful if members could propose themselves for these functions which are essential for the smooth running of our beloved Rite of Mass. WREXHAM Kevin Jones 01244 674011 lms.wrexham@outlook.com @LMS Wrexham The LMS National Pilgrimage to Holywell took place on Sunday, 1 July. Pilgrims came in good number with approximately 160 present for Solemn High Mass for the Feast of the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This was an increase on the numbers present in 2017. It was an extremely hot day with temperatures in the high 20’s being attained. I am grateful to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest who gave me great support this year by providing the sacred ministers and also the Sisters Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus who chanted the proper. I am convinced many came to meet and hear the angelic voices of the Sisters, as many told me so! A special word of thanks has to go to Alastair Tocher and the Schola Gregoriana Malverniensis. Due to illness of their musical director, the choir of St Mary’s, Warrington were unable to come and so Alastair offered, at late notice, to come and provide polyphony. The 3-part Missa Brevis by Casciolini with Motets was sang. Mr Christian Spence, again at short notice, played was organ. Alastair and Christian, I am grateful. Canon Tanner ICKSP was celebrant with Canon Montjean ICKSP as deacon and Father Gribben was subdeacon. Canon Montjean preached, drawing parallels in his homily between the Precious Blood of Our Lord and the blood shed by martyrs such as St Winefride. Mr Philip G. Russell was MC and was supported by boys of the Scorey family and Mr Andrew Neilson. Again, thanks to all the servers. Given that the following week was Ordinations Week in Florence for the Institute and a busy time, we are very grateful to the priests and sisters for coming to Holywell and supporting the Latin Mass Society. The remainder of our Masses at Buckley, Holywell and Llay have taken place as planned. It was a pleasure to welcome Canon Cyprien Parant to Holywell for our 4th Sunday in May Mass.
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ART AND DEVOTION
Antonio da Correggio (active 1494; died 1534) The Madonna of the Basket, c. 1524. The National Gallery, London By Caroline Shaw
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n this charming scene, Correggio uses his much-admired gentleness to evoke a tender image of the Holy Family, and to immortalize in the most delightful way a seemingly ordinary, fleeting moment in the infancy of Our Lord. We see Our Lady, dressed in robes of old rose, sitting outdoors under a tree and gazing lovingly down at her son as she struggles, with some amusement, to fit a blue jacket onto the wriggling baby. Our Lord twists and fidgets, and seems to call out, as He reaches for the sun-dappled leaves. His mother holds His hands steady and tries to push the sleeve down along His arm. To her left lies a workbasket containing blue thread and a pair of scissors, indicating that it was Our Lady herself who made this little blue jacket which, touchingly, looks a little too large for Him. This scene will strike a chord with every mother. It is an intimate yet ravishing image that captures the essence of what it is to be a mother: the ordinary tasks that she must always perform with love; the heroic patience that is required of her at every moment; the unutterable joy of gazing down at the precious bundle in her arms, as she tenderly murmurs encouragement and words of love to her baby. However, as with all scenes of Our Lady with the infant Jesus, there is a sorrow that is ever-present: we can never forget as we look at this image, that Our Lord’s outstretched arms foreshadow those of the Crucifixion, and that Our Lady tenderly cradling her infant son on her knee is a prefiguring of the terrible moment when she will hold Our Lord’s lifeless, crucified body in her lap on the evening of Good Friday. The pierced heart of Our Lady is never far from the surface. In the background, as if in a haze of dust in the sunshine, we see St Joseph in his workshop, his sleeves rolled up and head down as he works hard at the plane. He too is performing his duties, as a father and head of the household,
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providing for his precious family, and doing it always with patience and love. This charming and tender image of the everyday life of Mary, Joseph and Jesus takes on a greater significance when we consider where it was that Our Lord passed the early years of His life. For they were not spent in the safety of the Holy Land, but in Egypt, where the Holy Family was forced to flee after Herod gave his monstrous decree to slay all first-born sons of Israel. Opinions vary as to the exact length of time that the Holy Family stayed in Egypt, but the general tradition, certainly among Coptic Christian writers, is that it was around four years. Perhaps surprisingly, images of the Holy Family’s everyday life in Egypt are fairly rare in western art. We are much more familiar with images of the journey itself, the ‘Flight into Egypt’. Artists throughout the centuries have enjoyed depicting the landscape and the miracles that occurred along the way, which were recorded in various apocryphal writings: the palm tree that bent down to offer Our Lady shade and fruit when the family stopped to rest; the water that sprang up to quench their thirst, wild animals becoming tame and bandits turning to acts of kindness. Perhaps the most important event to be recorded was that of the idols of Egypt crashing to the ground as the Holy Family passed a temple, much to the anger of the priest, who was, however, instantly converted. This was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah: “see the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him… On that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt.” At the time, there were two main roads from Israel to Egypt. The easier, and therefore the most-travelled route, passed through Gaza and ran south along the Mediterranean coast. The other route, less used and therefore
more secure, passed through Hebron and Bersabee, into the Sinai peninsula and thence across the desert to the shores of the Nile. In either case, it would have been a long and arduous journey. Many Coptic monasteries, shrines, churches and pilgrimage sites commemorate the Holy Family’s journey and the places that they are believed to have stayed, such as the rock at Sakha, which is believed to contain an impression of the baby Jesus’ foot, and the fourth century church of SS Sergius and Bacchus in Coptic Cairo which, according to tradition, is built on the site of one of the homes of the Holy Family. It seems very likely that Our Lady and St Joseph would have avoided staying in a pagan area, and would have looked for a Jewish settlement: the broad delta of the Nile sheltered many Jewish communities, where Joseph could have found employment to support his family, and where they could practise their faith and live in relative peace. Correggio’s masterpiece gives us a powerful image of the Holy Family during the ‘hidden life’ of Our Lord. We see Mary and Joseph creating a peaceful home for their son, while being constantly aware of potential dangers; the insecurity of being strangers in a foreign land. They did not know how long they would be there, but they trusted in God and were at peace. This beautiful painting inspires us to imitate the hidden life of Our Lord. We do this when we transform our homes into domestic churches, when we fulfill our everyday duties with patience, and offer up our private sufferings in reparation for the sins of the world. Hiddenness, solitude, silence, ordinary tasks performed with great love, this is the life that the Holy Family lived in Egypt, and it is the life that we are asked to live every day.
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ART AND DEVOTION
Correggio’s The Madonna of the Basket: a charming and tender image of the everyday life of Mary, Joseph and Jesus
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COMMENT
When hedonism takes over Mary O’Regan laments the recent abortion referendum result in Ireland
“I don’t want a baby who is slow and will have me to blame for it,” Emer said when she finally had an abortion. Emer and her long-term boyfriend, Connor, had booked an abortion earlier on in the pregnancy but cancelled it reluctantly because two friends of mine convinced them to wait. The couple wanted to marry and have a family together, but this baby was a surprise. When they were partying in the early months of the baby's life they had not known the woman was soaking the young infant in glasses of vodka. The friends I have in common with this couple told them to make sure the baby was, in fact, harmed first, because they could be aborting a healthy baby. The weeks of pregnancy wore on and the couple had another scan which showed the baby was healthy, but they could not be assured the baby's intelligence had not been impaired by the mother's excessive drinking in early pregnancy, so as fast as they could they aborted the baby. Emer and Connor are not the exception among young Irish people who abort their child. During the past 15 years I’ve done a great deal of crisis pregnancy counselling, and I have found that binge-drinking (which is an accepted vice in Ireland) plays a huge role, while contraception is the enabler. Some examples are painfully etched in my mind. The mother from Tipperary who dumped her 17 year old daughter on a street near an abortion clinic. The
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teen was in a cycle of drinking until she blacked out; her pregnancy occurred one of these times. Her mother felt she had done her best by putting her kid on the Pill, so the daughter “could have her fun”, but they never thought a child would result. Resolute, she did not want a grandchild who was pickled in alcohol, the mother said she wouldn’t speak to the daughter until after she had the abortion. Despite my best efforts, the daughter went through the clinic doors crying and whimpering like a new-born baby herself. That said, it is not impossible to convince an Irishwoman out of abortion; a girl I know did the amazing feat of convincing a married woman not to abort a baby she had conceived when drunk, a baby who was not her husband’s. Drink-fuelled promiscuity is modern husband-hunting for many in Ireland. After their first abortion, they drink more to numb their guilt, and then have a second abortion for the same reason as the first. Contraception induces a state of mind where sex and the creation of a new life are seen as wholly separate. Whenever young people are trained to use contraception and emotionally blackmailed into being promiscuous, alcohol becomes a problem because, if there is no young life growing in the womb to protect, why not have as much of your poison of choice as you
like? In Ireland, binge-drinking and contraception have allowed hedonism to take over, meaning ultimately a mutilation of youth because the most vulnerable young life must be snuffed out so that promiscuity and bingedrinking may continue. The life of the pregnant mother is marred by the psychological assault done to her by her peers, her parents and those who willingly dismember her child. The laughing crowds you saw on TV gleefully celebrating as abortion became legal in Ireland following the referendum in May, were raising a glass to a society that has had its conscience poisoned. I may have become an outlier, joining the Latin Mass community and finding a different way of life from that of my contemporaries, but I have a shared history with the Irish young people who voted for abortion. I remember growing up in Ireland, knowing there were a few girls who were already binge-drinking. Had I joined them they would have been my friends because we would have had something in common – our drinking. But we were just 12. I chose not to be their drinking companions, but inevitably felt cut off from them as a result. Post-abortion women in Irish society find it hard to break away from heavy drinking and repeat abortions because they feel they face the same choice I did in primary school; drink and have friends or abstain and be alone.
'The life of the pregnant mother is marred by the psychological assault done to her by her peers, her parents and those who willingly dismember her child.' AUTUMN 2018
FEATURE
Prison through the eyes of a Chaplaincy Volunteer “Jesus saith to them: ‘Amen I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlots believed him: but you, seeing it, did not even afterwards repent, that you might believe him.’” Matthew 21:31-32
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lthough many people may not realise it, witnessing in a prison can be a truly life changing experience. Incarcerated men and women have tried all the world has to offer and, in their depravity and shame, a sense of desperation for truth and beauty rises up within them. It is a real joy to see so many people turn to the Lord in prison. In our Novus Ordo parishes, sadly, many people lack hunger for their faith and don’t allow their commitment to their faith to stretch beyond an hour on Sunday. However, in prison there is opportunity to reflect on where one has gone wrong with many recognising their need for redemption. The cynic can easily say that these men only attend the chaplaincy to get out of their cells, but in a rehabilitation focused prison system there are arguably more opportunities than a person might think for these men to get out of their cell and be busy. In the prison system many working class men from a Catholic background cherish their copy of the Penny and Baltimore Catechism and have a deep desire to grow in their faith. They greatly appreciate information on our traditional faith and long to experience traditional liturgy and devotions, especially when they leave the prison establishment. Traditional Catholic doctrine is much needed as it avoids the often ambiguous nature of the postcouncillor documents and proclaims Catholic truth with simplicity at a level that men and women, especially those with learning difficulties, can grasp.
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Many men in prison have had encounters with demonic activity and their realisation of this has led them to become aware of the fact that God must also exist and that He is active in this world. Many men have also read the Bible cover to cover and have read many spiritual books; they enjoy meeting visitors, especially those who are committed to their faith and can answer the many spiritual questions they may have. While it is true that many men are converting to Islam in prison – and a good number are from Catholic backgrounds – many times this is avoided when the faith is proclaimed and good Catholic volunteers in our prisons catechise our men properly. Although it can sound daunting meeting prisoners, particularly in regards to safety, most prison chaplains will testify that it is actually relatively safe to do so, especially if you follow the safety protocols in the prison. Secondly, prisoners generally have a high level of respect for people who take the time out to volunteer in a prison chaplaincy. If you have strong people skills and would like to be involved in reaching out to men who are hungry to know more about the traditional Catholic faith, or donate and provide Catholic formation materials to this labour of love, please get in contact with Claire Fitzgerald on: clairesiempre@hotmail.com ‘The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his harvest.’ Matthew 9:37-38
‘Prisoners generally have a high level of respect for people who take the time out to volunteer in a prison chaplaincy…’
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© John Aron
ARCHITECTURE
The chapel of Our Lady of the Snows: arguably the finest Catholic church in Britain in the classical style
Our Lady of the Snows Paul Waddington visits Prior Park College, Bath
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ishop Augustine Baines became the Vicar Apostolic for the Western District in 1829, the year of Catholic Emancipation. He had been educated in Hanover, and had joined the Benedictines at Ampleforth 1802. There, his leadership qualities rapidly became evident, and he occupied several senior positions at the Abbey before being put in charge of their Bath Priory in 1817. Six years later, he was made Coadjutor to Bishop Collingridge, the ageing Vicar Apostolic for the Western District. However, by 1826, supposedly on the advice of his doctors, Baines was spending much of his time in the warmer climate of Rome. It seems that in 1828, his health was good enough to take effective control of the Western District, although this was a year before the death of his predecessor, and his official appointment. He lost no time in devising and promoting ambitious and grandiose schemes. Chief amongst these was the building of a seminary. He started by spending £22,000 on the purchase of Prior Park, an impressive
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mansion set in 28 acres of land, and at the top of a hill overlooking the City of Bath. The mansion had been built in the 1730s for Ralph Allen, who had been both Mayor of Bath and MP for Bath. He had made his fortune as a quarry owner. The architect of Prior Park was John Wood, who was also responsible for many prominent buildings in Bath itself, including those around Queen Square and the Circus. Wood took his inspiration for the mansion at Prior Park from the classical Italian architect Andrea Paladio (1508-1580). The main building, which contained a fine chapel, had prominent classical facades to front and rear. Wood's original plan had arcades extending to either side following the contour of the hill, and terminating in pavilions. However, the design was revised by Richard Jones, John Wood's Clerk of Works, who took over the project and replaced the pavilions with more substantial buildings. The grounds were designed by Capability Brown, and included a serpentine lake
with a much admired bridge, also in the style of Paladio. Ralph Allen lived at Prior Park until 1764, when ownership passed to a family member, and through several other hands before being purchased by Bishop Baines for £22,000 in 1828. Bishop Baines, no doubt conscious that the other three Districts already had their own seminaries at Ware, Old Oscott and Ushaw, lost no time setting about opening a seminary at Prior Park. This required the replacement of the pavilions by larger buildings to accommodate class rooms, dormitories and other domestic spaces. He also built a gymnasium. As was the case at Ware and at Ushaw, the seminary was to be combined with a school for lay students. Meanwhile, the main building was adapted to become the bishop's own palace. He employed the architect, Henry Goodrich to make these changes, and to install a very impressive array of stone steps with balustrades and promenades leading up the hillside to the mansion. This last extravagance is just one example of Bishop Baines' lack of
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ARCHITECTURE
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small choir. The ceiling is formed of a coffered barrel vault with semi-circular dormer windows at either side. The sanctuary is of generous size, perhaps reflecting its original function as a seminary chapel. It takes up a further two bays and terminates in a semicircular apse with half-dome and lantern. It has a fine marble altar with a high gradine and the usual arrangement of altar steps. Behind the altar is space for a small retro choir, and the curved east wall is decorated with Corinthian pilasters, between which hangs a large central crucifix. It is very fortunate that the chapel has never suffered from serious reordering. It retains its marble communion rails, and the only concession to post-Vatican II thinking is a wooden forward altar which can easily be moved out of the way. The chapel of Our Lady of the Snows certainly deserves its status as a Grade I Listed Building, and is arguably the finest Catholic church in Britain in the classical style. For anyone familiar with the many Gothic churches designed by J. J. Scholes,
especially those built for the Jesuits, like the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm Street, St Ignatius' in Preston and St Francis Xavier in Liverpool, it comes as a great surprise that he could also produce such quality work in the classical style. Scholes' masterpiece, which had taken 38 years to build, was used as a school chapel for only 22 years, the school closing in 1904, again for financial reasons. During the First World War, Prior Park was occupied for military purposes, but returned to civilian use in 1921 when it was purchased by the Christian Brothers, and a new school was opened. The school is now run by an independent educational trust. The Latin Mass Society has on three occasions held its residential Priest and Server Training Conferences at Prior Park College, and been able to make good use of its very beautiful chapel. Having a large sanctuary suitable for solemn ceremonies, and side chapels for practice Masses, it has proved an excellent venue for this event. The chapel also has an excellent acoustic for liturgical music.
Š John Aron
financial acumen, as he was desperately short of funds for the seminary scheme. He also proposed to build a cathedral at the site, which would have been somewhat premature, as the restoration of the Hierarchy in England and Wales was not to happen until 1850. The cathedral was never built, and Bishop Baines had to be content with a more modest scheme to build a chapel for the school and seminary. Joseph John Scholes was commissioned to create a building of some magnificence that would be in keeping with Wood's Paladian style mansion. This he did with tremendous success, creating what Niklaus Pevsner, who was rarely effusive with his praise, described as “the most impressive church interior of its date in the country.� Lack of money delayed the start of building until 1844, one year after the death of Bishop Baines, and building progressed very slowly over the next 12 years. By 1856, all funds had dried up, and the seminary with its associated school was forced to close. The buildings, including the roofless chapel, and all contents had to be sold at auction to repay the accumulated debts. The chapel remained as a roofless shell for a further 16 years. It was Bishop William Clifford who came to the rescue. He was appointed Bishop of Clifton in 1857, and managed the diocese wisely for thirty-six years. He used his personal wealth, and that of his family, to repurchase Prior Park, and in 1867, made a fresh attempt to start a Grammar School. This was sufficiently successful for Joseph Scholes' son, Alexander Cory Scholes, to be asked to complete the chapel. Building restarted in 1872, and continued for a further 10 interrupted years to bring it to its present state. Even now, the chapel is incomplete. The two bell towers planned for the west end were never built, and stone carving remains unfinished both internally and externally. One must go inside the Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows to appreciate its beauty. It has an eight bay nave with fluted Corinthian columns supporting an entablature with modillioned cornice. The side aisles, which are behind stone balustrades linking the columns, are used mainly for circulation. The southern aisle has carved stations of the cross, and the northern one gives access to a number of side chapels, lit from above by miniature lanterns. At the west end, there is a small gallery with organ and the space for a
The West End
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REVIEW
Simplicissimus Joseph Shaw on a new edition of the Latin Mass Society’s Latin Course Book
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he Latin Mass Society’s teachyourself-Latin course book, Simplicissimus by Dr Carol Byrne, will be twenty years’ old next year. Although I am no great Latin scholar myself, I have been coordinating the revision of the text, with the help of innumerable Latinists, for a new edition out this year. Simplicissimus is unique in drawing its examples, exercises, and passages for reading and translation from the ancient Missale Romanum. Thus, on page 3 the present infinitive is illustrated with two familiar phrases: signum videre, ‘to see a sign’, and audemus dicere, ‘we dare to say’: the first from the well-known Gospel passage in which Jesus refuses to perform miracles to order (Matthew 12:38), and the second from the Ordinary Prayers of the Mass, the words which introduce the Lord’s Prayer. The advantages of this approach are many. The course wastes no time in unlocking the meaning of phrases we have all heard scores of times, and makes the maximum use of what we already know. Audemus dicere and the rest is translated in our hand-missals, but knowing the grammar, how it says what it says, means that we can fit it into our understanding of Latin in general, and apply this knowledge to other examples as we encounter them. Furthermore, we are more likely to remember a grammatical point when it has been hooked up to a phrase we already know. For example, the word confiteor is a puzzle to students of Latin learning the present tense. No-one familiar with the Traditional Latin Mass will forget the explanation, however, that this it is one of a group of verbs called ‘Deponent’, which use the endings of the Passive Voice to mean active things: in this case, ‘I confess’. Simplicissimus is able to reinforce the point by reminding readers that the same phenomenon is at work whenever we hear the word deprecamur, ‘we beseech’, in liturgical prayers, and when St Timothy affirms testificor coram Deo: ‘I testify before God’ (1 Timothy 5:21).
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Dr Byrne was able to make use of a prodigious knowledge of the Missal, including the Lectionary, and this was the key necessary condition for the creation of a course like this. She is able again and again to put her hand on examples of verbal forms and grammatical constructions taken from the Missal, to illustrate her points. What is the difference between questions introduced by nonne, and those introduced by numquid? Well, it’s the difference between Christ’s question to the leper, nonne decem mundati sunt? – ‘were not ten made clean?’ (Luke 17:17), and Pilate’s sarcastic question, numquid ego Iudaeus sum? – ‘am I a Jew?’ (John 18:35). The first anticipates the answer ‘yes’, the second, ‘no’. Can the future tense be used as a command? Yes: Diliges proximum tuum sicut teipsum: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Luke 10:27). Can the Imperative be used to make a humble request? Yes: Aufer a nobis, quaesumus, Domine, iniquitates nostras: ‘Take away from us our sins, we beseech Thee, O Lord.’ Can Gerunds be used in the Genitive, possessive, case? Yes: munus regendi, docendi, sanctificandi: ‘the gift of ruling, of teaching, of sanctifying’ (2 Timothy 1:7). Some Latin purists will deprecate this way of proceeding, because the style, vocabulary, and to some extent the grammatical usage of the Missal and its Vulgate Lectionary is not as good, they say, as the Latin of the Augustan Age: of Virgil and Cicero. This reflects the Victorian belief that that the object of learning Latin was to acquire ‘good Latin style’, so that one could compose Latin verses stylistically indistinguishable from those of Horace. Christian Latin, however, is not ‘worse’ than Augustan Latin, just a little different, and most readers of Mass of Ages will find it more useful to know the word Salvator, Saviour, which was coined by Christians wishing to establish a term not tainted by pagan usage, than Julius Caesar’s military vocabulary.
For Catholics to know Latin, to a degree corresponding with their general education, is not an optional extra: the Church earnestly exhorts us to know it. I have written often that it is not necessary to know Latin in order to appreciate the Latin liturgy, and that is true, but each step one takes in learning Latin opens a little more the imagery, the cadences, the dignity, the joy, and the sorrow, of the ancient texts. Latin, Pope Benedict reminded us, is the language of the Church. It is the language we use to speak to each other, above all to Catholics of other generations. If you’ve not yet taken time to do a short residential course, and / or to work through Simplicissimus, don’t put it off. You will find you know half the material already, and reading the Latin will be a source of spiritual consolation. Offerimus praeclarae maiestati tuae de tuis donis ac datis hostiam puram, hostiam sanctam, hostiam immaculatam, Panem sanctum vitae aeternae, et Calicem salutis perpetuae.
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COMMENT
On a mission… Do we still believe in the Hierarchy? Asks Fr Bede Rowe
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his article could be called ‘do we believe in parishes (3)’ as it follows on from the last two issues of this magazine. I think that we all know that the present structure of the parishes in our diocese is out of date. In my own diocese we have over 20 parishes in Bristol with fewer people going to Mass than in Swindon, which is served by three parishes. I argued last time that perhaps now is the time to bite the bullet and close those parishes, and build new, temporary ones. This does not mean that they have to be ghastly prefabs. Look at shops and businesses, they manage to put on a great ‘experience’. These new places of worship could be truly flexible… just think, at the touch of a button altar rails could slide into place, a reredos opens up, a pulpit springs forth; gradines, frontals, predellas, statues, incense, proper lighting. Then all melting into the background for a different expression for the new Mass. But I’m getting lost in my modestly grandiose plans! My question today is ‘Do we need the hierarchy?’ I don’t mean ‘do we need Bishop X or Y?’ That way madness lies (and exile for parish priests who express an opinion). Bishops come in all shapes and sizes, saints and sinners, teachers, preachers, administrators. Also, middle managers, idlers, vain men open to arrogance and slights. Strangely… exactly like us priests (and exactly like Christ’s lay faithful)! This is not an attack on any one man. Or even two or three. I am not asking if we should get rid of the hierarchy as such, to become a congregationalist organisation, freewheeling in the spirit, but rather I am asking if it is time to get rid of the stable hierarchical structure as we have had it since the restoration of the hierarchy in the 1850s. The question is: ‘Does the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church as it is currently found in England and Wales spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world and sanctify the People of God?’ Does the existence of parishes and diocese help or hinder
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the basic commands of the Lord? Are we a Christian people to be supported and ministered to, or are we actually mission territory? Personally, for what it’s worth, I think it is both, but we have to concentrate on the latter. To be polemical, our efforts and strength are going into the twofold process of evangelising those who are already Catholic and keeping the show on the road. Of course, the evangelisation of Catholics is not so much ‘on-going formation’ but a fundamental instruction in the basics of the faith. The fracturing of the Church means that what Fr A says in St John’s parish can be quite different from what Fr B says in St Mark’s. Catechesis no longer necessarily points to ‘Catholicism’, but Fr C’s version of it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if the faith had continued to be taught as an objective truth to be accepted and then understood, rather than as an experience to be internalised and then lived out for oneself, we might have been in a very different place. But we are where we are. And keeping the show on the road, be that the infrastructure, or the Catholic ‘presence’ in the public forum (to which lip-service can be paid, then conveniently forgotten), is a thankless task. So, what could be put in its place? Well, how about becoming a mission territory again with a couple of Vicars Apostolic deploying priests and religious as they are needed. We could respond to the needs of the people in a much more dynamic way. When they moved, the priests (and the bishops) could move. Catechesis would become the responsibility of the individual for themselves and their family, supported by the Church. Our people could be fortified for apologetics, so that they become primary missioners by the witness of their lives, fortified by the teaching of the Church, and the nourishment of the sacraments. We would have no need of a different Bishop every fifty miles, or even parish boundaries which have less and less meaning.
‘ We could respond to the needs of the people in a much more dynamic way’ How wonderfully subversive to be a member of an underground movement designed to bring about a new governance and morality (aka the Kingdom of God). Radically abandoning everything and putting ourselves under the Holy Ghost and Our Holy Mother the Church; no longer relying on programs or cosy liturgy, where our main concern is replacing the tea urn, or a new set of hymn books. Do we need the hierarchy? Yes! But how about something new and fresh, and dangerously subversive?
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LETTERS
Letters to the Editor Swamped by joy We often smile to ourselves when we hear about the cost of weddings nowadays, and those who put off the day because of being unable to afford the perceived costs involved (Lone Veiler, Mass of Ages, Summer 2018). We remember our wedding with great joy. Because of our circumstances at the time, we were married by two priests with a congregation of two - our witnesses - while the rain lashed outside. Our reception was sherry, tea or coffee in the presiding priest's house; cost - a £20 donation. We also dedicated a crucifix we brought as a symbol of sharing the crosses of marriage, and it hangs on our bedroom wall. When life gets difficult we pray before it.
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
What more did we need? A marriage blessed by God, coupled with lashings of holy rain and the truth that we are united forever - complete bliss! Bob and Jane Latin Morecambe
Wikipedia – a fool’s errand Richard Holland (Letters, Summer 2018) laments the fact that Wikipedia does not acknowledge the existence of the LMS or of Mass of Ages in its entry on the Latin Mass. My own experience trying to correct and augment Wikipedia articles does not encourage me to attempt to do anything about this, unfortunately. Some time ago I saw that the Wikipedia entry for the LMS itself was out of date and lacking in key information. As anyone can, I created an editing account and provided some accurate information with links to sources. I thought it was best to be honest about it so I used my real name, acknowledging my role in the LMS. Unfortunately, the fact that I knew something about my subject turns out to be a severe disadvantage within Wikipedia, and although they could find no fault with what I had contributed, a couple of extraordinarily pompous Wikipedia editors decided I was guilty of trying to promote something I had an interest in. All my information was removed from the entry, and I was banned from editing it again. Not long afterwards a Wikipedia editor with an even higher opinion of himself took a look at the entry and turned it into a 'stub', removing even the information which had been there in the first place. Trying to improve Wikipedia, sadly, has become a fool's errand. Large companies employ undercover agents to tweak their entries, but for the likes of the Latin Mass Society we may actually be better off with people noticing the inadequacy of Wikipedia and turning to the abundant information on our own website. Yours faithfully, Joseph Shaw Chairman, Latin Mass Society
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Please pray for the souls of all members who have died recently Requiescant in Pace John Ashdown-Hill John Field Thomas Finch Hugh Fitzgibbon Mary Jones Peter King Michael McDermott Barbara McIlvenna Michael Morton Dorothy Pask Timothy Roberts Michael Schosland Stanislas Stephen Joyce Swinburn Catherine Taylor Thomas Taylor Alexander Wysinski Every effort is made to ensure that this list is accurate and upto-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 Arnell, Leo Bunt and Fr Michael Clifton
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COMMENT
An historic first
Alan Frost reports from Birmingham Oratory
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r Dominic Edwards, Cong. Orat., served for a while as a Brother at the Birmingham Oratory, the first Oratory in England, founded by that great Victorian figure, Fr, later Cardinal, John Henry Newman. While still attached to the Oratory, he studied for the priesthood at Oscott College. On May 18, in the Ordinary Form, he was ordained priest by Bishop Byrne, Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Birmingham. The liturgical music was in Latin. The following morning, Sunday 19 May and the Feast of Pentecost, the weekly 10.30am Solemn High Mass at the Oratory was celebrated by Fr Edwards, his first Mass in the Traditional Latin Rite; probably the first priest to so celebrate his First Mass at the Oratory in over 50 years. He was assisted by Fr Anton Guziel, the Parish Priest, as Deacon and Br Patrick McAuliffe was Subdeacon. Fr Guziel has been a good friend to the LMS for a number of years, initially in the North Staffs area before becoming an Oratorian. Fr Ignatius Harrison, the Provost, was the Assistant Priest at Fr Edwards’ invitation. The Provost also gave the homily from the impressive pulpit, based on that in St Mark’s, Venice. The church, designed by Doran Webb in an earlier Renaissance style than that of its counterpart in London, the Brompton Oratory, and formally opened in 1909, was packed for the occasion. The sanctuary of the High Altar was also quite full with several priests from Oscott among those sitting in choro. The Oratory Church has numerous side altars, dedicated, inter alia, to The Sacred Heart, Our Lady, St Joseph, St Anne, the English Martyrs, St Pius X and St Thérèse of Lisieux. There is a shrine and a chapel dedicated to St Philip Neri, the founder of the Oratory in Rome in the mid-16th century, whose remains lie in the Chiesa Nuovo church near the Vatican. It was in Rome that the founder of the Birmingham Oratory, John Henry Newman, was ordained in
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1847. Five years later he established England’s first Oratory at its present Hagley Road site, though the 198 feet long, 120 feet high, tunnel roofed and domed church we see today was completed after his death. Indeed, the impressive decoration of the ceiling (previously plain chestnut wood) above the nave was only done in 1959 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Fr Denis Florence Shiel, who had been at the Oratory since 1890 and briefly served under Cardinal Newman. The importance of J.H. Newman to the whole Catholic Church in England and far and wide cannot be overstated. As
Newman and St Philip Neri both set great store by the quality of liturgical music, and they would surely have approved of the choice for Fr Edwards’ Mass, sung by the Oratory Choir (who sing each week at the Sunday EF Mass): Missa Dum Complerentur and Loquebantur Variis by Palestrina and Dum Complerentur by Clemens. Indeed, St Philip met Palestrina and Victoria (his fellow priest) in Rome regularly. They, along with other composers such as Animuccia, were closely associated with the new Oratory. The Choir also sang the less heard Credo IV.
‘ The Birmingham Oratory Fathers seek to ensure that the beauties of polyphony and plainchant are entirely congruent with the spirit of prayerful recollection and sober devotion…’ Fr Paul Chavasse of the Oratory, but serving as Parish Priest in Swynnerton and offering the EF Mass there every week, observes, “his writings are read and revered worldwide”. Pope John Paul II called him “that pilgrim for truth” who possessed “a prayerfulness and wisdom which still inspire us today”, and there is a plaque at the entrance unveiled by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 commemorating the founding of the English Oratory. An earlier Pope, Leo XIII, for his extraordinary work for the Church and for education, made him a Cardinal in 1879.
The Birmingham Oratory Fathers seek to ensure that the “beauties of polyphony and plainchant are entirely congruent with the spirit of prayerful recollection and sober devotion, which should always characterize the way we offer the Eucharistic sacrifice”, and that “the noble simplicity and timeless beauty of Gregorian chant has a pre-eminent place in the Roman rite”. Following the Mass, Fr Edwards gave his First Blessings to the faithful in the Newman Shrine across the aisle by the altar rails.
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LONE VEILER
House trained
Lone Veiler on fighting for the family
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iny houses. No, not the one up one down, or two up two down old terraces or cottages we know, not camper vans, and not caravans, but dwellings built on trailers. Trailers you need a truck to haul. They are quite the maison du jour thing, especially in the United States. The idea is that you downsize everything you have, including the kitchen sink, to fit into a space that's about 2 metres by 7 metres, saving on mortgages and bills, treading more lightly on mother earth, with the bonus of being able to up sticks and tow your house off to another deliciously rural plot whenever the mood takes you. They at best sleep two. They have bath spaces, and most proudly claim to have 'composting loos', but I choose to not dwell on that. You also need a monster of a car to pull the things about. They also aren't that cheap to buy, and frankly, are kitted out a lot less practically than a mobile home or a caravan would be. In the UK we aren't blessed with so much great outdoors that we can Tiny House quite like in the States, but the concept is growing here too. So, what has this got to do with anything? Good question, glad you asked. On the surface it does seem like such a good idea, a no-brainer really, to live small, tread lightly, minimise your expenditure, detach yourself from belongings. I thought it was quite interesting, because I've always liked the idea of living off grid, until I started to 'unpack' (sorry!) the concept. I was thinking about what 'tiny' would actually mean in practice, were I to attempt the experiment. I could take my sewing machine, but there wouldn't be space to use it or store fabrics and materials. There might be a space to hang a keyboard on the wall, but no space for a piano. As for an exercise DVD, yes, using it? Forget it. Books? Nope. But there always seems to be enough room to fit a pet or two. Which brings me to fur babies. Pets, I think, are a Very Good Thing, a real blessing to us. I love my dog, but my dog is not a fur baby; she is a dog, and
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is treated as befits her rather splendid doggy dignity. She isn't my baby. So it's with some bemusement that I see folks treating their pets as though they were tiny humans, anthropomorphising them
‘Before we were formed in the womb, the Lord knew us, he also knows our families, and how difficult family life can be’
to within an inch of their lives. Tiny house dwellers never seem to have any children that need to be fitted into their homes. Fur babies, but no children. This isn't just sad, it's tragic. The tiny house fad is about personal freedom, to take your home with you, live off grid, but it also seems to be about freedom from immediate and wider family. Couples and their couple-y friends. Dogs, cats, but no children. Alongside the freedom
is a lack of any real responsibility, a potentially isolating, self-absorbed, nomadic existence accompanied by pets and possibly a Significant Other. I can see that using a tiny home to start out as a first step to hearth and home is a good idea, and minimal housework has real appeal, but the complete emphasis on self, and self-fulfilment is so horribly anti-human. As is using a dog or cat as a surrogate child. There is something wrong if grown adults sublimate or deny their obvious desire to parent, with pets, because they perceive themselves to be not old enough, not personally fulfilled enough, not yet with the right person, or not ready for the responsibility. I've seen this among my normal-home living acquaintances, and it never ends well, usually with heartache, splitting up after wasting ten years hoping for a proposal, or rounds of IVF. Before we were formed in the womb, the Lord knew us, he also knows our families, and how difficult family life can be. Exchanging sometimes tense relationships for a fur baby and downsized escape doesn't solve anything, it puts things off. It is more evidence, if we need any more, of the devil's out and out attack on everything family; the message of Fatima is that his last desperate assault is on the family. Are we persecuted? Yes, of course we are. Home Ed is the cross hairs, faith schools are under ridiculous scrutiny, the waters of Baptism are an infringement of human rights, but dismembering that same baby a couple of months before in the womb, isn't. Logic never applies when personal (adult) fulfilment is the only criteria. So on the face of it, innocuous TV programmes about homes on trailers are just that. But I think they are another symptom of the insular, navel gazing, Me-Myself-and-I culture, where a pet is a baby, and commitment lasts until someone better comes along. We need, as Catholics, to fight hard for the family, because the devil really is out to get us. Our Lady of Fatima, ora pro nobis.
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ROMAN REPORT: OBITUARY
A champion of the immemorial Mass Alberto Carosa remembers His Eminence Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos (1929-2018)
Cardinal Hoyos: tireless apostolic zeal
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ay 18, 2018, is bound to go down in the history of the Catholic Church as a sad day for the traditional-minded faithful, since it marks the passing away of a prelate who has done so much to promote the cause of traditional liturgy based on the 1962 Roman Missal: the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy (1996– 2006) and President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (2000–2009), His Eminence Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos. It is impossible to give a detailed account of the religious trajectory of the late Cardinal in a short article so we will limit ourselves to the essentials, with a particular emphasis of the liturgy related highlights in his long life.
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Born in Medellín, Colombia, on July 4, 1929, he entered seminary at an early age and after studies in Europe, a doctorate in Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and another in Sociology from the University of Leuven in Belgium. On October 26, 1952, he was ordained priest in the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Rome. He then returned to Colombia where he served as priest vicar and parish priest. After having been appointed as Coadjutor Bishop of Pereira with right of succession, in 1983, he took up the role of General Secretary of CELAM (Latin American Episcopal Conference). In 1987 he assumed the presidency of that body, a position he held until 1991. He then served as Archbishop of Bucaramanga, where
he served as ordinary until 1996, when John Paul II appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome. He was created Cardinal by the same Pope in 1998. In 2000, he was appointed President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. After his resignation in 2009, when he turned 80, the Cardinal continued to work as a consultant for different departments of the Holy See, but most of all continued to exercise his pastoral ministry, with a particular emphasis on the promotion and celebration of the old rite, which in his opinion should have been more aptly termed “Gregorian rite”. As far as is known, the Cardinal did not stand out as a particular upholder of the pre-Vatican II liturgy prior to his appointment as President of Ecclesia
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ROMAN REPORT: OBITUARY Dei, but when Benedict XVI tasked him with this office, his pastoral activity took a completely new turn, which catapulted him on to the front line of the defence and promotion of the traditional liturgy. In other words, he did not limit himself to only preach, but also practised what he was mandated to preach, as evidently shown by a watershed event that took place on May 24, 2003, in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome, and that sent shock waves throughout the Catholic world and beyond: a Solemn Pontifical in the Gregorian Rite celebrated by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos upon request of a group of traditional-minded faithful. The purpose, as stated in a communiqué issued by the Ecclesia Dei Commission and aired by Radio Vatican in its May 25 newscast, was to offer an act of thanks and filial devotion to John Paul II for having promulgated the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei leading to the indulted Mass, at the same time joining in prayer in the 25th year of his pontificate, in the most ancient Marian basilica in Rome. As one could have easily imagined, the impact of this celebration of the Mass went far and wide. It was as if a spell had been broken and a myth dispelled, the myth that this Rite, in force till 1969, had been abolished by Paul VI. On the contrary the Rite continued to co-exist with the Novus Ordo, albeit marginalised and left to fall into oblivion. As a matter of fact, despite the Pope’s appeal with his Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei, too many bishops still were persisting in prohibiting the old rite in their dioceses. But now, for the first time since Vatican II, a senior Cardinal of the Roman Curia, still in office, or better in double office (Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei) and even reputed among the “papabili” (candidates to the Papacy), set a precedent which the bishops in the world would find increasingly difficult to ignore. He celebrated a most solemn traditional Latin liturgy in one of the four major Papal basilicas in Rome amid Gregorian plainchants and thick whiffs of incense, thus stirring such deep emotions that moved some of the thousand faithful from around the world even to tears. The Pope’s message through the then Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, conveyed the Pope’s thanks and blessing to those present and more in general to all those faithful still attached to the old liturgy. Moreover, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos pointed out in his homily that "the
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old Roman Rite preserves its right of citizenship in the Church and cannot be considered extinguished". Therefore, this Rite is entitled to its rightful place in “the multiplicity of Catholic Rites, both Latin and Eastern,” he went on. “What unites the variety of Rites is the same faith in the Eucharistic mystery, whose profession has always secured unity in the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” Whatever the initial intention, the most immediate consequence of the Mass celebrated in St Mary Major with such “pomp and circumstance” was that a completely new approach was ushered in: from being just tolerated, from then on traditional liturgy was to have been encouraged and promoted. An opportunity which was quickly seized by the traditionalists of the Latin Mass Society magazine: “It is time, therefore”, its May issue editorial proclaimed, “for the LMS to cease to think and act like a society under siege and to become more of a campaigning and proselytising body - arguing the case for Tradition and the immemorial Mass in the media, lobbying for the introduction of the traditional priestly orders into England and Wales, pressing for old rite parishes, and insisting that all the sacraments – not ‘just’ the Mass – be made widely and generously available.” Interestingly, at the time of the above pontifical, Cardinal Francis Arinze was quoted in the magazine Inside the Vatican as mooting that Rome was considering a document mandating the celebration of the old Latin Mass in parishes around the world wherever groups of parishioners had petitioned their bishop to allow it. This was one of the first references to the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, some years prior to its promulgation in 2007. Nobody can deny that Cardinal Hoyos should be duly and amply credited for it, although in his humility he would never have agreed with such recognition. On the contrary, he is on record as having described the late Cardinal Alfons Cardinal Stickler and FIUV President Michael Davies as “real precursors” of Summorum Pontificum. A year after its enforcement, another major highlight in the Cardinal’s apostolate in favour of the preVatican II liturgy was the 14 June 2008 celebration of the first Pontifical High Mass in the Tridentine Rite in 39 years in London's Westminster Cathedral, with a congregation of more than 1,500 people in attendance, including many young families. In the press conference
preceding the event, Cardinal Hoyos was all the more outspoken, when he made it clear that the “Holy Father wanted to give back to the world such great treasure, the enormous spiritual richness of the ancient liturgy, a powerful tool of sanctification.” A treasure which is a gift of God and therefore should be made available not only to traditional minded church-goers or the groups who were asking for it, he went on, but to all the faithful. In fact, he said Pope Benedict would like to see not only “many ordinary parishes” celebrating the Gregorian Rite, but “all the parishes”, and therefore all seminarians to be taught how to celebrate it. The Cardinal continued his pastoral activity to promote the Gregorian Rite after his resignation in 2009, as shown by the fact that in 2013 and 2016 he celebrated in St Peter’s Pontifical Masses for the annual Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to Rome. If on the one hand he was firmly convinced that the period “that we are living since the enforcement of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of the Holy Father Benedict XVI” is a “time of grace”, on the other hand he acknowledged the high price which was being paid for the old liturgy to be gradually and successfully reinstated. “It was a real nightmare putting Summorum Pontificum into practice”, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos painfully recalled during a book presentation on the opposition to Summorum Pontificum, which was held by the late president of Centro Culturale Lepanto, Fabio Bernabei, in Centro Russia Ecumenica in Borgo Pio adjacent to the Vatican. To have an idea of what the senior prelate had to endure and how daunting his task was, suffice to say that, as was widely reported in the media, none of the English or Welsh Bishops attended the Pontifical in Westminster Cathedral. In a way this “deafening absence” did not come as a complete surprise, since La Stampa, on 18 November 2007, already reported that the English and Welsh Bishops, together with most of the Italian Bishops, were waging a “real silent battle against the motu proprio of Benedict XVI”. But today, after more than a decade, thanks be to God, we are now in a completely different situation, and also thanks be to the late Cardinal Hoyos, for his tireless apostolic zeal in the service of the Pope and Holy Mother Church.
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FEATURE
Eucharistic indifference The complete restoration of Eucharistic reverence is essential to the integrity of the Church, says Laurence England
C
ardinal Marx of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising has sent shockwaves through the Church with his proposal to grant to Protestant spouses of Catholics, 'in some cases', admission to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist without their coming first into full Communion with the Catholic Church. The Pope has given mixed messages over the proposal, one negative and formal through the CDF, another less negative and informal, through an airplane interview. Despite resistance from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith it appears Cardinal Marx, with some bishops, is prepared to push ahead. I find the Cardinal's proposal shocking and bewildering, as it diverges completely from Sacred Tradition, but as a convert, from my varying experiences of pastor's care for the dignity of the Holy Eucharist, perhaps his is a natural development in an age and culture of widespread ignorance of and indifference to the Church's greatest treasure, our Eucharistic Lord. I’ve been a Catholic for 17 years, converting to the Catholic Faith at Pentecost in 2001. To my mind, that time has passed very speedily, as if, as the psalmist says, ‘in a sigh’ (Ps.90:9). Since then, there have been times during Mass when I wonder how I ‘ended up here’; often while altar serving at the Holy Liturgy, and especially nearing the Consecration, amid a haze of incense. The thought has passed like a wisp, a cloud through my mind: ‘How did I get here?’ How did I get from not being here, present at the Sacrifice of the Mass, to here, present at the most sublime mystery? I am certain that for many converts to the Catholic Faith, there is no answer to the question that is adequate, perhaps no one thing that led them to the Catholic Church or a deepening of faith, though perhaps one phase, one profound moment could be cited. Few, however, could tell all, for how can we tell all? The all is in the All, in the Heart of God Himself.
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As a convert, while eager to read and learn much about the Faith, I had very little, though perhaps a fragment of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. I was never during my instruction told to receive Our Blessed Lord kneeling, or on the tongue. Certainly, nobody instructed me whether there was a more venerable or appropriate way to receive the Holy of Holies. I am certain that my own Eucharistic impiety was a decisive role in the various ways I continued to offend God through a lifestyle in my twenties and thirties that was not recognisably Christian. What progress I have made out of a lifestyle that, looking back, I can only describe as libertine, I put down to the teaching and example of a parish priest I met shortly after my reception into the Church. A great deal of nonsense is currently talked about ‘pastoral care’. My own experience, as a then young man looking for direction, was that admonition was what was lacking more than anything else in the Church. This work of spiritual mercy, along with that of instructing the ignorant sounds so obvious, it is not alien to other religions either, but in large parts of the Church it is probably seldom happening. Today, I am easily agitated and scandalised when I see Catholic clergy or laity fail to genuflect towards the Tabernacle when passing across it, but at that time, in my twenties, I do not believe I did so, or, if I did, I did it very unthinkingly, never pausing a moment to consider the One in the Tabernacle. Yet, I am only scandalised now by indifference to the Blessed Sacrament because I was taught by one who spoke with authority. I recall one Mass when the priest with the ciborium in his hands walked past me while I was serving on the sanctuary as he made his way back to the Tabernacle. I was a new server, and wasn’t kneeling in the presence of the Lord. It hadn’t struck me to kneel. He looked at me, a little fiercely, and plainly
insisted that I kneel. I am so glad he did that. Over a longer period, he taught the congregation about the importance of Ad Orientem worship, instructed us as to why it had been the Church’s perennial feature of worship to face East, towards where the Risen Lord will come in glory on the Last Day. I would say, in fact, that most of his teaching has been Eucharistically-orientated and driven. His teaching has borne fruit. The culture of Eucharistic reception has changed dramatically simply by his example and that of parishioners. The vast majority of the congregation now kneel to receive the Lord, something that you simply won’t see in the vast majority of English parishes. It isn’t that the priest has demanded they do so, but rather that he taught us in word and deed. It will suffice to say, then, that such a priest, though precious I am sure in the eyes of those to whom he ministers and, even more importantly, to the Lord Jesus Himself, is an exception today, and by no means the norm. Those who champion the Most Holy Eucharist in various ages, including our own, always have to confront those who deny the Reality of the Mass and of the True Body and Blood of the Lord. Despite the liturgical changes of the 1960s, great and ardent defenders of the Most Holy Eucharist have always been exceptional. They are rarely the norm. Those who cling to Jesus in the midst of storms and persecutions are never the norm, they are always extraordinary men and women. During the Reformation in England and Wales, those who stood up for the Truth of the Most Holy Faith against an evil king were a minority, nor a majority, among laity, clergy and most markedly, among the episcopate. Summorum Pontificum When was released, again, a minority of priests learned to celebrate the Usus Antiquior, including our parish priest. He celebrated it for as long as he was physically able, a time that, for now,
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FEATURE has sadly ceased. You could tell, and still can tell, the impact this venerable form had on his devotion to the Sublime Sacrifice, how it has fostered his faith, hope and charity, his love of the Sacred Priesthood of Jesus Christ, his love of the Mass which is his privilege to offer, his love for the Victim to Whom he joins his own sufferings, which have been and continue to be considerable. Unfortunately, the example and teaching of those clergy who today offer the Mass of Ages, fostering reverence and love for our Eucharistic Lord, is implacably opposed by a vanguard that continue to diminish Eucharistic piety and make Christ’s Sacrifice a mundane, peripheral, even trivial matter. How can these men teach, lead and, where necessary, admonish others to show veneration towards the Lord on the Altar and in the Tabernacle, if they lack the supernatural faith to recognise Him in the Sacred Host? How can they pass on a faith they do not possess? A widespread culture of Eucharistic indifference exists in the Church today. Many, if not all readers of Mass of Ages are all too familiar with it. This culture strikes at the heart of the sensus fidei, the proclamation of our Faith, at the heart of Catholic worship, to our sense of the One to Whom adoration and worship is meant to be directed. The complete restoration of Eucharistic reverence is essential to the integrity of the Church, to foster holiness in the lives of Her children and the sanctification of the clergy. Eucharistic indifference, combined with an immense loss of the sacred more generally continues to work a great deal of confusion and menace in parishes and dioceses around the World that should be fruitful in vocations, but it always depends on the priest to foster it. It can only be this culture of astonishing indifference towards the Most Holy Eucharist that has led Cardinal Marx in his Archdiocese to permit Protestant spouses to receive Holy Communion, contrary to the Church’s perennial custom of granting the reception of Communion to those in full Communion with Christ and His Church, who profess the Faith that the Church proclaims. If such men as Cardinal Marx believed, firmly and truly, that the Sacred Host was the Body and Blood of Our Blessed Saviour, how could he even consider dispensing Him to unfaithful men and women outside of Communion with the Church?
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Cardinal Marx: shockwaves We must pray that, despite the best efforts of men in the Sacred Hierarchy, the Lord Jesus will send men after his own Most Sacred Heart to labour for Him in guiding souls, feeding them with His Body and Blood, and leading them, in charity and in truth, towards friendship with God and enmity with the pagan culture that surrounds them, a culture of indifference towards the sanctity of life, marriage, family and love, a culture that threatens to engulf not simply the World, but the Church founded by God the Son of the Eternal Father. Those devoted, and often courageous, clergy who celebrate the Traditional Latin
Mass, in spite of an often bitterly hostile ecclesiastical environment, deserve our support, our prayers, every kind of assistance and encouragement never to give in and to continue the work of liturgical restoration. Lascivious lifestyles praised by the World are hard to escape and it is no ordinary thing to break with them to embrace the path traced by Christ our Redeemer. It takes extraordinary priests, many of whom celebrate the Extraordinary Form, to lead men and women away from those lifestyles and to turn towards the Lord who renews our youth like the eagle’s (Ps. 103:5). Let us beg the Lord for more of them!
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CROSSWORD
Clues Across
1 Characteristic feature of mendicant orders (7) 5 Shakespeare speculated it was the food of love in Twelfth Night (5) 8 ‘Spera in ---’, prayers at the foot of the altar beginning of Mass (3) 9 City particularly associated with the Sarum Rite (9) 10 Tree of Lebanon in OT [II Chron 2] (5) 11 Where in north France the Norbertine Order founded (9) 14 Multi-talented Saint, Doctor of the Church, Feast Day 17 Sept. (9) 18 Saint, sister of Pope Damasus I whose name means ‘peace’, from the Latin (5) 21 Books of the Bible of doubtful authority; not accepted as canonical (9) 22 “---, lama sabacthani”, Christ on the Cross [Matt 27, Douay Rheims] (3) 23 Head adornment, such as the papal triple crown (5) 24 & 19 Down: Mediaeval means of transporting monastic produce (2,5,4)
Clues Down
Alan Frost: July 2018
ANSWERS TO SUMMER 2018 CROSSWORD
Across: 1 Seraphs 5 Crown 8 Chi 9 Singulari 10 Adoro 11 Velodrome 14 Clairvaux 18 Odour 21 Zucchetto 22 Dot 23 Vests 24 Anyone’s Down: 1 Socratic 2 Raison 3 Passover 4 Sandal 5 Crux 6 Ora Pro 7 Naim (Douay-Rheims) or Nain 12 Doxology 13 Emeritus 15 Abacus 16 Agatha 17 Gordon 19 Azov 20 Rhos
Closing Date & Winner
Closing date for the crossword entries: Friday, 28 September 2018. The winner of the summer 2018 competition is Mr Iveson of London.
1 Treachery and creed not to be followed (3,5) 2 & 4 Down: Church architect, contemporary of the Pugins, designed, e.g., St. Wilfrid’s, York (6) 3 ‘Keep -- ------’, avoid complicated instruction (2,6) 4 See 2 Down 5 ….-en-scène, a pictorial representation in art or film (4) 6 An oblique opening in a church wall, perhaps for passing the Host through for lepers (6) 7 Aelbert, influential 17th c. Dutch landscape artist, works include The Maas at Dordrecht (4) 12 One about to become a priest (8) 13 Recipient of a letter from the apostle Paul (8) 15 ‘Ora et ------’, motto of the Benedictines (6) 16 Ancient city of the Holy Land [Syria] (6) 17 Not likely to be Napoleon’s favourite Saint (6) 19 See 24 Across 20 Cova da ----, place of the Shrine, originally a field in Fatima where Our Lady appeared to the little seers (4)
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS Guild of St Clare: Sewing Retreat at Douai Abbey, 23-25 November, with Fr Harry Heijveld. Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, RG7 5TQ. Only a few places left: book through www. lms.org.uk. Guild of St Clare: Sewing Retreat at the Carmelite Retreat Centre at Boars Hill, Oxford: 1-3 February 2019. With Fr Edward van den Burgh of the London Oratory. Carmelite Priory, Chilswell, Boars Hill, Oxford, OX1 5HB. Booking open: see lms.org.uk Guild of St Clare: Advance notice of the 2019 Sewing Retreat at Douai Abbey, 1-3 November. Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, RG7 5TQ. Gregorian Chant Network: Chant Training Day at the Carmelite Retreat Centre, Boars Hill, Saturday 2nd February 2019, with Dominic Bevan. Booking open: see lms.org.uk
St Catherine’s Trust: Advance notice of the Family Retreat 2019, with priests of the Fraternity of St Peter. Dates will be 5-7th April 2019, at the Oratory School, Woodcote, nr Reading, South Oxfordshire RG8 0PJ. Gregorian Chant Network: Advance notice of the Chant Training Weekend 2019. Dates will be 5-7th April, with Thomas Neil and Fr Guy Nichols of the Birmingham Oratory. Oratory School, Woodcote, nr Reading, South Oxfordshire RG8 0PJ. Latin Mass Society: advance notice of the 2019 Latin Course. Dates will be 29th July to 2nd August, at the Carmelite Priory, Chilswell, Boars Hill, Oxford, OX1 5HB.
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MACKLIN STREET
GDPR: Update Kevin Jones, LMS Secretary, writes:
T
he General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25 May 2018. Under this Law, which although an EU Directive is enshrined in UK Law irrespective of Brexit, we require your explicit permission to contact you by email, post or telephone (but preferably all three). Obtaining permission from our members has involved a considerable amount of administrative work and expense to the Society and we thank those members you responded to our original request. Those members for whom the LMS holds an email address were contacted by that means to obtain the consent required by the legislation. Those for whom no email address is held received a letter (which was printed on the reverse of the carrier sheet accompanying their copy of the summer 2018 Mass of Ages) and a pre-paid envelope was included to enable them to return their completed declaration to our Macklin Street office. To date, about 60% of the membership has responded. Since undertaking this exercise which, by law, we were obliged to do, subsequent advice from the Information Commissioner’s Office (the body which regulates Data Protection) states that we do not require your permission to send you your copy of Mass of Ages, membership renewal notifications, or postal communications about Society events, because, as a member of the LMS, you would expect to receive these. However, to keep you informed of our activities and
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to impart other news, especially via our network of Local Representatives, we do require permission. Members will find included with this edition of our magazine a copy of our Privacy Policy which details how we collect, store and use the personal information you give to us. As you will see from the Policy, the LMS is a ‘data controller’ which, as such, implies we are also a ‘data processor’. The data we process (i.e. use) is that which we control (own). To help draw a distinction between these terms, the mailing house that despatches Mass of Ages on our behalf is a processor of the data we control, i.e. they use the names and addresses of members supplied to them by us. In such circumstances the LMS works only with trusted suppliers who have agreed to treat your information as respectfully as we do and in accordance with the requirements of the GDPR. In order that the LMS can be as fully GDPR compliant as possible, members who have not responded to our original request for their communication preferences will find a letter with this magazine requesting their response. I urge you complete this without delay and return it to Macklin Street. www.twitter.com/latimmassuk (@latinmassuk) www.facebook.com/latinmassuk
To contact the General Manager, Stephen Moseling, please email stephen@lms.org.uk or telephone the office.
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