COMMENT
An historic first
Alan Frost reports from Birmingham Oratory
F
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.
AUTUMN 2018
