BOOKS
The gathering of the names A new book, edited by LMS Chairman Joseph Shaw, celebrates the Petitions that Saved the Traditional Mass. In this specially written article Dr Shaw explains the genesis of The Latin Mass and the Intellectuals
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any, probably most, readers will have heard of the petition delivered to Pope Paul VI by Cardinal Heenan in 1971, begging him to allow the continued celebration of the Traditional Mass, alongside the newly-promulgated Novus Ordo Missae. Pope Paul is said to have remarked on the presence on the list of signatories, among the assorted members of Britain’s cultural elite, of Agatha Christie, the crime writer. At any rate, he did give the necessary permission, which became known as the English Indult. What is less well known is that this was just one of a series of petitions, and that even the 1971 petition was signed by many more people than generally realised: not just the 57 UK-based people whose names appeared in The Times, but a total of 104, including Romano Amerio, later famous for his book on Vatican II, Iota Unum; the American poet Robert Lowell; the French film director Robert Bresson; the Italian philosopher Augusto Del Noce; and the Argentinian surrealist writer, Jorge Luis Borges. Borges and Bresson had already signed a similar petition in 1966, alongside Evelyn Waugh; the poet W.H. Auden; the French philosopher Jaques Maritain; the communist Philip Toynbee; and Benjamin Britten. Petitions in support of the Traditional Mass were also organised in 1995 and 1997. These focused on numbers rather than the fame of individual signatories. The former gained 70,000 signatories and was endorsed by the German philosopher Robert Spaemann. The latter was supported by 73 lay groups across Europe and North America, and many priestly and religious institutes and
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associations. Three more petitions appeared in 2006 and 2007, to show support for Pope Benedict XVI’s intention to liberate the Traditional Mass. These were signed by, among many others, the French philosopher René Girard; the Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli; an MP and an MEP; the Australian historian Sheridan Gilley; the philosopher Catherine
Pickstock; the Catholic novelist Piers Paul Reid; and three future Patrons of the Latin Mass Society: the late Prince Rupert von Loewenstein; the Scottish Judge, Lord Gill; and the composer Sir James MacMillan. For most of the signatories, their involvement with these petitions doesn’t even merit a footnote in their biographies, but in the centenary year
WINTER 2023
