Highlights From Latin Mass Society’s 60th Anniversary Faith & Culture Conference
On Saturday 14th June the Latin Mass Society hosted its Faith and Culture Conference at the Brompton Oratory. The event, marking the 60th anniversary of the LMS, saw keynote speeches from prominent Catholic clergy, academics and public figures.
All speeches are available to watch on the Latin Mass Society YouTube channel.
Highlights from the speeches include:
His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke
‘Tradition as the Proper Principle of the Catholic Liturgy’
His Eminence used his keynote address to the “persecution from within the Church” of Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass.
“It is my hope that he will put an end to the persecution of the faithful in the Church who desire to worship God according to the more ancient usage of the Roman rite.”
“I certainly have already had occasion to express that to the Holy Father. Certainly it is my hope that he will, as soon as it is possible, take up the study of this question and try to restore the situation as it was after Summorum Pontificum, and even to continue to develop what Pope Benedict XVI had so wisely and lovingly legislated for the Church.”
Bishop Athanasius Schneider
‘The joy of our Catholic faith’
His Excellency Bishop Schneider used his speech to explore the beauty of Catholicism, adherence to the faith and a life devoted to Christ, as well as addressing the issue of “why God permits heresies in His Church.”
“St Augustine explains it this way, I quote: ‘there are in the Holy Church innumerable men approved by God but they do not become manifest among us as approved by God so long as we are delighted with the darkness of our ignorance and prefer to sleep rather than to behold the light of truth, so many are awoken from sleep by heresies so they may see God’s light and be glad.
‘Let us therefore use even heretics, not to approve their errors but to assert our Catholic faith and discipline against theirs and to become more vigilant and cautious even if we cannot recall them to salvation.’”
Dr Joseph Shaw
‘Evangelising after the cultural revolution’
Dr Shaw discussed how the cultural landscapes of societies must inform evangelical efforts, stating that “one way to address the conflict which has been taking place within the Church over the last sixty years… is to think of it as an argument about what aspects of modern culture present the best entry points for evangelisation.
“There is a school of thought that says whether we like it or not modern people don’t understand symbols and don’t like hierarchy… Other people point to cultural developments which show there is a hunger for hierarchy and symbols and will come running if these things are offered.
“Evangelisation must take account of what the Church is like Herself, Her own culture and message, which obviously influencers which obviously influences how we go about presenting ourselves to others… it’s got to represent us, and this is a point of dispute within the Church.”
Prof Thomas Pink
‘Tradition, secular and religious’
Professor Pink discussed “the crisis concerning the liturgy,” and “the way in which customs might put a moral obligation on us to follow them.”
“Some customs are imposed on us by human nature as such. They’re part of the law of nature. Our human nature dictates we must behave towards each other in certain ways. For Catholics, it’s clear the institution of marriage involves customs that are obligatory under natural law. But there are other customs which as individuals we’re under an obligation to follow, which looks as if the obligation arises out of the custom.”
“If you’ve got a rich understanding of human nature, as Catholics do, as see us as bearing the image of God in a way that differentiates us from the lower animals, then you will be able to find ways of explaining how important parts of morality are natural; they arise out of our complex human nature and our bearing of the image of God.”
Dr Tim Stanley
‘Reflections on 20 years as a Catholic’
Dr Tim Stanley discussed his personal journey in the Catholic faith, on the 20th anniversary of his reception into the Church, leveraging his own personal story to depict broader changes and development within the Church over that period.
“By the time I went to university in 2001 I was a fully fledged Marxist… so why on earth would I make a transition from Marxism to Christianity and then from Christianity to Marxism? I began to change my mind about materialism and atheism when I was studying the 17th century and the early modern period in English history culminating in the civil war, and what I discovered was that there were people who were willing to live and die and give up their own lives for religion.
“To discover that there was a century there was a time in which people not only believed but shed their blood for Christ was really quite extraordinary and I also found that those people really cared about the people around them that their own sense of social action was rooted in their love of God
James Gillick
‘Church Art Commissioning. Maxims for Success. Maxim 1: Put the Right Art in Front of The Right People, a History’
Renowned artist James Gillick meditated on the history of Catholic art; its origins and its early development.
“Over my working life I have compiled a dozen or so pragmatic maxims that summarize how art has been brought into the world successfully for the longest time. This step is as good a place to start as any: put the right art in front of the right people.
“The arts are not an appendix to society. A functionless appendage to fill with the excess after all of society's bellies are full. Artistic acts, cultural acts or great acts as I call them take their parentage from the physical effort of Jesus on the day of his passion through to its outcome: the resurrection and the destruction of the burden of our slavery to sin and death.
“The reconciliation of the indebted with the lender is called salvation. The firstborn of that marriage between physical effort and liberation is liturgy leading to sacrament. The third generation in that family is the laying down of the life of the individual into great acts; the sublimation of ordinary sweat and toil into a noble sacrifice.