Latin Mass Society

Chairman's Blog

29/01/2019 - 09:44

John Houghton Schola launched at Maiden Lane

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Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, in London, following recent restoration.

The Latin Mass Society's new London Chant Schola, the Schola Cantorum Ioannis Hougton, has now had its first rehearsal and accompanied its first Mass.

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The Masses at 6:30pm on Mondays at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane present a problem from the musical point of view because London-based singers find it difficult to get there in time for an extended rehearsal before Mass starts, after their work day. So the Houghton Schola rehearses on the previous Friday evening, in the Latin Mass Society's Office. I attended the first of these myself, as did the Schola's Chaplain, the usual celebrant at the Maiden Lane Masses, Fr Gabriel Diaz Patri.

The Schola's eight members turned out to have every level of experience--from 'lots' to 'none'--and it will be very interesting to see them develop as a group. The first Mass went extremely well, thanks to the seriousness of the singers and the preparation and leadership of Matthew Schellhorn, its director and the Latin Mass Society's Director of Music for London.

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The Schola's next dates in Maiden Lane are (Mondays)

18th Feb; 11th March; 15th April; 13th May; 10th June.

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23/01/2019 - 15:01

Cafeteria Catholics won't save the Church

My latest on LifeSiteNews

It is often said in the context of the clerical abuse crisis that the laity must act, or be given responsibility. It is natural enough, in reaction to a problem arising with one part of the Church, to hope for salvation from another, and there are some wonderful historical examples of lay action to deal with clerical failures. 
My personal favorite is the action of the laity between 1268 and 1271, during the time of the longest conclave (Papal election) in the Church’s history, which took place in the town of Viterbo. Becoming impatient with the Cardinals’ inability to agree on a new Pope, the town authorities locked them into their meeting room, and proceeded to remove the roof and restrict their diet to bread and water. Something similar had already happened in the conclave of 1241.
Such rough handling of Princes of the Church must be seen in the context of the cheerful physicality of the Middle Ages, but the general principle is simply that the laity have, if they stop to think about it, all kinds of ways of making their needs and desires forcefully known to their pastors.
There have been various actions by the American laity in recent months to protest against past crimes and present foot-dragging, but vigorous action by the laity is impeded by a number of factors.

Continue reading on LifeSite.

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21/01/2019 - 15:40

Prof Tom Pink this Friday: talk in London


Friday 25th, 7pm

Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, London W1B 5LZ

Click for a map.

Prof Tom Pink: The Church and the World

The first of a series of talks, which will focus on topics connected with the everyday life of traditionally-minded Catholics: the domestic church, homeschooling, traditional catechesis, moral instruction, culture (high, common, and religious), religious history etc., takes place in the basement of Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street, London on Friday 25th January at 7pm. The speaker will be Prof. Tom Pink on The Church and the World’

The purpose of the talks is not only to inform but to help traditionally-minded Catholics from across London and beyond to meet, discuss matters of mutual concern, and form a greater sense of community.

Facebook event

Info on the LMS website

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20/01/2019 - 10:00

Can we believe the bishops?

My latest on LifeSiteNews.

A taster.

Catholics today find themselves in an institutional Church whose keynote appears to be moral cowardice. Those failing to display its telltale symptoms are weeded out of seminaries or, as priests, are dumped in marginal parishes. Only those willing to play the game are encouraged and promoted.
At first, all that is asked of them is to turn a blind eye to problems that they have no power to address: indeed, they know well that to make a fuss does no good to the victims, only harm to oneself. But as time goes on, more is asked of them. Playing the game means brushing off victims and their families. It means covering up. It means lying. It means facilitating abuse. It means, even for those who don’t themselves abuse, getting into the swamp right up to the neck.

Read it all there.

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19/01/2019 - 15:51

CDF absorbs PCED

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Archbishop Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, with members
of the Una Voce Federation (FIUV) in 2013.

Today a decree has been promulgated dissolving the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which has responsibility for issues concerning the Traditional Mass and the reconciliation of groups using that Mass who have been operating outside the structures of the Church, and givings its functions and powers to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Up until now, for a good few years the Prefect of the Congregation for the Faith has been ex officio the President of the Pontifical Commission, which has had its own Secretary (Archbishop Pozzo) and small staff, with offices in the CDF's building. When I write to the PCED (not a daily occurrence), I usually address the letter to the Prefect/President, knowing it would be passed on to appropriate person.

This looks like a bit of house-keeping, a tidying-up, rather than anything with implications for policy or official attitudes towards the Traditional Mass. I was surprised to read that the PCED up until now has had its own budget: well, it won't in the future, the staff will be paid by the CDF.

If there is a change of staff that may, in itself, be significant, but we don't know about that yet.

I have always been sceptical of the view that Pope Francis is planning to crack down on the Traditional Mass. Rumours about the planning for this decree may well have been the source for some of the chatter about that. Now we see the decree, I am confirmed in my opinion. I may live to eat my words: who knows? But if I were asked which department of the Roman Curia in the medium and long term I would most like to see exercise the functions of the PCED, I would not hesitate to nominate the CDF. And if they exercise those functions with the existing staff of the PCED, it is reasonable to assume that normal service will continue.

It is interesting to see the emphasis in reports on discussions with the SSPX. These makes the choice of the CDF the obvious one: they were the reason the PCED was bundled in with the CDF in the first place. And the more straightforward liturgical issues the PCED has been handling can't conveniently be handled by a completely separate department from the department handling the talks.

Here are some links to other discussions:

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-01/pope-francis-suppresses-ecclesia-dei-commission.html

https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2019/01/apostolic-letter-abolishing-pontifical.html

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/farewell-pontifical-commission-ecclesia-dei

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/01/suppression-of-pced-confirmed.html#.XEMjMS0xnVg

https://whatisupwiththesynod.com/index.php/2019/01/19/francis-subsumes-ecclesia-dei-into-cdf/

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14/01/2019 - 17:36

Anti-semitism, again

Further to the comments on my post on Taki's column in the Christmas edition of the Catholic Herald, I had the following comment which I think is worthy of its own post. The author has a unique perspective, being Jewish and moving in traditional Catholic circles for a number of years while in the UK in the 1990s.

His point about 'dinner party anti-semitism' reminds me of stories of casual racism focused on Africans which one hears featuring impeccably liberal Catholic churchmen.

Writing as one who would be considered an 'ultra-orthodox' Jew, I find the entire charge to be without merit. I was close with quite a few LMS folks while at University and have maintained contact with many since then. With one foolish exception, I did not encounter even the slightest hint of antisemitism. Perhaps I am simply able to understand that disagreement does not equal condemnation or hatred; I don't know. As per the Chairman's implication above, the exception I mention had spent his formative years in France. In fact, I have encountered far more 'dinner party' antisemitism from the more post-conciliar crew. Are there *some* Traditionalist Catholics who are antisemites? I dunno. Probably somewhere. But I would find it difficult to believe that it had anything to do with them being a Traditionalist Catholic, which itself is more of a barrier to antisemitism than modernity is. 

Re. the NY Times. Most of its Jewish readership is secular-liberal or Modern Orthodox. Neither of whom will, generally, shed tears over haredi-slamming articles. Even my fellow haredim would not, generally, consider the stories to be an attack. My suspicion is that the NY Times is simply losing out to the NY Post on these stories. Additionally, these are different times: when the big wave of abuse stories came out of the Church, print media was still the norm. If a newspaper did not cover all the news fit for print, then it was an impediment of sorts to its readership. Most of the orthodox abuse stories (still, thankfully, very few in number) emerged when online news is the norm. One will not cancel a newspaper subscription if they miss one-or-two stories that can be accessed easily elsewhere.
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09/01/2019 - 12:28

Listen to me on 'The Catholic Current' on the Lay Vocation

Fr Robert McTeigue interviewed me for his online radio programme, The Catholic Current. You can hear me on the following links.

Link to the broadcast as streaming audio and resources:
Link to the broadcast as podcast:
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01/01/2019 - 17:02

Antisemitism in the Catholic Herald: serious or not?

Back in February, Michael Davis, the Catholic Herald's US editor, decided to fling about a few conventional, though bitter, accusations against traditional Catholics: or the 'older generation' of traditional Catholics. They were, he said, in the habit of 'going out of their way to be nasty', and, yes you guessed it, tainted by 'repugnant anti-Semitism'.

When I hear that kind of accusation made by anyone, of anyone, I want to know: does this person raise this issue because he thinks it is serious, or because he thinks it is trivial?

Is it because it is so easy to make the accusation? And it is. Making it provides the accuser with a kind of first-mover's immunity from criticism, endowing him with an immediate aura of virtue, whereas the victim is going to look shifty and defensive regardless of what they say. Davis provides absolutely no evidence for his claim: the 'traditional Catholic' is left guilty until proved innocent, but how can you even argue against evidence which has not been specified?

Or is it, instead, because, the accusation is such a weighty one? Is Davis so concerned about this semi-hidden menace in the bosom of the Church that he feels that, painful as it may be, it must be probed fearlessly and confronted?

The Christmas issue of the Catholic Herald provided the answer. One of the star turns of the US edition of the Catholic Herald which is Davis' specific responsibility, but whose article also appeared in the UK edition, is Taki, as in Taki Theodoracopulos: or, as Private Eye calls him, 'Takealotofcokeupthenos' (he once spent 3 months in prison for possession of cocaine).

Catholic Herald 21 Dec 2018

Taki delighted the readers of the Catholic Herald over the Christmas break by suggesting, in one of his characteristic, rambling 'Diary' type columns, that the New York Times under-reported sex-abuse cases in the Jewish community in New York because of the influence of their Jewish readership. This is not the most extreme example of anti-semitic speech, but it is an exceptionally clear one: a text-book case, in fact, combining the two key characteristics of popular anti-semitism, (1) the idea that Jews as a group are guilty of some particularly serious moral depravity, and (2) that they get away with it because of their shadowy network of influence. Oh, and it's also completely untrue: the New York Times has reported on those cases in a perfectly normal way.

But Michael Davis and whoever else is responsible at the Catholic Herald let this go through. Why? It is presumably because they have taken on the attitude which has protected Taki, now in his eighties, during decades of outrageous remarks in columns and, no doubt, private conversation, in establishment right-wing circles. The cartoon decorating this column appeared in Private Eye in 2003: this isn't exactly new news.

What is the attraction? Taki's columns have been floating past my ken for about a quarter of a century, mostly in The Spectator. They are consistently and intensely boring. Never once, I think, have I read anything which could be described as perceptive, or even particularly well-expressed. What he offers readers, instead, is a glimpse into his 'High' life (the name of his long-standing Spectator column is, of course, a pun). Taki moves in a circle with other rich, famous, and outrageous people. Political ideas or personalities are condemned if Taki and his chums make boorish jokes about them, because they don't fit in to their glittering life-style. If you, the reader, laugh along, you may have a fleeting sense that you can be part of the star-dusted gang. All you need, it would seem, is to adopt their amusing prejudices and you can pretend you drink champagne out of high-heel shoes and snort coke with rolled-up hundred dollar bills: just like the beautiful people.

I have always found this kind of political and social 'conservatism' nauseating. It is completely lacking not only in spirituality, but in even the pretence of intellectual seriousness. It seeks to adopt classical culture and religion as a thin disguise of its venality and selfishness, and leaves them tarnished by the association. It lurks at the heart of politically conservative groups and publications like the rotten centre of an apple. No one who wants to showcase Taki, who thinks 'oh but he's terribly amusing and glamorous', has the remotest idea of what conservatism really means. Conservatism, if it has any place at the table of debate, is not about the attempt to preserve the privileges of the decadent by defensive snootiness, but the restoration of the living springs of society--the family, spirituality, culture of all kinds--which cannot function effectively when morally corrupted.

Does it come as any kind of surprise to find that Taki is a casual anti-semite? Not at all: no one who has been paying attention for any part of the last thirty years has any right to be surprised. What is surprising is that the editors of the Catholic Herald, so self-confidently accusing others, who cannot respond, of anti-semitism, cannot recognise the phenomenon when they see it in the pages of their own magazine.

But then it was never serious, after all, was it? Accusing people of anti-semitism, for Michael Davis, wasn't about getting to the bottom of a serious problem. It's about flinging around a nice long word, feeling the warm glow of a borrowed virtue, and getting on the right side of one of the neuralgic issues of the day.

Michael Davis never apologised for accusing 'older traditionalists' of anti-semitism. I wonder if he will apologise for publishing anti-semitic rants in his own magazine. I suspect he will prefer to sit the issue out without comment. After all, how serious is it?

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01/01/2019 - 14:26

Newman Colloquium: John Smeaton on Dementia

Dementia: My Father's Story

Dr Adrian Treloar (Old Age Psychiatrist and Dementia Specialist, and author of 'Dementia - Hope on a Difficult Journey') talks with Mr John Smeaton (Chief Executive of SPUC) about the very emotive topic of dementia. In the late 1990s John's father, Jack Smeaton, was diagnosed with dementia. As Jack's physician, Adrian helped John's father and the entire Smeaton family through this difficult journey. 
John's father, Jack Smeaton, died in 2003 fortified by the last rites.

When?  12/01/19 15:45 (for a prompt 16:00 start) - 17:30
Where? Parish hall at Catholic Church of Ss Gregory and Augustine, Oxford, OX2 7NS (limited parking available)
Cost: Free, a retiring collection will be taken at the end for the speakers
For more details and to register please visit: newmancolloquium.eventbrite.com
Registration essential as places limited

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22/12/2018 - 20:21

A new edition of Adeste Fideles from Matthew Schellhorn

Matthew Schellhorn writes:

For several years, I have had the honour of directing the music on Christmas Eve in St Mary Moorfields in the City of London, at the First Mass of Christmas organised by the Latin Mass Society. 

It is the custom to follow the Last Blessing with a congregational rendition of the hymn “Adeste, fideles” (most frequently sung elsewhere in its English form, “O Come, all ye Faithful”).). 

One might adapt the well known version in Carols for Choirs, but in fact the genesis of the hymn is so complex, and the melodic and harmonic incarnations so multiplicitous that all the musical options deserve to be under the tree and on offer. 

As a result, I have compared and drawn together the many different versions, freely adapting from the chant versions in the Liber usualis (1932 and 1961) and Mass and Vespers (1957), and also from the organ harmonisation of chant Nova organi harmonia, the De La Salle Hymnal for Catholic Schools and Choirs (1913), the Thomas Helmore’s harmonisation of the Hymnal Noted (1852), editions by Martin Shaw (1875–1958) and the choral motet by François-Clément Théodore Dubois (1837–1924). 

I trust that Sir David Willcocks (1919–2015), under whose baton I had the honour of working in Worcester, would be content. 

The new, hybrid version plays on expectations and – in the best tradition of last-verse descants – confounds musical etiquette in a whimsical way. 

The result is similar to the sensation of meeting up with relations at Christmas festivities – some one knows well, and some one has not seen for a long time. 

Please note: I must be getting old, because I have lost the will to fight against the infamous passing note before the refrain, which in any case I find in several honourable sources. 

My arrangement is dedicated to my God-daughter, Miss Barbara Shaw, daughter of the Latin Mass Society’s Chairman, Joseph Shaw, on the occasion of her First Holy Communion in Oxford. Although owing to my professional commitments I am unable to be present on this auspicious occasion, I hope this offering will display my being united to her in prayer.

You can see the music here.

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