Latin Mass Society

Chairman's Blog

28/03/2023 - 12:53

Reply to Cardinal Roche on the BBC

My latest for 1Peter5.
More on the issue of Catholic being encouraged to see themselves as offering Mass with the priest, with the necessary qualifications to this idea, in traditional liturgical spirituality, has been provided by Peter Kwasniewski here.
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As I recently wrote on Catholic Answers, the confusion surrounding the meaning of Traditionis custodes, and its flotilla of supplementary documents, is beginning to resemble that around Amoris Laetitia. I was talking specifically about the purpose of the document: what vision of the ecclesial landscape inspires it. Here I want to focus on the equally opaque reasoning behind it.

Last Sunday BBC Radio 4 aired a short report on the Traditional Mass. They talked to the Catholic blogger Maria Jones (do have a look at her channel ‘One of Nine’), a priest who says the TLM, and some Traditional Mass goers they found by chance outside a church. We also heard clips from Austen Ivereigh, papal biographer, and Cardinal Arthur Roche. (Listen here, 5min to 12min.)

On the subject of why TC had been issued, Ivereigh tells us that people who attend the Traditional Mass constitute a sinister ‘movement’ opposed to Vatican II. This claim is presumably inspired by Pope Francis’ 2021 Letter to BishopsThe difficulty with it is that even the most emotional and unsophisticated supporters of the Traditional Mass that the BBC journalists could find lend absolutely no support to this idea. If the ‘movement’ Ivereigh speaks of is only found in some obscure corner of the internet, then it is hard to know why Pope Francis has caused such heartache by restricting the Traditional Mass all over the world.

Cardinal Roche, on the other hand, spoke as follows:

You know the theology of the Church has changed. Whereas before the priest represented, at a distance, all the people. They were channelled, as it were, through this person who alone was celebrating the Mass. It is not only the priest who celebrates the liturgy, but also those who are baptised with him. And that is an enormous statement to make.

This is completely unrelated to the claims made in the Letter to Bishops, and it is hard to think of such a claim being made by a Curial Cardinal before. 

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20/03/2023 - 12:35

On the Rescript: for Catholic Answers

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Mass at the most recent Guild of St Clare Sewing Retreat

My latest on Catholic Answers is about the Rescript. I make the point that not only does the set of recent documents--Traditionis custodes, Responsa ad dubia, Rescriptum ex audientia--reverse a policy of making incremental concessions to the Traditional Mass dating back to the English Indult in 1971 and going right up to Christmas Eve 2020, when Pope Francis gave a Roman basilica to the ICKSP to use, but, especially in light of the FSSP Decree of February 2021, it is impossible to know what the goal of the new policy actually is.
It begins in this way:

The average Catholic may hear the term Rescriptum ex audientia and suddenly remember a number of pressing engagements he has to get to. But this term has profound and troubling implications for the faith life of everyone looking for authoritative, magisterial guidance in how best to follow and worship Our Lord.

What is the Rescriptum, or Rescript? It is a document, published on February 21, that doubles down on restricting the availability of the traditional Latin Mass (TLM). It says that bishops may not allow its celebration in parish churches without the agreement of the Dicastery for Divine Worship in Rome. Up to now, when the Dicastery has been involved in such decisions, the number of places where the TLM has been offered has fallen sharply—for example, from seven to three in the Archdiocese of Washington.

Read it all there.

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13/03/2023 - 17:24

Staff changes at the Latin Mass Society

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The start of the Easter Vigil last year at St Mary Moorfields. Richard Picket
was the Master of Ceremonies
I posted the job adverts here, so it behoves me to publish the results of the selection procedure. We had excellent candidates and I am delighted with the result of the process.
I'd like to reiterate our thanks to the outgoing members of staff. Their longevity in post has underpinned a period of stability and steady progress at the Latin Mass Society. We now have a new office, a new Communications Officer, two new Patrons, and will soon be joined by a new General Manager. There is always lots to do, and I'm excited by the prospect of fresh energy and ideas to bring to the task.
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The Latin Mass Society Announces Staff Changes

 

After eight years as the Latin Mass Society’s General Manager, Stephen Moseling is retiring from this position at the end of March, 2023. The Society is very grateful for Stephen’s hard work over the years and prays that he enjoys his retirement

The Society is pleased to announce his successor will be Richard Pickett. Richard has an in-depth knowledge of the Traditional Rites and has helped with Confirmations, the Sacred Triduum, Pontifical Masses in Westminster Cathedral and other high-profile Masses in London. In addition to this, he previously worked at Westminster Abbey and the City of London Corporation in protocol and organisational roles. Richard will start work on 1st April and the Society is delighted that it will benefit from his experience and proven administrative and managerial skills. In anticipation of starting his new job, Richard commented: “I look forward to the prospect of working for the Latin Mass Society at this important moment. Tribute is due to Stephen Moseling, who has done so much to advance the work of the society."

Stephen reflects that “It has been an honour to have been a part of the work of the Society for the past eight years. I have every confidence that Richard will take the work of the office forward and I wish the Society well for the future."

The Latin Mass Society also welcomes Portia Berry-Kilby who has taken over the role of Communications Officer from Clare Bowskill who, after seven years as the Society’s Publicist, felt the time had come for the Society to have a new perspective on the way it portrays itself on social media and in the public domain. The Society is immensely grateful to Clare for all she has done and wishes her well for the future.

Portia has an extensive background in communications, research and strategy. She is a former attaché for the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, and currently works on international freedom of religion or belief in Westminster, which she will continue to do while working freelance for the Society. 

Commenting on the recent staff changes, the Society’s Chairman Dr Joseph Shaw said: “The Latin Mass Society team has been very effective in serving the Church and getting our message across over recent years. I would like to pay particular tribute to Stephen's expansion of our on-line shop and Clare's achievement in increasing our following on social media.

“I am delighted that we have been able to fill both these important roles with excellent replacements, and I look forward to working with Richard and Portia, in the challenging circumstances that the Society currently faces.”

--

Portia Berry-Kilby

Communications Officer

Mobile: 07908569548

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09/03/2023 - 10:21

Letter in The Tablet: the quickest way to a parallel Church

Last week Christopher Lamb wrote a feature article in The Tablet -- in addition to his weekly column -- on the Rescript and the general question of Vatican policy towards the Traditional Mass. It contained many things I could have objected to, and overall Lamb seems lacking in seriousness. For example, in response to the careful argument made by JD Flynn -- and many other canonists -- based on the legal implications of the fact that the Responsa ad dubia from December 2021 was approved by Pope Francis in forma communi and not in forma specifica, Lamb tells us artlessly that Cardinal Roche informed him 'that the Pope approved it'. So that's settled, then.

However, I decided not to address these sorts of things and they have published (most of) a letter I sent them, which comments on the situation in a more general way. (Words cut in red.)

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Christopher Lamb’s article (Critical Mass, 4 March) reiterates the central mystery of the recent instructions from Rome on the Latin Mass: the idea that Catholics attached to it should be moved from parish churches to various obscure alternative places of worship, or perhaps to the chapels of the SSPX outside the structures of the Church, in order to prevent a ‘parallel Church’ developing.

I am a witness to the effect on Traditional Catholics, when restrictions were eased in 2007, of being moved into parish churches, after a long period in the wilderness. This led to their greater integration into the life of the parish and diocese, their greater sense of solidarity with the wider Church, and the undoing of the marginalisation which can breed isolation, bitterness, and radicalisation.

Reversing this process, after 13 years in which deep wounds had healed, is the high road to creating a ‘parallel Church’, where those who worship in Latin never meet their fellow Catholics and feel permanently—and, we must admit, justifiably—aggrieved by the actions of the hierarchical Church.

There are two important differences between today, and the previous time this happened, in the 1970s. One is the vastly increased numbers of Catholics who have, with the encouragement of Pope Benedict XVI, made the ancient Mass their spiritual home. The other is the much greater sympathy they receive from priests and bishops.

How this ends, I leave to readers to imagine.

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I'm always interested by what The Tablet letter editor cuts out from my letters. It seems he'd rather readers did not think about what happens next. I would suggest that, as they say in the army, time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted.

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04/03/2023 - 10:00

Interview with Fr Robert McTeigue SJ

I always enjoy talking to Fr McTeigue, and I think this is the third one we've had, on his online Catholic radio programme 'The Catholic Current'.

We welcome back Dr. Joseph Shaw of Una Voce and the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales to discuss the latest document from Rome regarding the traditional liturgy. What is the basis for shutting down traditional Masses, and why does that seem to be a top priority among those in authority?

You can find it on podcast providers like Spotify: search for Fr Robert McTeigue or The Catholic Current.
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03/03/2023 - 17:24

Podcast with Gavin Ashenden

I had a very enjoyable chat with Dr Gavin Ashenden on his Catholic Herald podcast, 'Merely Catholic': our episode is number 39, 'The Latin Mass Life Raft'.
We discuss the work of the Latin Mass Society, the Rescript, the motivation for restrictions on the Latin Mass and why it is not going away.
You can find it on podcast providers (search for 'Catholic Herald') or direct from the Catholic Herald here.

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28/02/2023 - 14:29

Video interview with Catholic Family News

I was delighted to talk to Brian McCall the Editor in Chief of Catholic Family news on my new book, The Liturgy, the Family, and the Crisis of Modernity'. The book launch is in London on Thursday 9th March: RSPV here.
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23/02/2023 - 14:30

Guild of St Clare Sewing Retreats past and to come

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The last Guild of St Clare Sewing Retreat took place 3-5 February 2023 at the St Joseph Centre near Southampton. The chaplain was Fr Thomas Crean. Details of the next one, 3-5 November, here.
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In the above two photographs, from Sunday Mass, Fr Crean is wearing a set of vestments completed by the Guild. The Latin Mass Society has had (I don't know for how long) an incomplete High Mass set, which was missing all the 'small items'. Here used as a Low Mass set, the original chasuble is joined by a new Chalice veil, maniple, and burse. If you look carefully you'll see the fabric for these items is not exactly the same as that of the chasuble, though it is a close match. The Guild is also making a new humeral veil, and the whole thing will be useable once more as a High Mass set.
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It is a good illustration of the work of the Guild since I hope it is evident that the new items are not just bodged together: they are made by hand, to a higher standard of craftsmanship, indeed, than the original, and for that matter than almost any new vestments commercially available today.
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A lot of sometimes relatively simple, sometimes complicated, repair work on the LMS' own collection has now been done; what remains is mostly the making of new items: new burses, stoles, maniples, and so on, to go with the chasubles which have somehow survived the era of destruction. The Guild also takes on vestments belonging to other priests who celebrate the Traditional Mass: it is part of the LMS' support for the 1962 Mass. This is illustrated by the Guild's Lenten project Twitter thread (see about the project on their website here).
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Interested? Come along to the next Sewing Retreat! It will take place3rd-5th November at St Joseph's Centre, Ashurst. Online booking is open here. For more information about the Guild of St Clare and our events, look at our website here.
Last time we welcomed retreatants from Scotland, Slovakia, and Ireland.
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22/02/2023 - 13:11

The Rescript: back to the Catacombs?

What does the Rescript mean for Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass around the world? Our press release on the subject can be found here. Here I shall expand on the question of ongoing provision for the 1962 Mass, which is going to depend on a number of things.

Before I say anything else, I should stress that existing arrangements and permissions continue to be valid until explicitly revoked by the bishop, whether he is acting spontaneously or passing on the judgement of the Dicastery for Divine Worship. Given the enormous number of cases the Dicastery will be asked to consider, and the ‘utmost care’ the Dicastery demands from bishops in preparing their requests for permission (see the Responsa ad dubia), this is going to take a very long time to implement. Since we seem to be getting new documents about the Traditional Mass every few months, it would be a brave man who would say that the law will be the same as it is now when a decision comes through in this or that case.

Nevertheless, the Rescript will make no difference at all in some places: places where the TLM is already celebrated in a place of worship which is not a ‘parish church’. I myself regularly attend the Traditional Mass in one such place, a secondary church (“chapel of ease”), even though the Mass is celebrated by the parish priest. Most—though not all—of the locations used by the Traditional Institutes are not parish churches: they may once have been, but they’ve lost their ‘geographical parish’ and been made shrines, for example. Then again, if you attend Mass in a monastery, convent, or seminary, or in a private chapel attached to an historic house, then it will make no difference: unless you find your congregation is swelled by refugees from elsewhere.

Then again, an easy way for a bishop, if he is one with pastoral concern for those of his people who attend the traditional Mass, to deal with the problem, will be to move a celebration from a parish church to another place of worship, if there is a suitable one nearby. The key issue here is the availability of such places. In Italian cities there often seems to be a church every hundred yards, and lots of them are not parish churches. In other places this is not so, and where they exist they tend to be small. It may sound trivial but where a congregation has to travel by car, the lack of a car park can make a church completely impractical for many people.

Then again, it is open to bishops to change the status of their churches. A parish church can cease to be a parish church. This may seem a complicated way of dealing with a legal problem, but actually churches frequently get reassigned from one legal status to another, most obviously when parishes are merged. Under the current Code of Canon Law, and in the context of current normal pastoral practice, it actually makes very little difference if a church is a ‘parish church’. A century ago you’d have run into difficulties getting married or your baby baptised in non-parish churches, but today these things happen all the time.

Another option a bishop has is to allow the public celebration of Mass in a location which is not a Catholic Church at all: a non-Catholic place of worship, a hired meeting room, a private home. Then again, permission from the bishop is not necessary if a Mass in a private house, say, is a ‘private’ Mass, which means in practice that it is not publicly advertised. Since the Dicastery for Divine Worship doesn’t want Traditional Masses to be advertised in parish newsletters anyway, it is a distinction which doesn’t make much of a difference. Attending a private Mass fulfils your Sunday obligation, if the celebration takes place between noon on Saturday and midnight on Sunday.

This is the kind of thing, I think, which is meant when people talk about the TLM going ‘underground’. This does not necessarily involve breaking the law of the Church. Before 2007, when things became much easier, a lot of Masses took place without being advertised, celebrated by priests who’d managed to get permission to celebrate the Old Mass, perhaps because of their age. At the same time there were of course Masses which were illicit, for one reason or another, notably the Masses of the SSPX.

The Latin Mass Society and other Una Voce groups were founded and continue to exist to make possible the public celebration of the ancient Mass in full accordance with the Church’s law and under the authority of the local bishop. Insofar as this becomes impossible, then the moral case for illicit celebrations becomes stronger. The people who advocate for ‘disobedience’ should be grateful to the Una Voce movement for making this case for them.

We are not going to stop seeking permissions, where these are needed, for public celebrations, in proper churches, under the bishop. Hole-in-a-wall celebrations may solve a local problem but they are not the way out of the present liturgical crisis. What the Church needs is for the Traditional Mass to be given a place of honour in the Church: not excluding anything, not imposed on anyone, but available as an enrichment of the liturgical lives of ordinary Catholics, and a public expression of the Church’s continuity with previous centuries.

That is our objective, and I hope is shared by many Catholic of good will with of all kinds of liturgical preferences. This need not be a battle or a war. It should just be a matter of meeting people’s spiritual needs in the best possible way.

Please pray for this intention—the liberty of the Traditional Mass—this Lent.

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17/02/2023 - 10:00

Lenten vestment-making challenge from the Guild of St Clare

From the Guild blog.

Una Voce International has today launched an Appeal for Lenten prayers and penances with the special intention of the liberty of the traditional Mass. Rumours have been circulating recently which suggest that further restrictions will be placed on the Traditional Mass this year, perhaps in Holy Week, and the Appeal is a response to this possible threat. The Guild of St Clare is joining the Appeal by offering our usual Lenten Vestment Mending Challenge for this intention.

The Appeal does not ask for a particular prayer to be said; rather, that individuals and groups should make their own particular offerings for the intention. We at the Guild of St Clare therefore invite anyone who may wish to join us in mending or making a particular vestment during Lent as our contribution to the Appeal, uniting the work with our special vestment-mending prayer: Jesu, via, veritas et vita, miserere nobis (Jesus, the way, the truth and the life, have mercy on us).

It is not necessary to be local to the Guild to participate in this endeavour. If you are unable to attend local Chapter meetings, or the mending workshops in London, it is nevertheless possible to take part from your own home. Any vestment or altar furnishing can be the object of your work, although in accordance with the ethos of the Guild of St Clare, it should be one which will be used, at least occasionally (not necessarily exclusively), for the Traditional Mass. Neither is it necessary to undertake a colossal project on a grand scale (although this isn't discouraged!). Simply sewing down loose braid, or replacing the tapes in a chasuble, can make a big difference to a priest living with the inconvenience of such a problem, and will be also be welcomed as a contribution to the Appeal.

If this suffering is indeed to come to us, it must be understood as an invitation to prayer: let us be like the widow praised by Our Lord for the donation of her mite to the Temple, and give as much as we can, be it ever so little, to support the Church and preserve the great treasure of her ancient liturgy.

If you would like to take part in this Lenten Challenge, please email me at guildofstclare@lms.org.uk for further details. If you are unable to participate but are interested in the project, we will be updating our blog and Twitter feed with news about how our Lenten work is progressing.

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