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Latin Mass Society
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  3. Chairman's Blog

Chairman's Blog

    17/06/2025 - 13:37

    Bishop Schneider in England: Reading

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    The final Mass of Bishop Schneider's tour was in St William of York, Reading, the church used by the Fraternity of St Peter, on Sunday 15th June. 

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    Bishop Schneider was assisted by Fr Seth Phipps FSSP (clerical MC), Fr Gwilym Evans FSSP (AP), Fr Thomas Crean OP (deacon) and Rev Mr James Forde-Johnson. Mass was accompanied by the choir of the TLM community.

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    We are very grateful to all the clergy, servers, singers, volunteers and participants who made this series of events possible. 

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    17/06/2025 - 13:29

    Bishop Schneider in England: Conference and Vespers in London

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    Bishop Schneider was the first speaker at our conference in London in the St Wilfrid Hall at the London Oratory; you can see all the speeches here.

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    At the conclusion of the conference he celebrated Vespers, which was celebrated with some solemnity, with polyphony provided by the choir of the Oratory. The chapel, the Little Oratory, is directly downstairs from the hall. Bishop Schneider was assisted by four priests in copes: Mgr Gordon Reid, Fr Michael Cullinan, Fr Giles Pinnock, and Fr Stephen Dunn.

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    At the end of Vespers, as with the end of the Masses, Bishop Schneider blessed those present with a relic of the True Cross. This is part of the True Cross tour organised by the Latin Mass Society for its 60th anniversary.
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    17/06/2025 - 12:00

    Bishop Schneider in England: Ramsgate
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    On Friday 13th June, Bishop Schneider celebrated Pontifical High Mass in the Shrine of St Augustine in Ramsgate. As with the Mass in Northampton, people came from far and wide to assist at the liturgy: as members of sanctuary team, or to fill the church.

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    Bishop Schneider was assisted by Fr Jonathan Routh (the Shrine Rector, as Assistant Priest), Fr Stephen Morrison OPraem (deacon) and Fr Francis Lynch (subdeacon). Mass was accompanied by a small professional group directed by Matthew Schellhorn.
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    The Shrine of St Augustine's is a remarkable Pugin church, where the great architect is buried. It is now used only for the celebration of the Traditional Mass.
    We again used a set of vestments only recently purchased and restored.
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    16/06/2025 - 18:21

    Bishop Schneider in England: Northampton

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    Bishop Athanasius Schneider has just concluded a short tour of England, at the invitation of the Latin Mass Society. The first major event was a Pontifical High Mass in Northampton Cathedral, with the kind permission of Bishop David Oakley, who was there to greet Bishop Schneider and others as we arrived.
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    We are grateful to all who took part, with clergy, servers and singers coming from all directions, and an excellent turnout of the faithful. 
    The antique vestments used on this occasion were purchased last year by the Latin Mass Society in honour of a deceased benefactor, Helen Jimack, and have been restored by the Royal School of Needlework.
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    Bishop Schneider was assisted by by Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP (Assistant Priest), Fr Dominic Edwards (CongOrat) (deacon), Fr Anton Guziel CongOrat (Subdeacon). It was accompanied by the Southwell Consort.

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    16/05/2025 - 09:38

    Video debate with Fr Joseph Fessio
    The Mass of the Ages team set up this debate between me and Fr Joseph Fessio, the well-known proponent of the 'Reform of the Reform'. This is the beginning section of the debate, when we each read  short pre-prepared talks. Mine starts at 3 minutes 12 seconds, which is where this video will start -- scroll back to Fr Fessio's (it doens't matter which you hear first as they don't respond to each other).
    The full version is available to subscribers on the Mass of the Ages 'vault', along with a lot of other material.
    In this opening statement I make the point that the Traditional Mass sacrifices intelligibility (audibility, visibility, etc.) for what will increase the devotion of the worshipper. Later in the discussion we go into the place of Latin in the Mass (Fr Fessio likes Latin), the authority of Vatican II, the interpretation of Sacrosantum Concilium, and other matters.

    To see the vault, you can get the Mass of the Ages App for Android or IPhone, and go here:

    iOS app https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mass-of... 

    09/05/2025 - 12:54

    Pope Leo XIV: LMS press release

    Press Release on the Election of Pope
    Leo XIV from the Latin Mass Society

     

    The Latin Mass Society welcomes Pope
    Leo and assures him of our heartfelt prayers.

    The Society has been distinguished
    since its foundation for its obedience to the Holy See, even in the most
    difficult and indeed tragic circumstances. We pray that Pope Leo, like his
    distinguished namesakes, the first Pope Leo, the Great, and the most recent,
    Pope Leo XIII, may be a beacon of orthodoxy and charity in a troubled world.
    May all the faithful say, like the Fathers of the Council of Chalcedon: ‘Peter
    has spoken through Leo’.

    We pray that he may have the greatness
    of soul to acknowledge the contribution the Traditional Latin Mass continues to
    make to the life of the Church, allow it a place of honour in our churches, and
    promote the reconciliation of Catholics attached to it.

    We invite our supporters and all
    Catholics to have Masses said for Pope Leo, and to offer the rosary for him,
    and other devotions. We will present a spiritual bouquet of these
    offerings to him in due course; those wishing to contribute can do so through     this
    web page.

    The Society will have a Solemn Te
    Deum     sung on the occasion of the regular Sung Mass at Corpus Christi,
    Maiden Lane, London, that will take place on Monday 12th May.

    Prayer for a newly elected Pope (from
    the ancient Roman Missal):

    Deus, ómnium fidélium pastor et rector, fámulum tuum Leonem,
    quem pastórem Ecclésiæ tuæ præésse voluísti, propítius réspice: da ei,
    quǽsumus, verbo et exémplo, quibus præest, profícere; ut ad vitam, una cum
    grege sibi crédito, pervéniat sempitérnam. Per Christum Dominum nostrum.

    O God the Pastor and Ruler of all the faithful, look
    favourably on Thy servant Leo whom Thou hast been pleased to appoint as
    shepherd of Thy Church: grant to him, we beseech Thee, that by word and example
    he may edify those over whom he is placed, so that, with the flock entrusted to
    him, he may attain unto life everlasting. Through Christ our lord.

     

    Notes for Editors

    The Latin Mass Society was founded in
    1965 to support the continued celebration of the Catholic liturgy in the form
    it took at the eve of the Second Vatican Council: the ‘1962 Missal’, the
    ‘antecedent Missal’, the Vetus Ordo or Traditional Mass.

    The Traditional Mass has been given
    greater or less freedom by successive recent Popes; in 2021 Pope Francis
    restricted it with his Apostolic Letter Traditionis custodes. 

    Press contacts:

    Communications Officer, Daniel
    Beurthe daniel@lms.org.uk

    Chairman, Joseph Shaw
    oxford@lms.org.uk

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    28/04/2025 - 11:15

    Pray for the Conclave

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    For the Conclave, the Collect of the Votive Mass pro eligendo:

    Supplici, Domine, humilitate deposcimus: ut sacrosantæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ concedat Pontificem illum tua immensa pietas; qui et pio in nos studio semper tibi placitus, et tuo populo pro salubri regimine sit assidue ad gloriam tui nominis reverendus. Per Christum.

    We entreat Thee most humbly as suppliants, O Lord, that Thy boundless mercy may give the holy Roman Church a Bishop whose loving care in our regard will always be pleasing to Thee, and may be constantly honoured by Thy people for the glory of Thy name for his beneficent rule. Through Christ our Lord.

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    24/04/2025 - 13:10

    Fr Mawdsley, the Holocaust, and the Traditional Mass
    'Catholic Unscripted' have a released a full session with me talking about these matters. If you don't know about the context this may or may not be of interest, but it is a response to an internet sensation, which needs a response, and a wider problem of people in the Traditional Movement being sucked into conspiracy theories and antisemitism.
    Here it is.
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    22/04/2025 - 11:50

    Requiem for Pope Francis

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    A beautiful Mass in Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, celebrated by Fr Alan Robinson and accompanied by the Southwell Consort, who sang Victoria's Requiem. (Cardinal Nichols had given a general permission for Requiems to be celebrated for Pope Francis during the Octave, and celebrated one himself the same day.)
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    04/04/2025 - 12:37

    The Jews and the Liturgical Reform: in the Homiletic and Pastoral Review
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    Venerating the Cross on Good Friday (St Mary Moorfields, London)
    This month I have an article in the Homiletic and Pastoral Review. It takes it start from a 1961 Memorandum sent to the Holy See, Anti Jewish Elements in Catholic Liturgy by the American Jewish Committee, which was intended to influence the reform. 
    Until the conclusion of the paper I keep the question of the validity of those concerns separate from my main question: did the reformers of the Consilium act on them?
    The short answer is 'no'. I was myself surprised to discover this, but the evidence is quite clear. I encourage readers interested in the subject to read my paper which sets out why I come to that conclusion in full.
    Briefly, there are three main indications that the Consilium was not guided by this document.
    First and most obviously, the texts identified in the Memorandum as most problematic are still there in the reformed Missal, namely St John's Passion Narrative and the Improperia (Reproaches), both used on Good Friday.
    Furthermore, second, as the Memorandum points out, texts in the vernacular are more problematic than the same texts in Latin, because people understand them more immediately. This means that the reform was not simply neutral on the question of the Jews. As far as the Memorandum's principles are concerned, it made things worse.
    Third, while some texts that could be said to be problematic do disappear in the reform, other texts which are at least as bad have been given greater prominence, or have even been freshly composed for the reformed rites. This suggests that the passages that disappeared did so for other reasons.
    This includes the prayer for the conversion of the Jews in the Good Friday Intercessions, which changed radically in the reform. We may say that it was softened out of a concern for Jewish sensitivities, but the same softening process was applied to the prayer for the conversion of heretics and schismatics and the prayer for pagans, in the same series. On the other hand, prayers explicitly for the conversion of the Jews continued to be composed by the Consilium, for inclusion in the Liturgy of the Hours -- where they can still be found today. As a matter of fact, the Memorandum raised no objections to the Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the Jews as it existed in 1961.
    Clearly, the Holy See did not accept the Memorandum's argument that the passages were problematic.  Nor did it accept the argument, that the Memorandum did not make, that there is a problem with praying for the conversion of the Jews. On both points, of course, I think they were right. Later, starting in the later 1970s, concerns about the Church's relationship with the Jews took on a different form, and this is when we find people objecting to various liturgical texts. These objectors can find no comfort from the liturgical reform, however.
    This might all seem a bit academic, but opponents of the Traditional liturgy regularly use the argument that the reform removed elements offensive to the Jews, and so the unreformed liturgy is a problem in as much as it still contains them. This idea was wheeled out in 2007 to oppose Pope Benedict's liberation of the Traditional Mass (here), and keeps popping up: for example, in The Tablet's report on the petitions in support of the ancient Mass last year (13th July 2024). 
    As I have now shown, this argument is demonstrably false.
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    Chanting the Passion Narrative on Good Friday.

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