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Chairman's Blog

    30/03/2021 - 19:30

    Spring Edition of Gregorius Magnus, the magazine of the FIUV

    Cross-posted from the FIUV blog.

    The latest edition of Gregorius Magnus is now available, for Spring 2021.

    Gregorius Magnus 11 pdf download

    It includes a report on the events in Rome last October, in place of the usual Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage.

    It also includes a key passage from the French Bishops' summary report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, in an English translation published for the first time.

    As usual it also includes translations of articles from the quarterly magazines of Una Voce France and Pro Missa Tridentina of Germany, as well as an article from the Latin Mass Society's Mass of Ages, and news and reflections first published here, from Croatia, Romania, and Poland.

    It is free to download as a pdf, or to view on the ISSUU website and app for mobile devices.

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    23/03/2021 - 17:09

    Server training in London: back in 2021!

    Cross-posted from the blog of the Society of St Tarcisius.

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    Server training in St James' Spanish Place, March 2020

    I am delighted to announce after a year of enforced inactivity that we will be returning to running our Server Training Days in London.

    24th July: St Mary Moorfields, London

    (booking page) (info about the venue)

    25th September: St James' Spanish Place, London 

    (booking page) (info about the venue)

    20th November: St James' Spanish Place, London 

    (booking page) (info about the venue)

    These days start at 10:30 am and finish at about 3:30pm.

    As usual, there will be a Guild of St Clare Vestment Mending Day running alongside these events: see here for more details.

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    Enrollment of new members at St Mary Moorfields in 2019

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    19/03/2021 - 18:00

    Who'd like to talk about Socrates and his friends? Yet more Socratic seminars
    I have just concluded the second series of four on-line seminars which I have been leading, on Plato's 'Socratic' or 'early' dialogues, and I'm planning more. The discussions have been stimulating and enjoyable.
    So what's this all about?
    Socrates is in green up on the left, in profile.

    In early January I offered to lead some online seminars on early Socratic dialogues, as a small personal response to the lockdown, and (almost to my surprise) this has actually happened. 

    These dialogues are uniquely suited to stimulating discussion among people who don't necessarily already have philosophical training: indeed, it seems very probable that this is the point of them. They introduce us to the thought-world of ancient Athens, and to the methods of philosophy: careful argumentation, exposing hidden assumptions and logical fallacies, all in the context of the personal dynamics of the dialogue format, which adds another layer of interest to these works.
    Nothing comes without a background, but the background here is more manageable than that of pretty well any other texts which come to mind. For these, I've been putting together a single page of information about the cultural and historical background to each dialogue, and not asking students to do any other reading apart from the text itself. The dialogues themselves are pretty short (though they vary). So these hour-long seminars don't require a huge amount of preparation.
    Having done eight dialogues, including the shorter ones, I am, however, now getting to the point that somewhat longer and more complex texts remain, among those regarded as 'Socratic' dialogues. My selection for the next four seminars, therefore, makes sense for those who have done one or other of the preceding series. For those coming to this fresh, I shall be returning to the first series, which serves as a good introduction to the genre.
    So those interested can choose between these two options:
    Series 1: recommended for beginners
    Euthyphro; Ion; Laches; Lysis.
    Series 3: recommended for those who have done some before
    Hippias Major; Meno; Euthydemus; Clitophon & Theages.
    I expect to start these in the week beginning 5th April: those interested will take part in a Doodle poll to choose mutually convenient times. I've already had participants from Seattle, Chile, and South Africa!
    If you are looking at this and wondering if it's going to make any sense to you, go and read Euthyphro and ask yourself if you'd like to talk about it with others.
    More details, including prices, here.
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    19/03/2021 - 11:59

    New Podcast, with Dr Jules Gomes

    Iota Unum Podcasts

    Coming Home to Rome: Dr Jules Gomes talks to Joseph Shaw 

    You can hear the podcast on Spotify and other platforms - here's the link to Podbean.

    Dr. Jules Gomes, B.A., B.D., M.Th., Ph.D. (Cantab) is Rome Correspondent for Church Militant: author page here.

    He is a journalist, academic and editor of the Rebel Priest blog.

    He came home to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church on January 5, 2020.

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    19/03/2021 - 10:00

    LMS Residential Latin and Greek Course, August: booking open

    Book now for a week's intensive Latin, aimed at the Latin of the Church's ancient liturgy, or - new for this year - the Greek of the New Testament.

    Dates: Monday 16th August - Saturday 21st August
    Place: Savio House, a Catholic Retreat Centre run by the Salesians.
    Ingersley Rd, Bollington, Macclesfield SK10 5RW (link to map)
    Tutors: in Latin, Fr John Hunwicke and Fr Richard Bailey (Cong. Orat.)
    In Greek, Mathew Spencer.

    Savio House is an attractive 18th century house with lovely grounds on the edge of the Peak District. The accommodation is fairly basic but you can stay nearby if you prefer. 
    There will be the Traditional Mass every day. 
    Priests and seminarians get a 50% discount in the Latin course, and it is very good value for everyone.
    Latin will be for beginners and 'intermediate' students; Greek is also pitched at an early stage, though there is an online course offered by Matthew Spencer for those who need a run-up.
    You can get up there by car or train; the course will be unthreatening for beginners and your toil will be relived by the countryside, the company, and the Holy Mass.
    Priests attending will of course be able to celebrate Mass in whatever Rite they prefer. Savio House has a chapel and we'll work out how to accommodate everyone.
    Our courses have had excellent feedback over the years, and having lost a year to COVID don't miss this opportunity to polish up your Latin or New Testament Greek!
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    Fr Hunwicke with students at the Latin Course in a previous venue.

    Hear some testimonials!


    'I cannot thank you enough for organising this course.'

    'I greatly enjoyed the course, in particular the inspirational teaching of Fr John with his deep understanding of Latin, Greek and the long history of the Roman Rite. I found the level challenging, but not overwhelming—just right for me.'

    'I’ve been twice to the course now and enjoyed it, I convinced another seminarian to join me this year. I will probably come back next year…'

    'Covering an ambitious syllabus did satisfy me, because by the end I did at least have a clear idea of what it is I need to learn; and of course during the week I did actually learn/relearn a great deal of basic grammar and vocabulary.'

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    17/03/2021 - 17:35

    Feminists attack feminists over prostitution

    My latest on LifeSiteNews.

    To mark International Women’s Day, a feminist group called “Collective for the Abolition of Pornography & Prostitution” conducted a small demonstration in a famous Parisian square, the Place de la Republique. They were attacked, ironically, by a rival gang of feminists, who chanted abuse, pulled down their banners, tried to spray paint their eyes, and made death-threats.

    The second group was pro-prostitution, a position which has achieved dominance in the feminism of much of the English-speaking world, but less so elsewhere. Intriguingly, they accused the anti-prostitution group as being “[t]rans-exclusionary”: that is, of not wanting to say that biological males who identify as women are really women. Trans issues were not part of the original protest at all, so this was a matter of the association of ideas on the part of the pro-prostitution group.

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    16/03/2021 - 09:49

    LMS Walsingham Pilgrimage: booking open, early bird discount: 26-30 Aug

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    Sign up before Easter Sunday and get 10% off! More info and booking here.
    Non-members can join the Latin Mass Society while booking and get the members' discount: from anywhere in the world.
    The dates are 26-30th August, Thursday evening in Ely to Sunday afternoon in Walsingham. (There's an extra Mass on Monday for those who've stayed the night in the area.)
    The LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham is a fantastic experience. Not as grueling as the Chartres Pilgrimage in terms of daily distance, and also pretty flat, it is still a very serious walk over three days with singing, praying, spiritual talks from our chaplains, and the Traditional Mass.
    Our singing is led by our wonderful cantors - there is one assigned to each chapter - and we have freshly-made hot evening meals thanks to our superb catering team. And porridge for breakfast!
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    Follow in the footsteps of England's kings, peasants, sinners and saints: come to Walsingham, and do it the hard way, on foot!
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    15/03/2021 - 14:55

    November Sewing Retreat: Booking open

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    The Sewing Retreats of the Guild of St Clare (affiliated to the Latin Mass Society) are always booked out and this autumn's event will be the first after two were knocked out by Covid. Don't delay booking your place!
    The retreat giver will be Fr Timothy Finigan.
    The dates are 12th-14th November 2021
    Venue: the Guesthouse at Douai Abbey in Berkshire.
    Come and help make or mend vestments, all skill-levels catered for (honestly!), with Fr Finigan's spiritual conferences and daily Traditional Masses.

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    Further ahead, the booking page is open for business for the next Sewing Retreat after that: Spring 2022. 

    Retreat giver Fr Stephen Morrison OPraem.

    Dates: 4th to 6th February 2022.
    Venue: the Guesthouse of Douai Abbey in Berkshire.

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    Photos from various Guild events; the last being Fr Edward van den Burgh celebrating Mass for the Sewing Retreat in the previous venue, the Carmelite Retreat Centre at Boars Hill outside Oxford.
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    13/03/2021 - 17:36

    Private Masses in St Peter's: who's in the cross-hairs?
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    Private Masses before a 'First Mass' of a newly ordained priest
    (Fr William Barker FSSP) in Bavaria, in a church near Wigratzbad.
    I was at school next to a vast church with masses of unused side-altars, and they are an apt symbol of the changes which followed the Second Vatican Council. Why would a priest wish to celebrate Mass on a day when he has no public Mass to say? Why bother? Or else, why not tag along with a crowd of priests putting on a concelebrated Mass, so he can tick the box saying he's attended the community's 'conventual' Mass and the box saying he's celebrated, both at once?

    The answer is: out of devotion. Because priests can celebrate Mass (almost) every day, pastoral need is not the only reason why they might want to do so. This devotion will very often be fed more effectively at a 'private' Mass sine populo, than a concelebrated Mass with a crowd of other clergy. 
    This is without saying anything of the, ahem, controversial theology of concelebration, a concept which came more or less out of nowhere in Vatican II. And no, newly ordained priests don't concelebrate with the ordaining bishop in the modern sense, in the EF: their ritual concelebration is not intended to be sacramentally efficacious. They follow the words of the Canon in a Missal with the help of another priest, in a charming ritualised lesson, not in an attempt to say Mass 'with the bishop'.

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    Private Masses at an LMS Priest-Training
    Conference at Prior Park, Bath
    The war on private Masses, which has been waged by vindictive liberal sacristans, Cathedral administrators, and the like over the decades, has now come to St Peter's, where the practice of a millennium has apparantly been brought to a halt by the stroke of a pen. No more 'individual celebrations' will be allowed - except for four each morning in the EF.
    That seems like a puzzling qualification. If the 'conservative Novus Ordo' option of celebrating Mass without the people is to be banned from the Basilica, it seems surprising that provision, however inadequate, is being made for the celebration of the Traditional Mass.
    Part of the answer may be how at odds with Canon law the powers-that-be are comfortable with being. Canons 902 says:
    'They [sc. priests] are completely free to celebrate the Eucharist individually, however, but not while a concelebration is taking place in the same church or oratory.'
    But that is generally speaking exactly what has been happening in St Peter's: multiple simultaneous celebrations, very often including concelebrations in one of the larger chapels.
    Pressing this provision is unreasonable in St Peter's, in my view, for several reasons: one being that a concelebration happening in (say) St Joseph's Chapel (the big chapel in the north transcept) is invisible and inaudible from most of the rest of the Upper Basilica, let alone the crypt, and another being that these larger celebrations are frequently in the language of visitors to Rome, not necessarily shared by priests wishing to say a private Mass. Again, there is the question of the application of Canon 903, allowing priests to celebrate Mass in churches on demand. Nevertheless, it may be that this Canon is providing the faceless functionary behind this strange decree with some kind of cover.
    Unilaterally suspending Summorum Pontificum on the other hand may be thought to be a bit much. Rather than to ban the EF- since it can't be concelebrated - they have contented themselves with restricting it to four Masses a day in a tiny chapel in the crypt.
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    A private Mass at another LMS Priest Training Conference, at Belmont Abbey.

     

    It seems a fair assumption that those who are motivated to stamp out individual celebrations in the OF probably aren't very keen on the EF, but this is a striking result all the same. From now on (while this decree is in force), the only way of celebrating an individual Mass in St Peter's will be by doing so in the EF. The Traditional Mass, thanks to having its own rules, has actually escaped, at least in a limited way, the effects of this decree.
    I'm not saying that the paranoia of traditional Catholics is not generally justified, but on this occasion I don't think the Traditional Mass is what this decree has in its sights. What I see here is part of the same pattern with Pope Francis' condemnation of the Reform of the Reform, his slapping down Cardinal Sarah on the subject of celebration ad orientem, and his changes to Canon law allowing the foot-washing of females on Holy Thursday. It is the 'conservative Novus Ordo' which is the target. It is that which represents the prime threat to the progressive project, in the view of the people behind these initiatives. It is that which must be suppressed.
    We Catholics attached to the EF need to remind ourselves every now and then how utterly insignificant the Traditional Mass is around the world, as far as most Catholics are concerned. Perhaps a good parallel would be the liturgical adaptations allowed to the Neo-Catechumenate: occasionally a matter requiring some attention, but for most practical purposes of a level of importance indistinguishable from zero.
    Long may our opponents continue to take this view. For the 'conservative Novus Ordo' folk, however, I'm afraid the party's over.
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    13/03/2021 - 09:08

    New podcasts, with Roger Buck

    The Latin Mass Society's Iota Unum Podcast series continues with two podcasts with the author Roger Buck. You can find them on Podbean, Spotify, and ITunes: search for the Latin Mass Society

    The New Age: Roger Buck talks to Joseph Shaw

    Part 1: What is the New Age? (Podbean)

    Part 2: Theosophy and the roots of the New Age (Podbean)

    Roger Buck was born in California, was brought up partly there and partly in England, and has also lived in various places on the Continent. He is currently living in Ireland. He spent close to three years living at the New Age centre at Findhorn in Scotland, and nearly twenty years in the New Age milieu, before his conversion. Roger’s conversion story is described in his book Cor Jesu Sacratissimum, which defends the Latin Mass and details the tragedy of the post-Vatican II Church.

    More about Roger Buck can be found here:

    Roger’s website

    Roger’s YouTube channel

    Roger’s books:

    The Gentle Traditionalist: A Catholic Fairy-Tale from Ireland (2015) (LMS Shop)

    The Gentle Traditionalist Returns: A Catholic Knight’s Tale from Ireland (2019) (LMS Shop)

    Cor Jesu Sacratissimum: From Secularism and the New Age to Christendom Renewed (2016) (LMS Shop)

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