Chairman's Blog
Colin Mawby 1936-2019, Requiescat in pace
Colin Mawby, Catholic composer and a Patron of the Latin Mass Society, has died aged 83.
He was a great supporter of Gregorian Chant, and took an enthusiastic part in several chant training events the Latin Mass Society organised. The above two photographs are from 2016, below I found one from 2012. His enthusiasm was infectious and his knowledge and practical experience enormous. As Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral over the time of the liturgical reform, he was responsible at that crucial moment for the Cathedral's musical tradition not being jettisoned like so much else.
He told us that he had first learnt the Te Deum as a choir boy at Westminster Cathedral to sing at the formal arrival of Cardinal Griffin in 1946: he would have been 10, so this makes perfect sense. We were fortunate to have such a vibrant connection with the old days.
He was kind enough in 2012 to compose for the Latin Mass Society a setting of the Song of the Papal Zouaves, which we have in our Vademecum Peregrini and sing on the road to Walsingham. The words were recorded from 1861, but not the music.
We will not forget him.
LMS Pilgrimage in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 2019
Today we had our second pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Catholic Church of the Holy Child and St Joseph in Bedford.
They have there a very special reproduction of the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which goes on tour around the country. The church has recently been officially designated as a shrine.
We had a High Mass, a Votive Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is celebrated in the United States (and no doubt in other countries) on 12th December, with its own liturgical texts: it can be found in the 'PAL' (Pro Aliquis Locibus) section of various Missals.
This pilgrimage has proved very popular. Last year was the first time it took place, and it is already one of our biggest local events. There were more than 90 people in church on a rather wet November Saturday; many of them had come a long way. I was there myself, to sing, and I brought the subdeacon with me from the Oxford Blackfriars.
A lot of work went into this event, from the super-efficient Local Latin Mass Society Representative, Barbara Kay, and many other local volunteers, servers, singers, and of course the clergy. Mass was celebrated by Fr Patrick O'Donaghue FSSP, assisted by Fr Gabriel Diaz as deacon and Br Albert Roberton OP as subdeacon. The MC and thurifer both came from London for the occasion.
The Fraternity of St Peter have a regular Sunday Mass at 8:30am in the next parish in Bedford, at the church of Christ the King, where Fr Patrick is the regular celebrant, where they have 120 faithful on a Sunday.
Requiem at St Benet's Hall: photos
Fr John van den Burgh of the London Oratory, an alumnus of St Benet's, celebrated a Sung Requiem Mass for the deceased of the Hall on Saturday 9th November. He was assisted by Fr Daniel Lloyd. Mass was accompanied by the Schola Abelis of Oxford.
Photos from the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage, 25-27 Oct
Above: Bishop Dominique Rey of Frejus Toulon celebrating Mass in Sta Trinita on Sunday 27.
Mass in the Pantheon on Friday 25
Below: Benediction in St Lawrence in Damaso
Below: the procession to St Peter's
Below: Bishop Rey processes into St Peter's, to celebrae Mass in the Chapel of the Throne.
Below: more photographs of Bishop Rey's Mass in Sta Trinita
A response to Zita Ballinger Fletcher: the Mass is not 'a cult of toxic tradition'
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| Procession to St Peter's during the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage |
My latest on LifeSiteNews.
The problem with 'Great Books'
My latest in the Catholic Herald: a book review.
In the 1920s, some influential academics were dismayed to find that many graduates of elite American universities were, not to put too fine a point on it, culturally illiterate. They lacked the knowledge that could be taken for granted among cultivated Europeans at the beginnings of their tertiary education, let alone at the end.
The academics’ natural response was to attempt to address this lack, and so the “Western Civilisation Course” or “Great Books Programme” was born, and made compulsory (or strongly recommended) in many institutions. These courses frog-marched students through a carefully selected canon of Western literature, from the Greeks and Romans onwards, with excursions into philosophy and history.
Requiems this Saturday: London and Oxford
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| Sung Domincan Rite Mass in St Dominic's from the spring, celebrated by Fr Lawrence Lew |
The Catholic Medical Association is holding a Requiem for deceased members followed by a day of recollection in St Dominic's, Havestock Hill, this Saturday: the Dominican Rite Sung Mass begins at 11am. See here for more details.
The annual Requiem for deceased members, staff, and benefactors at St Benet's Hall, 38 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LN will take place on Saturday at 10:30am. It will be a High Mass in the traditional Roman Rite, and will be celebrated by Fr Edward van den Burgh of the London Oratory.
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| Last year's Requiem at St Benet's Hall |
Prof Stephen Bullivant at Iota Unum talk Friday (1st Nov) in London
Our series of Iota Unum talks in London continues with Prof Stepen Bullivant, author of Mass Exodus, talking about his study of Catholic lapsation since the second world war.
Did Vatican II have anything to do with it? Stephen Bullivant, a sociologist of religion, will tell you...
6:30 for 7pm in the basement of Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street: please use the Golden Square entrance. £5 on the door. Drinks and a good company.
See my discussion of the book on LifeSiteNews.
Perseverantes Unianimier in Oratione: Pilgrimage to Walsingham, 7-8 December
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| The LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham in August 2019 |
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children is being joined by the Latin Mass Society and the Good Counsel Network in organising a pilgrimage to Walsingham on 7-8 December, with a short conference on the Saturday and a Sung EF Mass on Sunday (10am in the Reconciliation Chapel at the Catholic Shrine, Houghton St Giles), followed by a procession to the site of the Holy House in the grounds of Walsingham Priory.
The pilgrimage is in response to recent legislation imposing compulsory sex education on schools, including Catholic schools, and seeks God's grace for those, above all our bishops, in responding to
this.
The conference will be addressed by Joseph Shaw, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society.
Last Saturday was
Last Saturday was the LMS Pilgrimage to Oxford. We had a lovely Dominican Rite High Mass in Blackfriars, with the Schola Abelis singing Dominican chant, and the Newman Consort singing Byrd's Four Part Mass, with a motet by Baudldeweyn, Ave caro Christi cara: all of which was lovely.
We sang the Te Deum at the site of the martyrdom of Bl George Napier in 1610.
