Chairman's Blog
On a heretical pope: reply to Dr John Lamon
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| The top of the newly-restored baldachino in St Peter's, Rome, on the occasion of the traditionalist pilgrimage 'Ad Petri Sedem': to the See of Peter. |
I am in debt to Dr John Lamont for his thorough discussion of the question of papal heresy. It is a problem that does not have a definitive explanation in magisterial texts, but as many important theologians and canonists of past centuries agree, it is one that has to be faced. Contrary to a naïve ultramontanism, it is not impossible for a pope to espouse heretical opinions, and indeed it has happened more than once in the past. The question is, what happens then?
This possibility is in itself not a challenge to the doctrine of papal infallibility. Papal infallibility has been very carefully defined at the First Vatican Council, and naturally it was defined very narrowly. The Pope’s public teaching on matters of faith and morals is guaranteed free from error (not, be it noted, inspired, like Scripture, only preserved from error) when he teaches the whole Church in the most solemn manner. Such teaching is not at issue here. A heretic is a heretic even if he never teaches anything solemnly. I might be a heretic even if I never express my heresy to another human being – although, in that case, no-one would know. The most likely case of papal heresy would be a pope harboring heretical opinions which are expressed in a private capacity, or at least in a less solemn mode of teaching, such as (on the usual historical reading) Pope John XXII teaching from the pulpit against the Particular Judgement in the 14th century.
Dr Lamont’s particular target is the much-followed view of Cajetan and John of St Thomas, that can be summarized rather simply as follows. They accept that a heretic cannot hold office in the Church, since the rejection of the Faith implies self-expulsion from the Church. (This is a theological notion of membership of the Church.) However, except in the most extreme emergencies, members of the Church should be able to rely on apparent office-holders wielding genuine authority, since this has implications for the salvation of souls. So bishops and others in the Church can continue to exercise their offices until such time as they are legally convicted of heresy: that is, denounced by their superiors, perhaps in the context of a canonical trial.
More on the 'Traditionalist Ordinariate'
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| The Dominican Rite in a Dominican community: how would this relate to an 'ordinariate'? |
Readers may remember the debate between me and Fr Louis-Marie de Blignières FSVF about the concept of a 'personal ordinariate' type structure for Traditionalists, which took place in the pages of the journal of Fr de Blignieres' journal Sedes Sapientiae. I expanded on my doubts about the wisdom of this approach on OnePeterFive.
A response in turn has been made to this by Fr de Bligniere's confrere, Fr. Antoine-Marie de Araujo, in Rorate Caeli. He suggests that my criticism is based on a misunderstanding of the proposal:
First, the proposed traditional ordinariate is not intended to replace, or even encompass, the traditional institutes (FSSP, ICKSP, etc.), parishes, or communities that celebrate the ancient rite today. There is no question of establishing a structure into which all traditional Catholics should fall.
However, I am perfectly aware that the proposal is for what he calls a 'a flexible and permeable instrument, well-adapted to the diverse situation of Catholics attached to the old Latin traditions.'
Traditionalists sympathetic to the idea of an ordinariate probably don’t envisage the TLM being prohibited outside it. The danger is that an Ordinariate structure could be used to justify such a prohibition. To put it another way, if Catholics attached to the TLM come to support the idea of an Ordinariate, understanding it in a non-exclusive way, it could come to be supported, and implemented, by people in positions of authority who have a more negative conception of it. Our opponents would have a range of options about how to impose their vision. They could make exclusivity the price to be paid for the benefits of an Ordinariate; they could bury the negative implications in some small print; and they could impose them only after the Ordinariate is established.
The problem is not with the details of what Fr de Blignieres is imagining. The problem is how a proposal along these lines would actually be implemented.
The Traditional Latin Mass is the patrimony of every priest and lay person of the Latin Rite, and as such it must not be limited, in law or in practice, to members of a traditionalist Ordinariate.
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| A High Mass in the Birmingham Oratory |
A dream pilgrimage: in the Catholic Herald
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| Walking on the banks of the Great Ouse on the way to Walsingham. |
For the “On Pilgrimage With” section of the September 2024 edition of the Catholic Herald magazine, we spoke to Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society and president of Una Voce International, about his dream pilgrimage:
Where would you go?
I’ve walked from Ely to Walsingham with the Latin Mass Society since 2009, and more recently extended the route back to Cambridge, with a smaller group of pilgrims. I’ve also done the traditional Paris to Chartres pilgrimage a few times. The ultimate walking pilgrimage, though, has to be from the Pyrenees on the French border to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Whom would you take?
As many people as possible!
Hold On To Your Kids: a book review
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| Blessing at the end of Mass by Fr Andrew Southwell, at the St Catherine's Trust Summer School |
I don’t like referring to children as “kids”, but this is the title of a book some readers may find interesting or useful: Hold on to your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter more than Peers, by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté. It was first published in 2004 but has been republished this year, with an extra chapter, by Penguin, nothing if not a mainstream publisher.
Home Education: in the Catholic Herald
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| The quiz at the SCT Summer School |
My latest in the Catholic Herald.
The only people involved in a child’s education who have an overview of the whole process, from babyhood to adulthood, and who truly know the child, and his or her needs and ambitions, are parents.
They are their children’s primary educators, in a sense that encompasses the moral relationship between parent and child, and the practical and biological relationship.
To a teacher, your child is one among many pupils, as they try to get the class through the syllabus with as many children as possible keeping up, and not too many getting bored. They know little about what else their pupils are learning, or have learnt up to now.
It is simply impossible for teachers to pay that much attention to any one child. No teacher, however conscientious, can take the ultimate responsibility for a child’s education. That burden can never be lifted from parents. It follows that parents must know what is going on in their children’s school, and intervene when necessary.
LMS Oxford Pilgrimage 2024: photos
Last Saturday was the Latin Mass Society Oxford Pilgrimage, in honour of the city's Catholic martyrs. As usual we had a High Mass in the Dominican Rite, followed by a procession and Benediction.
LMS Oxford Martyrs Pilgrimage, 19th October
With Dominican chant and sacred polyphony from the Schola Abelis and the Southwell Consort.
William Byrd Mass for Five VoicesThomas Tallis In Manus TuasWilliam Cornysh Ave Maria
LMS Residential Latin Course: photos
This year the week-long course (Monday to Saturday) took place in Park Place Pastoral Centre in Wickham, Hampshire, with 18 students -- equaling our largest ever group in 2019 -- and three tutors, who were able to offer different levels of Latin to the mixed-ability attendees.
Park Place's modern chapel accommodates the Traditional Mass quite well, and attendees were able to participate in daily Mass. We even had two Sung Masses: one for the Assumption, and another for the final day.
The Latin Mass Society's commitment to Latin learning is ongoing, with our exclusive Latin coursebook, Simplicissimus, which uses the Latin of the Missal for all its examples and exercises, and support for clergy and seminarians doing online Latin courses. If you'd like to emailed when the next Residential course is announced, email info@lms.org.uk .
SCT Summer School 2024: photos
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| Latin questions in the end of school quiz. |
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| Classroom teaching |
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| We had an outing to Oxford, and Mass in Oratory. |
The Summer Schools are generously supported by the Latin Mass Society, and by the parents: they make donations, but we don't charge a fee. If you'd like to make a donation to support the Trust, you can send money by PayPal to info@stcatherinestrust.org. or use the donate button the website. It is a registered charity, no. 1110417.
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| Art projects: illuminated letters. |
The SCT Summer School is unlike other summer 'camps' because we make a serious effort to teach the children a range of subjects. Obviously it is more like an introduction to subjects, since we only have a week, but they do get hear a bit about history, art, philosophy, Latin, and Greek; they sing, many of them take part in a play, some choose to do art or embroidery or some sport. It all seems to be appreciated -- at any rate, they make friends and they want to come back!
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| Mass in the temporary chapel we create at St Cassian's. |
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| An opportunity for a young team of servers. |
Iota Unum talks this autumn
Doors open at 6:30pm; the talk will start at 7pm.
There is a charge of £5 on the door to cover refreshments and other expenses.