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  1. About Us
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  3. Chairman's Blog

Chairman's Blog

    02/10/2022 - 12:00

    Farewell to St Benet's Hall
    IMG_0092
    A Traditional Requiem Mass offered in St Benet's Chapel
    The demise of St Benet's Hall, a 'Permanent Private Hall' of Oxford University and my academic affiliation, as a Fellow, since 2004, has now taken place: officially, on 30th September.
    I wrote about it in The Critic here, and more recently Dan Hitchens has written about it in The Spectator here.
    Hitchens' angle is rather different from my own: I was concerned with the internal culture of the institution, which had I attended as a student in the 1990s. Hitchens is interested in the role of the University in its closure, which was, indeed, decisive. As I mentioned at the end of my article, without mentioning any names, the University refused to allow the Hall to accept a £40m donation which would have amply solved the problem of financial instability which has been presented as the cause of the decision to close it. We never had any official explanation as to why the donation was turned down, but Hitchen's article, which mentions lots of names, is clearly correct: key figures in the University didn't like the idea of a Catholic institution within the University.

    What I wanted to emphasise in my own piece was that the Hall's failure was due to the combination of internal and external factors. This doesn't make for such a clear narrative of University nefariousness but that's reality for you.
    Certainly the University's decision should be called out; it was disgraceful. It is important to note also that the anti-Catholic animus behind the decision had in no way been mollified by the appeasement  offered to wokery over the years by the Hall leadership. Indeed, in the final stages, it actually made things worse, because it created the impression that people like the hugely distinguished academic lawyer Prof Robert George, who was involved in the negotiations, was suspect simply because he is a faithful Catholic.
    We can't expect people in the University administration, who know nothing and care less about the Catholic intellectual tradition, to take us seriously, if we don't take ourselves seriously.

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    01/10/2022 - 10:00

    Children, Rigidity and the Synod
    IMG_1009
    Mass at the St Catherine's Trust Summer School in 2022
    Cross-posted from Rorate Caeli.
    There is an interesting article in the Una Voce Scotland Newsletter, from April 2022, by a young mother who took part in the Synod on Synodality discussions in her parish. The article in anonymous. She describes how she explained to the meeting she attended that her own experiences of the Novus Ordo 'children's liturgy' and catechesis had been underwhelming, and that most of her contemporaries had lapsed. She, however, had discovered the Traditional Mass, and her small son was so taken by the bells and smells that he was copying the bell and the thurible in his play.
    He takes a rattle in his hands and pretends that he’s ringing the Sanctus bells (kneeling down and saying “ring, ring”) and swings his hands in front of him in the act of censing (“chk, chk!”). Where I was hardly aware of – and even distracted from – what was taking place in front of me during (Novus Ordo] Children’s Mass, my infant son is inspired by the traditional liturgy, his imagination fueled with enough images, sounds, smells and actions to take him through the week. 
    My conversation partners, formerly quite talkative, received this account with a stony silence and shifting brows – some rose, some furrowed. The pause was broken by Shona, who wanted to add another problem to our list: “You know, we had a priest in our parish who caused a few people to leave. He wouldn’t accept any change, you see, and didn’t connect well with the people, especially not with the children. He was very set in his ways.” And that was that.

    I have been researching bishops' conferences submissions to the Synod insofar as they refer to the Traditional Mass. Many don't, but in Scotland and in England and Wales the bishops, to be fair to them, acknowledge the issue with a degree of openness, if not explicit sympathy. Nevertheless I think that Shona's response is very telling, and that she could stand for many, not just laity and not just in Scotland. And for that matter the experiences of the author of the article are also typical of a lot of people who attend the Traditional Mass today.
    I myself remember the toe-curling liturgies which were intended to engage me and my contemporaries as teenagers. I suppose they would mostly have lapsed anyway, but these Masses did nothing to help. This has been going on for half a century, plenty of time, I would have thought, for the lesson to be learned, but it seems some people are completely closed to reality. When you mention to them that, by contrast, the Traditional Mass works really well for children, they can't deal with it at all. It is too far removed from their cherished assumptions for them to be able to process the information.
    The fact is that it was never an empirical question for them; whether or not they would articulate it this way to themselves, it is fundamentally a theological question. The evocation of transcendent holiness in the Traditional Mass, which makes such a strong impression even on small children, and motivates young men and women to consider vocations and take marriage seriously, is for them wrong theologically. It if works pastorally, this is an embarrassing fact which needs to be denied until it goes away: perhaps it will go away, if the Traditional Mass is banned.
    On the other hand, the emphasis on a largely fake parish community is right theologically, so if it is not working pastorally it just needs to be tried harder. 
    I say 'largely fake' because although a congregation is a worshiping community in a theological sense, if worship as a supernatural reality is pushed into the background and a natural conception of community is emphasised, there is very little if any natural community to work with. Members of a congregation are overwhelmingly not people who work together or spend leisure time together in the week. Modern Catholic parishes simply don't operate like 18th century village churches.
    Shona's way of dealing with all this is to reach for the stereotypical 'bad rigid priest' who puts people off coming to church because he is 'very set in his ways'. Talk of the Traditional Mass naturally brings to mind the problem of people being 'very set in their ways' because the old Mass, as she conceives of it, is something from the past that its supporters are morbidly attached to: they can't let it go.
    The stereotype is ludicrous because today Traditionalists who are young adults, parents with children, or young priests, are not clinging to something in their own past: we are seeking out and reviving something that was taken away from parishes before we were even born. We are the ones open to new experiences and to empirical facts. Shona and her like are accusing us of what she is herself guilty of: a rigidity about pastoral strategy and liturgy. She won't accept change. She's very set in her ways.
    Shona doesn't represent everyone, but there is an important segment of opinion which thinks like her. It is so utterly closed-minded that practically anything is preferable to living in peace with celebrations of the Traditional Mass. Even the mildest efforts to restore sacrality to the Novus Ordo, like the 2011 ICEL version of the Mass or clampdowns on liturgical abuses, are greeted with horror, and even apostacy.
    How these views are going to be 'synthesised' with those of everyone else in the Church in the Synod remains to be seen.
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    The conclusion of the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham 2022

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    30/09/2022 - 13:03

    Home Education meeting in Reading Saturday 1st October

    From 10:30, 338 Wokingham Road, Reading RG6 7DA

    Organised by the very active Catholic home-schoolers of Reading, who attend St William of York served by the Fraternity of St Peter.

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    29/09/2022 - 17:51

    A Muslim convert encounters the Traditional Mass

    This piece on Rorate Caeli is worth reading. It is from the journal of the Fraternity of St Vincent Ferrer, Sedes Sapientia, which is now available in English translation for the first time.

    The author is Derya Little.
    ------------------------------

    When I attended my first traditional Latin Mass years later [after her conversion, first to Protestantism and then to Catholicism] in an old English church with dark walnut pews, that reverence I had experienced during my very first Mass reached a new height where the reason for those tedious [Old Testament] details about worship became clear. This was a God before whom I could kneel; a God who held our existence in his hands, yet chose to humble Himself to become one of us and suffer humiliation and death in love to save us from our own sinfulness.


    As the priest and the faithful faced the Lord together, Mass was no longer oriented towards the priest, but to God. It did not matter who the priest was as long as he said the black and did the red. His personality was inconsequential. The prescribed rubrics and prayers made sure that the priest would not be the center of the worship, but stood in persona Christi with and for the people as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered, surpassing the limits of time and space.

    Yes, the priest was not the focus, but neither was the laity. With whispered prayers, the faithful stood, knelt and uttered their own prayers. The silence and solemnity directed our attention to the cross away from ourselves and each other, uniting us in a unique way as we all directed our gaze towards heaven. Of course, these impressions were all before I studied liturgy and the meaning of the rubrics and prayers. Even for a newcomer, the traditional Mass presented a kind of worship that reoriented our bodies, minds and souls to the perfect order where the Lord received the worship He was due as the loving Father. Finally, not only could I bow my head, but I could also kneel in worship and unite my prayers with the entire church. The limelight did not fall on the priest, the server or on the congregation, but to where it belonged: the crucified Word of God who loved the world unto death.
    Read the whole thing there.
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    22/09/2022 - 14:30

    The Royal Prerogatives and the law: 1Peter 5 by James Bogle
    The well-known Catholic barrister James Bogle (also a former President of the FIUV) has written about what the Queen could and could not have done about bad laws being passed, on 1Peter 5. It is well worth a read; the principle is clear enough but the technical details are helpful.
    Mr Bogle explains that saying 'The Queen should have refused to sign the Abortion Act' (or any other Act of Parliament) is no different from saying that a Catholic judge should have ignored it, that a Catholic clerk working in the Houses of Parliament should have falsified the official record of the Act, or even that a Catholic soldier guarding Parliament at the time it was being voted on should have stormed in and threatened everyone with his gun. It would have been illegal, as well as totally futile and destructive of the constitution, and of course morally wrong.
    In a constitutionally-governed state bad laws must be prevented, or failing that, overturned, by constitutional means. Anything else is a revolution which overturns the state itself. And yes we do want to live in a constitutional state, and not in a state of legal anarchy and permanent civil war.
    Elsewhere, Mr Bogle has summarised the question of whether it is possible to hold a Requiem Mass for The Queen, as the LMS has done and will do again. This is worth quoting:

    Dear all, canon law makes it quite clear that the baptised of any denomination may be given a public requiem and that the final decision lies with the local Ordinary. Here is what canons 1183 & 1184 say:

     "Can. 1183 §3. In the prudent judgment of the local ordinary, ecclesiastical funerals can be granted to baptized persons who are enrolled in a non-Catholic Church or ecclesial community unless their intention is evidently to the contrary and provided that their own minister is not available.

    Can. 1184 §1. Unless they gave some signs of repentance before death, the following must be deprived of ecclesiastical funerals:
    1/ notorious apostates, heretics, and schismatics;
    2/ those who chose the cremation of their bodies for reasons contrary to Christian faith;
    3/ other manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful.
    §2. If any doubt occurs, the local ordinary is to be consulted, and his judgment must be followed."

    The Queen was not an apostate, heretic or schismatic (one must first be a Catholic to meet those categories) nor was she a manifest sinner.

    In addition, the local Ordinary has given permission. 

    IT IS THEREFORE ALLOWED.
    THAT IS THE END OF THE MATTER.
    Now, for goodness sake, find something more sensible to argue about.

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    17/09/2022 - 10:00

    Protestant Traditionalists: Letters in The Tablet
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    LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham this year

    The Tablet no longer publishes my letters, which is an interesting development: they used to publish them pretty regularly. However, these two are interesting. They are the only letters published this week on this subject.
    ------------------
    Many of us will be pleased that Cardinal Arthur Roche, head of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, has come out critical of those who refuse to accept liturgical reforms as promulgated by Vatican II (“Roche asks whether traditionalists are still Catholic”, 3 September). However, I would question the way in which he demonises these dissenters as “Protestants”. 
    That same Vatican Council decided that after all Protestants are good people. And the analogy falls flat when you take account that Protestants concluded some centuries before Catholics that the vernacular was indeed the better language to celebrate the liturgy.
    CHRIS LARKMAN LONDON SW20 
    I was sorry to hear Cardinal Roche’s judgement on Tridentine Mass-goers, as reported in The Tablet.
    The Vatican Council was not legislation to impose on the faithful. It was more a path of renewal taken by all the bishops of the time, celebrants of the old Mass to a man. They re-engaged with Scripture, were opened up to the riches of Catholic tradition, were sensitive to the needs of the day and were led by the Holy Spirit. 
    Shouldn’t Rome be making sure that that path remains open to all, and not labelling our brothers and sisters in the faith as Protestants? 
    JIM SPENCER GILLINGHAM, KENT

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    17/09/2022 - 10:00

    Indifferentism and Praying for the Queen and the King
    I know some traditional Catholics have misgivings about praying for the late Queen and for King Charles. 
    Under the old Code of Canon Law, Requiem Masses could be said for non-Catholic Christians but these could not be publicly advertised as such. At least, this was the way Canon 2262 was enforced, though the canon referred to people who were excommunicated. Non-Catholic Christians are not usually personally guilty of the sin of separating themselves from the Church.
    Again, non-Catholic monarchs would not normally have the Prayers for the Sovereign said for them at the end of Mass.
    Today, the first rule does not apply. On the second, permission for this was given for England and Wales, dating back to 1789.
    The rules on exactly what level of communicatio in sacris (sharing in sacred things with non-Catholics) gives rise to an unacceptable risk of religious indifferentism (the attitude that all religions are equally valid) have varied over time: it is a matter not of doctrine but of discipline.
    There was certainly sense in the old rules: they emphasised the wall around the Church, and this wall, this solidarity, was part of why made the Catholic community cohesive, and therefore attractive to stay in or to join. The massive rates of lapsation, and the collapse of conversions, since the 1960s, are directly connected with the breakdown of the attitudes which the old rules articulated and reinforced. We cannot, however, improve the situation by pretending that the old rules are still in force. Building up the sense of community, the sense of difference between inside and out, and the sense of urgency about the conversion of non-Catholics, is essential to the renewal of the Church, but it can't be done by gestures which lack the context which makes them make sense either to Catholics or to those outside. 
    There are many things we can do instead to promote Catholic solidarity, and we in the Latin Mass Society are doing them. I hope you, dear reader, are doing them too: a concern with the Catholic content of children's education, and public witnesses of the Faith in pilgrimages and processions, are obvious examples.
    Refusing to pray for Queen Elizabeth and King Charles today would look not just rude, but a failure to do what we can to give them our spiritual support, and to do so publicly. The importance of this for English Catholics in particular has been very acutely recognised by our predecessors in the Faith going back centuries, and we do well to place ourselves in the tradition they established.
    Not only did they have Prayers for the Sovereign after the principal Mass on Sunday, but preceding the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 the Bishops of England and Wales ordered a triduum of Masses to be said for her. I have been sent a scan of a booklet for the final one of these Masses. It was a Votive Mass of St Augustine of Canterbury, followed by the Te Deum and the Prayer for the Sovereign. The booklet was clearly distributed all over the country, as it includes the variations on the orations used for St Augustine in certain dioceses. Special permission of course would also have been needed for a Mass in the evening, back in 1953; general permission for evening Masses didn't come until 1957.
    Catholic dioceses, parishes, and organisations should all consider how best to support King Charles in prayer, particularly at the time of the Coronation. The Latin Mass Society, naturally, will be organising a Traditional Mass for this intention, as soon as the date is announced. On Monday a Requiem will be said for Queen Elizabeth in Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, in London; on the 'month's mind' of Her Majesty's death, Saturday 8th October, we will have an even more splendid Requiem Mass for her in St Mary Moorfields: full details to be announced.
    This is the Preface of the booklet from 1953, by Cardinal Bernard Griffin, who died in 1956.
    IN her broadcast message to her people last Christmas Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II asked us all to pray for her at the time of her Coronation. None of us can fully appreciate the immensity of the burdens which Her Majesty assumed on her accession to the throne but we c all lighten those burdens, not just by our loyalty and devotion, but most of all by our prayers that Almighty God may guide her in her appointed tasks. 

    In response to the Queen's request for our prayers, the Hierarchy of England and Wales has directed that the three days prior to the Coronation be observed by Catholics as a Triduum of Prayer that God may bless Her Majesty and her realms. Throughout these three days our people will pray earnestly for this great intention. Moreover, it is the Bishops' wish that the entire Catholic community in England and Wales be united in prayer for the Sovereign on the Eve of the Coronation itself. In every public Catholic church throughout the country Mass will be celebrated at 8 p.m. on the evening of 1st June, and this souvenir booklet provides the Order of Ceremonies which will be followed. The Mass will be the culmination of our Triduum. It will be the supreme moment at which the Catholics of England and Wales will be asking God's blessing upon our Queen. In the words of the prayer which we shall recite with such fervour that evening: God save Elizabeth our Queen, now by Thy mercy reigning over us. Adorn her yet more with every virtue. Remove all evil from her path.

    + BERNARD CARDINAL GRIFFIN 
    Archbishop of Westminster 
    Cardinal Bernard Griffin, centre
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    16/09/2022 - 10:00

    Launch of Family & Life Academy
    (Cross-posted from Rorate Caeli.)

    I am pleased to announce the launch of a new online learning opportunity in which I am involved: the Family and Life Academy, a project of
    Voice of the Family.

    Some readers may know Voice of the Family through their magazine Calx Mariae.

    The Academy lets you watch courses of weekly lectures at a very affordable price, either live or recorded, plus free webinars on various subjects. There are courses on Natural Law (from me), Divine Law (from Fr Thomas Crean), the moral issue of abortion (from the veteran pro-life activist John Smeaton). There will be special appearances by His Excellency Eduard von Habsburg and Roberto Mattei.

    Here is their announcement with more details and links.


    We are delighted to announce that enrolment is now open for Voice of the Family’s new online learning platform, the Family and Life Academy: dedicated to providing authentic Catholic formation in an extensive range of subjects relating to the defence of life and the family in today’s world. Visit www.familyandlifeacademy.com to explore our programme for the coming months and sign up for updates on the curriculum and important online events.

    Starting in October, the Family and Life Academy will provide comprehensive courses and free webinars in a live virtual classroom, with academics and other educators handpicked for their specific expertise. Every live lesson and webinar is followed by a Q&A, in which all participants are invited to participate. A video of each session will be available on demand from the next day.

    We are honoured that His Excellency Eduard Habsburg will open the Family and Life Academy’s programme on 7 October with a webinar on Blessed Karl and Empress Zita of Austria. This intimate look at the lives of two saintly heads of state in the twentieth century provides an insight into their holy marriage and heroic sacrifice, the action of the Holy Ghost in the fulfilment of their duties of state, and why Blessed Karl and Servant of God Zita are a perfect model for families and for whole nations.

    From Tuesday 11 October, Dr Joseph Shaw will teach a six-week course on natural law, going back to its roots in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, taking us through its development in Christian thought, up to its definitive formulation by St Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century. Dr Shaw will also look at some of the moral theories which took its place in the eighteenth century, and their consequences for morality today. This in-depth course will give a step-by-step plan of the moral law written on the human heart, and present the case for returning to the solid ground of the natural law tradition, in order to respond to contemporary challenges.

    Click here to see all the Family and Life Academy’s upcoming courses and free webinars

    From Thursday 13 October, John Smeaton will teach a six-week course on abortion. He will be joined by Dr Greg Pike, who will begin the course with an authoritative overview of the scientific evidence regarding the development of life before birth, compiled from some of the best peer-reviewed studies in recent decades. Then John Smeaton, drawing on five decades of experience on the frontline of the battle against legalised abortion, will explore the spiritual aspects of the fight, take a closer look at the key figures, events and cultural forces which have shaped it, and consider the role which the Catholic laity has played in the defence of the unborn, and the responsibility of the Catholic hierarchy in leading it to ultimate victory, and to the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

    We are pleased to be joined by Professor Roberto de Mattei on 18 November, when he will present a webinar giving a historical overview of the revolutionary attacks against the family, from the fifteenth century to our own day. The next day, on 19 November, Dr Alan Fimister will start a five-week course on the role of parents as the primary educators of their children, while Fr Thomas Crean OP will teach a six-week course on divine law from 24 November.

    Click here to see some of the Academy’s teachers

    Catholic parents today face the huge challenge of raising their children at a time when educational institutions fail to foster serious moral formation. Furthermore, many in authority in the Church appear to have abandoned their clear teaching voice, leaving the faithful without firm moral support. Catholic families, deprived of essential help, often lack the tools necessary to carry out their God-given mission to educate the new generation of Catholics.

    The deep crisis in the Church and in the world today can only be overcome by a renewed commitment to our Catholic faith. The curriculum of the Family and Life Academy has been designed with a view to providing young people, parents, pro-life and pro-family advocates and all the faithful with the tools necessary to develop their understanding of life and family issues in the light of the unchanging teaching of the Church; and, ultimately, to know and love better “the victory which overcometh the world, our faith” (1 Jn 5:4).

    The last seventy years have seen unparalleled moral confusion in society, and confusion in the Church on an even deeper level. We at Voice of the Family believe that Catholics must lead the way in restoring moral order in society, which means recovering the spirit of prayer and a deeper understanding of the Church’s moral teaching. By helping the faithful to grasp the contemporary relevance of critical moral principles handed down by the Church, we hope to rebuild a culture in which our Catholic faith is not only believed but lived.

    We look forward to embarking on this new apostolate and ask your continued help and prayers for our work in restoring traditional Catholic teaching, “to re-establish all things in Christ” (Eph 1:10).

    Watch a short video trailer here.

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    15/09/2022 - 15:43

    King and Father as Sacred Offices: from the European Conservative

    Here is another piece (links to the other two) I have written on the monarchy, which was published in the European Conservative on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee. It was in the print edition but is just now available online.

    Here is a key passage.
    -----------------------------------
    Placing one’s social role ahead of one’s personal preferences is certainly a sacrifice, but the assumption by some that such a sacrifice must make it impossible to live authentically or happily is far from being true. The veteran conservative journalist Charles Moore remarked, on the occasion of the celebrations:
    Perhaps the Queen’s most remarkable achievement is that, by accepting this [her role] so absolutely, she has gained a deeper fulfilment than if she had rebelled. She has become what she has tried to be. People who know her well say there is always an air of peace surrounding her. To use a phrase below the level of events, she has job satisfaction.
    This echos the position of the philosopher Byung Shul Han, whose most recent book, The Disappearance of Rituals, I reviewed in The European Conservative. We do not lose our freedom by identifying with our social roles, as Romantics and Existentialists would have us believe, but gain it. As the phenomenon of social media has underlined, the effort to be ‘authentic,’ to create oneself anew at every moment, is an exhausting exercise of play-acting, a confidence-trick one plays on oneself and one’s most intimate friends, which today is packaged and sold as click-bait for advertisers. By contrast, from the stable platform, as one might call it, of a conventional role, one can be playful and creative: have the Romantics and Existentialists not noticed that play and art are themselves conventions? Without the conventions of language, there can be no satire. Without the conventions of religion, there cannot even be blasphemy. The brilliant self-defining act of the Romantic or Existentialist, without the background conventions of the societies in which these theories developed, would be completely lacking in meaning. They would communicate nothing.

    Read the whole thing there.

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    13/09/2022 - 10:00

    Two pieces on the Monarchy
    Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation in 1953

    I have written two pieces on the British Monarchy for US-based sites: Catholic Answers and 1Peter 5. I think a lot of Americans find it difficult to get their heads round the monarchy, even conservative Catholics.

    The articles inevitably overlap a bit but they are complementary. 
    The Catholic Answers one talks more about the Prayer for the Sovereign which we have at the end of Sunday Mass (when it is a TLM, and the 'principal Mass' of the day).
    The 1 Peter 5 article is longer and sets the monarchy in the wider context of the importance of human traditions in general, and constitutional conventions.
    In the context of the Jubilee I wrote a piece for the European Conservative as well, on the nature of the sacred office, but it was in the print edition is not yet available to read online.
    There is plenty more to say on the subject, but this is a start!

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