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Latin Mass Society
  1. About Us
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  3. Chairman's Blog

Chairman's Blog

    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
    IMG_3219
    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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    12/09/2022 - 16:15

    Latin Mass Society: new office!
    After 28 years in Lupus House, 11-13 Macklin Street in Holborn, the Latin Mass Society has moved to a new office.

    Our new address is:

    9 Mallow Street,


    London EC1Y 8RQ


    Website, email, and phone number all remain the same.

    This is not far from Old Street tube station, just north of the City, London's financial district.

    As our General Manager noted in his 'Macklin Street' column in the most recent Mass of Ages:

    Our archives reveal, the Society first rented an office on Blandford Street, Marylebone west London, above what is now a restaurant. Prior to that the postal address was 159 Montague Mansions, London W1. In 1981, the Society moved to Cork Street and, in 1991, to an office in Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane. Two years later, in 1993, we leased our first office in Lupus House, 11-13 Macklin Street before moving to our present, larger, office sometime later.

    While we were at Macklin Street we moved, in 2009; the two offices were literally next door to each other, on the same floor, so the disruption was minimal. Nevertheless, it was an important move because the new office was significantly larger than the previous one.
    We have been obliged to move this time because 11-13 Macklin Street is due to be redeveloped. However we have taken the opportunity to get a yet bigger office, and we look forward to offering our members a bigger selection of items in our shop, and having more space for all our office-based activities.
    The LMS is very fortunate that we have a permanent office at all. In the early days the Society's address for correspondence was the Chairman's private address, and this is still the case for many Una Voce groups around the world. The Una Voce Federation had the same problem, until I suggested it be 'c/o The Latin Mass Society'.
    The above is publicity shot of the new office, empty, when it was being advertised. The top photo is the view from the street; the LMS Office faces the back of the building.
    We have posted this announcement on our website:

    Our move to 9 Mallow Street, London EC1Y 8RQ has now taken place. As we have been closed for two weeks, it will take the staff sometime to catch up with adminstration, processing shop order etc. We thank you for your continued patience and understanding.

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    09/09/2022 - 11:27

    Prayer for King Charles, after Sunday Traditional Mass

    In England and Wales, after the principle Mass on Sunday, we say a Prayer for the Sovereign. The prayer dates back to the 15th century and is used around the world for Catholic monarchs, and a version has even been used for republics where there has been a Concordat with the Pope. The Bishops of England and Wales must have sought and recieved permission to use it for the British sovereign, to emphasis their loyalty; it has been used here since 1850.

    It is not used in the Novus Ordo, though it was brought out of retirement for the Jubilee. If you use the 1962 books, however, it is there.
    It consists of a sung antiphon followed by a sung collect: the antiphon is begun by a cantor and taken up by everyone, and the celebrant sings the collect. Or it can all be said, if the Mass was a Low Mass.
    I encourage all priests who celebrate the Traditional Mass to use this, particularly this Sunday. What Mass is the 'principle Mass on Sunday', once something quite clear-cut, has become rather subjective. But if it is the principle Mass, it should be preceded by another beautiful ceremony, the Asperges. (Again, it is perfectly possible to do this at Low Mass, without singing it.)
    This is the text.

    V. Dómine salvum fac Regem nostrum Carolus.

    R. Et exáudi nos in die, qua invocavérimus te.

    Oremus.

    Quǽsumus, omnípotens Deus, ut fámulus tuus Carolus, Rex noster, quæ tua miseratióne suscépit regni gubernácula, virtútum étiam ómnium percípiat increméntum; quibus decénter ornátus et vitiórum monstra devitáre, [in time of war: hostes superáre,] et ad te qui via, véritas, et vita es, cum regina consorte et prole régia gratiósus valeat perveníre. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum.

    R: Amen.
    In English:

    V. O Lord, save Charles our King

    All: and hear us in the day that we shall call upon thee.

    Let us pray.

    We beseech thee, almighty God, that thy servant Charles our King, who through thy mercy has undertaken the government of this realm, may also receive an increase of all virtues. Fittingly adorned with these, may he be able to shun all evildoing, [in time of war: to vanquish his enemies,] and, together with the Queen consort and the royal family, to come by thy grace unto thee who art the way, the truth, and the life. Through Christ our Lord.

    R: Amen.

    This is a jpeg of three different Chant settings of the antiphon: there are also polyponic settings. The first given here is the most commonly used one.

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    08/09/2022 - 15:25

    No, the answer is not 1965, Fr Somerville-Knapman
    Fr Hugh Somerville-Knapman, a monk of Douai Abbey and a former student, with me, of St Benet's Hall, has an interesting article in The Catholic Herald. Among its highlights, he notes:

    Cardinal Roche seems to require that the Church deny herself, and to employ her authority today to negate her authority in former days. Many will echo Benedict XVI in asking how what was holy yesterday—and indeed for preceding centuries—can suddenly be a danger to faith and the Church today. Rome is making a serious mistake in its programme to shore up the practical reception of the reformed liturgy, and in so doing is backing itself into a corner.

    The liturgical reforms were expressly pastoral, intended to increase congregational participation. The severe decline in the numbers in congregations since the promulgation of the reformed liturgy over 50 years ago suggests that the reforms have not achieved their purpose. Equating the reformed liturgy—which I celebrate, but which for all its virtues has failed in its purpose—with the will of Vatican II leads logically to the conclusion that the failure is the Council’s when in fact it is the Consilium’s.
    However, at the end of the article he makes an odd claim. 

    ... in restricting the legitimate expression of the Roman rite to “the liturgical books promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II” Rome has allowed some room for manoeuvre, and for saving face. The Ordo Missae of 1965 is a post-conciliar reform promulgated by Paul VI which correlates very closely to the conciliar decrees in adapting the old rite more organically to their expanded liturgical vision. It offers a basis for revisiting the reforms that have so patently failed in their purpose, a failure that restrictive legislation will not hide, but only further expose.

    There are several problems with this proposal, which Fr Hugh has made before, that the books as reformed in 1965 should be revived or serve as the basis for a new consideration of the liturgical reform. The first problem is the tension between the two options just expressed. Another is that the mutilated mess created in 1965 is unacceptable to nearly all those attached to the Church's liturgical tradition.
    But more fundamentally for Fr Hugh's argument, the 1965 changes do not represent a set of reforms closer to the Council's intentions than what came later. Indeed, this is demonstrably the case. As the 1965 books themselves insist, they simply include 'those measures that are practicable before revision of the liturgical books' so these can 'go into effect immediately.'
    As we would expect, this is all about snipping out bits they don't like, changing rubrics, and adding in a few little bits and pieces which can (literally) be pasted into old Missal. It does not include the one major reform explicitly called for by the Council--a multiyear Lectionary--and the Council certainly did not call for the excision of the Last Gospel, saying the Canon out loud, and the other things found in 1965.
    I have written on this at more length here. As for this provision as a face-saving measure, readers can judge for themselves what Cardinal Roche and others would think of an entirely new project of revision and the creation of new books for the sake of traditionally-minded priests and laity who would in any case reject them.
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    07/09/2022 - 12:53

    Fr Gwilym Evans FSSP: Mass in Cardiff 17th Sept
    Fr Evans will celebrate a 'first Mass' in his native Wales, the Cardiff Oratory (Swinton Street, Splott, Cardiff CF24 2NT ), on Saturday 17th September at 10:15am.
    The organisers have set up an Eventbrite page so people can add themselves to the list for the catering: there is lunch afterwards.
    IMG_2354
    Fr Evans FSSP (centre) at the conclusion of the LMS Walsingham Pilgrimage
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