Chairman's Blog

24/09/2023 - 12:50

Annual Mass in Snave: photos

Yesterday say the eighth annual LMS Mass in St Augustine's, Snave (bearing in mind a break for Covid). St Augustine's is one of fourteen churches in the care of the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust. While the others continue as Anglican Parish churches, this does not, and has only two services a year: a Harvest thanksgiving/ evensong, and this Missa Cantata organised by the Latin Mass Society Local Representative, Marygold Turner.

Mass was celebrated by Fr Gabriel Diaz Patri, and accompanied by the Victoria Consort. The Mass was for the Ember Saturday, and the Consort sang Byrd's Mass for Four Voices and motets.

There is no electricity or piped water at St Augustine's, which was built in the 13th century. I suppose this means there is no chance of electrical fires or burst water pipes, which are among the chief banes of unoccupied buildings.

It was a great privilege to have Mass in this wonderful ancient church.

Support the Latin Mass Society

21/09/2023 - 14:26

On Lying, for Catholic Answers

My latest for Catholic Answers.

It begins:

The Catholic tradition takes the Eighth Commandment—“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”—extremely seriously. Strict condemnations of all kinds of lying can be found from the Fathers of the Church, notably St. Augustine (who wrote two short works on the subject), to the Doctors and the modern Magisterium. The act of lying is per se malum: it cannot rightly be done even for a good end.

One reason for this is that lying is contrary to the nature of God, who is Truth. It is of the utmost importance that we can believe what God tells us—both what he reveals about himself and what he promises to those who love and obey him—since this is the basis of the Christian life. God could permit the children of Israel to take others’ property, as when the Israelites conquered Canaan, because he is the primary owner of the whole universe. God could permit Abraham to kill Isaac, because all humans born in original sin owe God a life. But he cannot permit anyone to tell a lie.

Read the whole thing there.

Support the Latin Mass Society

14/09/2023 - 10:00

A short film on St Elisabeth Hesselblad: Sweden's 20th century saint

Cross-posted from Rorate Caeli.

This beautiful 30-minute was produced by EWTN's Norwegian branch, EWTN Norge, and is narrated by Dr Clemens Cavellin, a traditional Catholic academic.

Elisabeth Hesselblad (1870-1957) was canonized in 2016, as the first Swedish saint since the late middle ages. She emmigrated to the United States in 1888, where she converted to the Catholic Church. Her life mission became to bring the Bridgettine order back to Rome, to the house of Saint Bridget, and to Sweden. She founded a new branch of Bridgettines that now has many convents worldwide, particularly in India. This film focuses especially on her early life as she describes it in her memoirs.

Support the Latin Mass Society

09/09/2023 - 11:24

Byrd Festival in London

The Latin Mass Society is sponsoring a festival of William Byrd's Catholic liturgical music, to mark the 400th anniversary of his death, in London. You can see the full programme of Masses here. William Byrd, one of England's greatest composers, managed to combine a job at the court of Queen Elizabeth I ('Bloody Bess') not only with his Catholic Faith, but active support of the underground Catholic community through his composing.

Because these Masses are Traditional Masses, we are able to use not only his well-known Mass settings (he wrote Masses for 3, 4, and 5 voices), but pieces from his 'Gradualia', which give polyphonic settings to a vast number of Mass propers (Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, and Communion). We have carefully planned the festival to enable these pieces to be sung, not only in the context of the traditional liturgy, as he intended, but on the correct feast days.

They are being sung by the Latin Mass Society's polyphonic consort, the Southwell Consort, which combines professional singers with singers who have received training but who have not pursued singing as a career. The opportunity to sing these wonderful pieces has been enthusiastically taken up by members of the consort, who are regularly fielding about 20 singers on these occasions.

Last evening I attended the second Mass of the series in St Mary Magdalen's, Wandsworth, which had a congregation of about 85. Mass was celebrated by the Parish Priest, Canon Martin Edwards. The majority of the Masses are taking place in Corpus Christi Maiden Lane, on Mondays at 6:30pm.

Support the Latin Mass Society

04/09/2023 - 19:12

Walsingham Pilgrimage 2023: photos

Photo by John Aron

The Latin Mass Society's annual Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham continues its post-Traditionis Custodes rapid growth: whereas before Covid we were treading water at 80-90 pilgrims, this year we have 200, and are bursting out of various churches and venues.

Photo by John Aron

I'm grateful for a charming write-up by Thomas Colsey of the Catholic Herald which can be seen here. Here are some photos.

Photo by John Aron

Many thanks to the more than 30 volunteers and all the pilgrims who made this such a success.

Photo by John Aron

Support the Latin Mass Society

02/09/2023 - 11:29

Iota Unum talks in London this autumn

After a break for the summer, we resume the Iota Unum series with three talks for the autumn.

They take place in the basement of Our Lady of the Assumption; please enter by the back entrance into the basement: 24 Golden Square, W1F 9JR near Piccadilly Tube Station (click for a map)

Doors open at 6:30pm; the talk will start at 7pm.

There will be a charge of £5 on the door to cover refreshments and other expenses.

28th Sept (Thurs), Joseph Shaw: Clericalism and Clerical Abuse

20th October (Fri), Fr Thomas Crean OP: Can a Christian be a restorationist?

24th Nov (Fri) Henry Sire: What next for Pope Francis?

Fr Thomas Crean OP at a Guild of St Clare Sewing Retreat

Henry Sire

Support the Latin Mass Society

08/08/2023 - 18:54

On liturgical abuses: for Catholic Answers

Fr Alan Robinson of Corpus Christi Maiden Lane. Note what he's doing
with his fingers: he has to hold forfinger and thumb together from the
Consecration to the washing of his fingers after Communion.

My latest for Catholic Answers is about liturgical abuses. It is an interesting and important topic and one to which I have devoted a fair amount of time to over the years. But I also feel a bit detached from it, since this debate is all about the Novus Ordo. Attending the Traditional Mass provides an opportunity to worship God without worrying about this issue, except on very rare occasions.

People sometimes say: surely liturgical abuses are possible in the TLM too? In one sense they are actually easier, as there are more rules to break. There was an old joke about how many mortal sins a priest could commit while saying Mass. Many of these things would be invisible to the people, however, and the rule-defined nature of it inculcated, and continues to inculcate, a very different attitude to the liturgy from that characteristic of the Novus Ordo. It is more likely that a priest will break the rules that do exist, if he is trained up to use his own words in numerous places, and to experiment with countless options. The Novus Ordo has a distinct spirit and liturgical culture: everyone knows this. And this culture is not about strict adherence to the rules.

On rare occasions priests have done bad things with the TLM. Many years ago, England, there was a priest who wanted to use altar girls. Many years before that there was a priest who wanted to use the Novus Ordo calendar. The rules however were very clear cut, and supported by Rome at the time. And perhaps most importantly, the faithful had no time for it at all. They voted with their feet.

This is ultimately how the rules must be maintained: through a shared liturgical culture, reinforced in all sorts of ways by priests, people, and the hierarchy. This is possible with the Traditional Mass. I'm not sure it is with the Novus Ordo. Even to try would be to invite endless and often quite vicious conflict.

I don't argue for that in this piece: I simply invite readers to think about the reasons for the rules. Some of them are very important, and they can't just be allowed to collapse.

A key quote from my piece:

Pope John Paul’s documents condemn laxity on liturgical law in the strongest terms, but ultimately, they failed to curb it. Their failure was symbolized by Pope Francis washing the feet of a non-Catholic woman on Holy Thursday in 2013. The law was not changed to allow the washing of women’s feet until 2016, and the new rule still excludes non-Christians from the rite. Pope Francis was certainly making a telling, symbolic, point: the battle over liturgical law is over, and the legalists have lost.

Go over there and read it.

Support the Latin Mass Society

06/08/2023 - 19:15

St Catherine's Trust Summer School 2023

We held our annual Summer School last week at St Cassian's Centre, Kintbury, in Berkshire, with the largest ever number of children: 62. Three others dropped out at the last minute, but apart from that we were at the capacity of the venue.

These Summer Schools are supported by the Latin Mass Society. They are not Summer 'camps': it is not just fun activities, or sleeping in tents, but lessons, designed to support the children in their education and expand their horizons of Catholic thought and culture. We do a bit of Latin, introduce them to Greek, explain a bit of Gregorian Chant, look at some sacred art, and Catholic history; this year I taught some lessons on the Problem of Evil. The children answered questions on all their subjects in the quiz we had with great enthusiasm.

We also do of course have activities, as well as liturgy and devotions. Daily Sung Mass included on on a trip to Oxford, at the Oxford Oratory.

I'm glad there are other summer events taking place with the Traditional Mass, mostly smaller and less formalised than ours; some children do more than one over the course of the holidays. The St Catherine's Trust event, however, remains unique, after eighteen years.

Support the Latin Mass Society

24/07/2023 - 18:51

St Walburge's, Preston, with the ICKSP

By good fortune I was in St Walburge's, Preston, yesterday, for Sung Mass, a church that is in the care of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. It is a magnificent edifice, gradually being fixed up by the ever-active Institute. Water penetration to the sacristy and the nave of the church has been stopped, so decoration and restoration of the interior can be addressed.

The flaking paint does not diminish the splendour of this church, and the confidence of successive Bishops of Lancaster in the Institute to revive it: it so happens that the current bishop, Patrick Swarbrick, was once a parish priest at St Walburge's and in that capacity invited Canon William Hudson ICKSP to celebrate Mass there twenty years ago. It was only some time after that initial contact that the Institute was given the church, in 2014, by Bishop Patrick Campbell.

Although both the holiday season and during a torrential downpour (don't the two go together?) there was a good-sized congregation. The scale of the church is clearly not going to be inappropriate to the size of the apostolate in the longer term.

Support the Latin Mass Society

16/07/2023 - 13:48

LMS AGM 2023: photos

Our Annual General Meeting took place yesterday, and as always it was a jolly occasion, a chance for members to meet the Society's Officers and staff and spend some time together. This year, as well as a rather good cold lunch there was a book stall.

We were addressed this year by John Smeaton, who recently honoured by taking up the position of Patron--one of several we currently have. His talk and my own will soon be available in video and podcast format.