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

Chairman's Blog

    24/09/2021 - 11:08

    A Sacristan's Reflections on the Walsingham Pilgrimage
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    Charles Bradshaw assists Fr Henry Whisenant with the Blessing of Pilgrims
    The New Liturgical Movement has published a lovely reflection on the LMS Pilgrimage to Walsingham by Charles Bradshaw, who was our Sacristan.
    We’re on the road again!” The past few years have seen a sharp increase in off-grid living, and with it a deep desire to give the modern world the heave ho. Off-grid traditional Catholicism is certainly what it feels like as you pack the car for the annual Walsingham Pilgrimage, not just with your backpack and tent but an entire sacristy, from vestments right down to grains of incense. Blessed with Solemn High Mass on each of its three days, the pilgrimage offers a chance to shed the cares of this world for a brief moment and connect with the essential: God; carefully lifting every second of the liturgy from suitcase to sanctuary.
    Read the whole

    thing there.

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    High Mass in the Chapel of St Margaret, Oxburgh

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    23/09/2021 - 15:13

    Rosary Crusade of Reparation, London, 9th October

    Please support this! Always a wonderful event.


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    The procession in 2013

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    22/09/2021 - 17:26

    Server training in London this Saturday: last call for bookings

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    This Saturday we are holding another Server Training day with the Society of St Tarcisius, in St James' Spanish Place, from 10:30am. We conclude at about 4pm. 

    Please book a place: this gives us an indication of number and of what people want to learn.
    No previous experience is necessary, and there is no fee.

    25th September: St James' Spanish Place, London 

    (booking page) (info about the venue)

    20th November: St James' Spanish Place, London 

    (booking page) (info about the venue)

    As usual, there will be a Guild of St Clare Vestment Mending Day running alongside these events: see here for more details.
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    21/09/2021 - 10:00

    Videos from the Guild of St Clare

    The Guild of St Clare is releasing a series of instructional videos about how to do simple repairs on vestments and a bit of domestic sewing--one episode to come will explain patching children's trousers.

    This is the introduction to the series.

    This one explains how to thread a needle, and how to stitch down loose braid. Yes, pretty well anyone can do a simple thing like this, and with a bit of patience and practice, and the right advice, can do it to a decent standard.

    A lot of vestments in parishes bear the marks of incompetent repairs: certainly the LMS vestment collection does, as is noted in the video. This is not necessarily the fault of the people who carried out the repairs, who were often pressed to do it by priests who did not know anyone else who could have a go. The problem is that while every parish contains a few people who can sew, the techniques and skills needed for vestments, while not necessarily more challenging, are different. If you want to do repairs properly, even quite skilled sewers can pick a tip or two from this series.
    A real eye-opener on the distinct nature of traditional vestment-making is the way stoles are made, a technique applicable to many other things. You can sign up to an online stole-making course here for 30th October (10am-4pm).
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    20/09/2021 - 14:37

    LMS London events and Masses at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane

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    As I have mentioned before that the Sung Masses have recommenced under professional leadership on Mondays at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane, which is a Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament (like SS Peter & Paul and St Philomena in New Brighton, which is looked after by the ICKSP). Another, a Requiem, will take place this evening, for the repose of Fr Wilfrid Elkin who died in March. It is being accompanied by the new polyphonic consort with Victoria's setting, a fitting tribute to a lovely priest who did so much to support tradition.
    Enquire about joining the singing of polyphony or the chant on Mondays at Maiden Lane by emailing southwell@lms.org.uk; more info here.
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    Last Friday I attended (and photographed) an additional, High, Mass of Requiem there for all those who died in the epidemic, organised by the parish itself. It was celebrated by Fr Alan Robinson, Rector of the Shrine, and accompanied by the Choir of Spanish Place, who sang Anerio's Requiem (with the Dies Irae sung to chant) and the Nanino Gradual and Tract.

    There is a lot going on in London once again, thanks be to God, and you can keep up with events through the LMS London monthly newsletter: see the most recent one here and subscribe here.

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    This Friday there will be the first of a new series of our long-interrupted Iota Unum talks, by James Bogle on Bl Charles of Austria. The talks take place in the basement of Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street: please come to the 24 Golden Square entrance (W1F 9JR), 6:30pm for 7pm. (Full list of confirmed talks and dates here.)

    This Saturday there will be Server training and Vestment Mending in St James' Spanish Place. Book the server training, organised by the Society of St Tarcisius, here (and more info); email the Guild of St Clare (lucyashaw@gmail.com) if you'd like to join the vestment mending. Previous experience is not required! There is something that everyone can do, and there is masses of space and plenty of things to learn.

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    18/09/2021 - 09:33

    The challenge of a new school year
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    Quiz at a St Catherine's Trust Summer School a while back. We've not had the Summer School
    for two summers due to the pandemic.

    My first article in a new initiative, a weekly Digest (bulletin) from Voice of the Family.

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    Two recent news articles greeted the start of the academic year. The Irish Times informs us that official statistics confirm that since teacher assessments have in whole or in part replaced anonymised formal examinations, the relative performance of boys against girls has fallen. In the Daily Telegraph, Melanie McDonagh complains that her 14-year-old daughter’s Catholic school has brainwashed her into being a woke activist.

    These are both troubling claims, and they may seem extreme, but the people making them are far from marginal. The problem of systemic bias against boys has been acknowledged by the Irish government, which is hardly a bastion of cultural conservatism. It was in fact established on the basis of world-wide statistics some years ago, in a study sponsored by the OECD. The creation of a generation of school-child activists all saying the same things about race and gender has been denounced by Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Lest anyone imagine she is some conservative culture warrior, she recently made headlines apologising for Oxford’s education of the prominent Conservative Party politician Michael Gove.

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    Read the whole thing. You can subscribe at the bottom of the page.
      
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    17/09/2021 - 09:55

    Iota Unum talks in London are back: Jamie Bogle on 24th Sept
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    Fr Edward van den Bergh giving the last Iota Unum talk of 2019

    After a long break necessitated by the epidemic, we are returning to our face-to-face talks in London.
    The Latin Mass Society's 'Iota Unam' talks take place on Friday evenings in Our Lady of the Assumption Warwick Street (please enter by the back entrance into the basement: 24 Golden Square, W1F 9JR): click for a map.

    6:30pm for 7pm. Refreshments provided. £5 on the door.
    Confirmed talks:

    Sept 24, James Bogle: Bl Charles of Austria

    Oct 22, Joseph Shaw: Headship and Hierarchy in the Family

    Nov 19, Dominic O’Sullivan: Spanish Integralism

    Dec 10, Sebastian Morello: de Maistre on Liturgy and Politics

    Jan 29: Tom Pink: 'The Papal Monarchy: the exercise of power in the Church, its theological and legal basis, and its limits'

    During lockdown we have been doing podcasts: have a listen!
     
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    15/09/2021 - 20:22

    Why priests should learn Latin
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    Bilingual Vesting Prayers in the Sacristy of Westminster Cathedral
    My latest on Catholic Answers. The LMS is putting its money where its mouth is: clergy and seminarians in or from England and Wales can get an 80% discount on the fee of an online Latin course.
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    There is an amusing video on YouTube showing an American Latinist engaging priests in the Vatican in spoken Latin. He remarks that he spoke to a dozen priests, but only three were brave enough to go on camera with him and use Latin in actual dialogue.

    Spoken Latin might sound like the preserve of hobbyists, like spoken Elvish or Klingon, but being able to speak a language is the ultimate test of fluency, and for the Church, Latin isn’t just any other language. As well as being the sacred language of the liturgy, it is an indispensable key to the Church’s theology, history, law, philosophy, and poetry. As Pope Benedict XVI described it, it is the language the Church considers as her own.

    It is for this reason that Latin has always formed an essential part of the education of the clergy. The Second Vatican Council’s decree on Priestly Training, Optatam Totius, says seminarians “are to acquire a knowledge of Latin which will enable them to understand and make use of the sources of so many sciences and of the documents of the Church” (13). This means a serious grasp of the language: being able to sit down and read St. Augustine, for example—not as a homework exercise, but because you want to know what he says about something.

    Read the whole thing there.

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    14/09/2021 - 08:54

    Introductory video from the Guild of St Clare
    Produced by the great Peter Jones of One of Nine fame. More 'how to' videos are to follow.

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    09/09/2021 - 13:14

    Statement of the Religious Superiors (and Taylor Marshall)
    Cross-posted on Rorate Caeli.
    The Superiors General of the Fraternity of St Peter, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, the Institute of the Good Shepherd, and a number of other Superiors General of priestly institutes and religious communities attached to the Traditional Mass (including three communities of women), have issued a joint letter in response to Traditionis Custodes. Here it is, on the FSSP website. It is addressed to the Bishops of France, not, as some have assumed, to the Holy See.
    As befits such a document, it is carefully worded. In principle, Traditionis Custodes creates an impossible situation for the signatories. They are founded on the charism of the Traditional liturgy, and the Letter accompanying Traditionis Custodes tells us that it is the intention of the document that in the longer term this liturgy should entirely disappear. Furthermore, the justification for this given in the Letter is that the clergy and faithful (who are not distinguished) are detached in some sense from the unity of the Church.
    The argument which needs to be made to the Bishops of France at this point is thus a delicate one. Negatively, it should be obvious that to strike a defiant attitude, to threaten disobedience to Traditionis Custodes or the Bishops, or to suggest that they might go over to the Society of Pius X, would serve to confirm the purported justification of Traditionis Custodes. It would be directly counter-productive. 

    On the other hand, to make a direct argument against Traditionis Custodes, to insist that it should be rescinded, is pointless, because the French Bishops do not have the power to do that. To make such an argument to the Holy See would be pointless in another way, because there is absolutely no chance that an important document such as this would be cancelled, or modified in a significant way, by the very Pope who promulgated it, so soon after its publication. 
    Instead, the statement approaches the problem in two ways. First, it emphasises the key-hole of concession offered by Traditionis Custodes and the Letter, through which the Traditional Mass can continue to be celebrated: time. Traditionis Custodes gives the French Bishops (like all bishops) the right to permit the Traditional Mass now. It is now that it needs to be permitted if the spiritual life of the Traditional Institutes, and of Traditional laity, is to continue as before. No limit to this time is set by the documents. The first thing to secure, then, is that the Traditional Mass will continue.
    The second approach is to draw attention to a very serious problem created by Traditionis Custodes. In confirming the establishment of the Institutes and communities represented by this statement, the Holy See has over the years since 1988 allowed and encouraged men and women to commit themselves by vows to lives of a particular character: as do all priests and religious. A fundamental aspect of this character for these particular religious associations is the Traditional liturgy. If this liturgy is to be abolished, the vows and commitments made to these associations would become impossible to fulfill.
    The implications of this fact are not drawn out. It is for the French Bishops to ponder the problem as they apply Traditionis Custodes. They must implement the legislation with regard to the good of souls: as it is when they apply any aspect of the law of the Church. For those bishops inclined to be sympathetic, this consideration will be a powerful one.
    To summarise, what this statement does is to try to create a space in which the French Bishops may, without disobedience, make possible in practice the continuation of the life the of the Priestly Institutes and communities and of lay Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass. The Latin Mass Society did the same thing, in a some different way, when we issued our Canonical Guidance on Traditionis Custodes.

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    Taylor Marshall, a man I usually ignore, has insulted the signatories of this statement, as lacking the "brave and bold" spirit which, he claims, animated the late Archbishop Lefebvre. He is, in a video far too tedious to link to, claiming that they are cowards.
    This is a contemptible accusation, which reveals Marshall to be, as I expressed it on Twitter, an ignorant fool. I stand by that judgement, and I call on Marshall to apologise to these good men and women, who have a fearful responsibility both to their professed members, and also, in most cases, to the lay faithful for whom they have pastoral care.
    Marshall appears to imagine that the Superiors General should react to their complex situation with the subtly of some Hollywood action-hero: an attitude, in fact, completely at odds with the historical reality of Archbishop Lefebvre himself. What, Marshall seems to be asking, would Rambo do? What would be the reaction of some knuckle-headed character played by Mel Gibson? Well, if he wants to base his understanding of ecclesial politics on Braveheart, he should remember the advice given by the Duke of Argyle (in the 1995 film) to the young William Wallace: "First learn to use this" (pointing to his head), "and then I will teach you to use this" (lifting his sword).
    It is an interesting fact about social media that some people who witnessed Marshall's insult of the Superiors General, and my own criticism of Marshall for making this insult, concluded that I was the one to be blamed for dividing Traditional Catholics. This is an attitude completely detached from reality. The restoration of the Church is carried out through the sacraments offered by Traditional priests, and through the lives of prayer and sacrifice represented by the Traditional Institutes and communities, not by monetised social-media clicks. We need to show solidarity, in this moment of crisis, with the Superiors General, not with the man who likes to remind his viewers "I'm just a dad with a webcam".
    To the Superiors General, I say: genuine Traditional Catholics have your back. If this separates me from Taylor Marshall and his more deranged fans, so much the better.
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