Chairman's Blog
Music from the LMS recorded by locked-down musicians
The Latin Mass Society was due, as for many years past, to employ professional musicians to accompany not only the 'major' services of Holy Week but also Tenebrae in St Mary Moorfields, London. Since these celebrations cannot now take place, the musicians have recorded some pieces from their own homes and edited them together.
The group is Cantus Magnus, under the direction of Matthew Schellhorn.
These are being released primarily from the LMS Facebook page. Here is a Vimeo version of the first one, a piece from the Tenebrae of Maundy Thursday set by Anerio.
Coronavirus and the Family
My latest on LifeSite.
--------------------
The public health advice—and in some countries, command—to stay at home during the Coronavirus epidemic is forcing many people to spend the kind of continuous time with spouses and children which normally only happens on family holidays, though without the trips out. This is shining a light, and putting unaccustomed strain, on our household arrangements.
The number of people filing for divorce spikes after Christmas and after the summer holidays, and it wouldn’t be surprising if we see a similar spike when the lockdown is lifted. In the meantime, people who might have been planning to leave their spouses (or throw them out into the street) have had to put their plans on hold. There is nowhere for newly separated spouses to go.
The reaction of commentators hostile to the traditional family has been interesting to see. In this Guardian article the writer notes that the lockdown has forced people into a closer approximation of traditional family values, not least because opportunities for extra-marital affairs have dried up, apparently to her chagrin. Over at Soros-funded Open Democracy, a writer with an alarmingly tenuous connection with reality thinks that this is the moment to “abolish the family”, whatever that means, though she acknowledges that the actual effect of the lockdown has been to give it greater importance than ever.
Cardinal Pell and Australia's anti-clericals
![]() |
Captain Alfred Drefus |
My latest on LifeSite, on Cardinal Pell, Dreyfus, and the liberal narrative on clerical sex abuse.
--------------
After 405 days in prison, Cardinal George Pell has finally been freed after the High Court of Australia overturned his convictions for sexual abuse of a minor.
The seven judges sitting on the High Court were, remarkably, unanimous, and delivered a single, two-page explanation of their decision. They pointed out that the jury and the Appeal Court had failed to acknowledge the force of the ‘opportunity witnesses’, who had testified that the abuse could not have taken place at the times and places alleged because, among other things, Pell would either have been elsewhere or surrounded by people. However convincing the testimony of the accuser, this other testimony introduced ‘reasonable doubt’, making conviction impossible.
There was, after all, no other evidence against Pell.
EF Triduum to be Live-streamed from Warrington
This is great news. Here is part of the Catholic Herald report which used the LMS press release on the subject.
-------
Archbishop Malcolm McMahon asked the priests at St Mary’s Shrine to live-stream their Holy Week ceremonies in order to “enable viewers to draw close to the sacred liturgy at the most important time in the Church’s calendar”.
The archbishop’s request comes after the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales received several appeals to live-stream the Paschal Triduum in the Extraordinary Form. Fr Chris Thomas, General Secretary of the Bishop’s Conference, informed the Latin Mass Society of Archbishop McMahon’s request.
While the FSSP at Warrington have been live-streaming ceremonies for the past three years, this is the first time the bishops have specifically requested and endorsed their doing so.
As churches remain closed due to the coronavirus lockdown, St Mary’s Warrington is also one of the very few places in the country where five clerics are able to perform a Traditional Missa Cantata behind closed doors as they live as one household.
The Masses will be available to watch at LiveMass.net.
Read the whole report there.
Support the Latin Mass Society
Faggioli and liturgical onanism
![]() |
Judah and Tamar. You can read abou them and Onan in Genesis 38 |
My latest on LifeSite. It may be worth noting that Prof Faggioli's tweet which I quote which seems to have beed deleted was only the saltiest of a number of tweets attacking the Bishops of Umbria; others can still be seen, here.
A queue for
![]() |
A queue for confession in St Bede's, Clapham Park. |
My latest for LifeSiteNews.
Support the Latin Mass Society
Baptisms when public services can't take place
My latest on LifeSite
Continue reading over there.
Support the Latin Mass Society
LMS Guide to Holy Communion, Confession, and Baptism during the lockdown
![]() |
St Charles Borromeo ministering to victims of the plague in Milan |
The Latin Mass Society has published these short but comprehensive guides to the Sacraments of Holy Communion, Penance, and Baptism, while getting access to priests is restricted or impossible, in light of the Extraordinary Form and the Traditional Practice and Discipline of the Church.
What is a perfect act of contrition? What value has watching a live-streamed Mass? When would it be justified to baptise infants in the absence of a priest? Is it possible to gain indulgences if one can't go to Communion? What is the ceremony of 'supplying the ceremonies' after an emergency bapism?
Your questions are answered.
New Prefaces and new Saints for the EF: Press Release from the FIUV
[1]
[1]
Second Vatican Council Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity Apostolicam actuositatem 5
Joy amid sorrow
![]() |
Last Gaudete Sunday, Holy Trinity Hethe with Fr Richard Conrad OP |
My latest on LifeSite.
This Sunday has a unique distinction in the Church year—a day of joy in the season of penance and sorrow! …All the Mass texts ring with joy; the entrance song is a joyous shout, ‘Laetare—rejoice!’