A Pontifical High Mass at Westminster Cathedral will be on
Saturday June 20th at 2pm
celebrant: Bishop John Arnold (Auxiliary in Westminster)
Saturday June 20th at 2pm
celebrant: Bishop John Arnold (Auxiliary in Westminster)
This will be preceded by the AGM at 11am in the RHS Conference Centre (Greycoat Street SW1P 2QD) which I hope to report on. The speaker will be Fr Martin Edwards. This is a particularly important AGM because the integrity of the LMS has been called into question after a chain of events over the past year that culminated in the resignation of the previous Chairman, Julian Chadwick, and a few other prominent members.I do not think this is a major problem for the society, and feel its focus is more determined than ever. The new interim Chairman, Dr Joseph Shaw, puts forth an excellent vision for the Society, and included young families and traditional Catholic education in his priorities. He writes an interesting editorial in the latest edition of Mass of Ages;
"... [a challenge] which we face as Catholics and Traditionalists [is] secularism, the ideology of the day, which is gnawing away at all the Christian and moral assumptions of the state and public discourse...Our liturgical concerns are intimately connected with the problem which [Archbishop Vincent Nichols] has so eloquently identified. This is because the Mass which we promote is acknowledged even by its critics to make present to the faithful the mysterium tremendum, the mystery of the Faith... [which] focuses our attention on the spiritual nature of spiritual realities, the very realities which Archbishop Nichols' opponents want to deny...
If the spiritual is not emphasised in the liturgy, then where will the Catholic faithful go to find it?
However, some members (especially older more experienced ones) seem to feel this is the worst thing to ever befall the Society. Some are gearing up for a split from the society to go it alone. This would be a great shame because traditionalists, as a sad minority group in the Church, need to display unity of purpose and geographical links in order to best proceed and succeed.
1 comment:
Much as I rejoice over the wider availability of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite I must confess to a certain puzzlement over the variations between parishes. Is there or should there be a 'standard' Missal in use (e.g. the 1962)or is it up to the individual Priest which Missal and, therefore, which Mass he says on a particular Day. For example, I heard that there is no longer an Octave of Corpus Christi. Should one expect a standard? Having found such solace in the EF I would be somewhat distressed if it, too, was subject to 'tinkering. I am sure that there are plenty of our 'progressive' brethren who would be delighted to see Traditionalists foundering and at odds with one another.
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