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Welcome to the site for News, Events and up-to-date Information on Traditional Catholicism in the West Midlands (UK). I am one of the Diocesan Representatives for the Latin Mass Society of England & Wales for the Promotion of the Traditional Roman Rite.

Sunday, 1 July 2012

Advice on the New Rite in Latin

Fr Paul Chavasse says the most recent Latin Mass
in St Chad's Cathedral (May 2008)
Here in the Birmingham area there is nowhere to hear the New Rite Mass sung in Latin. The closest is St Chad's Cathedral (above) which has a professional choir singing the ordinary in Greek and Latin. Any faithful wanting to take their worship further are therefore obliged to attend the Extraordinary Solemn Form at the Birmingham Oratory on a Sunday, or one of the Low Masses at Winson Green or West Heath.

It may therefore be of interest to see what the 'New Rite' Fortescue would say on the subject, no doubt based on curial proclamations and Pontifical practice:
Cardinal Foley celebrated the modern liturgy in Latin
at the Birmingham Oratory  (May 2009)
Reproduced from Mgr Peter J. Elliott's Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year

380. Mass celebrated [in Latin] should be part of the normal schedule for Sundays and Solemnities in all cathedrals and major churches. One Sunday Mass in Latin is obligatory in all basilicas.
...[It] may be appropriate to chant the Gospel in Latin at a Solemn Mass, provided the people have access to a translation of the text.
Parish Latin Low Mass: Possible
without "extensive musical resources"
381. In light of maintaining those musical settings of the Mass that may not seem appropriate in the modern Rite, solemn sung celebrations of the preconcilar rite should take place from time to time in cathedrals and churches where ther are extensive musical resources.

Unfortunately our Cathedral here in Birmingham does not go beyond the bare minimum, and despite its "extensive musical resources" they have never offered a Sung 'preconciliar' Mass, to my knowledge, since the reform of the liturgy. I happen to agree with all the sentiments expressed in the above text, besides the insinuation that the Latin Low Mass is superfluous.

May God bless our Archdiocese and country with an enriched, lively Faith, and a corresponding devotion to the beauty of the our Catholic worship.

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