Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Leading the Way

The Dutch were always considered the most `progressive` of Catholics in the years after Vatican II. Now it seems they are at the forefront of the New Liturgical Movement. A while ago news came out of the Dutch bishops had published an edition of the Ordinary of the Extraordinary (!) form. A couple of days ago the story came out that the Dutch bishops are to ensure that seminarians learn the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite. (Cf. Rorate Caeli) Good to see that it seems Rome will ask for this in the expected document from Ecclesia Dei. It is the logical consequence of the Motu Proprio, as I have mentioned before. I look forward to seeing what happens at our local seminary at Ushaw which is now awaiting a new rector.



On a technical note, the report about the recent training day for foreign priests at Ushaw said it `outside Durham in Northumberland` ! Ushaw is not in Northumberland but in Co. Durham.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had a lovely young Dutch seminarian visit us. He came with Brother Lewis(trainee Oratorian) & was very devout..at a seminary with a name i can't pronounce..i must check my older posts.

Dr. Peter H. Wright said...

Is this a picture of the chapel at Ushaw ?
It is magnificent (apart from the modern table altar).

Pope Benedict wants to see the two Missals enrich each other.

A very good place for this process to start would be in the seminaries, where future priests' spiritual lives could be immeasurably enriched through knowledge of the old liturgical books.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Dr Wright, it is indeed the chapel at Ushaw where I spent time from 1983-1988. All the re-ordering is moveable and, I remember hearing, can be taken away within half an hour.
Unfortunately the future is not bright for Ushaw as there are only about 30 students. In my day there weere 160 and we thought we were doing badly.
Next year is the bi-centenary of the college. I believe they have invited Cardinal Daneels as star guest. What a pity they didn`t invite Archbishop Ranjith: that would have made for an interesting evening!