Confirmations in the Extraordinary Form

I received this press release from the Latin Mass Society today. John Medlin hopes that more bishops will follow the example of Westminster and Northampton. I expect new bishops nowadays have to be Motu Proprio friendly so I hope the new bishop of Hexham and Newcastle whoever he will be will be open to this.

24 April 2008

* Westminster bishop to confer Traditional Latin Rite Confirmations

Bishop George Stack, auxiliary bishop in Westminster, will administer Confirmations in the Traditional Latin Rite at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, London W1 on Saturday, 15 November at 11.00 am at the request of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster. This will be the fifth consecutive year that Westminster auxiliary bishops will have conferred Confirmation in the Traditional Rite. Last year in November 2007, a record 54 candidates received the sacrament at the hands of Bishop John Arnold – 50 children and 4 adults.

Also in November 2007, Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton became the first diocesan bishop of England and Wales to administer Traditional Rite Confirmations when he confirmed 7 candidates during a pastoral visit to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church, Chesham Bois, Bucks on Sunday 18 November 2007. Bishop Doyle also celebrated Sunday Mass in the Traditional Rite on that occasion.

John Medlin, General Manager of the Latin Mass Society, said, “There is no sign of slackening of demand for Traditional Rite Confirmations – in fact the opposite. The numbers are increasing every year and I expect this trend to continue after Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio. We hope it will not be long before bishops all over England and Wales respond to pastoral demand for Mass and the Sacraments in the Traditional Rite. Those attached to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite are very grateful to Cardinal Cormac and the Westminster auxiliary bishops for making provision for the Traditional Mass and Sacraments.”

At St James’s, Spanish Place, in November 2007, a packed congregation of 600 family and friends were led by the St James’s choir in singing the Veni Creator Spiritus and other traditional hymns. During the anointing, the choir sang polyphony and plain chant. After the anointing, Bishop Arnold led the congregation in the Divine Praises and then conferred Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

After the Confirmations, at a reception, Julian Chadwick, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society, thanked Bishop Arnold for his pastoral concern and led the assembly in a traditional roof-raising round of applause. Bishop Arnold then spoke informally and cut the special Confirmation cake with many parents taking photographs. Later, the bishop mixed with the parents and children whilst everyone enjoyed the refreshments provided by the LMS.

Note:
Parents who require Traditional Confirmation for their children in November 2008 should contact the LMS office for full details of how to register.
. . . . ENDS . . . .

For further information, please contact John Medlin, General Manager, or James Murphy, LMS Office Manager, on (T) 020 7404 7284; (F) 020 7831 5585;
(E mail) thelatinmasssociety@snmail.co.uk

The Washington Post on Music Wars

I thought this was an interesting article on the question of church music in the light of the Pope`s visit to the USA. Good to see Jeffrey Tucker of the NLM blog interviewed here as well as Thomas Day of `Why Catholics can`t sing` fame. I tried to introduce some chant here at Forest Hall at the 10.30 Mass but it would be wrong to say that it was enthusiastically received.


Between Medieval And Folk, Two Mass Audiences

Catholics don't argue about abortion or the death penalty nearly as much as they argue about what music is sung (or not sung, or used to be sung) at their local Sunday Mass. It was ever thus -- at least since the 1960s, when Sister first shortened her habit, strummed a G7 chord and, to hear some Catholics tell it, all heck broke loose.

Among his more fastidious devotees, Pope Benedict XVI is valued most for the fact that he is not Casey Kasem, and Mass is no place for a hit parade, and church is most relevant when it is serious. (The point of this trip is just that: Get serious.) Do not hold your breath waiting for "One Bread, One Body" -- a '70s liturgical hit at most American parishes -- to be performed at His Holiness's mega-Mass tomorrow at Nationals Park.

But don't listen for too many sacred hits of the 10th century either. While Benedict understands the deep power of ritual, and loves little more than a Gregorian chant, what he and 46,000 others will be singing (or not singing) tomorrow will be a sort of compromise, neither modern nor traditional, but a little of everything. As soon as tomorrow's Mass playlist hit the Web, the new traditionalists were fuming on blogs and comment threads. (The pre-show includes African hymns, a "celebratory merengue" and some Mozart; the Mass itself includes a gospel-style Kyrie, some traditional Latin chants and several new interpretations of standard hymns.)
Like devout record store clerks, American Catholics are still having a sort of Stones-vs.-Beatles debate about what the classics really are.

Imagine a bizarro world where all the 25-year-olds want Mozart and all the 60-year-olds want adult-contemporary. The kids think the adults are too wild. The backlash against "Kumbaya Catholicism" has anyone under 40 allegedly clamoring for the Tridentine Mass in Latin, while the old folks are most sentimental about Casual Sunday (even more rockin', the Saturday vigil Mass), and still cling to what's evolved from the lite-rock guitar liturgies of the 1970s. The result, for most parishes, has been decades of Masses in which no one is entirely satisfied, and very few enjoy the music enough to sing along.

"The great majority [of Catholics] are totally inert at Mass," says Thomas Day, 65, a humanities and music professor at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I. Day wrote a book called "Why Catholics Can't Sing: The Culture of Catholicism and the Triumph of Bad Taste," which is often cited by those who'd like to see a return to Mass music that is to them more sacred. "Most Catholics have either forgotten or never knew traditional music," Day says.

The great enemy in the Benedict era? Why, somehow, it's Sister and her guitar.

Although everyone says rock Mass is long dead, there are parishioners still complaining about it. There are faded, nearly gone memories of singing nuns and hippie laity and teenage guitarmies at the altar of love; or faded stories of pop phenomena like Sister Janet Mead, the now 70-year-old Australian nun who discofied "The Lord's Prayer" and charted gold on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1974 (and who then released an album of an entire rock Mass).

It's been a long time since anyone at church was singing the hosanna from "Jesus Christ Superstar" or Cat Stevens's "Morning Has Broken" at the offertory. Even the vast catalogue of the St. Louis Jesuits -- the stalwart, lite-rock ballads heard in almost any Mass for the past few decades ("One Bread, One Body"; "Be Not Afraid"; "For You Are My God") -- has come under assault.

It's "Day by Day" -- out, and Agnus Dei -- in. Younger priests now go to weekend-long workshops to brush up on their Gregorian chants, or to learn the lost seminary art of singing the entire Mass in Latin, English or both.

"You know, just today I received a publication from a mainline Catholic music organization, and there are aspects of it that seem like the musical version of the AARP quarterly, if you know what I mean," says Jeffrey Tucker, 44, a choir director who lives in Auburn, Ala., and is the managing editor of Sacred Music, a journal of the Church Music Association of America. "There is no question that we are talking about a generational issue here. The young priests and the young people just can't seem to get 'hep' to the whole 1970s thing, and the old people just don't understand why."

Tucker encounters this all the time, and blogs about it frequently. At a recent conference, a jazz pianist confided to Tucker that he'd been playing at church, but there was a new, young pastor who had taken over and "he said, 'You know what that means.' [And] I said, 'Well, I'm not entirely sure.' So he added, surprised that he would have to clarify, 'That means he wants Gregorian chant!' " In one of his many blog posts at New Liturgical Movement, Tucker characterized most Catholic church parishes as ruled by a "hard-core" group that "is fanatically attached to music of the 1970s and fears even the slightest hint of solemnity, warning darkly that the new priest is going to take the parish into a new Dark Age."

In news stories with a "conservative Catholics" angle, the church's most faithful frequently mention the nightmare of Mass as it was in the decades after the Second Vatican Council. Loaded words like "hippie" and "total mess" and "Brady Bunch" get thrown around. There are stories of suburban churches built in mod, saucer-shaped architecture. ("Lots of guitars and banjoes," a 32-year-old Catholic man moaned to The Post's Metro section the other day, recalling the church scene of his youth. "I felt uncomfortable about it constantly.")

So really it's a retro movement, but instead of "I Love the '80s" (or '70s or '60s), it's "I Love the 1000s [Up Until 1963]," with Benedict encouraging Catholics toward rediscovering the beauty of the old way. He is on record as thinking of rock music as "anti-Christian," and once fretted (according to his memoirs) over Bob Dylan's appearance with Pope John Paul II in 1997. Benedict canceled a Vatican Christmas concert in 2006, fearing it far too pop in nature. He also shuns guitars in church. (Sister has been in big trouble lately. The pope doesn't like her music, isn't so wild about some of her politics, and when it comes to her role in priestly matters, don't even go there.)

Tucker says the music debates going on in parishes nationwide present a more serious issue for American Catholics, "having to do with what is appropriate at liturgy, what is timeless, what is sacred -- but the [young vs. old] demographic element is very difficult to deny."

In defense of guitar Mass, was it really so bad? It was the soundtrack of a lot of social justice efforts. The St. Louis Jesuits stuff conjures up, for many, memories of food banks and felt banners, of youth group carwashes and, more nobly, martyred nuns and priests in Central America. Maybe that was the problem for some churchgoers? The groovier music really was of its time, and came with an agenda?

"What about silence?" wonders Day, the music professor, 18 years after he wrote "Why Catholics Can't Sing."

If he has any prescriptive at all for Mass music, he says, "it would be to cool it. Pick plain, simple music. Plain, square hymns with reasonable accompaniment. And listen to silence occasionally."

Some of my old teachers

I was interested to read this on VIS today concerning archbishop De Paolis and bishop Daneels. I was taught process law by Daneels and penal law by De Paolis back in 1990 at the Gregorian university in Rome. I had no idea what De Processibus was about at first but after one hour every day for two years it began to make sense! Ad multos annos to both.

Appointed Bishop Velasio De Paolis C.S., secretary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, as president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born in Sonnino, Italy in 1935, he was ordained a priest in 1961 and consecrated a bishop in 2004. He succeeds Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani whose resignation from the same office the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Fr. Frans Daneels O. Praem., promoter of justice of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, as secretary of the same tribunal, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of bishop.

Clergy 'bullied by parishioners'

From the BBC news website today. An interesting story I thought. I don`t think it is confined to the Church of England. I know of one priest who was subject to this and when he challenged the offender for his arrogance got the reply that `arrogance is a gift`!

Members of the clergy are being bullied by parishioners while the Church is doing little to prevent it, a trade union has claimed.

Unite [ a trade union] says vicars are experiencing psychological, emotional, verbal and physical abuse.
It blames the "pressures of modern society" for the increase in the number of bullying cases.
The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England insists it is listening to priests and taking action.

'Out of control'
Rachel Maskell, of Unite, told the BBC that the bullying could take various forms "and every story is different".

"For example a group of one or two powerful people in any congregation may not like the style of worship, the times of meetings and even when the main activities are taking place in the Church," she said.

"But these campaigns seem to get out of control and rapidly turn into little campaign against the minister.

"It could be in the forms of letters to start with and then complaints being made, often to the bishop themselves."

She said bishops were "hiding behind the legal technicalities of the situation", but that they had a "moral duty to act expediently when they see one of their ministers in distress".

She gave one example of a minister who was off sick due to bullying, and had only had one meeting with their bishop in seven months.

"Frankly we believe that the bishops shouldn't be crossing the road to the other side, as happens in the great parable of the Good Samaritan, but should be actually supporting their ministers."

Bullying 'intolerable'
The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, John Packer - who chairs the committee of the Archbishops' Council which deals with clergy's conditions of service - said bishops were taking action.

For example, next month they were producing a document entitled Dignity at Work.

This would declare both that harassment and bullying were intolerable and also give ways in which dioceses could help in such situations.

"Although these cases are rare, there are instances where co-operation between clergy and church councils does break down," he said.

"I think I believe that bishops do respond when they see ministers in distress.

"I do think there is a difficulty in that we are dealing with a situation where cooperation is necessary.

"One of the difficult things is that often the allegations of bullying are made by both sides - both bullying of clergy and bullying by clergy - and that's why I would want to move towards a situation in which mediation is used much more often than it is now."

Maryvale

On Tuesday I caught the train to Birmingham and went to Maryvale. This was at the suggestion of Dr Andrew Beards who directs the philosophy course there and who used to be part of the Latin Mass group on Tyneside. As cardinal Cordes from the Vatican`s Cor Unum pontifical council was going to talk on the encyclical Deus caritas est he suggested it might be a good time to visit., I had been once before to Maryvale shortly after ordination for a course on Newman for priests but that was a long time ago. I`d only ever had one other trip to Birmingham, in 1983 when I spent a few days of Holy Week at Oscott.

On the way down I read through the encyclical. I had picked it up when it first came out but hadn`t finished it. I really enjoyed reading it and thought there was lots of useful stuff for sermons in it. The cardinal had spoken to the English bishops at their Low Week meeting the previous day. He gave his talk despite being a little unwell. There was a very good turn-out and it was interesting to learn about the work of the Cor Unum council in directing charitable work in the Church. The cardinal did very well in fielding questions afterwards, only the first of which, from Edmund Adamus, (who was at Ushaw in my time and who was a priest of the Salford diocese before taking on his role of Director of Pastoral Affairs for the archdiocese of Westminster) had much to do with the encyclical. The second question was put by a man who thought that the encyclical made Humanae Vitae redundant. No-one could quite follow this but the cardinal dealt with it with good grace. There followed a couple more off-topic questions and then the cardinal had to leave to catch a plane to Rome.

One of the joys of this trip was seeing quite a number a people I knew. I caught up with a priest colleague who is also now a canon lawyer and whom I`d not seen since leaving Ushaw. As we talked about Summorum Pontificum I was sad to note that he took an extremely restrictive view of what constitutes a `stable group` in such a way that he had never considered the encyclical might contemplate new stable groups emerging who want the Mass as opposed to pre-existing groups of marginalised Catholics. The new document should clear all this up.

The next morning I celebrated the Extraordinary Form in the tiny Sacred Heart chapel pictured above set up for Mass. While the main chapel has been happily re-reordered since my last visit (the tabernacle now being restored to the middle of the sanctuary wall) this is not true of the historic Sacred Heart chapel. It was the first chapel consecrated to the Sacred Heart for public worship in England but the tabernacle is still firmly attached to the right hand side of the wall a mere two feet from the centre. I hope one day the tabernacle may be restored to a central position. The altar must be one of the smallest in England but where there`s a will there`s a way and Mass was duly celebrated!

I was kindly given a lift back into Birmingham by `Augustinus`, an exile from the North East and who sometimes comments on this blog and elsewhere. I enjoyed learning about all the good work done at Maryvale in forming an educated laity and I look forward to perhaps visiting again.

Easter Question

An anonymous comment on the last post asks how the date of Easter is calculated because he thinks I will know. Interestingly I went out for lunch on Easter Sunday with my mother and I`d no sooner walked through the door of the restaurant when the maître d' came rushing up to me to ask me how the date of Easter is calculated. I`m afraid I`ve never taken a great interest in the subject but know it is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Further research reveals that this must therefore never fall before March 22nd and never after April 25th.

However looking at the old Catholic Encyclopedia I found some interesting stuff about Easter customs, some quite remarkable:

Men and women
On Easter Monday the women had a right to strike their husbands, on Tuesday the men struck their wives, as in December the servants scolded their masters. Husbands and wives did this "ut ostendant sese mutuo debere corrigere, ne illo tempore alter ab altero thori debitum exigat" (Beleth, I, c. cxx; Durandus, I, c. vi, 86). In the northern parts of England the men parade the streets on Easter Sunday and claim the privilege of lifting every woman three times from the ground, receiving in payment a kiss or a silver sixpence. The same is done by the women to the men on the next day. In the Neumark (Germany) on Easter Day the men servants whip the maid servants with switches; on Monday the maids whip the men. They secure their release with Easter eggs. These customs are probably of pre-Christian origin (Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Das festliche Jahr, 118).

I`ve never seen any of this going on on the northern parts of England!

Also:

Processions and awakenings

At Puy in France, from time immemorial to the tenth century, it was customary, when at the first psalm of Matins a canon was absent from the choir, for some of the canons and vicars, taking with them the processional cross and the holy water, to go to the house of the absentee, sing the "Haec Dies", sprinkle him with water, if he was still in bed, and lead him to the church. In punishment he had to give a breakfast to his conductors. A similar custom is found in the fifteenth century at Nantes and Angers, where it was prohibited by the diocesan synods in 1431 and 1448. In some parts of Germany parents and children try to surprise each other in bed on Easter morning to apply the health-giving switches (Freyde, Ostern in deutscher Sage, Sitte und Dichtung, 1893).

Finally:
House blessings
On the eve of Easter the homes are blessed (Rit. Rom., tit. 8, c. iv) in memory of the passing of the angel in Egypt and the signing of the door-posts with the blood of the paschal lamb. The parish priest visits the houses of his parish; the papal apartments are also blessed on this day. The room, however, in which the pope is found by the visiting cardinal is blessed by the pontiff himself (Moroni, Dizionariq, s.v. Pasqua).

Last year I offered to bless any houses of families that would like it as a way of honouring the custom and to get to do some parish visiting. It did take me quite a while to get around but this year I have offered to do this again and will be starting later this week.

Sacred Music Series

Last night I watched the most recent of the BBC4 series on sacred music which has been really excellent. Last week was on Palestrina and this week`s was on Tallis and Byrd. What made it particularly interesting from a Catholic point of view was that the programme focused on the Catholic loyalties of the two men under an Anglican government. Most of the analysis of Byrd`s music was of his Catholic output and it was interesting to see the Petre`s family home at Ingatestone which was an important recusant centre in Essex. If you live in the UK you can see the programme on the BBCi player. Click here.

Fr Aidan Nichols on Zenit

There is an interview with Fr Nichols on Zenit today regarding his latest book The Realm: an Unfashionable Essay on the Conversion of England. The parish reading group here are busy working their way through it.

I particularly enjoyed this question and answer:

Q: For the 100 or so odd years between 1850 and 1960, a number of England’s leading artists, intellectuals and public figures became Catholic. What was the main reason for these conversions, as well as their notable absence today? What can the Church do today to evangelize the “commanding heights” of the culture?

Father Nichols: The remarkable number of conversions of major or relatively major figures in the period 1850 to 1960 is to be explained by their common perception of Catholicism as a presentation of truth, goodness, and beauty that was at once a powerful philosophy, a comprehensive ethic, and a vision of spiritual delight.

The absence of such conversions in the period after 1960 is to be explained by the ensuing doctrinal disorientation -- “So where does that leave truth?” -- echoing of fashionable human rights discourse -- “So where does that leave goodness, at any rate in terms of a comprehensive ethic?” -- and liturgical banality -- “So where does that leave beauty and spiritual delight?”

What the Church can do today is to reform herself by repeating like a mantra the words “only the best will do”: the best intellectually, morally, aesthetically.

So maybe the `clapping Gloria` isn`t going to solve our problems after all.

Fr Francis James Arcadius Kuyte (1853-1935)

Since I became involved recently with the North East Catholic History Society I have been dipping into past issues of the Society magazine. This morning at breakfast I was reading the 1993 issue and came upon an article, by Aidan Harrison, about the above priest which I thought you might enjoy.

 Fr Kuyte was born in Oss in Holland but came to England and at the age of sixteen began studies at Ushaw. He served as parish priest of St Agnes` Crawcrook from 1912 until his death. His predecessor had suffered from chronic laryngitis which prevented him from preaching. The parishioners felt deprived and sent a delegation to the bishop to ask for a preacher. Bishop Collin`s reply was " You want a preacher? I`ll send you a preacher!" Harrison continues: Fr Kuyte was a renowned preacher-for length as much as content- and soon the parishioners of Crawcrook were making up for lost time with hour-long sermons at the Sunday Masses and Evening Devotions. The congregation of the 8.30 am Sunday Mass were leaving just as those for the 11.00am were arriving. These in turn, would be fortunate to be leaving by one o`clock in the afternoon. 

 Not everyone was happy about this but Fr Kuyte was undeterred. One Sunday three men decided enough was enough and left the church during the sermon. Fr Kuyte noticed them leaving and called out to them forbidding them to leave. As they ignored him he left the pulpit and pursued them across the main street and persuaded them to return. The next week he denounced them by name for leaving early. 

Harrison does say that Fr Kuyte was very well read on secular as well as religious subjects and had interesting opinions. He denounced the Allies after the first World War for imposing too harsh terms on Germany saying this would rebound on them later: something he did not live to see. he was also an expert on ornithology and particularly a world authority on the nightingale which he introduced to Crawcrook. 

 However there are more stories. He remarked that his parishioners were the slowest he had known to respond to the parish notices. One week parishioners were surprised to find a washing line had been set up from one side of the church to the other and displayed on it were a selection of worn-out and irreparable vestments for which he had been asking for funds to replace. The funds were raised in two weeks.

 Another time the parish found themselves showered with halfpennies from the pulpit from the previous week`s collection. Fr Kuyte`s point was that if that was all they could afford to put on the collection plate then their need was clearly greater than his and they could have their money back.

Fr Kuyte had fallings out with the bishop and diocesan authorities. When parish priest at Bell`s Close in Newcastle in the early 1900`s alterations and extensions were made to the church and presbytery but Fr Kuyte did not approve of the diocesan plans and altered them. The bishop was not pleased and insisted that Fr Kuyte pay the extra cost of his own alterations from his own pocket: a sum of £400, reckoned to be the equivalent of £80,000 in 1993. He was from a wealthy background. 

In Crawcrook he argued against the diocesan plans for the construction of a new school as being not a good deal financially and twenty years later his successor discovered that Fr Kuyte had been correct in his advice as a further site was needed for a new church which would not have been necessary if Fr Kuyte had been listened to. He both amused and frustrated his parishioners. He had preached against the dangers of dancing (much as the Cure D`Ars had too). When some parishioners later asked if they could have a parish dance he surprised them by saying they could have two. He went on: `You can have one, one week for the men, and another, the next week, for the women!` 

When a lapsed Catholic was delivering coals to the presbytery and said `These`ll burn well, Father,` the quick reply was `So will you, Paddy, so will you.` There was a massive turn-out for his funeral in 1935, the road to the cemetery being lined by non-Catholics as well as Catholics. He had become a well-known character in Crawcrook with his top-hat, three-quarter length coat and silver-topped cane. Harrison says: Fr Kuyte was a `character` who would alternately frustrate, madden or delight, but he was a man of deep understanding and learning who attempted to impart knowledge to his people through his, albeit, lengthy sermons.

Holy Week

I`m just beginning to recover from the exertions of Holy Week and a bad cold. I was very pleased with the turn out for the Maundy Thursday Mass here at St Mary`s considering it can be the least well attended of the three days. On Good Friday the church was not full I`m sorry to say. The Easter vigil attracted a slightly smaller congregation than a normal vigil Mass but on Easter Sunday morning the church was packed to standing room only with some people taking themselves upstairs to sit in the choir loft.

A highlight this year was having a full team of servers for all the Triduum who go from strength to strength. The serving team was really organised by Fr Mark Withoos who introduced me to the idea of a servers` evening which involved an hour`s practice including rigorous instruction in how to genuflect properly, to hold the hands joined and how to approach the altar, followed by pizzas and entertainment. After Fr Mark got things started we now carry on without him as he is no longer in the area. I am greatly helped by two of the mothers of the servers, Ann and Alison, who come to the training evenings and are in the sacristy on a Sunday morning to ensure everyone knows what they are doing. Although the sanctuary at St Mary`s is now very small and not really suited to having servers (there is no room for them to sit on the sanctuary so they have to sit in the front row of the church) their knowledge of what to do has grown and the latest thing we introduced was having torchbearers for the Eucharistic prayer which now happens every Sunday. I know they should not leave until after Communion but if they continued to kneel before the altar during Communion there would be no room so they go back to sacristy at the Our Father. This also has the benefit that the thurible stays there after this point as a number of parishioners appear to have problem with incense.

So Holy Week went very smoothly. I was also the celebrant at a 1962 Good Friday service at 5pm. Unfortunately while I had allocated half an hour for a rehearsal I found I had forgotten the ombrellino and part of the photocopied service sheet and so had to come back here to get it which meant there was almost no time for a rehearsal and the ceremonies were somewhat confused. However the large schola sang very well and I was very pleased to be able to hear the Reproaches and a shortened version of the Pange lingua. I was keen to use the new Good Friday prayer for the Jews as it showed the Pope taking an active interest in the 1962 missal and showing it is part of the mainstream liturgy of the Church. However parts of the 1962 liturgy are irritating: the said Our Father is very strange. Also the use of the black cope for the Solemn Prayers seems rather odd. However as I couldn`t see any other celebration of the 1962 Good Friday happening in this diocese or a neighbouring diocese I though it was important to offer it for those who asked.

Tenebrae at Longbenton

Holy Week started this morning at 10 with Tenebrae at SS Peter and Paul`s Longbenton. This was according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (1962). Three of the schola were present and were augmented by Alan from Glasgow, another disciple of Mary Berry. Many thanks to Ian, Dorothy and Sheila. I wasn`t expecting a large congregation but a few souls turned up to give it a try. Ian said he had not sung Tenebrae since the days of the famous `Glover Holy Week` on Palace Green in Durham, twenty years ago when the whole office of the triduum was sung in its pre-reformed form (!) and attracted people from all over the country. It is a wonderful service to be part of although it does require stamina. Much as I love the settings of the Lamentations by Couperin or Charpentier or the Victoria responsories I can imagine that if these were introduced the whole office would take at least three hours! This morning it lasted two and a half hours.

Here is a picture taken on my phone showing the hearse and altar candles. Sorry we didn`t have unbleached candles for the altar but I was glad we had them for the hearse.

St Patrick`s Night (?)

Yesterday I was mostly dancing with Zulus. Part of a parish priest`s everyday duties: the Lions of Zululand came to do a dance display for our primary school and at the end they dragged members of the audience up to dance with them: the headteacher was first and I, an obvious target, was next.

Tonight we had a St Patrick`s Day celebration in the parish hall. This was to raise money for young people trying to get the funds together to go to World Youth Day with the Pope in Australia later this year.


However this year with an early Easter St Patrick doesn`t crop up on the English liturgical calendar. When I was trying to get help for our penance service on Monday night at the deanery meeting one of our Irish priests said " You know what night that is" and I replied that it was normally St Patrick`s night but not this year. I believe that the annual St Patrick`s Mass at St Michael`s Newcastle was held this morning. (Not sure what happened to St Joseph there.)

Problems started this morning at the weekly EF Mass in the parish. I got to the altar , put the chalice down and looked at the missal when I realised I was in purple vestments and today was (I think: at least according to the diocesan ordo: the LMS ordo said not) St Joseph`s day. So off we went back to the sacristy to change vestments.


Then I got an email asking what has happened to St Cuthbert`s day this year? Normally this is on March 20th but that is Maundy Thursday this year. The diocesan ordo has transferred the Annunciation to March 31st but no mention of St Cuthbert. The rest of the country now has St Cuthbert on September 4th to give them a chance to celebrate him as he is not a solemnity in elsewhere but we have kept March 20th (and also have September 4th for the feast of his translation). As there is no mention of the feast in the ordo I`ll have a Mass of St Cuthbert on the earliest possible date which is April 1st.


In the meantime here is a picture of the band for tonight`s St Patrick`s night do.

When will it start at Ushaw?

In an interview with Zenit, Cardinal Rigali, the archbishop of Philidelphia talks about providing training for the Extraordinary Form in his seminary. This is the logical conclusion of Summorum Pontificum. If the Roman Rite has two forms it is remiss of seminary authorities to train a man for six years only to have him unable to celebrate all forms of the Roman Rite. Of course this will also mean that the much ignored canon about seminarians being given a training in the Latin language will need to be observed too. Recenly I spoke to a member of staff at a seminary who laughed at the idea of training in the EF saying that he had told students that if they had enough Latin (and he mentioned that he himself had an `A level`) then they could apply. This is the kind of sneering attitude which causes problems. Clearly this training cannot be only an option for seminarians as then students who opted for it may be regarded with suspicion. No doubt the much awaited instruction from the Ecclesia Dei commission will deal with this point. In the meantime here is the main part of the Zenit interview:

"Summorum Pontificum" in the Seminary

Cardinal Rigali on Introducing Seminarians to the 1962 Missal

By Annamarie Adkins

PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Since Benedict XVI has said that the Mass celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal promulgated by Blessed John XXIII should be available to those who prefer it, seminarians should be taught to say it, says Cardinal Justin Rigali.

The Pope clarified in his apostolic letter "Summorum Pontificum" that there are two forms of the liturgy in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church: ordinary and extraordinary.
To learn what some bishops are doing to implement the document in seminaries, ZENIT spoke with Cardinal Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia, about his plans to introduce seminarians at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to the extraordinary form of the Mass.
Cardinal Rigali also suggested why priests already in active ministry should become familiar with the Missal of 1962.

Q: What practical steps are being taken to incorporate "Summorum Pontificum" into the life and curriculum of the seminary?

Cardinal Rigali: First there will be a lecture offered on the "motu proprio" that elucidates the theology underlying the 1962 missal so that the seminarians are afforded a clear understanding of the "motu proprio" and the Holy Father's pastoral concern for the faithful who have a deep love for the Tridentine liturgy.

Since nearly all of the seminarians at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary have grown up attending Mass according to the "Novus Ordo" -- Missal of Paul VI -- it is important to offer an exposition of the Mass according to the 1962 missal -- Missal of Blessed John XXIII.

Further, seminary course work in theology, liturgy and Church history will cover and expound upon the Holy Father's initiative. It will be helpful for them to see the continuity between the two expressions, but will also afford the opportunity to address the changes that took place in the liturgy following the Second Vatican Council.

Sometime in the spring semester, after the lecture, Holy Mass according to the extraordinary form will be celebrated once for the entire St. Charles Borromeo Seminary community. This will demonstrate to the seminarians the liturgically correct manner in which the extraordinary form of the Mass is to be celebrated.

Q: What about "Summorum Pontificum" has led you to support the incorporation of that document into the life of St. Charles Borromeo seminary? Are you foreseeing a greater demand for the traditional form of the Mass in the future?

Cardinal Rigali: The Holy Father has indicated that the Mass according to the extraordinary form as well as celebration of the sacraments should be available to the faithful when there is a genuine pastoral need.

Many of our clergy have never celebrated Mass or administered the sacraments according to the 1962 missal and the other liturgical texts. In order to provide for the pastoral needs, should they arise, the current seminarians should have the opportunity to be properly educated as to the rituals involved and the theology that underlies these forms.


Q: Some analysts of "Summorum Pontificum" have said that it is primarily directed at priests, and is a gift to them. What is your view?

Cardinal Rigali: The "motu proprio" is issued by the Holy Father for all Catholics.
With regard to priests, any statement from the Holy Father on the liturgy or any change in the liturgical forms or formula afford the priests an opportunity for thought and reflection on the mysteries they celebrate in the liturgy.

Many priests find in these opportunities a renewed sense of awe and appreciation for the liturgy and an opportunity for recommitment to celebrate these liturgies in a more reflective, reverent and respectful manner.

In this sense, "Summorum Pontificum" is a gift to all priests, because it encourages them, through the sacred liturgy, to draw all people into a deeper communion of holiness with the Lord.
Q: Seminaries are in the business of formation, particularly liturgical formation. What formative effect do you believe learning and celebrating the extraordinary form of the Mass will have upon seminarians?

Cardinal Rigali: Studying about and learning the Mass according to the 1962 Missal will afford the seminarians an opportunity to experience the continuity between the older and newer forms.

So much of our faith is based on continuity and tradition, handing on of the faith from one generation to the next. Sometimes the rituals change and develop but at the core they remain the same.

Prior to engaging a "practicum" experience, the theology behind the liturgy and the "motu proprio" will be studied. I have encouraged any priest who may wish to learn to celebrate this liturgy to seek such educational opportunities so that the liturgy may be celebrated in a prayerful and reverent manner.

Who will be the new bishop of Hexham and Newcastle?

Yesterday I was at a clergy lunch. As might be expected the conversation was dominated by recent events. Conversation soon turned to trying to guess who our new bishop might be. Naturally names of priests of the diocese were put forward as we imagined them as bishop until we remembered that it appears to be very rare these days for a priest of a diocese to become bishop of his own diocese. So it may well be another episcopal vicar or auxilary bishop from an archdiocese. However I`m holding out for bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan who made a name for himself at the Synod on the Eucharist speaking about a preference for receiving holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue. He is an auxilary bishop and so is free. He also speaks English and is 46 years old. I`m not really expecting a transfer from Kazakhstan to Newcastle but I must try and get a copy of his book on the Eucharist. Here is an article about him from the Catholic News Agency of America: it all makes sense to me.



Bishop calls receiving Communion on the tongue more reverent



“It is not a question of ritualism, but a question of faith and love for Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider

CNA STAFF, Mar 5, 2008 / 06:21 am (CNA).- Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Kazakhstan, in a new interview has expanded his advocacy of reverence at Mass and receiving Holy Communion on the tongue.


The Vatican Editing House recently released Bishop Schneider’s book "Dominus Est: Meditations of a Bishop from Central Asia on the Sacred Eucharist." The book contains a foreword by Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith, the Vatican’s Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments.


In a video interview conducted by gloria.tv, Bishop Schneider said that his book aims to "strengthen the consciousness" of the holiness of Mass among the clergy and laity.
The archbishop said that contemporary celebrations of Mass were "so superficial," lacking "due concentration" and "visible, external signs of reverence."


"We are composed of body and soul," Bishop Schneider said. "We have to worship and to adore Christ in this moment also with our body. There is a mutual influence between the exterior sign and the interior disposition.


“Therefore, here is not a question of some 'right,' but here is a question of-- we are dealing with the Lord Himself, and therefore we cannot be silent, especially I as bishop, and say 'OK, it's all OK.' It's not all OK. When we love our Lord, we have to strengthen this moment in order that it become more sacred in order to educate the exterior sign of adoration, which is also an education of faith."


He referred to the common formal gestures used to greet a president, a king, or a queen, saying comparable respect for the King of Kings was necessary.


"It is not a question of ritualism,” he said, “but a question of faith and love for Our Lord, Jesus Christ."


The archbishop responded to one objection to receiving Holy Communion in the hand, which claims that because one sins more with the tongue than with the hand, the hand is more fitting to receive the Sacrament. He dismissed the argument, by saying that, "In any case, Holy Communion comes on the tongue."


In the interview, Bishop Schneider also addressed the history of the reception of Holy Communion and the question of whether contemporary abuses, such as receiving Holy Communion while chewing gum, can be corrected.


You can watch the interview here: http://www.gloria.tv/?video=ptgsa3bs9lgyidmdvpar

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos to Celebrate Pontifical High Mass in the Traditional Latin Rite in Westminster Cathedral, Saturday 14 June 2008

I received this very good news today from the LMS. What a marvellous event this will be and a clear signal that the Extraordinary Form is here to stay.

The Latin Mass Society is proud to announce that Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission in Rome and Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy, has accepted its invitation to celebrate a Pontifical High Mass in the Traditional Latin Rite (the Extraordinary Form) in Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 14 June at 2.00 pm.

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos is one of Pope Benedict XVI’s closest collaborators and is charged with oversight of the Vatican’s relations with the religious communities and laity committed to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos will arrive in London on Friday 13 June in time to attend a private dinner given in his honour by Mr Julian Chadwick, Chairman of the LMS.

The LMS hopes to arrange for Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos to call on Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, at Archbishop’s House close to the Cathedral on Saturday morning. Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos will then deliver an address at the LMS’s AGM in Westminster Cathedral Hall later in the morning. He will then take lunch with the LMS’s Committee members before celebrating Mass in the Cathedral at 2.00 pm.

As befits a Prince of the Church, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos will be welcomed at the Cathedral west door in full cappa magna before processing to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel to pray; he will then vest in the sanctuary whilst the Cathedral choir sings. Pontifical High Mass will then be celebrated at the High Altar with all the breathtaking ceremony and music integral to the Traditional Rite. Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos will also preach.

Julian Chadwick, Chairman of the LMS, said, “This is the highlight of the LMS’s 43 years of struggle on behalf of the Traditional Latin Rite. It will be the first time since the liturgical changes of 1969 that a Cardinal will have celebrated the Extraordinary Form in Westminster Cathedral [Note: Cardinal Alfons Stickler, Vatican Librarian Emeritus who died in December last year, presided at a High Mass in the Cathedral organised by the LMS in 1992 but did not celebrate]. Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos has been unstinting in his work on behalf of the Extraordinary Form and this Mass is a clear signal from Rome that it wants the Traditional Rite reinserted into the heart of the Church’s liturgical activity. We are extremely grateful to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor for readily agreeing to this Mass and to Mgr Mark Langham, the Cathedral Administrator, and all his staff for their help with all the arrangements. This Mass literally represents the prayers of many thousands of LMS members and supporters offered up through the years and now come true.”

. . . . ENDS . . . .

For further information, please contact John Medlin, General Manager, or James Murphy, LMS Office Manager, on (T) 020 7404 7284; (F) 020 7831 5585;
(E mail) thelatinmasssociety@snmail.co.uk

Sarum Talk

Thanks to those who have written to ask how my talk on `The Sarum Use and the Recusants` went last week at the North East Catholic History Society. It seemed to go down well enough and I have been asked to write it up for the Society magazine which I will do soon before I forget it all. My greatest fear, apart from not having enough material, was that my technology would let me down and I wouldn`t be able to show the YouTube extracts from Fr Sean Finnegan`s Merton College Mass. It was a close run thing but finally I managed to get both the laptop and digital projector to do as I wanted and the clip was shown.

Fra Matthew Festing

I was delighted to read yesterday on Holy Smoke that Fra Matthew Festing has been elected as the new Grand Master of the knights of Malta. Fra Matthew lives in Northumberland and so not only succeeds the previous Grand Master Fra Andrew Bertie as only the second Englishman to be appointed to this position but he is also the second person from this diocese to hold it as Andrew Bertie was from Hexham. Fra Matthew is well known in this diocese through his work for Sotheby`s.

What with Leo Darroch as head of International Federation Una Voce and now Fra Matthew as head of the Knights of Malta, Hexham and Newcastle is doing well in high places in the universal Church!

Here is the news as announced on the Knights` website. For background on who the Knights of Malta are click here.

Frà Matthew Festing Elected Grand Master
Rome, 11 March 2008
Frà Matthew Festing, 58, an Englishman, becomes the 79th Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, elected this morning by the Council Complete of State (the Order's electoral body). In accepting the role, the new Grand Master swore his Oath before the Cardinal Patronus of the Order, Cardinal Pio Laghi, and the electoral body. He succeeds Frà Andrew Bertie, 78th Grand Master (1988-2008), who died on 7 February.

The new Grand Master affirms his resolve to continue the great work carried out by his predecessor. Fra' Matthew comes with a wide range of experience in Order affairs. He has been the Grand Prior of England since the Priory's re-establishment in 1993, restored after an abeyance of 450 years. In this capacity, he has led missions of humanitarian aid to Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia after the recent disturbances in those countries, and with a large delegation from Britain he attends the Order's annual pilgrimage to Lourdes with handicapped pilgrims.

Educated at Ampleforth and St. John's College Cambridge, where he read history, Frà Matthew, an art expert, has for most of his professional life worked at an international art auction house. As a child he lived in Egypt and Singapore, where his father, Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, had earlier postings. His mother was a member of the recusant Riddells of Swinburne Castle who suffered for their faith in penal times. He is also descended from Sir Adrian Fortescue, a knight of Malta, who was martyred in 1539.

Frà Matthew served in the Grenadier Guards and holds the rank of colonel in the Territorial Army. He was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen and has served as her Deputy Lieutenant in the county of Northumberland for a number of years.
In 1977 Frà Matthew became a member of the Order of Malta, taking solemn religious vows in 1991.

As well as his passion for the decorative arts and for history, for which his encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of the Order is legendary, as is his very British sense of humour, Frà Matthew spends any free time possible in his beloved Northumberland countryside.

Bishop Kevin Dunn is laid to rest

Last night I went to the cathedral for the reception of the body of Bishop Kevin Dunn. I couldn`t make it to the funeral Mass today as we were interviewing for a new headteacher at our primary school. I must say that last night was the cathedral at its best. I was pleased to see unbleached candles used for the `big six` and for the candles round the coffin. The music was not of the type that has diminished my enthusiasm for attending cathedral Masses of late. (I went once to the chrism Mass in the 1990`s but found the music so inappropriate that I didn`t go again to the chrism Mass until bishop Kevin came. At least the improvising trombone was no longer in evidence as it was in the 90`s but the music was still largely of the `folk` variety. For an account of last year`s Mass click here.) It was a shame the statues were not covered for passiontide. We had the chant Introit for the Requiem Mass to start with, the Libera me from Faure`s Requiem at the offertory and the Agnus Dei from Mozart`s Coronation Mass. What with bits of Latin chant, incense and torchbearers for the eucharistic prayer it reminded me of St Mary`s Forest Hall on a Sunday morning!

I have been amazed by the whole thing. I was firstly amazed when I heard that Kevin Dunn was going to be our new bishop as I had known him during my two years at the English College in Rome when he was doing his doctorate in canon law and I was there for the licence. Having known him in that time I never felt constrained in talking to him and felt I could say what I felt in what has been a turbulent couple of years. I am also amazed that he is no longer with us. The last thing I expected was that he might die after only three and a half years as bishop. He always looked so well and full of life. He also packed quite a lot into his time here. I was very glad that he saw upgrading the very inadequate Catholic church on Holy Island to make it a place worthy of its heritage as one of his first priorities. The makeover is a vast improvement. Maybe one day we`ll get Duncan Stroik over to build a basilica but in the meantime things have improved. I don`t think Bishop Kevin was that keen on the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite but he didn`t try to cancel any of the current Masses we have.

One of the good things about bishop Kevin was that he had worked as a parish priest. This is a rarer quality than might be expected among a number of people who are in charge of forming secular priests and leading them.

Extracts from last night`s Mass can be heard on the diocesan website.

May he rest in peace.

H & N`s own Fr Z

Naturally our diocesan website is primarily concerned with the death of our bishop but under the other news section this week`s podcast is by our own Fr Z (and that`s pronounced `Zed` : rhymes with Ted), Fr Zielinski, the judicial vicar and my boss at the tribunal (there are only the two of us and our secretary). I know he has worked hard at producing this so it would be a shame for it to go unnoticed: he offers reflections on the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Lent.

Sorry this podcast seems to have gone now as it is updated each week.

More on the diocesan adminstrator

I`ve been asked recently to provide some more information on the role of the diocesan administrator. So here goes

Canon 427 says that the DA is bound by the obligations and enjoys the power of a diocesan bishop, excluding those matters which are excepted by the nature of things or by the law itself.

Thus the DA, if he is not a bishop, cannot carry out pontifical ceremonies, he cannot grant incardination or excardination, unless the see has been vacant for a year and he has the consent of the college of consultors (c. 272) Likewise he cannot appoint pastors until the see has been vacant for a year (c. 525.2). (So no clergy moves for a year.)

Other things a DA cannot do are:
- to approve diocesan associations of the faithful (c. 321.1.3)
- to entrust a parish to a clerical religious insitiute or clerical society of apostolic life (c. 520.1)
- remove the judical vicar and adjutant judicial vicar (c.1420.5)
- confer a canonry (c.509.1)

Things a DA can do but only with the consent of the college of consultors
- to remove the chancellor and other notaries (c.485)
- to issue dimissorial letters for ordination but never to those who have been denied orders by
the diocesan bishop (c.1018)

C.428 says nothing new is to be done and the DA cannot do anything prejudicial to the diocese or episcopal rights. He is also specifically prohibited, whether personally or through another, from removing or destroying any documents of the diocesan curia or from changing anything in them.

C 429 says the DA is obliged to live in the diocese and to say a Mass for the people each week. Theses are also obligations of a diocesan bishop.

The DA can only be removed by the Holy See. He can resign and he presents the resignation to the college of consultors. If he is removed, resigns or dies then the college of consultors is to elect another. (c.430)

So that`s about it. The basic thing is that the DA is just watching the shop until the new bishop comes along.