Today`s the Day.

The relics of St Thérèse arrive in Newcastle today. I have failed to mention it so far but there is a blog following the visit round the country which makes interesting reading. You can find it here. Here is the programme for Newcastle:

Relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux

Wednesday 30th September 2009
3.00 pm Arrival Service
3.30 pm General Veneration
7.30 pm Bishop’s Mass
8.30 pm General Veneration
11.30pm Evening prayer of the church

Thursday 1st October 2009
Midnight All Night Vigil
8.00 am Mass for St Therese’s feast day
9.00 am General Veneration
10.00 am Departure Service
10.30 am Departure of Relics


NOTES
Priests will be available for Anointing of the Sick up to midnight on Wednesday and from 7.30 am to 10.30 am on Thursday.
Priests will available for confessions up to midnight on Wednesday.

The Mass with the bishop was originally billed as being ticket-only but now it isn`t.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal at Forest Hall

This year, at the beginning of September, for the retreat day for our confirmation candidates, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal came up from Bradford. We were happy to welcome Fr Thomas and brothers Seraphim and Felice. I took a group photo but it was too blurry so here is the only usable photo of the day which is not ideal but better than nothing.

The friars led our young people in prayer and discussion and I hope the day will bear fruit. It is not often that young people round here get the chance to meet anyone in religious life. I`m sure the authentic Franciscan spirit and joy of the friars cannot fail to be infectious and hope that now they have met the community we may be able to get some enthusiasm going for events such as the annual Walsingham renewal weekend.

Should the Pope come to Tyneside?

In 1982 Pope John Paul II came to York which of course has great historical significance for the English Church. It was a mid-way point where the Catholics of Yorkshire and the North East could go to share in the papal visit. It would be understandable, given his advanced age, if Pope Benedict makes a shorter visit to these isles. It is said he will visit London and Birmingham ( and maybe Oxford) but I`ve not been keeping up with the latest proposals. However the local Newcastle paper, the Evening Chronicle, had a poll on whether people would like to see the Pope come to Tyneside. When I last looked there was just over 50% in favour and 49% against. The poll seems to have gone but the article is here.

So is there still a virulent No Popery movement in the North East? I`ve never met much of it although I was directed recently to a blog by an Anglican cleric who works a few miles away which is somewhat less than keen on Pope Benedict.

Well it`s all very exciting and gives us something to look forward to. I`m sure many of us will be prepared to travel, even if it means crossing the border into Scotland if that is the nearest the papal visit comes. Roll on 2010!

Bishops must help priests follow their vocation faithfully

Our bishop, Seamus Cunningham, is at this study week for new bishops although I couldn`t see him on this extract. `Bishops` boot camp` was the term our late bishop, Kevin Dunn, used to describe this week.

Forty Hours at 5.15am

This was the scene not long before dawn. All is going well and people seemed to manage without the heating last night so the candles survived the night and I hope they last until tomorrow morning. All the watching slots are now accounted for thanks to some last minute volunteers for some of the early morning slots. I`m always uplifted by the generous response the Forty Hours produces in people who are ready to give up time to be with the Lord.

The Forty Hours underway

The Forty Hours is under way and almost every hour is now covered by volunteers to watch. I just hope the candles last. The heaters in church blow hot air around which makes candles gutter (they are also annoyingly noisy) but it is too cold for people to sit for an hour without any heat. Here`s a photo from a few minutes ago.

The Forty Hours

In my last parish, I came across the Forty Hours for the first time. That was in 1995. At St Wilfrid`s, Gateshead they had just kept it going while it had died out in other parishes. It was always a very special time in the parish year and even though the congregation was not large and mostly elderly there was great enthusiasm to keep it going. I offered to stop at midnight and start again at 8am but volunteers always came forward to ensure that there was watching through the night, both nights. I understand that my successor as parish priest, Fr Dixon, has kept it going.

I went to St Wilfrid`s in the week to borrow their candle stands as we are having the Forty hours here at St Mary`s this year. I didn`t think there would be enough interest to fill all the watching slots but most of them have been accounted for. Again I am very pleased that people have volunteered for the night-watching. So we start tonight at 6pm and will continue through to 10am Mass on Tuesday morning. I`m hoping it will help deepen our devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and that it will become an annual event ( even if we need to borrow the stands from St Wilfrid`s every year).

Here`s a picture of the altar as it was set up this morning after Mass.

Benedict XVI: The role of priests is irreplaceable

North East Catholic History Society

I am delighted to say that our diocesan website now has a section on the North East Catholic History Society of which I have the honour of being chairman. There you can find the programme of talks for the next academic year and details about the magazine. Thanks to the diocesan webmaster for her work on this.

Brinkburn 2009

A much larger congregation than I`d feared turned up at Brinkburn on Saturday for the annual High Mass. As mentioned there was an all FSSP team. Fr Emerson was celebrant and Rev Simon Harkin was deacon and Rev Peter Bauknecht was subdeacon. Many thanks to them and to the Rudgate singers, Schola Borealis, organist Peter Locke and the altar servers for making it possible as well as English Heritage. Here are some photos, courtesy of Frank Erskine.

Brinkburn

This Saturday there will be a Solemn High Mass at Brinkburn priory in Northumberland at 12 noon. Music will be provided by the Schola Borealis, the Rudgate Singers (who will be singing a Mass by Lotti and motet by Scarlatti) and organist Peter Locke. The celebrant will be Fr Emerson FSSP and the deacon and subdeacon will also be from the FSSP. This is normally a highlight of the year for the Extraordinary Form in the North East. I`m looking forward to not being the celebrant or a sacred minister for a change and just taking it all in.

London Colney

Anyone wondering how the recent LMS training conference at London Colney went can find a full report on Joseph Shaw`s blog here.

Are priests expendable?

Apparently there is no uniform reaction to the swine `flu threat around the country in Catholic dioceses. One of my parishioners came back from visiting family recently and told me that in her daughter`s parish everyone was still receiving from the chalice and shaking hands at the sign of peace. In Hexham and Newcastle we have been requested to stop exchanging the sign of peace with a handshake, to stop the distribution of Holy Communion from the chalice and to not receive Holy Communion on the tongue.

The last point caused a lot of anguish among the faithful at the EF Mass but so far as I hear there is a kind of exception for the them. Distributing Holy Communion on the tongue to people who are kneeling is a different affair to giving it to those who are standing where there is more chance of the celebrant`s fingers making contact with the communicant`s tongue. For the sign of peace, as I only heard from those who regretted the new regulations, on a Sunday I ask people to turn to their neighbour and wish them peace. This seems to work well enough.

Not included among the request we received was the emptying of holy water fonts but this appears to have happened anyway but I`m not sure it is necessary.

Those who are finding it all difficult point to the sharing of hymn books as a possible source of infection but we`ve not received any request about this. I also never give a thought to avoiding shaking hands with people outside of Mass.

One thing that does strike me as odd is that we still have concelebration. I went to Fr Daley`s Requiem Mass on Friday and all was as normal. As priests we shared the chalice. Should this be happening if the other requests are serious? Maybe it is time to drop concelebration for the time being unless we think priests are expendable or miraculously protected from swine `flu.

The new `New Mass`

Quite a number of sites have posted a link to the bishops of the USA`s site which gives the new texts we will be using before long at the Ordinary Form of Mass in English. They look like a huge improvement to me.

Also of interest is today`s news from Rorate Caeli regarding the propositions from the Congregation for Divine Worship for the OF Mass. It makes interesting reading. Here`s a quote.

ROME The document was delivered to the hands of Benedict XVI in the morning of last April 4 by Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. It is the result of a reserved vote, which took place on March 12, in the course of a "plenary" session of the dicastery responsible for the liturgy, and it represents the first concrete step towards that "reform of the reform" often desired by Pope Ratzinger.

The Cardinals and Bishops members of the Congregation voted almost unanimously in favor of a greater sacrality of the rite, of the recovery of the sense of eucharistic worship, of the recovery of the Latin language in the celebration, and of the remaking of the introductory parts of the Missal in order to put a stop to abuses, wild experimentations, and inappropriate creativity. They have also declared themselves favorable to reaffirm that the usual way of receiving Communion according to the norms is not on the hand, but in the mouth. There is, it is true, and indult which, on request of the [local] episcopates, allows for the distribution of the host [sic] also on the palm of the hand, but this must remain an extraordinary fact.

The "Liturgy Minister" of Pope Ratzinger, Cañizares, is also having studies made on the possibility to recover the orientation towards the Orient of the celebrant, at least at the moment of the eucharistic consecration, as it happened in practice before the reform, when both the faithful and the priest faced towards the Cross and the priest therefore turned his back to the assembly.

It`s all looking good, if it comes to fruition. I can`t ever remember feeling as positive about things as I do these days.

UPDATE. This story has now been denied and then the denials have been denied. Time alone will tell what is going on. It is all very much like the chaos before the announcement of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

Tablet and the `marginal` Extraordinary Form

I was glad to see a letter from bishop Alan Hopes in the Tablet today regarding their editorial of last week about the LMS training session at London Colney.

The second paragraph reads:

By providing this conference for priests wishing to learn the extraordinary rite, the Diocese of Westminster is not only affirming the importance of the worthy celebration of the liturgy and proper attention that priests should pay to good celebration but also reminding us that the diocesanbishop is the moderator, promoter and guardian of the whole diocese`s liturgical life. He is not "seeking to nip potential schism in the bud" or suggesting that the place of the Tridentine Rite is "necessarily marginal".

Later the letter draws attention to the need for liturgical participation to be both internal and external and that to reduce it to solely external signs is misguided.

Fr Felix Daley

I was saddened this week to hear of the death of Fr Felix Daley. Fr Daley was 92 years old and the oldest priest of our diocese. When I was 11 years old, in the first year at grammar school in Newcastle, he was on the staff. He had formed a group under the name of the `St Dominic Savio Guild` to promote vocations to the priesthood. I joined the group. It was Fr Daley who enrolled my form in the Brown Scapular and Miraculous Medal. He managed to whip up us into a high degree of religious enthusiasm. I remember a spiritual bouquet he had us contributing to and how we would come into the class in the morning keen to add the number of decades of the Rosary we had added to the cause.

Fr Daley left St Cuthbert`s Grammar School at the end of my first year. He had taught there for 26 years. Immediately after ordination to the priesthood, Father Daley went to St Edmund’s House, Cambridge for further studies from September 1942 – July 1946. I seem to remember he also served in that time as an RAF chaplain. In February 1973 he was appointed as Parish
Priest of St Joseph’s, Murton, Co Durham, where he remained for 23 years until his retirement in August 1998.

There was due to be a gathering last Tuesday of priests who taught with him, of old boys of the school who are now priests and 30 other old boys at the Little Sisters in Sunderland where he lived but he was taken into hospital on 15th August. He died on Wednesday 20th August.

Hs Requiem Mass will be on Friday 28th August at St Joseph’s, Murton at 1.00pm. May he rest in peace.

'Year For Priests' Clergy Conference Rome 2010

I have mentioned before about the conference in Rome for priests in January organised by the Conferences of Catholic Clergy of the USA and Australia. Quite a number of priests from the UK have written to me asking how can they register. Unfortunately the website, which has been up since April, still says this is not possible. I hope we won`t miss out. However yesterday the website was updated with a programme of events so it must still be happening. Here is the programme:



Arrive at Casa Bonus Pastor (Via Aurelia 208 - 00165 Roma; tel.0039-06-69871282 fax 0039-06-69871435, e-mail: info@casabonuspastor.it) on Monday 4th January. Conference registration from Noon-4.00pm, with formal commencement and welcome at 4.00pm.


The programme includes the daily celebration of Holy Mass in the great basilicas, and on some days Vespers and Benediction. Our celebrants will include: His Eminence, William Cardinal Levada, His Eminence, Antonio Cardinal Canizares, His Eminence, James Cardinal Stafford, His Excellency Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, and His Excellency Archbishop Raymond Burke. We hope to be at the Holy Father's Mass on the Solemnity of the Epiphany.


Our speakers will include the following:


'Perspectives of the Priesthood in recent times' (Rev.do Mons. Anthony McDaid)


'Three Patristic Texts on the Priesthood: Gregory Nazianzus' De Fuga, John Chrysostom's Six Books on the Priesthood and Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care' (Rev.do Padre Joseph Carola SJ)


'Liturgy and Language: The "Sacral Vernacular" (Liturgiam authenticam 47) of the new English Translation of the Roman Missal' (Uwe Michael Lang)


'Preaching to Priests: Wisdom from the Middle Ages' (Rev.do Paul Murray OP) and 'The Genius of the Roman Rite in the identity of the priest' (Rev. Fr. P. Gunter OSB)


The daily schedule will make provision both for free time, and also evening 'convivium' to promote fraternity among the Fathers.


We will conclude the Conference on Friday 8th January with an excursion to the delightful town of Bagnoregio, birthplace of St Bonaventure, north of Rome.


Rev.do Mons. Anthony McDaid is from the Congregation for Clergy of the Roman Curia.


Fr Uwe Michael Lang is a priest of the Congregation of the Oratory of St Philip Neri in London. He studied theology and classics in Munich, Oxford and Vienna and holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2004 and worked in parish and school ministry until 2007. He has published various articles on Patristics and liturgical studies, including his doctoral thesis, John Philoponus and the Controversie of Chalcedon in the Sixth Century (Leuven 2001). His book Conversi ad Dominum. Zu Geschichte und Theologie der christlichen Gebetsrichtung came out first in German in 2003 with a preface by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and has since been translated into English, Italian, French, Hungarian, Spanish, Croatian and Dutch. Recently, he has edited and contributed to the volumes Die Anaphora von Addai und Mari: Studien zu Eucharistie und Einsetzungsworten (Bonn 2007) and The Genius of the Roman Rite: Historical, Theological and Pastoral Perspectives on Catholic Liturgy. Proceedings of the 2006 Oxford CIEL Colloquium (Chicago 2009). Fr Lang is a staff member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the Vatican and Coordinator of the Master programme in “Architecture, Sacred Art and Liturgy” at the Università Europea di Roma/ Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum. In September 2008, he has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as Consultor to the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.


Father Paul Murray, O.P. is a member of the Irish Dominican Province. At present he is Professor of Spiritual Theology at the Pontifical University of St Thomas (“Angelicum”) in Rome. From 2001 to 2005 he was Vice-Rector of the University. At present he is President of the Spirituality Institute, and also serves as Spiritual Director at the Convitto Internazionale San Tommaso, a Pontifical College for young diocesan priests from all over the world. Before going to Rome, Father Murray worked for many years in Dublin, teaching in various institutes, including the Dublin Diocesan Seminary and University College Dublin. In 2000-2001, at the invitation of Cardinal George, Father Murray occupied the Paluch Chair of Theology at the University of St Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary, Chicago. Works published by Father Murray include the following: T.S. Eliot and Mysticism: The Secret History of Four Quartets, (1991); A Journey with Jonah: The Spirituality of Bewilderment (2002); The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality: A Drink Called Happiness (2006); ‘I Loved Jesus in the Night’, Teresa of Calcutta: A Secret Revealed. He has also published four books of poetry, one of which was awarded Poetry Ireland Choice.


Paul Gunter OSB. Monk of Douai Abbey since 1985 Ordained 1991. Did Parish Work for 10 years. Did his Doctorate on Edmund, Bishop and the Genius of the Roman Rite in 2006, since which time he has been a Professor at the same Pontifical Institute S. Anselmo in Rome. And Consultor of the Office of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff since 1988. Genius of the Roman Rite in the identity of the Priest.

Absolutely amazing

I switched on the computer this morning to find two absolutely amazing things on the blogosphere. Firstly there is the Divinum Officium site. Thanks to the Hermeneutic and Jane Teresa for the link. (Pastor in Valle seems to have been the one who drew others` attention to it.) This gives complete texts and translations of the Roman breviary from 1570-1961. It is a fantastic resource and timely given the recent discussions about use of the 1961 breviary. It will be useful for those wanting to say the EF breviary and who are either not sure of the rubrics or the translation (maybe especially of the hymns). It is also fascinating for anyone wanting to compare the different versions and see what exactly happened to the traditional breviary in 1910 or how the various twentieth century editions compare.

Then there is an interview on Rorate Caeli, with Mgr Domenico Bartolucci, who has the title maestro perpetuo of the Sistine chapel, although in fact John Paul II retired him in 1997, somewhat controversially. He was the successor of Perosi and is now 92 years old. He has some interesting things to say about the liturgy and its music. He doesn`t seem to have much time for Perosi`s Cecilian movement and also has misgivings over the Solesmes style of chant. However it is interesting to read that he has always celebrated the extraordinary form Mass.

Here is a sample of the interview but the whole thing is worth a read:

But how could it have come to this twisting of the liturgy?

It became a kind of fashion. Everybody talked about it, everybody “was renewing”, everybody was trying to be like popes (tutti pontificavano) in the wake of sentimentalism, of eagerness to reform. And the voices that raised themselves to defend the two thousand year old Tradition of the Church, were cleverly hushed. There was the invention of a kind of “people’s liturgy” … when I heard these refrains, it came into my mind something which my professor at the Seminary used to say: “the liturgy is something given by the clerics to the people” (“la liturgia è del clero per il popolo”). It descends from God and does not come up from the bottom. I have to admit, however, that this foul-smelling appearances [sic] have made themselves a bit more rare. The young generations of priests are maybe better than those who came before them, they do not have the ideological fury of an iconoclastic ideology, they are full of good feelings, however they lack in education.

What do you mean, Maestro, when you say “they lack in education”?

It means that they need it! I am speaking of the structure that the wisdom of the Church had so delicately chiseled in course of centuries. You do not understand the importance of the seminary: a liturgy that is fully lived, the orderly articulation of the different periods of the year and all this experienced in social communion with the brothers... Advent, Lent, the big feasts that follow after Easter. All of this is educational and if you only knew how much!

LMS training conference at London Colney

Just a reminder that the next LMS training conference, held in conjunction with the archdiocese of Westminster, is next week. If it is half as good as the Ushaw one it will be unmissable. I post this to give details of the public liturgies which people may like to attend. I hope all goes very well.


Latin Mass Society Residential Training Conference for Priests Wishing to Learn the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass)

In Association with the Archdiocese of Westminster

All Saints Pastoral Centre
London Colney, St Albans, Herts, UK

Monday 24 August to Friday 28 August 2009

All services in the beautiful Ninian Comper-designed chapel

Liturgies Open to the Public

Tuesday 25 August at 11.45 am
Feast of St Louis King and Confessor
High Mass

Wednesday 26 August at 11.45 am
Feria
Sung Mass

Thursday 27 August at 11.45 am
St Joseph Calasanctius Confessor
Sung Mass

Friday 28 August at 11.00 am
St Augustine Bishop, Confessor and Doctor
High Mass

Some final training places are available – tell your priests!

Full details of the conference and registration forms are available from the LMS website:

www.latin-mass-society.org

or telephone the LMS office: 020 7404 7284.

Cardinal Arinze

Many readers of this blog probably also read Rorate Caeli but for those who don`t, then these remarks of Cardinal Arinze, the recently retired head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, at the closing Solemn Mass of the Ninth FABC Plenary Assembly in Manila, the Philippines, on 16 Aug. 2009 may be of interest. The full report is here. While the conference was concerned with Asia I don`t see these remarks as being irrelevant elsewhere.

In the Latin Rite, only concelebrating priests take Holy Communion. Everyone else is given, be the person cleric or lay. It is not right that the priest discard any of the vestments just because the climate is hot or humid. If necessary, the Bishop can arrange the use of lighter cloth. It is altogether unacceptable that the celebrant will opt for local dress in the place of universally approved Mass vestments or use baskets, or wine glasses to distribute the Holy Eucharist. This is inculturation wrongly understood . . . .

Dance in particular needs to be critically examined because most dances draw attention to the performers and offer enjoyment. People come to Mass, not for recreation but, to adore God, to praise and thank him, to ask pardon for their sins, and to request other spiritual and temporal needs