Tridentine Community News - Sacra Liturgía UK 2016 Conference Report; local TLM schedule

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (July 17, 2016):

July 17, 2016 – Ninth Sunday After Pentecost

Sacra Liturgía UK 2016 Conference Report

Though this was only its third conference, Sacra Liturgía has already become one of the can’t-miss events of the international Latin Mass convention circuit. Most of the credit goes to the top-tier talent organizing the conferences, led by Bishop Dominique Rey of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France and liturgical expert Dom Alcuin Reid. In each city where the conference has been held (2013 in Rome and 2015 in New York), Dom Alcuin has partnered with leading local figures. This year, Turning Towards the Lord author and London Oratory Parish Priest Fr. Uwe Michael Lang served as city coordinator.


Without a doubt, the top story from this year’s conference was the keynote speech by Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in which he asked priests to consider commencing celebrating the Ordinary Form ad oriéntem – facing the altar – on the First Sunday of Advent. The secular as well as Catholic press has been abuzz with chatter about this talk since then. Vincent Cardinal Nichols of the Archdiocese of Westminster, Bishop Anthony Taylor of Little Rock, Arkansas, and even the Vatican Press Office have rebuffed Cardinal Sarah’s suggestion, citing an arguably irrelevant and definitely mistranslated paragraph 299 of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal as justification.

Cardinal Sarah went on to recommend a few other practices to restore reverence to the Ordinary Form, chief among those the restoration of receiving Holy Communion while kneeling. Notably, His Eminence has not withdrawn any of his statements, even after an audience with the Holy Father that was immediately followed by the Vatican Press Office rebuttal.

Some writers have pointed out that while this may seem like a discouraging, political response by liberal clerics, in fact we must look upon the fact that a conversation has begun on these most important topics as a sign of development. Who could have imagined in 1996 that top Vatican officials be would discussing ad oriéntem celebration of the Mass? Equally significantly, this debate demonstrates that efforts to restore reverence in the Sacred Liturgy will bear more fruit and meet with less resistance if they are focused on celebrations of the Extraordinary Form. Indeed, the tables have turned: It has become easier to advance the Extraordinary Form than to secure celebrations of the Ordinary Form incorporating traditional practices.

Additional talks were given on a broad array of subjects, liturgical, artistic, architectural, and musical. Of particular interest was a presentation of the creation on the Anglican Ordinariate’s liturgy by Msgr. Andrew Burnham, an Ordinariate priest who served on the committee that authored it. Liturgical events began with Pontifical Vespers in the Extraordinary Form at the London Oratory on Tuesday, July 5 celebrated by Bishop Rey, with music provided by the Oratory’s professional adult choir. As this column has many times stated, the music for the Oratory’s Vespers services is of a level of excellence that is hard to describe. To show off the choir’s versatility, each Psalm in the Vespers was sung in a different style: Gregorian Chant, sacred polyphony, and this writer’s favorite, fauxbourdon chant. Later on Tuesday, the Schola Cantórum of the London Oratory School (a boys’ choir) offered a concert of sacred music.

On Wednesday, July 6, the same Schola Cantórum, accompanied by a few adult singers, provided the music for a Pontifical Mass in the Ordinary Form celebrated by Cardinal Sarah ad oriéntem, as is always the case at the London Oratory. On Thursday, July 7, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone celebrated a Pontifical Mass at the Faldstool in the Extraordinary Form, accompanied by the Oratory’s professional adult choir.


On Friday, July 8, a Pontifical Mass according to the rite of the Anglican Ordinariate [pictured above; photos by Sacra Liturgía UK] was offered at Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory Church by Ordinary Msgr. Keith Newton. Though he is not a bishop because he is married, Msgr. Newton celebrated the liturgy with Pontifical rubrics. Celebrated ad oriéntem, the liturgy struck this author as a cross between an Anglican service (with various additional prayers) and a Tridentine Mass in English (Roman Canon, altar cards).

As if that weren’t enough, on the evening of Friday, July 8, there was a second major liturgical event on offer: at St. Mary Moorfields Church, Pontifical Vespers in the Extraordinary Form was celebrated by Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, the Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland. The latter event was organized by the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales and had no affiliation with the conference. London is truly Catholic liturgical paradise.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 07/18 7:00 PM: High Mass at Our Lady of the Scapular, Wyandotte (St. Camillus de Lellis, Confessor)
• Mon. 07/18 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Camillus de Lellis, Confessor)
• Tue. 07/19 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary (St. Vincent de Paul, Confessor)
• Thu. 07/21 7:00 PM: High Mass at Our Lady of the Scapular, Wyandotte (St. Laurence of Brindisi, Confessor & Doctor)
• Sat. 07/23 8:30 AM: Low Mass at Miles Christi (St. Apollinaris, Bishop & Martyr)

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for July 17, 2016. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

Tridentine Community News - The New Anglican Ordinariate Missal; News; TLM Mass times

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (December 13, 2015):

December 13, 2015 – Third Sunday of Advent

The New Anglican Ordinariate Missal

The Anglican Ordinariate is the canonical structure created by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to allow members of the Church of England to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving some of their prayer and cultural traditions.

Three Ordinariates serve various parts of the globe, operating much like dioceses: England, Wales, and Scotland are covered by the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The United States and Canada are the territory of the Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter. Australia and Japan are the domain of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. The U.S. Ordinariate is an evolution of the “Pastoral Provision”, a similar, predecessor initiative to accommodate Anglican converts and priests in North America, albeit without the diocese-like structure.

Membership in the Ordinariate is restricted to former members of the Anglican, Episcopalian, Methodist, or AME Churches in the U.S., and to former members of any Protestant Church in Great Britain linked to the Church of England, including Lutherans and Methodists. One who is already a member of the Roman Catholic Church may not join the Ordinariate, though all Catholics are welcome to fulfill their obligations and receive the Sacraments at an Ordinariate Parish.

Despite all of its doctrinal confusion, the Anglican Church has to be given credit for maintaining a high standard of liturgy in many of its parishes. Indeed, many Anglican services look more “Catholic” than many Catholic Masses. Particularly in England, a significant number of priests and congregations have elected to join the Ordinariate. Many prominent Ordinariate priests have become celebrants and proponents of the Extraordinary Form, notably Fr. John Hunwicke and Fr. James Bradley. The home church of the Ordinariate in London, Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory, now hosts a weekly Wednesday 6:00 PM Tridentine Mass organized by Juventútem London.

But all this leaves open the question of what the Ordinariate’s own liturgy should be. During its formative years, Ordinariate priests have celebrated a provisional liturgy, which incorporates elements of both Anglican worship and the Latin Rite Catholic Mass. At long last, however, the Vatican has approved Divine Worship: The Missal, the first official Missal for the Anglican Ordinariate, for use beginning on the First Sunday of Advent, 2015.


Why is this important to Catholics who favor the Traditional Latin Mass? Though it is celebrated in English, not Latin, the Ordinariate Missal is the first liturgical book to come out of Rome after Vatican II which embraces in many ways the structure and traditions of the Extraordinary Form.

Fr. Allan McDonald, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Macon, Georgia, wrote an analysis of the Ordinariate Missal on his liturgically-oriented Southern Orders blog. Some of the highlights he and others have pointed out:

• Mass begins with the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, including Psalm 42.
• The seasons of Septuagésima, Passiontide (with its omitted Glória Patri), Sundays After Epiphany, Sundays After Trinity (Pentecost), and Ember and Rogation Days are part of the calendar.
• The Introit is called the Introit (not Entrance Antiphon) and follows the structure of the Tridentine Mass Introit.
• The Tridentine Offertory Prayers and rubrics are part of the Mass [photo above by Fr. James Bradley].
• The Dies Iræ is included in the Requiem Mass.
• Hierarchical English is used, with “Thees” and “Thous”.
• The roles of Deacon and Subdeacon in a Solemn High Mass are defined.

Mass is celebrated ad oriéntem, and the priest kisses the altar each time before turning away from it towards the congregation.

It is not unreasonable to hope that the precedent set by the publication of this reverent Missal, respectful of Catholic tradition, will influence future updates to or options allowed in the Ordinary Form Missal. It is a perfect example of the influence the EF can have on the OF, as suggested by Pope Benedict.

New Bishop for the Ordinariate of St. Peter

Until now, each regional Ordinariate has been overseen by an “Ordinary” – a priest who is not a bishop. [A forthcoming episode of Extraordinary Faith will feature an interview with Msgr. Keith Newton, the Ordinary for England.] One of the challenges has been that many Ordinariate priests are married, but no Bishop can be married, thus the supply of potential bishops is limited. The situation changed on November 24, when Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Steven Lopes of the Archdiocese of San Francisco as the first Bishop for an Ordinariate, in this case the Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter, based in Houston. Bishop-designate Lopes was selected in part because of the time he spent in Rome serving as executive coordinator of the Vatican commission Anglicánæ Traditiónes, which designed the new Ordinariate Missal. Only age 40, Bishop-designate Lopes’ youth and enthusiasm for tradition bodes well for the future of Sacred Tradition within the broader Church.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 12/14 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Feria of Advent)
• Tue. 12/15: No Mass at Holy Name of Mary [Church is hosting a concert]

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for December 13, 2015. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

Roger Scruton on Anglicanism: 'My tribal religion'

Michael Duggan, "Roger Scruton: ‘My tribal religion’" (Catholic Herald, October 8, 2015):

An eccentric priest, a single mother and French vineyards offered Roger Scruton ‘a glowing exit sign’ from the Church of England to Rome. So why did he never take it?

Roger Scruton is not a Catholic. But he might have been. “I’ve always been drawn to the Catholic Church because of its respect for tradition, for the apostolic continuity it represents and for its attempts to imbue ordinary life with sacraments,” he told me when we spoke last week. “All of this came across very strongly to me with the Church as I came to know it in the south of France and Italy when I was a young man. It’s not quite the same now, I know.”

...

He told me: “There are two reasons why I held back from joining the Catholic Church. One is that it requires a bigger leap of faith than I’ve been able to achieve. And the other is that, because I’m divorced, I couldn’t possibly get married a second time in the Catholic Church.

“But I could get a blessing for my second marriage from the Church of England. I was brought up as an Anglican and I’ve always liked the idea of the kind of compromises on which the Anglican Church has thrived.”

Sad. He's written very many things which I have found exceptionally insightful. His primer on modern philosophy is exceptional; his essay on beauty remarkable. A very bright, perceptive mind, almost like C.S. Lewis, whose reasons for not converting were probably more cultural than anything (although he had some issues he didn't quite fathom, like the B.V.M.).

[Hat tip to JM]

The late Owen Chadwick's Gifford Lectures on the secularization of the 19th Cent. European Mind

I read the Anglican historian Owen Chadwick's history of the Reformation period while at Westminster Theological Seminary in 1979. His writing is crisp, balanced, and generally on target. And here is a good introduction for Catholics to another of his excellent works:

David Warren, "Owen Chadwick" (The Catholic Thing, July 24, 2015):

I would recommend to anyone Owen Chadwick’s survey, The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century. These Gifford Lectures were published in 1975. I remember them as fresh and new about the time I was losing my faith in atheism, and steering a course for Christianity that landed me first in his Anglican church.

The book is a magnificently balanced, concise account of something unprecedented in human history. That balance is struck between social and intellectual history. That “ideas have consequences” is acceptable as a modern, subtly self-flattering cliché; Chadwick also shows that “consequences have ideas.” Man in the nineteenth century was becoming alienated from nature and society alike, by the sweep of industrial innovation. The new, “secular,” atheist and evolutionary quasi-religion could be taken as a by-product, too. The ideas and consequences were all of a piece.

Chadwick, who died last week at age ninety-nine, was among the most formidable intellects on that Anglican shore.... Regius Professor History [at Cambridge ... he] embraced "cultural history" in the manner almost of a Christopher Dawson.

... Roman Catholics may remember his defense of the reputation of Pius XII, during the “Hitler’s pope” controversy of past decades. He marshaled evidence, chiefly from the British diplomatic archive, to show that the charges were ludicrous; and provided historical context to more than explain the pope’s selective “silences.” His forensic skill, in establishing strict chronology through murky events, was of real service in exposing very malignant lies.

Chadwick impressed me for his aloofness in controversy. He calmly pursued the truth, in subjects of vast human complexity. His chief interest was our modern world, and how it came to be that way, in light of its deeper history.
 

[Hat tip to JM]

Why Francis is not a fan of Benedict's Anglican Ordinariate

Sandro Magister, "Ecumenism Behind Closed Doors" (www.chiesa, February 2, 2015): "While Benedict XVI made it easier for Anglicans in disagreement with the “liberal” direction of their Church to enter into the Catholic Church, Francis is not, he prefers that they remain where they are. The revelations of two Anglican friends of the pope." An interesting and revealing study.

[Hat tip to Sir A.S.]

Accommodating homosexism: Will RC's follow Anglicans down the primrose path?

A courier arrived at my door yesterday wearing a tux and holding a tray with three items on it: a telegram, a newspaper, and a martini. "You'll need it," he said he was supposed to tell me, about the martini.

The telegram was from our friend, Guy Noir - Private Eye, who regularly does a good bit of sleuthing for us. In part, it read as follows:

Only God's prevenient grace will keep the Catholic Church from seeing this same scenario duplicated almost word for word within its own walls. Note that while no official reversal of doctrine is admitted, it also is quite obviously reversed in effect. What is being witnessed is a wholesale redefinition of the idea of morality and revelation. We have "ideals" and we have "reality," and ideals are so otherworldly they are almost irrelevant.

Also note that Welby is an Anglican [counterpart of Pope] Francis in that he is marketed as a man of the people and an "evangelical" Anglican who talks about sin and the devil. Woo hoo! Of course the devil is here, in the details... And no, this is not from The Onion.

The newspaper was a copy of The Telegraph with the following headline blazed across the front page: "Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says gay marriage is ‘great’" (May 14, 2014). The article began:

The Church of England has been forced to reaffirm its opposition to same-sex marriage after the Archbishop of Canterbury appeared to suggest that he thinks it is “great”.

In his first interview with a gay publication, the Most Rev Justin Welby, told PinkNews that the Church had to accept that same-sex marriage is now the law in England and Wales after securing overwhelming support in Parliament.

He said it was “right and proper” that same-sex marriage has now come into force, adding: “And that’s great.”

His comments came as he offered an olive branch to the gay community, publishing new rules for Church of England schools aimed at stamping out homophobic bullying.

Lambeth Palace insisted that despite the initiative, the Archbishop remained opposed in principle to same-sex marriage and that he had been speaking about the right of Parliament to change the law when he used the word “great”.

Then came the second part of Guy Noir's telegraph message, which contained a URL to a website and the following:

Now THIS might be from The Onion. But as an item of satire it could easily be mistaken for anything but, in either communion. I think Kasper might have ghost-written it! And notice that for all the talk of conservative obsession over homosexuality, it is not conservatives who keep placing it on the front page, but homosexauls, liberals, and accommodating conservatives. In fact, it is now close to impossible to find any converge of conservative attitudes towards homosexuality. But hey, what culture war?

I typed the URL into my browser, and here's what came up: David W. Virtue, "Episcopal Church Declares ‘Week of Unhappiness’ over 'Gay' Bishop Divorce" (VirtueOnline.Org, May 6, 2014):

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori today declared The Episcopal Church would recognize a ‘Week of Unhappiness’ to be enshrined in "Lesser Feasts and Fasts" to honor the broken marriage of Bishop Gene Robinson and his beloved “husband” Mark following their much publicized split.

“I believe the king of Bhutan is right to say that gross national happiness is far more important than the gross national product, and The Episcopal Church’s gross national grossness needs to be honored as well,” opined Jefferts Schori as she wiped a tear from her eye at a press conference.

Read more >> [Advisory: off-color humor]

[Hat tip to JM]

Catholics should avoid the temptation to Schadenfreude

The underground correspondent we keep on retainer in an Atlantic seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye, wired me on Friday. The telegram had a distinctly ominous air about it:

Despite the secular clean-up crews, the bodies and rubble still lay scattered about. I experienced the Episco-insurrection first-hand. No one believed the danger was so visceral until it was upon us. Then it was too late.

There followed a link to this article: "Slow Motion Implosion" (New Oxford Notes, May 2014) with the following sentences in large, red capital letters: "Anglicanism’s slow-motion implosion has drawn a lot of rubberneckers over the years. But Catholics would be well advised to avoid the temptation to Schadenfreude." The article proceeds as follows [with Mr. Noir's added emphases]:

A time of deep soul-searching is fast approaching for Christianity. It should come as no surprise that the past few decades have been particularly difficult ones for institutional churches and ecclesial communions, which have struggled to attract new members and retain old ones. The situation has grown so grim in the Anglican Communion that one of its elder statesmen, Lord George Carey, a former archbishop of Canterbury, warned recently that the Church of England (C of E) is “one generation away from extinction.” At a November 2013 conference, Lord Carey said that Anglicans should be “ashamed” of themselves for not “investing in young people.”

His sentiments were echoed by prominent Anglican columnist A.N. Wilson, who wrote in London’s Telegraph (Nov. 19, 2013) that in each of the more than ten C of E parishes he visited over the preceding year, he had the same experience. “At the age of 63,” he said, “I have been the youngest person present by 20 years. The congregation has seldom numbered double figures. The C of E is a moribund institution kept going by and for old people.”

Things are equally dire in the Church of England’s U.S. counterpart, the Episcopal Church (TEC). As reported in “Incredible Shrinking Churches” (New Oxford Notes, Dec. 2011), since 2003 TEC has lost over three hundred thousand members. According to research conducted by David Virtue, a veteran analyst of all things Anglican, nearly one-third of all Episcopal parishes are populated by parishioners in their mid-60s, with virtually no young people to fill the gap. Virtue predicts that in a quarter century, “there will no longer be anyone attending an Episcopal Church.”

Anglicanism’s slow-motion implosion has drawn a lot of rubberneckers over the years. But Catholics would be well advised to avoid the temptation toSchadenfreude. After all, the Pew Forum’s 2008 “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey” found that, of all Christian groups, the Catholic Church “has experienced the greatest net losses.” Former Catholics outnumber converts by a ratio of four to one. Ten percent of the U.S. population now consists of “ex-Catholics.” If they were to form their own church, it would be the second largest in the U.S., trailing only the Catholic Church herself.

Back in old England, the picture isn’t much merrier. Linda Woodhead, a sociology of religion professor at Lancaster University in Lancashire, recently conducted her own “scientific survey of Catholic opinion.” Dr. Woodhead has determined that “faithful Catholics” in the U.K. are now “a rare and endangered species” (Religion Dispatches, Nov. 24, 2013). Defined as those who attend weekly Mass, profess certain belief in God, take authority from religious sources, and are opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage, and euthanasia, a mere five percent of British Catholics can be called “faithful.” That figure drops to two percent for British Catholics under the age of 30. Startlingly, Dr. Woodhead found that zero percent of British Catholics “look to religious leaders for guidance as they make decisions and live their lives.”

The problem, as Woodhead sees it, is that “most Catholics don’t think the [Church’s moral] teaching is too hard, they think it’s wrong” (italics in original). This would suggest that dressing up existing doctrines — especially those related to marriage and sexuality — to make them more appealing, or dispensing with them altogether, will have little to no effect. The recent history of the Anglican Communion is a case in point: It is endlessly refashioning itself in order to achieve “relevance” by shedding virtually every one of its distinctively Christian moral teachings — and with disastrous results.

The foregoing article, "A Slow-Motion Implosion" was originally published in the New Oxford Review (May 2014), and is reproduced here by kind permission of New Oxford Review, 1069 Kains Ave., Berkeley, CA 94706.
[Hat tip to JM]

Anglicans to dump "sin" & "devil" from baptism rite, and Fr. Z. suggests a Romanorum coetibus for disaffected Catholics

Fr. Z makes some typically fine observations in his post, "Church of England to dump 'sin' and 'evil' from baptism rite?" (January 5, 2014), and offers kudos to the senior member of the Anglican General Synod who said "This is more like a benediction from the Good Fairy than any church service."

The only problem I can see is that me may be a bit too quick to make fun of the Anglicans in this regard, when there are others who are wondering whether Catholics in their new rite of baptism have not done nearly the same, or whether Welby is a Francis clone on the Thames.

In his defense, Fr. Z does at least acknowledge the National Catholic Fishwrap types and the squishy who inhabit our own premises, and declares, for their sake, that he holds out the "hope that you will soon see the Church of England issue Romanorum coetibus, a document "whereby our Anglican sisters and brothers will make provisions for disaffected catholics, offering them a safe-haven from the patriarchal oppression of Rome while preserving intact their most cherished traditions, such as clay cups, guitars, abortion clinic escort nuns, hand holding, the dream of female deacons, etc."

Life as a papist these days is entertaining beyond Comedy Central. You just can't make this stuff up.

[Hat tip to JM]

Extraordinary Community News

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News (May 26, 2013):

Composer Profile: William Byrd


This week we begin an occasional series profiling the major composers of sacred music often heard at Extraordinary Form Masses. William Byrd was an Englishman who lived from 1539-1623. Like many of history’s greatest composers, Byrd began composing his oeuvre in his teenage years. At the age of 24 he was appointed organist and choir director at [the Anglican] Lincoln Cathedral.

Anglicans have long had a tradition of singing the Hours from the Anglican Breviary. Befitting his position in Lincoln, Byrd wrote settings of the Anglican Matins and Evensong services.

An accomplished keyboard player as well as a composer, Byrd in 1572 was appointed to the Chapel Royal, where he was able to play for Queen Elizabeth and make connections that expanded his reputation.

He and another prolific composer of the era, Thomas Tallis, jointly applied for and in 1575 were granted a patent on the printing of music. Their first work, Cantiónes quæ ab arguménto sacræ vocántur, published in 1575, consisted of 17 Latin motets each by Byrd and Tallis, dedicated to the 34 years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. In 1589 and 1591, Byrd published two volumes of Cantiónes sacræ, a collection of motets, which are choral pieces of a sacred character.

Though we may think of Byrd as primarily a composer of sacred music, in reality he turned out many secular pieces as well, notably a 1588 collection of songs meant to be accompanied by a consort of instruments, and a 1589 set of songs in the style of madrigals, which are musical settings of poems. Interestingly, even these purportedly secular works incorporated sacred elements. The latter collection included settings of seven psalms, for example. It is a sobering comment on our present times that even “popular” music of Byrd’s era strove to elevate the mind to God.

Byrd also composed instrumental pieces, some for keyboard, and some for instrumental consorts. People he met through his post at the Chapel Royal drove the creation of many of these pieces.

Though an Anglican by upbringing, in the 1570s Byrd began to associate with Catholics. Among the approximately 50 motets he wrote, a recurring theme in the texts chosen was persecution of God’s chosen people, which scholars interpret to be a sign of Byrd’s sympathies towards those who continued to practice Roman Catholicism in post-Reformation England. He and his wife were themselves accused of being recusants, though they appeared not to have suffered much if at all for their attachment to the True Faith.

Byrd began to compose Mass settings in 1592. In 1605 he published the first volume of his Graduália, an effort to set the Propers of the Mass to polyphony. As we wrote in a recent column, while Propers are sung to Gregorian Chant most of the time, it is permissible to have polyphonic settings of them. Byrd wrote settings for the Propers of most of the major feasts of the Church year. This made it possible for a given Mass to be all-Byrd, both the Propers and the Ordinary [Mass setting]. Much has been written about the melodic and harmonic significance of Byrd’s compositions. Such discussions are beyond the scope of this column, but for those interested, plentiful analyses are available in scholarly publications and on-line. Byrd was extraordinarily prolific, with a body of approximately 470 compositions. As a testimony to how much can be drawn from his work, each summer, one of the world’s most renowned Latin Mass choirs, Portland, Oregon’s Cantóres in Ecclésia, organizes a William Byrd Festival, a multi-week event of concerts, liturgical services, and lectures. To see what was on offer in 2012, see their web site, www.byrdfestival.org.

Nowadays Byrd is held in esteem by both Catholics and Anglicans. This is an important lesson; there is no need to label disparagingly certain music as Protestant if the texts express concepts not antithetical to Catholic teaching. An analogy might be found in stained glass: If a beautiful stained glass depiction of a saint is found in an Anglican church, it is not “bad art” simply because it may have been commissioned for a Protestant edifice. Art meant to glorify God in an orthodox fashion is good art, period. This is one area in which Protestants and Catholics can agree to their mutual benefit and spiritual edification.

Some of the works of William Byrd are in the regular repertoire of Assumption’s Tridentine Mass Choir, most significantly his Ave Verum Corpus (Hail True Body), often referred to simply as Ave Verum. Byrd’s Mass for Three Voices (arrangements available for Soprano-Tenor-Bass, Alto-Tenor-Bass, or Soprano-Alto-Bass), Mass for Four Voices (Soprano-Alto-Tenor-Bass), and Mass for Five Voices (Soprano-Alto-Tenor-Tenor-Bass) are also performed several times per year.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 05/27 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Bede the Venerable, Confessor & Doctor)
• Tue. 05/28 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Assumption-Windsor (St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop & Confessor)
• Fri. 05/31 7:00 PM: High Mass at Basilica of St. Adalbert, Grand Rapids, Michigan (Queenship of Mary)

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat (Detroit) and Assumption (Windsor) bulletin inserts for May 26, 2013. Hat tip to A.B., author of the column.]

Anglican order of nuns becomes Catholic

Deacon Greg Kandra reports at Deacon's Bench (November 6, 2011).

[Hat tip to C.B.]

Anglican bishops convert

"Three former Anglican bishops were received into full communion with the Catholic Church during a Mass at Westminster Cathedral today (John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton – the former bishops of Fulham, Ebbsfleet and Richborough respectively). CatholicHerald.co.uk, January 1, 2010 via Rorate Caeli.

Earthquake in Anglicanism: Bishop of Fulham converting to Rome

Bishop Broadhurst: resigning to join the Ordinariate
Authentic ecumenism at work: Damian Thompson, "Earthquake in Anglo-Catholicism: Bishop of Fulham to convert to Rome; Forward in Faith 'not part of Church of England'" (Telegraph.co.uk, October 15, 2010):

Bishop John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham in the Anglican diocese of London, is to resign his post later this year to join the Pope’s Ordinariate. The Catholic Herald’s Anna Arco broke the story, also revealing that Bishop Broadhurst will stay as chairman of Forward in Faith, which he says is “not a Church of England organisation”. It sounds as if traditional Anglo-Catholicism is undergoing a major shift (or crisis) of allegiance, because FiF, though not representative of everyone in that constituency, was the main body for Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England opposed to women bishops and priests. Now it seems to be heading towards Roman Catholicism.

Bishop Broadhurst made his announcement at Forward in Faith’s national assembly in London today. I’m told that the mood was very sympathetic towards the Ordinariate scheme. Update: Since writing this post, I’ve listened to a clear and elegant speech on the FiF website by Fr James Patrick (in secular life, His Honour Judge James Patrick) explaining that the Ordinariate is “at the heart of the Pope’s mission” and encouraging those who are committed to joining the structure to form part of the “first wave”. Fr Patrick refers to a “Lenten journey”. Do I detect a hint that there could be mass receptions into the Catholic Church at Easter?

There is much more news in Thompson's post in his original article worth reading.

One of my daily morning petitions offered to the recently Blessed Cardinal Newman for his intercession is for the re-conversion of the British Isles back to her traditional Catholic Faith -- and what a glorious tradition, with saints like Augustine of Canterbury, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, Aelred of Rievaulx, Venerable Bede, Thomas A'Becket, St. Ambrose ...

[Hat tip to C.B.]

Cranmer meets Benedict

Charlotte Hays, "The Beginning of the Reformation's End?" (Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2010).

[HT to E.E.]

Pope on the SSPX and Anglicans

New Catholic, "Pope on the SSPX and Anglicans" (Rorate Caeli, January 15.2010):

VATICAN CITY, 15 JAN 2010 (VIS) - Participants in the annual plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the president of which is Cardinal William Joseph Levada, were received this morning by the Holy Father. In his address to them he highlighted the fact that their dicastery "participates in the ministry of unity" which is primarily entrusted to the Pope through his "commitment to doctrinal fidelity.

"Unity", he added, "is first and foremost unity of faith, upheld by the sacred tradition of which Peter's Successor is the primary custodian and defender....

he goal of a shared witness of faith among all Christians "represents, then, a priority for the Church in all periods of history. ... In this spirit, I trust particularly in your dicastery's commitment to overcoming the doctrinal problems that still persist in achieving the full communion of the Society of St. Pius X with the Church".

Benedict XVI then went on to thank the members of the congregation for their efforts towards "the full integration of groups and individuals of former Anglican faithful into the life of the Catholic Church, in accordance with the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum coetibus'....

Rome puts smackdown on foofoo Anglicanism

"Roundup: Canadian paper lashes out at Vatican; Father Rutler sees ‘slap-down of liberal Anglicanism’" (CatholicCulture.org, October 21, 2009):

The editors of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s second most popular newspaper, have lashed out at the Vatican’s decision to permit Anglican communities to join the Catholic Church as communities.

“The Vatican's welcome of some Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church is a Trojan horse,” the editors write. “In the face of an inflexible hierarchy, liberal Catholic voices have had little effect; the grudging loyalty of those who remain is in jeopardy. The Vatican announcement will make the Catholic Church more conservative and the Anglican church more liberal. Is that what ecumenism is meant to accomplish?”

Similar criticisms were made by one New York Times commentator, who charged the Pope with fostering “cafeteria Catholicism.” Other writers, however-- such as John Allen and Collen Carrroll Campbell in The New York Times, and Father Raymond J. de Souza in the National Post,-- offered commentary that was more balanced and less shrill.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Editorial: An embrace that divides (Globe and Mail)
• Why the Vatican Wants Anglicans (New York Times)
• Ruth Gledhill: Desperate bishops invited Rome to park its tanks on Archbishop’s lawn (The Times)
• Amen to a good offer (National Post)
• Fr. Dwight Longenecker: 'A Bridge Across the Tiber' (Catholic Online)
• Fr. Rutler discusses Vatican's Anglican provision (CNA)
• Pontiff to permit Anglican communities to join Catholic Church (CWN, 10/20)

[Hat tip to J.M.]

Report: Pope may welcome Traditional Anglicans

Plans could mean mass exodus from the Church of England: "Healing the Reformation's fault lines" (The Record, January 28, 2009:

History may be in the making. It appears Rome is on the brink of welcoming close to half a million members of the Traditional Anglican Communion into membership of the Roman Catholic Church, writes Anthony Barich. Such a move would be the most historic development in Anglican-Catholic relations in the last 500 years. But it may also be a prelude to a much greater influx of Anglicans waiting on the sidelines, pushed too far by the controversy surrounding the consecration of practising homosexual bishops, women clergy and a host of other issues.

It is understood that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has decided to recommend the Traditional Anglican Communion be accorded a personal prelature akin to Opus Dei, if talks between the TAC and the Vatican aimed at unity succeed.

[Hat tip to New Oxford Review News Link]

Careful "not to be especially Christian" at the inauguration

Richard Swier, "Obama Levels the 'Praying' Field" (Red Country, January 13, 2009), writes:

The pulpit is getting even more crowded at the Inauguration festivities next week. After miffing gay and lesbian groups by picking pro-Proposition 8 Rev. Rick Warren to offer the invocation on his big day, President-elect Obama is giving homosexuals a turn in the limelight. In a surprise announcement, it appears the Obama team is trying to soothe the ruffled feathers over Warren's role by asking Bishop Gene Robinson, an open homosexual, to kick off the We Are One event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial January 19.

"It is also an indication of the new president's commitment to being the President of all the people. "...[I]t will be my great honor to be there representing... all of us in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community" Robinson said. Robinson will deliver the invocation at Sunday's ceremony, which both Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden are scheduled to attend. According to the AP, "Robinson said he doesn't yet know what he'll say, but he knows he won't use a Bible. 'While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans,' Robinson said. 'I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer.'" [emphasis added]

While the choice of Robinson may be designed to placate angry liberals, the irony of it isn't lost on religious conservatives. The ballyhoo over Pastor Warren's selection was in large part because he was "divisive" in supporting Prop 8. Yet if there was ever a pastor whose actions were divisive it was Gene Robinson who almost single handedly devastated one of America's oldest Christian denominations. Robinson's confirmation in 2003 as the first openly gay Bishop shattered the once-conservative Episcopal Church and created a painful split between the liberal leadership and faithful Anglicans that cost it hundreds of thousands of followers.

Robinson says, "I believe in my heart that the church got it wrong about homosexuality." This view, which he emphasized in at least three private meetings with Obama, may be reflective of the next president's ideology, but it's far from mainstream. While liberals may not appreciate Warren's position on marriage, a majority of voters happen to agree with him. Far more states--including California--have banned counterfeit marriage than have ratified it.

Garrison Keillor: "Why can't Episcopalians play chess? Because they can't tell a bishop from a queen . . . snip"

[Hat tip to E.E.]

Pick the idiot

• "EU's new figurehead believes climate change is a myth" (TimesOnline, January 2, 2009): "The European Union's new figurehead believes that climate change is a dangerous myth."
  
  
• "The Church of England 'Invests' in Al Gore" (Lew Rockwell, January 2, 2009): The Church of England’s Church Commissioners have gone green, investing £150 million with former US Vice-President Al Gore’s "fraudulent, proto-fascist" environmentally minded investment firm, Generation Investment Management.

Some useful liturgical discussion points

The following is from the Tridentine Community News insert of the July 13, 2008, church bulletin of St. Josaphat Catholic Church in Detroit, Michigan. The author, with whose permission I reproduce the article, acknowledged to me that one reader took issue with at least one of his interpretations in the article, as we shall see. I present the article not only for its helpful distinctions between validity and licitness, etc., but for the excellent discussion points it raises.

Recent Moves Toward Unification With Rome

The past several weeks have been encouraging for those of us who have been praying for various groups to be reconciled with the Holy See. The Catholic press has been detailing correspondence between Society of St. Pius X Superior Bishop Bernard Fellay and Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, in which steps are being made toward regularization.

On June 26, the Transalpine Redemptorists, an independent traditionalist group of priests affiliated with the SSPX, announced its formal reconciliation with Rome.

This past week, British Anglican Bishop Andrew Burnham has asked Pope Benedict XVI for assistance in helping Anglican congregations become Catholic. He is likely seeking a method similar to the "Pastoral Provision" that Anglicans in the U.S. have employed for the same purpose (see our column of two weeks ago, available on-line at the address at the bottom of this page). [Note: subsequent developments have been reported in "That remains a problem for me..." (Rorate Caeli, July 10, 2008) and "Anglo-Catholic leader: "There's quite a strong chance that we will join the Catholic Church"" (Rorate Caeli, July 12, 2008) -- Musings ed.]

In the midst of these developments, some terminology is being thrown around that must be properly understood. In order for a priest to celebrate Mass and the sacraments in full communion with the Holy See, he must celebrate them validly and licitly.

Validity

In order for a priest to celebrate the sacraments validly:

1) He must have the proper intention. For example, he must intend to consecrate the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord.

2) There must be proper matter and form. For example, the matter of the Holy Mass according to the Latin Rite is unleavened bread and wine. The proper form is contained in the words of consecration specified in the Roman Missal, either in the original Latin or, in the case of the Ordinary Form, in the vernacular translations approved by national Bishops' Councils and ratified by the Holy See.

3) The priest must have been validly ordained by a bishop in apostolic succession. This means that the bishop, and all his predecessor bishops, must be able to trace their ordinations back to the original twelve Apostles, using valid rites of the Church.

4) In the case of the Sacraments of Penance and Matrimony, validity also requires the priest to have the approval of the local diocesan bishop to perform the ceremonies.***

It is generally agreed that the priests of the SSPX do meet criteria 1-3, but fail criterion 4. For this reason, Confessions heard by an SSPX priest are invalid. Marriages witnessed by an SSPX priest are also invalid, but may be regularized by the competent local diocesan authority.

Licitness

Apart from validity, to be in full communion with Holy Mother Church, a priest must celebrate the sacraments licitly. This means they must be done in accord with the structure and rules of the Church. Because SSPX priests establish chapels and offer the sacraments without the permission of the local diocesan bishop, their sacraments are illicit.

The situation is akin to a doctor who is practicing without a medical license. He or she might be exceptionally talented, and may even maintain contact with other "independent" physicians, but ultimately, he and his peers cannot work within the hospital and insurance networks that create order for our medical system.

Irregularity vs. Excommunication

It is sometimes said that the SSPX and its members are excommunicated. In fact, this is not the case. Only the four bishops of the SSPX are clearly excommunicated because of the gravity of their acceptance of illicit -- though valid -- Episcopal consecration. The priests and congregations of the SSPX are not automatically excommunicated. Rather, as Cardinal Castrillón has clarified on more than one occasion, they are in an irregular status. Therefore, it is appropriate to speak of the reconciliation of the SSPX with Rome as a regularization process.

At the same time, the Ecclesia Dei Commission has made it clear that attendance at an SSPX chapel is not acceptable when an Extraordinary Form Mass in full communion with Rome is available. One must not actively or passively support schism.

In contrast, Anglicans did not claim to be in communion with Rome to begin with, thus they have not been excommunicated per se. They would be entering into communion with the Church from a starting position clearly outside.

Grey Areas

Some discussions of the topics of validity and licitness can become rather contentious. Rather than foster argument, let's consider a more practical, real-world situation that can and does arise in Tridentine Mass communities.

A certain Extraordinary Form Community has a friendly relationship with its diocesan administration. The diocese has explained that all visiting priests must apply to the chancery for temporary faculties in the diocese, and the community's leaders faithfully obey this directive.

Late one Friday, the regular celebrant for the Sunday Mass cancels. The community scrambles to find a replacement, cannot find one from its own diocese, but does find one willing to travel from another diocese. The community asks the chancery for faculties for the visiting priest, but the chancery does not respond. The community invites the priest regardless out of necessity.

The visiting priest would offer Mass validly (and arguably licitly, presuming that the chancery trusted the community's judgment in seeking celebrants). But he would not be able to hear Confessions.*** The question is, would a chancery's "Oh sure, no problem" response to a request for faculties for Confession suffice? Or must the community insist on receiving a letter? If a letter is required, does the community risk becoming annoying to the chancery simply because it is trying to follow Church law? In addition to validity and licitness, we must also value prudence.

Comments? Ideas for a future column? Please em-mail tridnews[at]stjosaphatchurch[dot]org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org.

*** The author states that a reader in whom he reposes considerable confidence cited a canon law supporting the claim that an occasional cross-diocese visiting priest (non-SSPX, of course) does not need diocesan permission to hear valid confessions.

[Hat tip to A.B.]

Here comes everybody!

Rorate Caeli has a picture of Our Lady of Walsingham at the head of his article, "Mass Anglican conversion?" (RC, July 8, 2008). The juxtaposition of the picture with the article is not lost on anyone who knows the significance of Our Lady of Walsingham. But first, the article. Rorate Caeli reports:

"Good news after the expected debacle: an episcopal-level minister of the "Church of England", is to "lead his fellow Anglo-Catholics from the Church of England into the Roman Catholic Church", as Damian Thompson reveals today."

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, is to lead his fellow Anglo-Catholics from the Church of England into the Roman Catholic Church, the Catholic Herald will reveal this week.

Bishop Burnham, one of two "flying bishops" in the province of Canterbury, has made a statement asking Pope Benedict XVI and the English Catholic bishops for "magnanimous gestures" that will allow traditionalists to become Catholics en masse.

He is confident that this will happen, following talks in Rome with Cardinal Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Kasper, the Vatican's head of ecumenism. He was accompanied on his visit by the Rt Rev Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough, the other Canterbury "flying bishop", who is expected to follow his example....

Our Lady of Walsingham! How perfect! How long have English Catholics sought her intercession in the cause of the repatriation of their Faith in their fair land. I have been to East Anglia and seen her shrine -- both the site under Anglican management, as well as the Slipper Chapel a mile away, now the relegated preserve of Catholics, where pilgrims once shed their slippers, or shoes, to walk the last mile unshod. Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us! To this prospect of an Anglican mass conversion, Rorate Caeli responds: "Welcome home, dear friends! England will forever remain Our Lady's Dowry: may the Queen of Martyrs guide you as you reach out for the firmness of the Rock established by the Lord." He then concludes with the following words from the accompanying letter to Summorum Pontificum:

Looking back over the past, to the divisions which in the course of the centuries have rent the Body of Christ, one continually has the impression that, at critical moments when divisions were coming about, not enough was done by the Church’s leaders to maintain or regain reconciliation and unity. One has the impression that omissions on the part of the Church have had their share of blame for the fact that these divisions were able to harden. This glance at the past imposes an obligation on us today: to make every effort to unable for all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew. I think of a sentence in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, where Paul writes: "Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return ... widen your hearts also!" (2 Cor 6:11-13). Paul was certainly speaking in another context, but his exhortation can and must touch us too, precisely on this subject. Let us generously open our hearts and make room for everything that the faith itself allows.