PCED Clarification on the Motu Proprio

Late as I am I want to comment on the recent document from the PCED on the interpretation of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

First, here is a summary of the main body of the document. You can see a scan of the letter, in Italian, on the NLM (where the translation also come from).

1. If there is no other possibility, because for instance in all churches of a diocese the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum are already being celebrated in the Ordinary Form, the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum may, in the same church in which they are already celebrated in the Ordinary Form, be additionally celebrated in the Extraordinary Form, if the local ordinary allows.

2. A Mass in the usus antiquior may replace a regularly scheduled Mass in the Ordinary Form. The question contextualizes that in many churches Sunday Masses are more or less scheduled continually, leaving free only very incovenient mid afternoon slots, but this is merely context, the question posed being general. The answer leaves the matter to the prudent judgement of the parish priest, and emphasises the right of a stable group to assist at Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

3. A parish priest may schedule a public Mass in the Extraordinary Form on his own accord (i.e. without the request of a group of faithful) for the benefit of the faithful including those unfamiliar with the usus antiquior. The response of the Commission here is identical to no. 2.

4. The calendar, readings or prefaces of the 1970 Missale Romanum may not be substituted for those of the 1962 Missale Romanum in Masses in the Extraordinary Form.

5. While the liturgical readings (Epistle and Gospel) themselves have to be read by
the priest (or deacon/subdeacon) as foreseen by the rubrics, a translation to the vernacular may afterwards be read also by a layman.

It is fair to say that all these points were already in the Motu Proprio, but (since clarification was requested), they needed reiterating. In particular, it is quite astonishing that point 3 needed making, but Twitter was filled with re-tweets on this point as if it were surprising. But Article 2 of the MP says that any priest may say a private Mass (Missa sine populo) without requiring any permission to do so, and article 4 clarifies that despite its confusing Latin name ('sine populo') people can actually attend these Masses. Furthermore, article 5 notes that scheduling public Masses requires only the permission of the priest in charge of the church or chapel. In other words, the two forms of the Roman Rite are exactly the same where permission to celebrate is concerned. (The same goes for the need for the priest to be 'idoneus' and not juridicially impeded.)

Point 2 is implicit in the Motu Proprio, though not explicit. Since the two Forms of the Rite are equally in the power of the Rector of a church or chapel, he may introduce one at a time formerly occupied by the other. If you think about it, you have to ask: why shouldn't he be able to do this?

Point 5 is the most interesting. It was a custom in certain places before the new Missal was introduced for a vernacular translation to be read by a layman after the priest had read or sung it in Latin. In some cases this was done simultaneously with the priest's reading in Latin. The ruling here makes allowance for this, on the condition that the Latin text be read by the priest first. It must be read, and it must be read first before anything else happens.

A great deal of confusion has arisen over the Motu Proprio Article 6, which says

In Missis iuxta Missale B. Ioannis XXIII celebratis cum populo, Lectiones proclamari possunt etiam lingua vernacula, utendo editionibus ab Apostolica Sede recognitis.

This led to some suggestions that it would be possible to use the lectionary of the 1970 Missal (which would lead to the use of the 1970 calendar as well); this is not supported by the text, however, and is now definitively ruled out by point 4 of the PCED's letter.

Another interpretation of the MP Article 6 was that the readings may read in the vernacular without them being read in Latin first. But that is not what the Latin says: Lectiones proclamari possunt etiam lingua vernacula means that it is possible to read them ALSO in the vernacular.

Unfortunately even the translation improved by Rorate Caeli and posted on their website fails to translate the 'etiam', as does the semi-official English translation provided by the Vatican Information Service on the Vatican website.

It is just possible that 'etiam' could mean 'even' (as in: 'on occasion'), but this is now ruled out by the PCED. The permission to have the translation read does not allow the Latin not to be read by the priest. The Latin texts of the epistle and gospel are part of the Mass.

That this should be so requires some explanation, which I propose to address in the next post.

Weekly Sunday TLMs around the world

Rorate Caeli has some interesting statistics on the number of regular weekly Sunday Masses in the usus antiquior offered in different countries, both with ecclesiastical permission and by the SSPX. Here is the table, which gives the number of TLMs with permission and the total with permission and offered by the SSPX.

1) United States: 289 authorized every-Sunday TLM sites out of a total of 359 (80.5%)

2) France: 156 out of 312 (50%)

3) Germany: 49 out of 88 (55.7%)

4) Italy: 73 out of 86 (84.9%)

5) United Kingdom: 37 out of 53 (69.8%)

6) Brazil: 42 (including those in Campos) out of 48 (87.5%)

7) Switzerland: 21 out of 45 (46.6%)

8) Canada: 23 out of 39 (60%)

9) Australia: 17 out of 28 (60.7%)

10) Poland: 15 out of 26 (57.7%)

Under the Indult system it was always far easier to get permission for 'one off' Masses than for regular Sunday Masses, and when permission for a Sunday Mass was given, not only was the time sometimes inconvenient (the middle of the afternoon, for example), but a rota of different venues might be involved.

The view seemed to be - and this was sometimes made explicit - that bishops did not wish to see a community of people going mainly or exclusively to the TLM. Why this reasoning was not applied to people who go mainly or exclusively to folk Masses, or the New Mass in Latin, was never properly explained.

The situation changed with the Motu Proprio which not only refers (as the Indults did) to people 'attached to the former liturgical traditions' (ie to people who would like to go mainly or exclusively to the TLM) but actually gives groups (or communities) of such people the right to demand a regular Mass. Far from being a something to be eradicated if possible, communities of people attached to the usus antiquior are now a pastoral phenomenon to be provided for like everyone else.

The main obstacle to increasing the number of Traditional Masses on Sundays today is fitting them into the busy Sunday schedules of parishes and priests, sometimes against a certain amount of lingering opposition. The number is steadily increasing, nevertheless, and the PCED's clarification that parish priests may convert an OF Sunday Mass into an EF Mass on their own initiative will give this process a boost. I intend to blog about the PCED statement separately.

Visit of Mgr Wach to the LMS Office

Mgr Gilles Wach, the founder and Superior General of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, visited the new offices of the Latin Mass Society on Tuesday. He is in the middle of the group with the distinctive blue piping on his cassock.

The Institute is one of the 'Traditional Priestly Orders', that is an order whose priests are ordained in and say the EF Mass. Fr William Hudson (standing next to Mgr Wach) serves the traditional faithful in the North West of England as well as being headmaster of a school run by the Institute in Brussells. Founded in 1990, the Institute is growing quickly and is involved in an astonishing number of apostolates, notably in the USA and Canada, France, Germany, and Africa.

With our General Manager, John Medlin, and a number of LMS people we had lunch with the charming and cultivated Mgr Wach, who was visiting England for a week.

Gregorian Chant Network launched

On Saturday 30th January I chaired an LMS-sponsored meeting of directors of chant scholas and other interested parties in St Wilfrid's Hall at the London Oratory to discuss the promotion of Gregorian Chant, and launch a new organisation: the Gregorian Chant Network.

This meeting was a long time in preparation. I have been discussing ways to promote chant with a number of people for about a year, and gathering names and contact details.

One thing I am particularly proud of is getting a pretty definitive list of the amateur groups singing regularly at the Traditional Mass: something the Latin Mass Society has never had before, and which is going to be extremely useful. However, the meeting was by no means limited to 'LMS people'. It was addressed by Colin Mawby, the well-known composer who was Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral in the 1960s, and attended by a number of people connected with the Association for Latin Liturgy and the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, and representatives from Una Voce Scotland, the LMS's Scottish equivalent.

The Gregorian Chant Network has two functions: to link chant scholas to each other, for mutual support, and to organise training events. The training events will be coordinated with the existing groups to meet their needs, but are also intended to draw more people into the chant.

View CGN Affiliated Scholas in a larger map

The Latin Mass Society supports this project because promoting Gregorian Chant is one of its charitable objects. It is also supported by the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, which is the biggest existing group promoting the chant and organising training events, and Una Voce Scotland, and the Association for Latin Liturgy. Nick Gale, the Director of Music at St George's Cathedral in Southwark, is also a keen supporter of the initiative, and will be directing our first training event.

The coming together of the LMS, the ALL, the Schola Gregoriana, Una Voce Scotland, many of the most prominent people in the Chant world in the UK, such as Colin Mawby, Nick Gale, and Jeremy de Satgé, and more than twenty chant scholas from all over England, Wales, and Scotland, to launch a new organisation, is a truly significant event. The enthusiasm of all the participants was very encouraging: everyone recognises the need for an organisation of this kind, and has undertaken to do what they can to promote it.

The meeting itself met our first objective: to put chant people in touch with each other, and give them moral and practical support. Colin Mawby led a practical session on conducting the chant (on Gloria TV here) which was fascinating and also of great practical usefulness to the many chant directors present.

The second objective, of chant training, we aim to accomplish by both weekend residential events and one-day workshops in strategic locations. Our first event is already being advertised: it is Nick Gale's course at the Oratory School, 9-11th April (Low Sunday).

Fr Ray Blake, whose Chant director was at the meeting, has already spotted the GCN website; it is now ready to be publicised more widely. It already has a good selection of chant resources, to which we plan to add as time goes on. Please spread the word!

Mass in Long Crendon

Today, for the first time I took the Schola Abelis out of Oxfordshire and Archdiocese of Birmingham, to sing at a Mass in Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire (diocese of Northhampton). This was in honour of the Oxford martyr, Bl Thomas Belson, and his companions, who were executed in Oxford in 1589; his home, at Brill, is in the parish.

It is not coincidence that the Belson family lived over the county boundary. At the time of the Reformation the family had property in both Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, but they moved their main residence to a secluded spot in the latter county because the Sherrif was a Catholic. Asked to list the local 'recusants' (Catholics who refused to go to Protestant services), the necessary investigation was less than zealous.

The long arm of the law caught up with Bl Thomas Belson, however, on more than one occasion, and after violating a sentence of exile by returning the England to help priests in the mission, with his intimate knowledge of the local area, Thomas was arrested with two priests and an inn servant in a Catholic inn, the Catherine Wheel, in Oxford. All four were executed there. Thomas was 25 years old.

Fr Eric Manley-Harris has been a great supporter of my project to have a plaque put up to mark the martyrdom, and we had a Missa Cantata in the 'side chapel' he has created behind the main altar of his modern, circular church. Fr John Saward sang the Mass. Pleasingly some of Thomas Belson's descendents attended the Mass.

The feast of the Martyrs of England and Wales is peculiar to England and Wales, and falls on May 4th. The propers can be found in Missals with the necessary supplement; not without some difficulty I got hold of the chants for the feast, since Graduales with an E&W supplement are rare. I intend to put the chants and propers on-line in some form to make them more widely available.

The Mass was a great occasion. The congregation, mostly from the local parishes, filled the chapel, and in addition to the Chant we had a polyphonic ordinary. The proper chants were put together first for the feast of St Thomas More and St John Fisher, who were beatified in 1886 and canonised in 1935. The texts are sanguinary, being taken mostly from Ps 78, but the chants, though awkwardly composed in places, lend them a certain gentleness. Even as the blood of the martyrs runs in rivers and cries out for vengeance, the tone is one of humble petition. It is an interesting comment on the feelings of English Catholics at the time.

I'll be putting up video clips of the singing as soon as I've processed them.

More pictures here.

Here is Fr Saward's sermon.

Message to The Tablet

Thanks for quoting my blog in your story about the LMS advertising for a new General Manager (13th Feb 2010, p16).

If you would like to understand the LMS accounts published on the Charity Commission website, however, you could quickly gain an insight by emailing or ringing me, the Treasurer, or the General Manager.

Putting together stories entirely from internet resources is what bloggers do. A weekly magazine should be aiming a little higher.

The headline figure of a deficit of £100,000 in the year 2008-09 includes paper losses (since, largely reversed) on our investments and expenditure in one year of ear-marked money raised and accounted for after the year-end. It is understandable that, being journalists and not accountants, you might not realise this, but why not give us a call?

H-t to Fr Finigan for the image of the Bitter Pill.

Why Catholic Apologetics doesn't work

I have been reading the rhetoric of the Church's enemies, and the response of good Catholics, with increasing despair. As a philosopher, with familiarity with political philosophy in particular, it is clear to me that this is a dialogue of the deaf. The Church's critics aren't interested in a profound understanding of the Church's position, but neither are they as stupid as it is tempting to believe. Not only is their position quite clearly worked out, but many of their key assumptions are accepted unwittingly by Catholic spokemen.

I have written a long blog post on this debate: you can read it all here; below are some extracts.

...by the secularist’s lights the Church arbitrarily picks out one group of people, whose with a homosexual inclination, and tells them they may not seek sexual fulfilment: she casts them as second-class citizens, to face either a half-life of impossible self denial, or moral condemnation. And really, the first option is itself a kind of moral condemnation, because the Church is condemning their only route to sexual self-expression. Saying that the Church condemns homosexuality is a convenient short-hand for this argument.
...

What the separation of Church and State, aka ‘State neutrality’, means is that the State withholds from using religious arguments and claims in justifying public policy, in order to avoid privileging one religion over another. Since the state has to use some basis for policy decisions (as I have discussed here), it uses a conception of rationality and associated conception of justice which are supposed to be uncontroversial: common ground. The conception of justice protects us from criminals and guarantees contracts, so we can all get on with pursuing the good life as we understand it.
...

...the ideology of ‘equality’ is, as David Cameron so memorably puts it, ‘a bottom-line, full essential’. It follows closely from a conception of justice based on Enlightenment rationality, of allowing each person to pursue his own desires without interference. When a ‘gay school pupil’ is taught the Faith in a Catholic school, or a Catholic parish declines to employ a catechist with an immoral lifestyle, these are barriers to those people joyfully pursuing their desires, and therefore are infringements of justice. The religious or private context can and should (on this argument) lend no protection from prosecution.
...

An effective apologetics has to address the issues over which the secularists disagree with the Church, and not concede the assumptions which make their position correct and the Catholic position incoherent. The issues we need to press are these: the hedonism at the basis of modern political calculations is sterile and unsatisfying; and the state should not be neutral between value claims—something which is not even possible—but accept the correct values. This approach does not guarantee success, but we will at least be engaging in a useful debate, and not ‘beating the air.’