What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

Here is a great piece!   As I was telling a journalist on the phone today, things are picking up speed.

Take a look at the Catholic Herald.

Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool is preparing to create Britain’s first parish dedicated to celebrations of the traditional Latin Mass.  [HUZZAH! HUZZAH! HUZZAH!]

The archbishop is planning to revive an ailing parish [YES!] in Liverpool’s inner city by turning it into a centre for traditionalists.

He is following the example set by the Diocese of Rome, [Better and better!] which set up a parish dedicated exclusively to Mass in the extraordinary form earlier this year.

The Church of St Vincent de Paul, St James Street, Toxteth, will become a traditionalist parish as early as September if the plans are approved by the archdiocese.

It is one of four churches in the city centre overseen by Fr John Southworth and attracts a weekly congregation of about 25 to 30 people.

Fr Southworth is reported to have announced the change to parishioners on Sunday.

The church’s new priest will be Fr Simon Henry, who was previously parish priest at St Cuthbert’s, Wigan, Lancashire, for nine years.

Fr Henry has been in talks with Archbishop Kelly for some time over how the diocese can do more to offer the traditional Latin Mass.

At present the Latin Mass Society organises a weekly Mass at St Anthony’s Church, Scotland Road, Liverpool, celebrated by a rota of different priests.

The Sunday afternoon Masses draw congregations of about 40 to 50 people but as the church is not very central many worshippers find it difficult to get to.

St Vincent’s Church, designed by E W Pugin in 1856, is considered to be more suitable for traditional liturgy because it has not yet been re-ordered.

The church is located next to Chinatown [Good Chinese food after Mass?  Can’t get better than that!] and near to the city docks. It was founded by one of Liverpool’s first bishops, Bishop Bernard O’Reilly, who raised the money for it and commissioned Pugin to design it when he was still just a priest.

John Medlin, general manager of the Latin Mass Society, said he was "very pleased" at the news. "In fact, we have heard from our sources that some other dioceses may be working on similar plans," he said.

He explained that St Vincent’s was a "beautiful and appropriate" church for the extraordinary form Mass and that very little re-ordering would be needed.

He said that the archbishop should be "congratulated" [Huzzah!] for heeding the words of Cardinal Castrillon, president of the pontifical commission Ecclesia Dei. The cardinal said on a visit to London this month: "It is… important to find a centrally located church, convenient to the greatest number of the faithful who have requested [the extraordinary form] Mass."

The cardinal said earlier this year that an exclusively traditionalist parish in Rome was an "example" for dioceses around the world. The parish of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, which celebrates Mass only in the extraordinary form, is overseen by the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter. It was designated a traditionalist parish by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Vicar of the Diocese of Rome, in May.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Liverpool hinted that plans to widen the provision of the traditional Latin Mass extended beyond just one parish.

He said: "The archbishop is considering some proposals regarding the ministry of churches in the city. These proposals would be centred on the Metropolitan Cathedral but will also include the Church of St Vincent." The planning was still at an "early" stage, he added. In July last year Benedict XVI issued a Motu Proprio which granted priests much greater freedom to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass.

The decree said priests could celebrate the Mass publicly without the permission of a bishop and that it should be offered in parishes whenever a "stable group" of the faithful requested it.

Earlier this month Cardinal Castrillon, who is responsible for implementing the Motu Proprio, celebrated Mass in the extraordinary form at Westminster Cathedral. At a press conference he told journalists that the Pope wanted the traditional Latin Mass to be offered in every parish "so that everybody knows this way of celebrating the Eucharist".

 

Watch the presser Archbishop Burke gave about ceasing to be Archbishop of St. Louis and becoming Prefect of the Signatura.

This is wonderful.

Also, Archbishop Burke made a statement, posted on the Archdiocesan website.

Sacred Music Alert!  Below is the prospectus for the music to be at the Mass in Cobh Cathedral for the Fota International Liturgy Conference to  be held on 12 July 2008.

Fota International Liturgy Conference

Holy Mass at St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh,

Saturday, 12 July 2008 at 11am

The following are the musical arrangements for this Mass which will be celebrated by His Eminence Jorge Maria Cardinal Mejia.

Ecce sacerdos (Tomas Luis de Victoria)

Introit: Magnificat Octavi toni (Orlande de Lassus) alternating with plainchant

Kyrie (Missa Papae Marcelli: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) Gloria (Missa Papae Marcelli: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina)

Responsorial Psalm: ‘In domum Domini laetantes ibimus’ Ps 121 Alleluia Common of the BVM Tone VIII Verse: ‘Paradisi portae quas Eva clausit ..

Credo III

Offertory: Ave Maria (Tomas Luis de Victoria) Sanctus (Missa Papae Marcelli: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) Benedictus (Missa Papae Marcelli: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina)

Pater Noster – plainchant

Agnus Dei (Missa Papae Marcelli: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina)

Communion: Lauda sion (Tomas Luis de Victoria) Ave verum (Orlande de Lassus)

Blessing

Recessional: Salve Regina (Plainchant)

Great stuff!

From Damian Thompson’s blog Holy Smoke.

C of E bishop will defect to Rome
Thursday, June 26, 2008, 08:13 PM GMT [General]

At least one Church of England bishop will defect to Rome soon after the Lambeth Conference, I gather from Anglo-Catholic sources. And there could be more to follow.

I can’t tell you much more than that at the moment, because the negotiations with Rome are so sensitive – and the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, who distrust Anglican traditionalists, are quite capable of throwing a spanner in the works.

It’s shaming to have to admit that the bishops of my own Church are the chief obstacle to a significant move of Anglo-Catholic clergy and lay people into full communion with the Holy See – but that’s the way it was last time, in the early 1990s, and it’s still the case today.

Fortunately, Pope Benedict XVI is more open to experiment than Pope John Paul II.  [YES!  And this is a good point.  He is open to new structures and ideas.] He is taking a close interest in the progress of the rebel Traditional Anglican Communion towards reunion – a process which is under the control of the Congregration for the Doctrine of the Faith, not the Vatican’s woolly-minded ecumenists.

I can’t betray confidences, but my advice is: look at the new church structures, such as Old Rite parishes, that the Pope is already encouraging, and ask yourself how those models might be adapted for the use of former Anglicans.

But I’ve already said too much…

What is going on here?

There is a huge conflict brewing in the Anglican Communion at the big meeting at Lambeth.  More on this later, though some of you well informed readers can chime and and start fleshing out the story, players and issues.

I find this interesting.  I was tipped to it through a comment under another entry.

30 Days magazine managed to obtain a long interview with the Superior General of the SSPX, H.E. Bishop Bernard Fellay.  Although the written interview omitted certain reservations made by Bishop Fellay, one sentence resounded in the Vatican corridors: : "If he calls me, I go. Right away. Or rather, I run. This is certain. Because of obedience. By filial obedience with regard to the head of the Church."

 

Quoted from Newsletter of the [SSPX] District of Asia of  Jan-Jun 2001, "Roman talks – An Update", by Fr. Pierre-Marie Laurençon SSPX, Superior of the French District taken from Letter to Priests, no.9, March 2001.

 

I am convinced that there must now be a dramatic gesture of humility on the part of the SSPX. 

Everyone involved in this dispute, on both sides of this split, SSPX and Holy See alike, are good people. 

They all have convictions and zeal. 

They all love Jesus and the Church.

Mistakes have been made on both sides over the years.  The consecrations and continuing defiance was just plain wrong.  The attitude of many in the Roman Curia and the hostility to tradition was just plain wrong.  [I do not mean by this that I think there is a moral equivalence between the SSPX and the Church here!  That is not the case.]

Lot’s of people have been hurt.

It is time to let that go, turn around, and take another direction.

The Holy Father has extended a firm but gentle hand in the direction of the SSPX and waits for them to come to him.

I have no doubt that this Pope, the man best situated in the entire Church to grasp the issues involved and the history of the conflict, will respond with expansive generosity… if only the SSPX would budge, even a little.

I believe that even small positive moves by the SSPX will be greeted with even more lavish concessions, canonical and other. 

The parable of the Prodigal Son comes to mind (cf. Luke 15 in whatever translation you prefer) as a lens, a hermeneutic, for reading what is possible.

If you read what the Lord says carefully, you find that the father of the fallen lad saw his son at a distance, returning, coming up the road. 

That means the father was watching for him.  He longed for his son and in hope watched for him. 

Then, once the f