Music for St Peter and Paul: change at the Vatican

How things have changed!
When the Americans invaded Panama and President Noriega fled his palace and sought the protection of the Apostolic Nunciature rather than invade Sovereign Vatican territory the American invaders set up huge "ghetto blasters" and bombarded the embassy with extraordinary loud pop music. Apparently it took the personal intervention of Pope John Paul II with the US President to stop the American aggression. Some Roman wags suggested that the Pope had to threaten to send the Sistine choir round to sing outside American Embassy, so ghastly were the choir. Under Benedict and Mgr Marini the choir have got a lot better. Today they were augmented by the choir of Westminster Abbey, its quite beautiful; but is that slightly grating sound in the background the home team?

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I had the rabbit

I couldn't get to Fr Hunwicke's Ordination last night, at the Oxford Oratory, I heard it was very beautiful, there a few pictures here. I also heard the celebrant preached against the wickedness of "rubricism"; a little unfortunate as following them with a degree of precision is the great charism of our English Oratories.

Today however I actually met Fr Hunwicke, at the London Oratory, where he celebrated his first Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Lady Altar. We have corresponded for some time and have friends in common and I have felt something of his pain at not being able to celebrate Mass. I recognise in him a truly priestly soul. The Mass was beautiful, it was low, no sermon, some rather exquisite vestments, over and done in 35 minutes. There were about 50 in the congregation including Supertrad Mum, who I met but didn't get chance to talk to.

Mass was served by Br Martin  from Papa Stronsay, and Fr Michael Mary was also in attendance doing a little photographing, there should be some pictures on their blog soon.
It was the first time I met any of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer and despite Fr Michael Mary saying he  thought I must be in my eighties, apparently the picture on side bar doesn't do me favours! I liked him very much indeed, in fact both of them were very impressive, there seemed to be very healthy father/son relationship, a real sense of mutual respect, with a gentle sense of humour between the two, always a healthy sign in religious community. I have heard such good reports about them lately, it was good to see it for myself.

After Mass we had lunch together, I had rabbit, Fr H a marmite of fish, Br M quail and Fr M steak. I know it was Vigil in most places but in Westminster it was the Feast of St John Southwell and of course for us a celebration of a first Mass. We did debate the decency of posting pictures of our food on our blogs and decided it was a bit foreign fad.

But it was a lovely lunch, a great deal of laughter, a little talk about whether SSPX will be reconciled, the mad Bishop of Bux, a little Gregory Dix from Fr H, lots of stories of "patrimony". One of the important things I have always said about the Ordinariate which I think cradle Catholics just don't get is its humour which Fr Hunwicke supplied in heaps. Again, what I was impressed by was that the Sons were so positive about the long process of the reconciliation they are still going through, which will be completed when they are canonically erect as a religious institute and also about those who have actually been their detractors, who they have left behind.

It was a really beautiful celebration for the eve of St Peter and Paul; Fr Hunwicke in communion with the Church and now a happily a priest of the Catholic Church and Br Martin and Fr Michael Mary in communion with Peter and joyfully hoping for the canonical erection of Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer and trusting in the goodness of Bishop Hugh Gilbert.

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Arthur, Di Noia, Fellay and Williamson

Interestingly in Rome the news about the now Archbishop, Arthur Roche becoming Secretary at the CDW is not that significant. Though possibly it ought to be, having successfully presided over the introduction of the new Missal translation for the whole of the English speaking world his expertise will be invaluable in preparation for similar work on the revision of other major language groups liturgical such as Portuguese and Spanish. There have been rumours of this appointment for the last couple of years.
But real the news is the move of Archbishop Augustine Di Noia to Vice President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which is of course now part of the CDF. Di Noia is a can-do American clear thinking theologian, with an ability to cut to the chase. In parallel there are the equally interesting moves in the SSPX, the very public rebuke and dismissal from leadership functions "for repeated disobedience" of Bishop Williamson, the refusal of ordination for religious orders that might split from the SSPX if re-union was sought. It is bit Byzantine but it is all in preparation for their General Chapter next week from which Williamson is banned. At the same time Bishop Fellay is emphasising that no decision has yet been made, indeed that re-union is still open question, however it seems both the Pope and Fellay want it but Bishop Fellay has to demonstrate the cost of dissidence. The rest of us are left to pray. Archbishop Roche was quite famous as an ice-skater in his youth it seems as everyone is skating on rather slippery ice at the moment.

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Fr Alexander Sherbrooke Live at St Mary Magdalen

Tomorrow at 7.30pm we have last of our 150th Anniversary speakers: Fr Alexander Sherbrooke who will talk about the Future of Evangelisation, which is really about the future of the Church. Fr Alexander is of course the founder of the Soho School of Evangelism and parish priest of the St Patrick's, Soho Square.

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Vocations: thoughts

I am a bit anxious about our parish's liturgical future, we are loosing our Master of Ceremonies, he believes God is calling him to the religious life, I do too, or at least to be more accurate I believe that he is called to offer himself, because ultimately the Church will do the calling. Vocation is ultimately the objective call of the Church not the subjective opinion of the individual. Another of our servers, a university student studying here has already gone to off to the continent to do the same thing along with his younger brother. Pray for all three.

I am not sure how much influence I have had, not much I suspect but maybe they were suddenly struck by the thought, as I was during a particularly dull and painful Good Friday Liturgy and sermon, "If God can call this man as a source of Grace, he might just be able to use me to do the same." Good priests attract vocations but so, thank God, do the mediocre.

In both cases the young men concerned have been attracted more by the old rite than the new. Both were more than capable of guiding me and our servers through a High Mass; unless God in his wonderous providence sends us a new Master of Ceremonies we are going to be a bit stuck but if he wants it, he will do something about it.

Talking to a lay friend involved in seminary selection in one of the Metropolitan dioceses, he said he estimated half those of those who now apply to a seminary have had some involvement with the Traditional Mass. It would perhaps not be too much to speculate that those diocese who have a policy antagonistic towards the Traditional Mass are missing out on possible vocations. I heard of one ordinand recently who had his ordination delayed because of his interest in the Traditional Rites. In many parishes in the not too distant future Bishops will be faced with the problem of finding any priest to say any Mass.

The interesting thing is that seminaries which are the most antagonistic to "Tradition" seem to produce priests who within a few years of ordination are celebrating the Traditional Mass. The situation is made a bit difficult for them in that few seminaries actually teach Latin, despite what comes from Rome. Someone recently suggested that diocese were the bishop is less likely even to attend a Traditional Mass is likely to have more celebrating it. This could just be a bit of clerical contra agere, but without evidence one can't merely dismiss it as such.

For young men serving the Traditional Mass there is a cost; it involves study and practice, it also involves taking on a particular spirituality and making sense of the theology of the Mass, it involves an enculturation and a sense of thinking with the Church, and ultimately, I hope, discipleship. It certainly provides the framework for discipleship; silence that leads either to boredom or to prayer. In similar way the uncompromising nature of the rubrics demands obedience, which either leads to a stunting rubricism or to liberating abandonment of one's own will to the will of God.


As a footnote: Fr de Malleray of the FSSP is offering a vocations discernment weekend in July.

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Hunwicke Events

I am sure by now you have seen this elsewhere

Please come ... if you are able ... to the event mentioned in the previous post, in Oxford this coming Wednesday, June 27. [the ordination of Fr John Hunwicke]

I ALSO ANNOUNCE that, Deo volente, I plan to celebrate

First Mass in the Extraordinary Form; London at the Brompton Oratory.
Low Mass, Thursday June 28, 11.30; by kind permission of the Provost.

First Mass in the Ordinary Form; Oxford in the Church of the Holy Rood.
Solemn Vigil Mass of Sunday, Saturday June 30, 6.00, by kind permission of Fr Paul King and Mgr Andrew Burnham. I plan also to preach.

I am sure JH will appreciate prayers and remembrance at Mass over the next few days.

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John the Baptist is a Priest

Zachariah goes up to the altar of incense to offer incense, the Angel of the Lord, Gabriel, appears, and tells him his wife will bear him a son, who will call John, he disbelieves and in struck dumb. Unlike the majority of the Temple's priest Zachariah is "righteous".

He remains dumb until after John's birth, Elizabeth names him and Zachariah writes his agreement, the peoples amazement is twofold. Remember he is a priest, and so therefore is the infant John. The first reason for amazement is Zachariah's speech returns, and immediately he pronounces the blessing he should have done in the Temple after burning incense, he does so by announcing the Benedictus:

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of His people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers, and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him, all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace.

This should be a second reason for the peoples amazement, these words of his prophecy but they aren't reason is simply that Zachariah calls him John, a name unknown in his family.

So what is so amazing? As a priest Zachariah was landless, numbered along with widows and orphans, at a time when not everyone believed in the Resurrection, one lived for as long as memory of you was kept alive, it was kept alive in the land and in one's sons and sons keeping your name alive. Priests were landless, their name was not kept alive by association with a well or a field or winepress, but by their sons inheriting their name, hence the shock that John was not going to keep anyone's memory alive. John's naming is a sign of something new, a break from the past.
The landless priest dwells in the desert, again a sign that here is a priest who takes his ministery seriously. Priests were expected to be celibate when ministering in the Temple John's loins are girt with his belt, some have suggested he had a relationship to the Essenes who practiced both baptism and perpetual celibacy. He lives on the sweetness of wild honey, it is "wild" not cultivated, it is supplied by divine providence.
This priest divides, he separates the just from the unjust, the clean from the unclean. This seems to be real role for Jewish priests; the priest inspects people for leprosy, judge whether an animal is fit for sacrifice. The priest was expected one who discerns between that which is pleasing to God and that which is not.
He makes two important priestly acts of discernment: first, identifying what is good, that Jesus is the acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God, "Behold the Lamb of God...". Secondly identifying what is bad, this brings about his death; he condemns the incestuous relationship between Herod and Herodias. Priests were expected to be prophetic but had been compromised since the time of the Maccabees.
The Temple priests seem happy to gossip but John denounces clearly and without comprise identifying the good and holy and denouncing the impure and unholy.

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