The Hermeneutic of Continuity

A great video from my friends at the Franciscans of the Immaculate: Here is the info at the YouTube posting: Formal fiddleback chasubles and modest Franciscan sandals come together in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (Traditional Latin Mass) at Our Lady of Guadalupe Friary of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. The video is put to beautiful music from the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, our sister order. The music was recorded in Italy and is a fine example of the high quality of their music which, combined with the friars in Italy, are playing a major part in spearheading the reform of liturgical music in Italy.

In March, I wrote about my meeting with George Hargreaves and A Christian strategy for the London Mayoral election . The election takes place tomorrow so this is a reminder to all you London Catholics (and other Christians) to get out and vote. As the Catechism teaches: 2240. Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote , and to defend one’s country and the second Vatican Council: All citizens, therefore, should be mindful of the right and also the duty to use their free vote to further the common good. (Gaudium et Spes n.75) You will have received your booklet with photos of the ballot papers etc. For Mayor, you get a first and a second choice. You should be aware that there is a good Christian pro-life, pro-family candidate, Alan Craig is standing on a joint ticket for the Christian Party and the Christian People's Alliance . Being realistic, it is unlikely that Alan Craig will be electe...

I have added a number of blogs to the blogroll on the sidebar via bloglines. Let me know if you are in the wrong category - for example if you are a priest or religious or if you consider yourself a British blog. In the latter case, sometimes there is nothing obvious to indicate this. It is worth putting something about yourself in your profile or on the sidebar. You don't have to reveal your identity or tell people what you had for breakfast but a little general information usually helps.

Amid the many blogs that have now appeared on the blogroll is one that perhaps requires and explanatory note: Transalpine Redemptorists at home . The Transalpine Redemptorists have purchased an island in the Orkneys which is called Papa Stronsay and is now the home of the Golgotha Monastery. As you can see from the map, it is a fair walk/swim from Blackfen! View Larger Map The Transalpine Redemptorists have worked closely with the Society of St Pius X but are also informally pursuing avenues of discussion with Rome. Fr Michael Mary CSSR and Fr Anthony Mary CSSR have this week published a "Declaration on Relations with Rome" (headed Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! ) There will doubtless be considerable controversy about this declaration within traditionalist circles but I have to say that I found it a moving expression of sincere desire to be in a regular canonical situation. They speak of the problems that have plagued the Church since Vatican II and then say (referrin...

Catholic Family is the website for the National Association of Catholic Families . Tim Matthews also operates a news service that gathers together many stories of interest from different sources and also has original content especially related to the family.

I have just read the combox at Fr Wilson's post on the Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Newman House Father Wilson has responded with commendable restraint and good humour to the comments, some of which have attacked him personally - it is also obvious that he is well regarded by the students in his care. So let me repeat - I am sure the students are grateful to Father for making available a celebration of the older form of Mass. I would add my own prayers that it will be something that enriches the life of the chaplaincy as a whole.

Tim Walker at the Daily Telegraph has an article about the terna for Westminster which is, according to his source, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Archbishop Peter Smith and Bishop Arthur Roche. The Mulier Fortis has an interesting observation on this article concerning the claimed source of the leak. Tim Walker speaks of "my man at Archbishop's House" as his source. Mac suggests that this indicates political manoeuvering: an interesting point. On reflection, however, I have to say that none of this can possibly be true. The terna for an archiepiscopal appointment is covered by the Pontifical secret. To leak this would incur a latae sententiae excommunication. Has anyone suddenly come off the Mass rota?

I have held off commenting on the latest announcement from the Bishops Conference of England and Wales regarding Holydays in the Extraordinary Form because I am not quite sure what is being attempted here. It seems that if Mass is celebrated on Ascension Thursday Sunday in the older form of the rite, the Sunday after Ascension should be suppressed and the Mass of the Ascension should be celebrated instead. Not the most brilliant idea in liturgical terms but we could cope with that. But the more important question is over celebrations on the actual days. Are we to take it that those people who want to go to a traditional Mass on Corpus Christi despite there no longer being any obligation to do so are to be prevented? If this is the case, I am reminded of Cicero's question " Cui bono? " - to whom will this be a benefit? What possible good could be achieved by prohibiting people from voluntarily coming to Church to worship God on a feast day hallowed by centuries of tradit...

Some time ago, when I went over to bloglines , I changed the blogroll over to update automatically from there. From time to time, I realise that a blog that I used to have on the blogroll has been inadvertently missed out. Only today, I realised that I did not have Mark's " Rise and Pray " which is an excellent blog. To be honest, there are no hard and fast criteria. If you write a Catholic blog that is orthodox and you post reasonably regularly - at least once a week is good - I'd be happy to put you on the blogroll. So here is an invitation. If you think that your blog would go well on the blogroll, let me know in the combox. But do please use the simple html to make a link if you can. (For instructions see " Putting links in the combox "

Br Rupert, in the combox, kindly posted a link to the Writings of Dominic Barberi and Ignatius Spencer . The site carries the text of Fr Spencer's own account of his conversion to the Catholic faith, written at the English College in Rome, in 1831. Fr Spencer's cause for canonisation has passed the stage of the local tribunal and the papers are now with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Fr Spencer is related to the Princes William and harry through their mother, Princess Diana. In 1840, spencer visited Newman at Oxford. newman refused to meet him for dinner because, at that time, he considered him to be an apostate from the Church of England. (Newman was received into the Church in 1845.) The writings of Bl Dominic Barberi posted here, his lamentation of England and his Letter to the Professors of the University of Oxford make interesting reading. Many thanks to Br Rupert and his colleagues for posting these items and I pray that they will, as desired, help to promote...

The Family Bulletin arrived this morning. Published by Family and Youth Concern , this is one newsletter that I always find worth reading. The latest issue is not yet at the FYC website but I expect it will be posted there soon. A couple of months ago, I wrote about the Government's Sex education review steering group which is hopelessly biased in its make up. an article in the Family Bulletin picks up on something I had missed. Launching the SRE review, the Department for Children, Schools and Families confidently asserted that: The delivery of good SRE is crucial in keeping young people safe and healthy as well as helping to bring down teenage pregnancy rates. However, as the Bulletin points out, the Department has admitted that it has neither commissioned nor evaluated research on the impact of SRE on the attitudes and lifestyle choices of young people. Neither has it made any assessment of the effectiveness of sex education . The repeated claim to have a commitment to review...

Gillibrand has photos of an ex voto at the Basilica of Our Lady of Victories in Paris. It was set up in memory of Fr Ignatius Spencer who had requested prayers at the shrine for the conversion of England. (See For the total conversion of England! ) Incidentally, I have given the link above to the English language part of the basilica's website. There are more articles and photographs in the French section, including this picture by Charles-André van Loo showing St Augustine confounding the Donatist bishops at Carthage.

On Wednesday, the Holy Father preached at the funeral of Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family. In the course of his sermon ( Italian version ), he said: How could we not draw attention at this time, to the zeal and the passion with which he laboured during almost 18 years, carrying out a tireless activity protecting and promoting the family and Christian marriage? How could we not thank him for the courage with which he defended the non-negotiable values of human life? There was quite a good obituary in the Times which observed: Despite his unpopularity among some liberal Catholics and the attacks he came under in the media, López Trujillo never wavered in upholding traditional Catholic teaching. He once remarked about the role of the Pontifical Council for the Family: “As the Pope would say, these are decisive battles, and we want to be in the middle of them.”

The Central Catholic Chaplaincy for the London Universities, at Newman House in Gower Street, is to have a celebration of Mass in the older form of the Roman Rite on Saturday 10 May. Fr Peter Wilson has written about this at the Newman House blog. Fr Zuhlsdorf has added his own comments and analysis . I would only add that it does not seem necessary to seek permission from the Ordinary for such a celebration. In the post " If... but not "only if ", I pointed out that Summorum Pontificum does not limit permission for the "extraordinary form" to cases where a group of people ask for it - in those cases he must do what he can to facilitate their request. According to his own pastoral judgement, the Pastor may arrange for the not-abrogated and not-forbidden form of the Mass to be celebrated if this form of Mass would be pastorally helpful. If a group of students ask for it, that seems to me a "slam dunk" as the Americans might put it. No? In any case, ...

Stones will shout is the website of Into the Deep , a newsletter from Gippsland in South Eastern Australia. Apparently the voice of the laity is a bit too strong for the diocesan newspaper which has stopped carrying letters to the editor.

On Wednesday next week (30th April) Dr Mike Delany will be speaking to the Linacre ethics forum on Ethical issues in General Practice . The meeting will be at 6.30pm (after 5.30 Mass in the Cathedral) in Vaughan House which is behind Westminster Cathedral ( map here ). The talk itself will be at 7pm, followed by group discussion, questions and answers. (Then on to the cafe/pub!)

Fr Thomas Kocik has posted a thoughtful article at NLM on The limits of mutual enrichment . His comments relate particularly to the enrichment of the ordinary form of Mass and his commitment to the reform of the reform makes these especially pertinent. There are a number of important principles involved. The most important of these, I think, is that the priest should not himself innovate and change the liturgy sponte sua . Here, I think that there is a crucial distinction to be made. On the one hand, priests might make up new elements that have never been part of the Church's liturgy - for example improvisations in the Eucharistic Prayer, saying "Bertha. The body of Christ", clown outfits, balloons etc. On the other hand - and I believe that this is genuinely a different issue - there is the question of introducing elements that have long been part of the tradition of the Church into the newer form of the Roman rite. Here I think we can look at several different levels. 1...

Reuter's reports that the residence of the Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, has been damaged in a mortar attack by the rebel "Forces for National Liberation" during the latest outbreak of violence in the small but crucially important nation in the central lakes region of Africa. (See: Burundi rebels bomb capital, hit papal envoy's home ) Fortunately, Archbishop Gallagher was out of the country at the time and nobody was hurt at the residence. It is unlikely that the Archbishop's residence was deliberately targeted. Nevertheless, it must be a worrying time for him. He was ordained for the Liverpool archdiocese and has worked for many years in the Vatican diplomatic service. He moved to Burundi in 2004, replacing Archbishop Michael Courtney who was killed in a roadside ambush. I knew Archbishop Gallagher when I was in Rome as a student and would be very grateful if you could remember him and his mission in your prayers as well as praying for p...

Last Sunday, Father M X Karunaratnam, a priest who worked to expose human rights violations in Sri Lanka, was killed by a remote-controlled claymore mine on a road he was known to use regularly, travelling in a well-known and easily recognisable vehicle. (see this story on Tamil.net ) His funeral on Tuesday was an opportunity for thousands of Tamil Catholics to gather to pay their respects to this much-loved priest who provided care and support for people traumatised by the war and the 2004 Tsunami disaster. In the meantime, earlier this month, the statue of Our Lady of Madhu was moved from the Madhu Church to a safer area, along with the priests, religious and laity who were advised by the local Bishop to relocate because of increasing attacks by the Sri Lankan military. Shortly afterwards, the Church was destroyed by shellfire. The all India Catholic union condemned the attack as a "wanton act of official military violence against a haven of peace" Madhu is the most impor...

This fun site B-Movie Catechism combines reviews of B-Movies with thoughtful observations from the Catechism. H/T The Curt Jester

This morning, I received a new book co-published by the Catholic Herald and Family Publications : "In the Footsteps of Joseph Ratzinger" by Alessandra Borghese (translated by Sebastian Cresswell-Turner from the original Sulle Tracce di Joseph Ratzinger .) The author describes her "pilgrimage to the places most dear and important to the Pope", travelling with her friend Gloria von Thurn und Taxis not long before the Holy Father's visit to Bavaria. Her charming account makes evident her affection for both Bavaria and for Joseph Ratzinger, whom she had known before he became Pope. Throughout the book, there are reminiscences and anecdotes about the Holy Father from her own experience and those of people she spoke to along the way. We are taken to Munich and Freisung, the abbey of Scheyern, where he often went on retreat, the shrine of Altötting, the towns where he spent his childhood: Marktl am Inn, Tittmoning and Traunstein ("the most beautiful town in the w...

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images I haven't been able to watch much of the Holy Father's visit to the USA and have promised myself some time to catch up with the various video clips that are around. A convenient site for these is the US Bishops Conference Papal Visit Site which has a collection of videos of the various events . The Vatican website has the for the texts of the various homilies and addresses of the Holy Father during the visit. Of the various addresses that I have read so far, I was particularly moved by his address to young people at the St Joseph Seminary in Yonkers. He gave them all an "A plus" for German pronunciation and went on to use various saints as examples for young people. He spoke of his own youth: My own years as a teenager were marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers; its influence grew – infiltrating schools and civic bodies, as well as politics and even religion – before it was fully recognized for the monste...

The Catholic Herald's page on the Apostolic visit to the USA has plenty of links, pictures, eye witness reports and analysis.

Sometimes, people get lost when trying to get to the Church in Blackfen. So I have done some work on google maps. There is one map with directions by train and bus: View Larger Map and another with directions by car from the M25: View Larger Map The "view larger map" link takes you to the full page map on google. You can zoom the maps in to rooftop resolution and you can click on the blue "pins" for particular bits of information.

I am sorry to say that the High Mass at St Mary Moorfields on Wednesday 23 April (St George's Day) will not now take place because of a visit from one of the Auxiliary Bishops of Westminster. I apologise for the short notice but I was only informed myself this evening.

This Saturday, our traditional Latin Mass will be sung with Gregorian chant according to the Roman Gradual. The Mass starts at 10.30am and will be followed by Benediction and the Marian anthem. (The Missa Cantata is usually on the first Saturday of the month but it has been brought forward because of the parish first communion Masses.) We will also be having traditional sung Masses on the feast of the Ascension (1 May) and Corpus Christi (22 May), both at 8pm. If any clergy are free and would like to assist, they would be very welcome - it would be great to be able to celebrate any of these Masses as a a solemn High Mass. Just let me know in the combox - put "not for publication" if you would prefer the comment to remain confidential. Of course, if you do not feel confident enough to assist as Deacon or Subdeacon and would prefer to assist in choro , you would also be most welcome. Seminarians would also be very welcome to assist in choro or to help with serving Mass. Dire...

Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, has died in Rome at the age of 72. He was admitted to the Pius XI clinic in March and suffered a heart attack last night after suffering grave health problems for several weeks. Cardinal Trujillo was a great voice in support of the family and of the right of parents with regard to their children's education. See John Smeaton's post: Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, defender of the family and human life, dies .

I was going to say "only in Rome" but that would run the risk of turning the combox into a version of Private Eye's "Pedants Corner". Enjoy! A cherub with a papal tiara ... Police on normal duty looking like actors in a World War II film ... A lampshade dedicated to Blessed Pope Pius IX ... Really chic scaffolding covers ... Heresy-sensitive security cameras ... An anticlerical revolutionary whose tomb is less attractive than the biscuit named after him ...

There are three bookshops that I always visit in Rome: the Vatican bookshop, Ancora (Via Conciliazione) and Leoniana (Via dei Corridori). I have learnt to leave plenty of room in my suitcase. Here is what I bought this year: The Bones of St Peter by John Evangelist Walsh . Singa-Tala, Manila 1982 The story of the excavations in 1939 and the identification of the bones of St Peter. Saints of the Roman Calendar by Enzo Lodi , translated by Jordan Aumann. St Pauls 1992 What is says, basically - following the new calendar. Has a historical note for each saint, followed by a "message and relevance" note drawing on the texts of the liturgy. Needs to be supplemented by "Saints of the English Calendar" for England. The Fifteen Saturdays by Bartolo Longo . Shrine of Poppeii (1993) The "Presentation" says that they have updated the style of the text so I am glad to have an English translation rather than an annoyingly modernised Italian original. It also says "...

I have just been catching up on the Papal visit to the USA, reading the speeches and looking at commentaries on the events. The following is just a very brief list of some things that caught my eye. John Allen posted a transcript of the Holy Father's question and answer session on the plane in which he talked about clerical child abuse among other things. Allen also suggests that the Holy Father is setting the agenda on this one. He has not shirked the issue but gone for it head-on. Reacting to the Pope's address at the Whitehouse, President Bush said " awesome speech, your Holiness ". There has been some fairly strong reaction worldwide to the music at the Mass in Washington DC, especially the Responsorial Psalm. The Pope has told the American Bishops that Catholics Should Be… Catholics in a speech that Our Sunday Visitor called A bit of a bombshell . For updated coverage with the all-important links, I recommend Thomas Peters at American Papist . For photos - as...

A video invitation to lapsed Catholics to "come home" to the Church:

There used to be an optional course in Rome that everyone seemed to end up taking at one time or another: Fr Martinez-Fazio's course on paleo-Christian iconography. Complete with slides, it gave us an introduction to the many early Christian monuments that we would see on our visits to the catacombs and to other holy sites in Rome - such as San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura. Here is a whale - recalling the story of Jonah and included on Christian monuments as a symbol of the resurrection: Here is an image of the feeding of the 5,000 - calling to mind the Eucharist as the pledge of eternal life (Our Lord is second from the left): On the next fragment there is a dove with an olive branch - a common symbol recalling the end of the flood and indicating Baptism. You can also see the very common Chi-Rho symbol (the first two letters of the Greek word "Christos") One more: this has a list of virtues attributed to someone who died. It reads: FIDES CASTITAS VERITAS PUDICITIA INTEGRITAS HA...

Fr Charles Briggs is an expert on 19th century Church history, particularly the life and letters of Mgr Talbot and the life of Blessed Pope Pius IX. One of the main purposes of our trip outside the walls of Rome today was to visit the shrine of Blessed Pope Pius IX. Having duly offered a prayer asking for his intercession, and collected a couple of holy cards, we looked at the rest of the very Roman basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura. Here is the statue of St Lawrence with his gridiron: Downstairs there is a piece of marble on which St Lawrence's body lay when it was collected by the Christians after his martyrdom. The Basilica has a monumental ambo together with a candlestick for the Paschal candle. This is not the only basilica in Rome that demonstrates visually that the reform of the Liturgy after Vatican II often in practice had little to do with restoring ancient use and a lot to do with dumbing down and the fear of anything beautiful and ancient. The great ambo and candles...

The Campo Verano is the principal cemetery for Rome. Many religious congregations and houses have vaults here. On our visit today, Fr Charles and I managed to find the English College vault which I last visited on the occasion of the funeral of Fr Christopher Pemberton who died suddenly at the English College Villa in Palazzola in the summer of 1983. We had just returned from Fano where he was giving a retreat to myself, Fr Frank Marsden and Fr John O'Brien in preparation for our ordination to the Diaconate. Walking around, we found the vault for the Irish College and I was delighted to find there a monument for Mgr Frank Frayne who used to work for the Pontifical Commission for Migrants and Tourists. Mgr Frayne was a very kindly man who was generous with his time, taking the trouble to give new students a guided tour of St Peter's. The tour would start with the cherubs at the holy water font: To illustrate the proportions of the basilica, Mgr Frayne would point out that the ch...

Yesterday evening, we were generously welcomed at the Venerable English College in the Via Monserrato. The College is the oldest English institution outside of England which has continuously existed on one site. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it became a missionary college for English priests to return to their homeland; 44 priests of the College were martyred, beginning with St Ralph Sherwin, St Alexander Briant and St Edmund Campion. The College Church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and St Thomas of Canterbury. Thanks to a generous benefactor, the decoration of the entire Church is to be cleaned and restored. This major work will take at least a year, possibly two. Together with Mgr Nicholas Hudson, the Rector, I climbed onto the scaffolding so has to have a close look at the ceiling. In this photo, you can see a small square that has been left uncleaned, showing the contrast: and here is another photo from up on the scaffolding. There will be quite a bit of gold leaf used ...

In the photo above, you can see that the windows of the Papal Apartment are closed and shuttered. While the Holy Father was away in America, Fr Charles and I went to the Casa Santa Maria . Here is a photo of their very fine baroque chapel: There is a plaque listing the American Bishops who have been consecrated in the chapel itself: There is a side chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe with an image dating back to the 16th century: The house also has a Byzantine chapel: here you can see the altar and tabernacle: And finally, a photo of our host, Father Martin Edwards, attempting to imitate Pope Paul VI:

There is an interesting article by Pendennis in the Observer: Tony Blair's forte is not thinking says Forte . Rocco Forte, who paid for the lectures, seems to be unimpressed by the former PM's contribution. 'I don't think Blair is a particularly deep thinker,' Forte told me at a reception thrown by Condé Nast Traveller magazine. 'I don't find him a deep man. He was always voting against his Catholic principles; for example, he voted for abortion. He constantly voted against the ideas of Catholicism As Pendennis observes, Rocco was out of the country for the lecture "although for a man who travels as much as he does, it would surely not have been out of the question to return."

I am blogging here courtesy of Fr Martin Edwards and his Apple Computer. I have had an excellent lunch, courtesy of the North American College and now have some photographs of their beautiful chapel. After some hours, the Apple Computer has finally unfrozen and allowed me to post a photograph. Fr Charles is a devotee of Blessed Pope Pius IX and so it was good to stand with him before the magnificent painting of the great man in the refectory.