Sung Mass in York

On Sunday 14th February (Quinquagessima Sunday), the 6.30pm Mass at the Church of the English Martyrs in York will be sung by Fr Stephen Maughan. The schola of the Rudgate Singers will be chanting the proper parts, with the congregation singing the ordinary. This will be the second time for Fr Maughan.

Fr Maughan will be singing the Mass again in a few weeks on Laetare Sunday.

Christmas in Middlesbrough

At the church of St Alphonsus, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough.

Christmas Eve 5.30pm Vespers in Gregorian Chant

Midnight Solemn High Mass in the Usus Antiquior

Christmas Day 9.15am Lauds in Gregorian Chant

4.00pm Vespers and Benediction in Gregorian Chant

St Stephen's Day 10.00am Sung Mass in the Usus Antiquior.

In addition, Fr Charlton will be celebrating a Sung Mass with carols in the Novus Ordo at 7pm on Christmas Eve and a Low Mass in the Novus Ordo at 8am on Christmas Day.

Christmas Services in Middlesbrough

I've been asked by Fr Bill Charlton to publicise his Extraordinary Form Christmas Services, which I'm more than happy to do. They include the *only* Solemn High Mass, in this part of the country that I'm aware of. Solemn High Mass is a rare treat, even during the year, so to have one at Christmas is an opportunity not to be missed! If you live in the North of the Diocese, and/or reasonable travelling time from North Ormesby, than I urge you to go to what will be a very special Mass.

Here's the complete schedule, including his Ordinary Form Masses, should you be unable to get to Midnight Mass.

Christmas Services. St Alphonsus' Church, North Ormesby.

Christmas Eve

5.30 pm First Vespers (Gregorian chant)

7.00 pm Sung Mass (OF)for all the family (with carols)

12 Midnight Solemn High Mass

Christmas Day

8.00 am Mass of the Dawn (OF)

9.15 am Sung Lauds (Gregorian chant)

10.00 am Sung Mass (OF)

4.00 pm Vespers & Benediction (Gregorian chant)

St Stephen's Day

10.00 am Missa Cantata

Sunday 27th December

6.00 pm Missa Cantata

Servers & singers would be welcome and are asked to give him a ring to let him know if they can help. 01642-245043 also 01642-318587

Many thanks, Mike

Some Pictures from Ushaw 2009

St Cuthbert's Chapel at Ushaw

Fr Brown offering a votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with Fr de Malleray as deacon and Fr Cahill as sub-deacon.

Picture taken after the final Mass

Although not the best of photographs, these pictures may give some idea what went on at Ushaw 2009.

Priests' training Conference at Ushaw

Information is spreading around the blogosphere about the next priest's training conference to be organised by the Latin Mass Society. It will be held at Ushaw College, near Durham, from 12th to 16th April is in Low Week. Further information can be found on the LMS website or on Fr Blake's or Fr Finigan's blogs amongst other places.

The point that I would like to make is that we need to get priests to attend. There are many priests who would like to attend one of these conferences, but never get to hear about them. There are others who may get to hear about them, but need a little encouragement to attend. It may be that they do not know what to expect, or that they think that it will be too difficult or that their Latin is not good enough, or that they fear criticism from other clergy.

My response is that they need fear none of these things. The Latin Mass Society has already held four of these conferences and over 100 priests have attended. The vast majority have gone on to be regular celebrants of the usus antiquior. Some have come back to a second or third conference to improve their skills. The conferences are streamed to cater for all levels of ability, ranging from complete beginners to regular attenders. Knowledge of Latin is also taken into account, and many priests have attended who have never studied Latin before.

I would urge readers to spend some time thinking whether they know any priests who might benefit from attending the conference, and then to encourage them to attend. Apart from what they might learn about the older form of the Mass, they will certainly benefit from the excellent liturgies, the spiritual atmosphere and the friendship of other priests.

Missa Cantata on Gaudete Sunday

Fr Stephen Maughan will celebrate his first Sung Mass in the usus antiquior on Gaudete Sunday, which this year is 13th December. This Mass will be at 6.30pm in the church of the English Martyrs, Dalton Terrace in York.

Fr Maughan, who has been celebrating Low Mass at the English Martyrs' Church each Sunday for several weeks now, is musically tallented, so I am sure that his singing will be of a high standard. Nevertheless, the various tones used at a Sung Mass are fairly complicated, and there are extra rubrics to be mastered concerning the incensation of thr altar etc. Please pray that everything goes well.

The Mass will be the plainsong setting for Sundays of Advent and Lent with Credo I. The schola of the Rudgate Singers will sing the propers and lead the congregation in the peoples' parts.

Masses outside the Diocese

There are two Masses coming up that might be of interest.

Leeds Cathedral
Saturday 28th November 3.00pm
Requiem Mass
for the repose of the soul of Bishop Wheeler.

St Mary's, Brigg, Lincolnshire
Tues 8th December 7.30pm
Solemn High Mass
Feast if ther Immaculate Conception.

Anglicanorum Coetibus

Readers who have been following developments within the Church of England since the publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus, may be wondering how many convertions there might be within the area of the Middlesbrough Diocese. At present, we can only guess because most groups of potential swimmers are delaying their decision until February. That is when it is expected that the Church of England will decide what provision it will make to accommodate its members who are opposed to women bishops.

The likelihood is that no satisfactory provision will be made, and the current system of "flying bishops" will come to an end. The prevailing arguement amongst synod members seems to be that there should be no discrimination between male and female bishops; and consequently it would not be acceptable for the jurisdiction of female bishops to be restricted by having parishes within their territory over which they did not have full control.

It seems inevitable that next February, another wave Anglican bishops, priests and laity will begin to move out of the Church of England. Most will be heading towards the Catholic Church, but it is far from certain that they will all make use of the provisions for Ordinariates set out in Anglicanorum Coetibus. It seems to me that that would only work if whole parishes converted en Masse and they were lucky enough to have use of a suitable church. Furthermore, it would have to be a sizable parish for it to be able to support a priest financially. I would be surprised if there would be more than three viable Ordinariate parishes established within the Middlesbrough Diocese. It is more likely that most conversions will be by the conventional route of joining established Catholic parishes.

In the Church of England, parishes that use the oversight of flying bishops belong to a movement called Forward in Faith. The Forward in Faith website lists nine parishes within the boundaries of the Catholic Middlesbrough Diocese. Three are in Middlesbrough itself, two are in North Thornaby and two are in York. In addition, there is one at Cottingham, one at Carlin How and one at Loftus. Of course, conversions are not limited to F in F parishes, neither is it necessarily the case that the majority of members of a F in F parish (or indeed any members) will convert.

So one can only guess what might happen. My stab in the dark is that about 10 clergymen and maybe 200 laity will take the plunge.

Il y a un Elephant dans la Salle

Fr Sean Finnegan in his blog Vale Adurni discusses some statistics that he has found in the French periodical, Paix Liturgique. It makes interesting reading.

Apparently, there are nearly 9,000 diocesan priests in France. At first, this seemed an impressive number to me, but one must remember that France is supposedly a Catholic country, where the majority of the population are nominal Catholics. France is vastly greater in area than England and Wales and its Catholic population is something like ten times as large.

As in England and Wales, the number of priests has been in steady decline for decades, but the shortage is far more accute in France than it is over here. The supply of priests is also far more patchy in France. Apparently in some dioceses it is common for priests to have to look after as many as six churches.

The bishops of France are gathered for their autumn conference; and, although they must all be very aware of this issue, they are apparently unwilling to discuss it, preferring to make optimistic statements about how well parishes are managing without a parish priest. They are also unwilling to acknowledge the existence a growing, and now substantial, section of the clergy, namely those who belong to the traditional movements. Here are the figures.

There are about 260 French priests belonging to traditional orders. [In this article, the term traditional orders includes the SSPX.] This represents about 3% of the total number of active priests, and one might conclude that they are of little significance. However, one should look at trends. As in England, the age profile of diocesan priests is heavily skewed, with the majority nearing retirement. The age profile of priests belonging to the traditional orders is skewed in the oppositee direction. On current projections, the 3% will grow to 25% within 15 years. Here are some more figures.

In 2009, there were 90 priests ordained for diocesan ministry. This is nowhere near the number that would be required to maintain the already inadequate complement of 9,000. Priests are currently retiring in France at about the rate of 300 a year. The traditional orders managed to ordain 15, which may seem a tiny number, but it does represent more than 14% of all ordinations. Expressed this way, it begins to look far from insignificant. What about the longer term?

There is a total of about 900 men studying in French seminaries. 160 of them are within the traditional orders and 740 are in diocesan seminaries. Expresses another way, 18% of the men who have joined a French seminary in the last six years have chosen the traditional orders. However, an analysis of the 740 in diocesan seminaries, shows that relatively few of them are at the junior end. In other words, the numbers of ordinations are going to decline further. The opposite applies with the traditional orders.

If we look at admissions to French seminaries in 2009, there were 41 entering traditional seminaries and 120 entering diocesan seminaries. These are startling figures. In France one in four vocations to the priesthood is a vocation to a traditional order.

As in England and Wales, it is inevitable that the priest shortage in France will worsen over the next 25 years, the only difference being that the effects will be felt more accutely in France. However, France has a growing reserve of priests, which, at present, their bishops refuse to acknowledge. In a few years, the number of traditional priests will grow to such an extent that the bishops will surely have to recognise the elephant in the room.

In fact, there is the first sign that this is about to happen. Bishop Rey of the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon seems to have broken ranks with his fellow bishops and included instruction in the traditional form of the Mass in his diocesan seminary. The result is that this seminary is attracting more than its share of students and becoming the one bright spot amongst all the gloom. Historically, it has been regarded as a small seminary serving a small relatively diocese. It now has 80 seminarians. This compares with, for example, the formerly large seminary serving Paris and the surrounding region which now has 50 students.

The International federation Una Vove

Many readers may not know that the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales is a member of the International Federation Una Voce. This federation has thirty or more members from around the world, all of which areorganisations campaigning for greater use of the traditional liturgies in their own countries.

The LMS has been a prominent member of the federation since it was formed, Michael Davies having been its Executive President for many years. The current Executive President, Leo Darroch, is again an Englishman; and has been very active recently. At the end of October, he was able to arrange a short audience with the Holy Father and present him with a report on the implementation of Summorum Pontificum worldwide two years after its introduction. You can read all about it on the federation's website: www.ifuv/docs/rome_20091028.html