PRESS RELEASE FROM THE LATIN MASS SOCIETY

For Immediate Release

19 March 2007

Latin Mass Society Welcomes Papal Exhortation

The Latin Mass Society (LMS) has given a warm welcome to Pope Benedict’s Papal Exhortation on the Eucharist published last Tuesday (13 March).

John Medlin, LMS General Manager, said the LMS hoped the Exhortation would play an important part in stabilising and resacralising celebrations of the new rite.

The LMS particularly welcomed the Exhortation’s call for 1) a re-emphasis on silent prayer, dignity and decorum in new rite celebrations 2) the reintroduction of Latin, particularly in international celebrations and in seminary training of new priests 3) the call for the laity to pray or sing the common prayers in Latin and for Gregorian Chant to be used wherever possible 4) the emphasis on a central or prominent position for the tabernacle which should not be obscured by the celebrant’s chair 5) the renewed call for Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Eucharistic Adoration, including perpetual adoration. All these proposals are designed to reconnect the Church to its centuries-old liturgical tradition.

John Medlin also said that it is important that the Holy Father now proceeds to publish his long-anticipated motu proprio to allow a much wider celebration of the Traditional Rite. This is 1) a matter of justice to meet the needs of the rapidly-growing numbers of Traditional Catholics worldwide – in particular the young – who find the Traditional Rite more fulfilling than the new rite. 2) to establish the Traditional Rite as the ‘gold standard’ against which celebrations of the new rite can be measured and improved.

John Medlin also looked forward to the publication of the new ICEL English translation of the new rite which would replace the defective current translation which was inaccurate and banal as a mail order catalogue. It was hoped the new translation would be more majestic and faithful to the Latin original.

John Medlin finished by saying that Pope Benedict had continued a process of restoration begun by Pope John Paul II and he was sure the bishops and priests of England and Wales would support the Pope in his call for more worthy celebrations. It was likely that many priests would be encouraged by the papal exhortation to rediscover the riches of the Latin liturgical tradition. The Latin Mass Society would do everything in its power to help the resacralisation of the new rite and to promote the Traditional Rite as the great exemplar of the Church’s liturgical heritage.

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For further information, please contact John Medlin, General Manager, or Yvonne Windsor, LMS Office Administrator, on (T) 020 7404 7284; (F) 020 7831 5585;

E-mail: thelatinmasssociety@snmail.co.uk