The address given to members of The Latin Mass Society at their Annual General Meeting in Westminster Cathedral Hall on Saturday 28th June 1998.
And with these excommunications many hoped that Tradition had been marginalised, if not excluded entirely from the mainstream of the Church. And yet, ten years on, that gloomy prospect has not materialised: from the sadness of schism and disunity, a wonderful and grace-filled renewal has taken place, and, it must be said, taken many by surprise. The reality of this renewal was brought home forcefully to me last month when I had the great privilege of assisting at High Mass in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, at the end of the Paris- Chartres pilgrimage. Much has been written about this event, and I will not delay you here by any lengthy descriptions, although I would add my voice to the chorus of others urging you to take part next year if you can. Ten years ago this Mass was celebrated outside the closed doors of the Cathedral: ten years on we were inside (although many thousands were still kept out - not by any hostile act on the part of the Cathedral authorities, but because the great church was already packed to the doors with thousands of young people). The mere presence of so many young traditional Catholics in the Cathedral was, for me anyway, a sign not only of hope, but of the integration of the Traditionalist Movement into the life and future of the Church. This was reinforced by the warm welcome extended, at some length, by the Cathedral Chapter, and most of all by the greeting and blessing sent by the Pope to the assembled pilgrims. Chartres is important because, sometimes, if we are honest, the prospect of empty pews and ageing congregations can be discouraging: to see a Cathedral packed with Catholics is a rare sight these days, but to see one filled with young people, many thousands of whom were not even born when Ecclesia Dei was published ten years ago, assisting at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with perfect recollection and decorum, is, if you will permit the hackneyed commonplace, an inspiration. However, for me, the most encouraging aspect of this Mass was not the vast numbers of young traditional Catholics, but was to be found in the Choir Stalls, stuffed, as they were with scores of clergy. Ten years ago, for those priests and religious attached to the Latin liturgical tradition as the Pope puts it in Ecclesia Dei, there were two choices: retirement, or the Society of St. Pius X. Today this situation has been utterly transformed. There at Chartres was Father Bisig, Founder and Superior of the Fraternity of St. Peter; Mgr Gilles Wach, Founder and Superior of the Institute of Christ the King; Mgr Wladimir, founder and Superior of Opus Mariae; Father Ignatius Harrison, the Provost of the London Oratory; monks from Le Barroux and Fontgombault, and priests and seminarians from all over the world. These clerics (and the many religious sisters in the vast congregation) each represented scores of absent confreres; each a token of fidelity to Tradition and to the Church. It was a deeply moving experience to assist at Holy Mass in such company - to be in the midst of confessors, men who have fought and suffered for the Mass we love. It was deeply humbling to realise that these men, many of whom had begun their priestly ministries in irregular canonical fashion, were now in full communion with the Holy See. And this we owe to Ecclesia Dei.
I would now like to turn to this document, which has become something of a Traditionalists Charter, and examine exactly how it has given rise to the opening to Tradition that we have all experienced, and, to some extent, benefited from. It is not a long document: some three pages, excluding notes, but much of great importance is packed into them. Half the document concerns the consecrations at Econe, and the consequences that stem from them. Few of us here have been untouched by that momentous move, and I feel too close to it, historically and personally, to pass any comment. The second half of the document looks towards the future, which the Pope introduces with these words:
Here the Pope indicates that those who adhere to Tradition are not only to be tolerated, but are to be welcomed - the liturgical diversity caused by bringing the Old Mass in from the cold is considered something positive, contributing to the richness of the Church's unity in variety. Whilst some might balk at seeing Tradition considered simply as one strand in the great tapestry of God's people, these words of the Holy Father represent a real and positive development. LMS representatives have often had to deal with fears that wide permission for the Traditional Mass would lead to liturgical confusion and anarchy with the multiplication of rites. Many here to-day will remember when those who wished to defend and promote the Tridentine Mass were frequently condemned as divisive: and we know that, over the years, many pastors have feared and fought against the liturgical plurality that is now portrayed by the Pope not as a sign of anarchy or weakness, but as proof of the blended harmony of the Church, filled with the various charisms and gifts of the Holy Ghost.
These words from the Pope are encouraging, but not original. It was our Blessed Lord Himself who said "In my Father's house there are many mansions" [Jn XIV:20]. The Church has always had the greatest respect for ancient liturgical practices, since they are a link with the Christians of ages past. This diversity, far from being a cause of division in the Church, is, on the contrary, a sign of the richness and splendour of her devotional life. The Catholic Rites of the East illustrate both the diversity and the universality of the Church. One faith, one hierarchy, one saving truth contained in all the sacraments: that is the true unity of the Catholic Church, a unity that rises above liturgical diversity. Fortescue, as ever, put the matter simply and memorably: "Uniformity in Liturgy throughout the Church has never been a Catholic ideal" [Dr. Adrian Fortescue, The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy, P.208]. This encouragement continues, as the Pope addresses all traditional Catholics in these terms:
Attachment to previous liturgical forms of the Latin Tradition is here called a "rightful aspiration" by the Pope himself, who asks the bishops to support him in making sure that these rightful aspirations are respected. These encouraging words are only by way of an introduction to the really significant teaching contained in this document. This is heralded by the impressive and significant phrase: "by virtue of my apostolic authority I decree the following". And the following is what he decreed:
b) This commission is composed of a cardinal-president and other members of the Roman Curia, in a number that will be deemed opportune according to circumstances.
c) Moreover, respect must everywhere by shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962 [Ecclesia Dei §. 6].
The first paragraph, on the facilitating of full ecclesial communion of former followers of Mgr Lefebvre, prepared the way for the Fraternity of St. Peter, and the other groups that have followed them in the last ten years. It is the last paragraph, however, that concerns us most closely. Here the Pope calls for respect for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin Liturgical Tradition, and, more than respect, he insists on "a wide and generous" application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use of the Missal of 1962.
As you are aware, many bishops have responded to this call for a wide and generous interpretation of the legislation pertaining to the Traditional Mass, and, in consequence have seen flourishing parishes and religious houses springing up in their dioceses. In the ten years since Ecclesia Dei, the Fraternity of St. Peter has seen a six hundred percent growth in the number of priests (how many Orders nowadays could claim as much), and still has to turn numbers of applicants away each year from their two seminaries due to lack of space (how many seminaries have to do that, these days?). This Fraternity, the first fruits of Ecclesia Dei, is currently at work in 15 dioceses in the USA, and has 23 apostolates in Europe. Likewise, the institute of Christ the King is unable to accept all of the many applicants to its seminary at Gricigliano near Florence; whilst, in the traditional religious movement, the youth of nearly all of the religious is in marked contrast to most contemporary religious houses. We are yet to see, in England, any of these new foundations, although, over the last few years, many, hitherto unsuccessful, approaches have been made to the ecclesiastical authorities.
Given the extraordinary growth of these traditional apostolates, at a time of relative decline in the Church in the West, it is hard to understand why opposition is still encountered in many quarters, Our critics, whilst acknowledging the growth of the traditional Mass movement, and, somewhat grudgingly, the existence of liturgical plurality, nonetheless oppose us since they claim that a return to the Traditional Mass would be to deny the Council: a return to the Traditional Mass is seen as dangerous nostalgia, a wilful refusal of the gifts that the Holy Spirit has bestowed on our age, and an insult to the memory of Pope Paul VI. "You Can't Turn the Clock Back" they say, "and it would be wrong, in principle, to try". This claim of betrayal of the Council would take a whole talk or more to refute in detail: suffice to say here that I doubt if the teaching of the Second Vatican Council is taught anywhere as faithfully and systematically as in Witgratzbad and Gricigliano [The seminaries of the Fraternity of St. Peter and the Institute of Christ the King], and I wonder whether the Mass we have just assisted at, or the one that followed it, is more faithful to the teaching of Sacrosanctum Concilium? The argument about turning back the clock needs to be addressed more fully, since here we touch on the very meaning and nature of Tradition. I am sure that many Traditional Catholics have encountered this spurious logic: how often, when we tell our families, friends and fellow Catholics about the Old Mass, we are complacently informed that, however fine the idea might be, we really cannot turn back the clock. Many notable ecclesiastics are specialists in this contrived nostalgia. It reminds me of what Belloc had to say about the Proverb-Maker: "By this you may perceive that the Proverb-Maker, like every other Demagogue, Energumen, and Disturber, dealt largely in metaphor - but this I need hardly insist upon, for in his vast collection of published and unpublished works it is amply evident that he took the silly pride of the half educated in a constant abuse of metaphor. There was a sturdy boy at my school who, when the master had carefully explained to us the nature of metaphor, said that so far as he could see a metaphor was nothing but a long Greek word for a lie. And certainly men who know that the mere truth would be distasteful or tedious commonly have recourse to metaphor, and so do those false men who desire to acquire a subtle and unjust influence over their fellows, and chief among them, the Proverb-Maker" [A Path to Rome].
"You can't turn the clock back". This is another of those proverbial and wilful lies: you can, in fact, quite easily turn a clock back, and, in this country, we are legally obliged to do so once a year. There is a serious point lurking here somewhere: because what we are all working for is nothing less than turning the clock back. As Traditional Catholics we long for the return of the Old Mass: not just occasionally and infrequently by grudging permission, but widely and generously, to paraphrase our Pope. How splendid it would be if we could, indeed turn back the clock 30 or 40 years, to a time before our churches had been vandalised and when reverence reigned in our sanctuaries: to a time when bishops, priests and religious were treated with the respect their office calls for, and behaved with a dignity consonant with their calling; a time when the seminaries were full and religious congregations actually had novices: when Catholics went to Mass and confession, learnt the Faith in our Catholic schools and kept it. Is it really such a sin to pray and work for a return to such a time?
And, you know, the clock can be turned back. That Chartres pilgrimage and Mass was a small but significant illustration of this. The sight of the banners and flags of Christendom unfurled in and around that ancient shrine, the solemn chant and organ music; all this transported one back to the Middle Ages, to the ages of faith, whilst the prayerful young faces of the thousands of worshippers told us that this was the faith of our children, as well as the faith of our fathers. Of course it is not necessary to go so far afield to see examples of the clock turned back, to see how the apparently inexorable flow of history, that Dover Beach retreat from faith, can be dammed and reversed. The Cathedral in which we have just assisted at Holy Mass, is a statement in stone of the faith re-established and replanted. And when, a century ago, the Mass returned here, those who built the Cathedral sought inspiration in the Christian past for the design of this great building. The clock has been turned back here, and generations of Catholics have had their faith strengthened and supported by it.
In fact, this turning back, this return to a more Christian past is, very nearly, a universal rule of the Faith. The first account we have of the Holy Eucharist is found in the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, where the Apostle writes, in that well-known Epistle read on the Feast of Corpus Christi, "For I myself have received from the Lord (what I also delivered to you), that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread..." [1 Cor 11:23ff]. In the Latin Vulgate: 11: ego enim accepi a Domino quod et tradidi vobis. Tradidi vobis: already the concept of Tradition was being invoked by the Magisterium. We have been reflecting to-day on that fateful day ten years ago, and what has come from it. I remember that when Mgr. Lefebvre died, one allegedly Catholic pundit poured scorn on the Archbishop for his advocacy of the maxim "our future is our past". I thought at the time, and feel more strongly now, that whatever mistakes that Archbishop made in his life, he was not mistaken here. Mgr. Lefebvre was surely simply speaking axiomatically, albeit in typically colourful and paradoxical fashion: our future is our past, and our past is our future. If it is the function of the Church to preach the Good News to all creation, then it is the special task of the Magisterium to guard and defend that holy Gospel, God's revelation, delivered once and for all to the apostles. God's entry into creation in the Incarnation of His Only-Begotten Son, is the centre and pivot of all history. The Christian, whose faith and life comes from God in Our Lord Jesus Christ, receives his vocation and adoption from that moment, 1,998 years ago, when the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. In that past lies our future, and that is why our Mother the Church, whilst she progresses and grows, conserves and treasures that revelation. This approach is by no means the exclusive province of those who call themselves Traditionalists. The theological methodology of Vatican II renewal has been characterised by a self-proclaimed resourcement, a return to the sources, to Scripture and the Fathers, whilst the modern Liturgical Movement, has sought, in theory at least, to return worship to its primitive purity. Our future is truly contained in our past.
That is why you should never be ashamed to call yourselves Traditionalists. To be a Traditionalist, it seems to me, means simply that we take Revelation seriously; that we base our belief, not on the shifting sands of public opinion where so many of our politically correct contemporaries are hopelessly stranded, but on that pearl of inestimable price, the Faith that endures for ever. It is, therefore, Tradition, rightly understood, that makes us love and value the so-called 'Tridentine' Mass, and the Holy Mass that leads us to love and revere the Church's holy and living Tradition. Let me explain what I mean. The new Catechism states:
Traditionalists have been saying that for 30 years now! It is good to see that the Magisterium has finally caught up with Michael Davies! But, in all seriousness, this simply underlines the central and crucial point that, in this challenging time of post-conciliar confusion, Traditionalists have clung to the old Mass to preserve their faith, and, in preserving the old Mass have helped preserve the Faith: lex orandi, lex credendi. The new Catechism continues:
But what happens when the sacramental rites are, almost universally modified and manipulated at the whim of ministers and communities? What happens when these abuses are tolerated, then permitted, and finally encouraged and mandated? What happens when even the supreme authority in the Church does, indeed, seem, on occasion, to act arbitrarily, as, for instance, in the permission forbidding and then permitting female altar servers? What happens when the wise counsels of the new Catechism (and, for that matter, of the Second Vatican Council) are ignored? We have only to open our eyes and look around to see what happens: reality happens: the Church in the Modern World happens: The Decomposition of Catholicism, as Louis Bouyer so graphically described it. That is why our Traditionalism is so important: not just for ourselves, but for the good of the whole Church, for the maintenance of that "blended harmony" of which the Pope talks in Ecclesia Dei [§ 5a].
We are not alone in seeing and deploring this widespread disregard for the liturgical norms outlined in the Catechism, or, should I say, in perceiving how the new Catechism disregards the reality of today's liturgical anarchy. No lesser authority than Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote, in his Preface to Mgr. Gamber's La Reforme Liturgique en question: [Quoted on the cover of the English translation: The Reform of the Roman Liturgy Its Problems and Background, Una Voce Press, California, 1993].
J.A. Jungmann, one of the truly great liturgists of our century, defined the liturgy of his time, such as it could be understood in the light of historical research, as a "liturgy which is the fruit of development"...What happened after the Council was something else entirely: in the place of liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over centuries, and replaced it - as in a manufacturing process - with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product.
Conservatives often reproach us with charges of disloyalty to the Church when we presume to question aspects of the post-conciliar liturgical revolution; we have our answer in the words of Cardinal Ratzinger. His Eminence, the official guardian of true doctrine in the Church, calls the new Mass "a fabrication, a banal on-the spot product", cut off, as it is, from the organic, living process of growth and development that produced the so-called 'Tridentine' Mass. You, who have not abandoned that living and life-giving tradition should be immensely heartened by these words of the Cardinal (few Traditionalists, I think, would be so radical and incisive in their criticism of the Pauline Mass), and by the teaching of the new Catechism. At this point I would like to introduce a second, and final, quotation from Cardinal Ratzinger. Again from his Introduction to La Reforme Liturgique en question: the translation, this time, is my own. His words are so relevant for us, expressing, as they do, the reality of what we experience nowadays, and proving that this Cardinal, at least, is closely in touch with what is happening at the 'grassroots', that I have allowed myself the indulgence of a fairly lengthy quotation:
"A young priest said to me recently: "What we really need nowadays is a new liturgical movement". This was an expression of a concern which, these days, only the wilfully superficial can dismiss. What mattered to this priest was not the pursuit of new and daring liberties: what liberties, in fact, remain to be taken? Rather he felt that we need a new beginning, coming from the heart of the liturgy - in fact, what the Liturgical Movement itself wanted in its heyday, before it became involved in manufacturing texts, and making up ceremonies and forms of worship- a rediscovery of the living centre, a penetration into the very body of the liturgy, so that the new beginning should emerge from that body. The liturgical reform, as it has been carried out, has moved further and further away from this original ideal. The result has been not reanimation but devastation.On one side we have seen the sacred liturgy degenerate into a sort of show, in which an attempt is made to make religion look interesting by using fashionable follies and shallow cliches, which, for the liturgical innovators produces a fleeting success, but only serves to repel more and more those who are looking for God rather than a spiritual showmaster in the liturgy... On the other side, there is a conservation of ritual and ceremonies, which always impresses by its solemnity, but which, when carried to extremes, is ultimately unsatisfying. Of course, there remains between these two positions those priests and their parishioners who celebrate the new liturgy with respect and solemnity. But their position is undermined by the two extremes, and the lack of internal unity in the Church, in the end, at least for many, makes their fidelity look simply like their own particular type of neoconservatism. Thus a new spiritual boost is needed to make the liturgy once more for all of us a community action of the Church, and to save it from the whims of parish priests and their liturgy groups." [La Reforme Liturgique en question: Mgr. Klaus Gamber, p.6].
A spiritual boost: une nouvelle impulsion spirituelle is needed, says the Cardinal. It is my belief that the Motu Proprio 'Ecclesia Dei' has provided this boost: a boost that has been well and truly spiritualised by monasteries which have returned to the bosom of the Church and to the Mass of Ages, by the seminaries nurturing and fostering vocations in obedience to the hierarchy and immemorial teaching of the Church, by the prayers and sacrifices of the faithful, and, most of all, by the wonderful and miraculous proliferation of The Mass that Will Not Die [Title of book by Michael Davies]. In this work of renewal we all have our part to play. The Latin Mass Society is, as we know, the oldest branch of the Una Voce Movement: you can rightly be proud of your history of fidelity to tradition and loyalty to the Church: proud of your past, and ready to play your full part in the new evangelisation to which the Holy Father calls us all as a new millennium nears.
[Taken from the Latin Mass Society's August 1998 Newsletter.]