R.I.P. Dom David Nicholson, O.S.B.

I was just send notice of the passing on June 9, at the age of 89, of Dom David Nicholson, O.S.B., of Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon. Dom David was a distinguished student and teacher of Gregorian Chant and a wonderful charming man. I consider myself fortunate to have known him.

He converted to Catholicism from "Anglo-Catholicism" as a young man, attracted especially by the chant and the contemplative tradition. For decades he taught music and music history at Mount Angel Seminary and was music director of the abbey for extended periods. He studied chant in a great number of places, including an extended stay at Solesmes.

He had a marvelous sense of humor even in the hardest times. It was a great joy to him to see the revival of chant in recent years and he took great delight in helping revive it Oregon. He was a dear friend of the Dominican Community in Portland OR, where he visited many times.

I will soon celebrate a Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul. Prayers are also asked of our readers.

P.S. before someone comments on it: Fr. David was very proud of his English heritage and his friends commonly called him "Dom David" in the English style. Thus the title of this post.

Pontifical Mass in Cork at E.W. Pugin's Ss. Peter and Paul

The NLM was asked to make mention of the fact that a Solemn Pontifical Mass will be celebrated in Ss. Peter and Paul's church, Cork City, Ireland, by George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, this coming Sunday, July 12th at 11am.

The Mass will mark the opening of the 150 anniversary celebrations of the laying of the foundation stone of the church of Ss. Peter and Paul on 15 August 1859. The architect was E. W. Pugin, son of A.W.N Pugin.

Vestments in a Style of the Monastic Element of the 20th Century Liturgical Movement

There wasn't any singular style to the vestments of the 20th century Liturgical Movement of course, monastic or otherwise -- excepting insofar as it was generally true that the fuller forms of vestments were becoming more and more in evidence in the Latin rite during the 20th century. Part in parcel with that movement was the revival of the conical form of the chasuble and fuller forms of the dalmatic and tunicle; something which was particularly seen (though not exclusively seen) within the monastic context of the Liturgical Movement.

(Right: A conical chasuble in use in the late 1940's in Bruges, Belgium)

I mention all of this as recently some photos were sent into the NLM of the first Mass of one of the newly ordained Premonstratensian priests of St. Michael's Abbey in California, Fr. Claude Williams, O. Praem. I should be clear that the vestments were not specifically made for this ordination, nor Fr. Williams, but were designed and made as a gift from the CRNJ to the Fathers of the Abbey.

What particularly relates them to many of the conical vestments seen within the context of the Liturgical Movement is not only the ample cut of the chasuble, but also the pattern and style of the orphreys, and the dalmatic which is full and long in both the body and in the arms.

In my estimation, these vestments are quite superb and show the great dignity and potentiality that might be found within this form today -- and for both forms of the Roman liturgy at that.

Congratulations to Fr. Williams as well on his ordination.

Newman, Continuity and Vatican II according to Fr. Ian Ker

Fr. Tim Finigan pointed out this Catholic Herald piece today. The piece encompasses the theme of Benedict's "hermeneutic of reform in continuity" in relation to the Councils and Newman's own approach and understanding of the Church's Councils and their relationship to each other.

Fr. Ian Ker proposes that in the context of the imbalances of our own day -- which would either see the Second Vatican Council utterly rejected, or, by contrast, the effective rejection of what came before the Second Vatican Council -- Newman can offer light as a corrective influence.

Here is an excerpt.

[...] If there has been one keynote of Benedict XVI's pontificate, it has been "the hermeneutic", or interpretation, "of continuity". By that the Pope means that the post-Vatican II Church needs to be understood in continuity, rather than disruption, with the Church of the past. It is not that the Pope denies the significance of the achievements of the Second Vatican Council but that he insists that that Council did not somehow cancel out all the other Councils or constitute so radical a disruption as to be equivalent to a revolution. It is above all in this respect that I am sure that the Pope will see the beatification of Newman as being of great importance for the Church.

Newman has often been called "the Father of Vatican II" in the sense that he anticipated key themes of the Council. One thinks particularly of what the Council had to say about Revelation, the Church, the Church in the modern world, religious freedom and ecumenism. But if Newman was an innovative or radical theologian, he was so only because he was a deeply historical theologian. In his classic Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine Newman wrote: "To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant." He would say today with Pope Benedict: "To be deep in history is to cease to be a Vatican II liberal Catholic" - that is, the kind of Catholic who thinks that Vatican II represented a complete break in the history of the Church, a new dawn analogous to the Reformation as seen by Protestants.

Where Newman anticipated the Council in his theology, he was always careful not to exaggerate, not to lose his balance. It is well known, for example, that Newman championed the cause of the laity, but he never conceived of some kind of lay as opposed to clerical Church. From his study of the Greek Fathers he understood the Church to be primarily a sacramental communion, the organic community that Vatican II embraced in the two opening chapters of the Constitution on the Church. The Church was not primarily hierarchical, as post-Tridentine theology assumed, but nor was it a lay democracy. Again, for instance, Newman understood Revelation to be primarily the revealing of God in Christ rather than the revealing of doctrinal propositions, but because his theology of Revelation was personal rather than propositional that did not mean that he did not think doctrinal truths to be essential for our apprehension of God in Christ.

The mini-theology of Councils that Newman sketched out in private letters at the time of the First Vatican Council provides an invaluable hermeneutic for both Vatican II and for subsequent developments and corruptions of the Council's teachings.

The chaos and dissension that followed the Council Newman would have seen as the inevitable fall-out from a Council, especially one so far-reaching in its agenda. The result of Vatican I was the triumphalism of the extreme Ultramontanes on the one hand, and on the other hand the excommunication of Döllinger and the Old Catholic schism. Vatican II also saw the emergence of two extreme interpretations of the Council as revolutionary: on the one hand the excommunicated Lefebvre and his followers, and on the other the extreme liberals, headed by Hans Küng. As at Vatican I, the two extreme parties agreed very closely on the revolutionary nature of the Council.

Deep in history, Newman understood very clearly that Councils move "in contrary declarations.... perfecting, completing, supplying each other". Vatican I's definition of papal infallibility needed to be complemented, modified by a much larger teaching on the Church, so, Newman correctly predicted, there would be another Council which would do just that. But equally Vatican II needs complementing and modifying. Newman keenly appreciated that Councils have unintended consequences by virtue both of what they say and what they don't say. The tendency is for the former to be exaggerated, as happened in the wake of Vatican II, when one might have supposed that the Church had no other business except justice and peace, ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, and so on. But what Councils do not deal with, and therefore neglect, is also of great significance: thus Vatican II was deafeningly silent about what was to become the main preoccupation of the pontificate of John Paul II: evangelisation.

In conclusion, my prediction is that history will see Newman not only as "the Father of Vatican II" but as the Doctor of the post-Conciliar Church.

Ian Ker's John Henry Newman: A Biography, first published by Oxford University Press in 1988, was re-issued on July 3

Source: Catholic Herald Online

Metropolitan Cathedral of Edinburgh

A press release concerning Vespers at St Mary's RC Cathedral in Edinburgh on 15th August during the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe.

A photograph of Mgr Regan (centre back) and the Schola Sanctae Margaritae (AKA the Edinburgh Schola - seated) is attached for your use. Credit: Claire Hamid

The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption will be celebrating its patronal feast day with a celebration of Vêspres de la Vierge (Op.18) by Marcel Dupré. This is an exciting work for organ and Gregorian chant which will be performed by the internationally acclaimed cathedral organist, Simon Nieminski, and the Schola Sanctae Margaritae, a group which performs and promotes Gregorian chant within the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh. The event will not only be significant as the patronal feast of St Mary’s Cathedral but also as a significant 90th anniversary performance in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on the new Matthew Copley organ.

The officiant at Vespers will be the cathedral administrator, Mgr Michael Regan, who will be assisted by six coped clerics according to the ceremonies of the usus antiquior. Unfortunately His Eminence, Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien, will be out of the country in mid-August but he has kindly given his blessing to the celebration.

The work is a significant one from both a musical and liturgical perspective. It came into being when Claude Johnson, one of the original directors of Rolls Royce, chanced to be in Paris in August 1919. On the Feast of the Assumption he went to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame for Vespers. On that day the Organiste Titulaire, Louis Vierne, was replaced by Marcel Dupré, the former ceding the console to the latter for the purpose of testing his skill at improvisation. Dupré’s performance, by all accounts, did not disappoint his mentor.

So impressed was Johnson by what he had heard, that, upon his return to England, he contacted Dupré to ask how he might obtain a copy of the music. When the composer replied that the entire thing had been improvised, Johnson immediately offered a commission for their committal to paper.

Whereas during most of their history after publication they tended to be heard as a series of pieces for organ, their original place was in liturgical context. It was in 1994 that the late Dr Mary Berry CBE, Director of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, embarked upon a project to reintroduce the Versets into their proper liturgical context, recording them later that year in Notre-Dame de Paris, with Philippe Lefèbvre, Titulaire of the Cathedral at the Grandes Orgues, and David Hill on the chamber organ. (Herald: HAVPCD170). The organ is treated as a liturgical voice, taking up the reprise of the antiphon after each of the five psalms, and basing its improvisation on the melody of the original chant of the antiphon: canon, chorale etc,. The Schola and organ alternate throughout the hymn, Ave Maris Stella, the organ offering the most varied of treatments of the melody. This alternation continues throughout the Magnificat, with the organ, rather than improvising on the chant, engaging in interpreting parts of the text.

Rounded off by the concluding Preces and the Salve Regina, the whole Office comes together to provide an uplifting – even at times breathtaking – celebration of one of the major feasts in the Church’s calendar. Nothing is left out, nothing is left to chance, and every element – every voice – integrates perfectly. It will be fitting to here a work of such quality and which musically expresses the renaissance within the Church of organic development in Edinburgh for her cathedral’s patronal feast and during the world’s largest cultural festival.

Vespers will begin at 4pm and will be followed by a free organ and guitar recital at 5pm.

NLM Note: Mozarabic Series to Continue

One of the great interests of the NLM has always been to present news and essays on the various rites of the Church, and in particular the Western rites and uses.

In early May, we began a series on the Mozarabic rite, which had been temprarily laid aside simply due to the day to day business of the site.

However, I also know there was great interest expressed with regard to that series, so those readers will be pleased to know that series will now continue.

However, to help freshen one's recollection of this series, and to draw in any new readers who may not have been with us, I felt I should re-introduce it, and bring the first two installments to your attention again.

The Mozarabic Rite: Introduction

The Mozarabic Rite: The Two Missals

New Priests for the IBP

From Vannes.maville.com, in turn by way of Le Forum Cathoiique comes news of the ordination of two new priests of the Institute of the Good Shepherd in the basilica of Sainte-Anne d'Auray on July 4th.

The ordaining prelate was Msgr. Appignanesi, archbishop emeritus of Potenza, Italy.

Architecture of Catholic Milan

We are all quite accustomed to seeing the Duomo of Milan or the Basilica of St. Ambrose, but here is another Milanese church which I photographed last year, which is noteworthy for its architecture both exteriorly and interiorly -- in the case of the latter, most particularly for its painted vaulting.

While we are considering this sort of architecture, here is the church of San Babila in Milan, taken from another source:

English Translation of the Motu Proprio "Ecclesiae Unitatem"

An English translation of Ecclesiae unitatem has been released on VIS. Do note, this translation came from the Italian edition rather than the original Latin edition:

MOTU PROPRIO ECCLESIAE UNITATEM

1. The duty to safeguard the unity of the Church, with the solicitude to offer everyone help in responding appropriately to this vocation and divine grace, is the particular responsibility of the Successor of the Apostle Peter, who is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity of both bishops and faithful. The supreme and fundamental priority of the Church in all times - to lead mankind to the meeting with God - must be supported by the commitment to achieve a shared witness of faith among all Christians.

2. Faithful to this mandate, following the act of 30 June 1988 by which Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre illicitly conferred episcopal ordination upon four priests, on 2 July 1988 Pope John Paul II of venerable memory established the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" whose task it is "to collaborate with the bishops, with the departments of the Roman Curia and with the circles concerned, for the purpose of facilitating full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, religious communities or individuals until now linked in various ways to the Society founded by Msgr. Lefebvre, who may wish to remain united to the Successor Peter in the Catholic Church, while preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions, in the light of the Protocol signed on 5 May last by Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr. Lefebvre".

3. In keeping with this, faithfully adhering to that duty to serve the universal communion of the Church, also in her visible manifestation, and making every effort to ensure that those who truly desire unity have the possibility to remain in it or to rediscover it, I decided, with the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum", to expand and update through more precise and detailed norms the general indications already contained in the Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei" concerning the possibility of using the 1962"Missale Romanum".

4. In the same spirit, and with the same commitment to favouring the repair of all fractures and divisions within the Church, and to healing a wound that is ever more painfully felt within the ecclesiastical structure, I decided to remit the excommunication of the four bishops illicitly ordained by Msgr. Lefebvre. In making that decision my intention was to remove an impediment that could hinder the opening of a door to dialogue and thus invite the four bishops and the Society of Saint Pius X to rediscover the path to full communion with the Church. As I explained in my Letter to Catholic bishops of 10 March this year, the remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the field of ecclesiastical discipline, to free individuals from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. However it is clear that the doctrinal questions remain, and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church.

5. Precisely because the problems that now have to be examined with the Society are essentially doctrinal in nature, I have decided - twenty-one years after the Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei" and in keeping with what I had intended to do - to reconsider the structure of the Commission "Ecclesia Dei", joining it closely to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

6. The Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" will, then, have the following configuration:

(a) The president of the Commission is the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

(b) The Commission has its own staff, composed of the secretary and officials.

(c) It will be the task of the president, with the assistance of the secretary, to submit the principal cases and questions of a doctrinal nature for study and discernment according to the ordinary requirements of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and to submit the results thereof to the superior dispositions of the Supreme Pontiff.

7. With this decision I wish in particular to show paternal solicitude towards the Society of Saint Pius X, with the aim of rediscovering the full communion of the Church.

To everyone I address a pressing invitation to pray ceaselessly to the Lord, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, "ut unum sint".

From Rome, at St. Peter's, 2 July 2009, fifth year of Our Pontificate.

MP/ECCLESIAE UNITATEM/...VIS 090708 (800)

The new president of Ecclesia Dei, Cardinal Levada, has issued a communiqué (in Italian).

Chant Propers in full for the extraordinary form

Ok, this is amazing. It's what we've all hoped for, and perfect for weekly use in the extraordinary form. Bookmark it.