Thursday, August 30, 2007

English Usus Antiquior Varia

First, the BBC has this audio offering (Realmedia format):

From the middle of the 16th century until the 1960s Catholic mass was celebrated in what's known as the Tridentine rite - it was in Latin and it took its name from the Council of Trent where it was agreed. Then, when the Church tried to modernise at the Vatican Council in the early 60s, in came the idea of mass in modern languages - there were reforms to involve the congregation more in services too. But many Catholics remained passionately attached to the old way of doing things and Pope Benedict has now made it easier for people to hear the old-style service if they want to. The Latin Mass Society is providing training for priests who want to know how to do it. Alcuin Reid is the editor of the most recent edition of the standard manual for the rite.

Second, a statement from the Latin Mass Society at the start of their Oxford training conference:

Statement by the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales

For immediate release: Tuesday 28th August 2007


“The support and blessing that Archbishop Nichols of Birminhgam has given to our training school for priests to learn the older form of Mass is a tremendous encouragement not just for the Latin Mass Society but for the whole Catholic Church in England and Wales,” Julian Chadwick, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society said today.

Archbishop Nichols had, at his own request, opened the conference with a sung Latin Mass according the newer form. Preaching at the opening Mass, Archbishop Nichols enjoined the more than fifty clergy present to “remember that what you study here is not a relic, not a reverting to the past, but part of the living Tradition of the Church.” Present at the Mass were two other bishops noted for their support of the older form of Mass. Nichols also stated that clergy must “strive for improvements in the way the ordinary (newer) form of the Mass is celebrated.”

Chadwick said, “Archbishop Nichols has shown that generosity and welcome that Pope Benedict has asked all bishops to give to Catholics who seek to worship according to the older rites.”

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