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The Latin Mass Society of New Zealand
The Latin Mass Society of New Zealand
Una Voce Bulletin, No. 7: No new restrictions so far, but petitions in support of the TLM
16th July passes, no document emerges From the President: no new restrictions so far, but several petitions in support of the TLM. The supposedly fateful date of 16th July has come, and, unlike the Ides of March for Julius Caesar, it has gone, without incident. This was the date specified in one version of the rumour predicting new restrictions on the Traditional Mass.
As far as I know none of the rumours that went into any detail suggested that there would be a complete ban. Rather, the idea seems to have been that restrictions would be tightened on the celebration of the Traditional Mass in parish churches, or by diocesan priests. These have been the focus of previous documents, and it would be surprising if proposals along these lines were not being discussed in the Holy See. It remains to be seen if any such new document will see the light of day.
Apart from the reality that nothing normally happens in Rome in the month of August, we are no further forward in relation to these rumours than before, except in one respect: the date of 16th July stimulated a whole series of appeals to the Holy See not to take this step.
Last year I published a book on past petitions, such as the one in 1971 which apparently stimulated the English Indult the same year, which was the first opening for the licit celebration of the Traditional Mass for the benefit of the Faithful—that is, not just in private by infirm priests. It is always difficult to know if an intervention of this kind has made a difference, but perhaps it did in 1971, and it may be playing a role today.
The impression given by the petitions from Britain, America, and Mexico, is that if you ask prominent lay Catholics, and non-Catholics who take an interest in these things, what they think about the Traditional Mass, if they think about it at all, they view it in a positive way. They know it is culturally significant, a great work of art, and they probably know that it has been spiritually significant for people they know—perhaps even for themselves. They find the idea that it must be restricted to safeguard the unity of the Church baffling.
This is not surprising, but these petitions make the issue very clear. Those who are pushing for more restrictions on the Traditional Mass in Rome are not indifferent to the views of film-makers, politicians, millionaires, artists, and musicians. The Church’s apostolic work depends on their good will, and prelates meet them constantly in different contexts: when raising money, organising events, restoring churches, and so on. Prelates’ feeling that their rank makes them part of an international elite is one of the few temporal perks of the role. Sometimes, mixing with these sorts of people may tempt them to play down the hard sayings of the Gospel. On this occasion, the elite is pushing them in a much more positive direction.
The danger that there will be new restrictions on the ancient Mass has not necessarily passed. Please maintain your prayers and offerings for this intention. Indeed, it is not enough not to have more bad documents. The current legal regime is causing unnecessary suffering and division, and we will need a new document at some point to make a positive change. I have complete confidence that common sense will prevail in the longer term, but it is impossible to know what difficulties will have to be overcome first.
A young Catholic at the doorway of the Birmingham Oratory, during Mass for SS Peter & Paul celebrated in association with the Latin Mass Society’s Annual General Meeting.![]() |
Dear FIUV Members and Friends: the Summer 2024 edition of Gregorius Magnus has been published! |
See the full publication here:
https://lms.org.uk/sites/default/files/resource_documents/gregmag/summer2024web.pdf
Gregorius Magnus: biannual
magazine of the Una Voce
Federation
Dear FIUV Members and Friends: New Edition of Gregorius Magnus |
From the FIUV President, Joseph ShawGregorius Magnus 16 is now available!See it on ISSUU, optimised for mobile devices. Download the pdf for viewing on a screen. Download the high-res pdf for printing. This edition includes features on the summer’s walking pilgrimages, the TLM and the media, and a new book about the Traditional movement:The Latin Mass and the Intellectuals: Petitions to Save the Ancient Mass, 1966-2007The deadline for the next issue of Gregorius Magnus is 1st February 2024. Please let us have your local news! We want to hear from all over the world. Email president@fiuv.org.uk Would you like to advertise? Or to contribute to future editions? Click on the links. |
President’s Message
by Joseph Shaw
Welcome to a new edition of Gregorius Magnus, devoted particularly to walking pilgrimages, which have shown enormous growth this year, despite, or perhaps because of, the more hostile ecclesial environment in which we find ourselves. This edition will appear in the final days of the much-anticipated Synod on Synodality. Since the Synod will take place behind closed doors, it is particularly difficult to anticipate the general atmosphere when these words will be read. What I can say is that, whatever may happen at the Synod, the FIUV and its member associations, and in general the movement in support of the Traditional Mass, took part in the Synod consultation in a serious and sincere way, and that, as far as the diocesan, national, and continental stages went – whose reports can be read online – our voices were not entirely drowned out. In a previous edition of Gregorius Magnus, I picked out passages in some of these documents noting our concerns. The focus of the Synod seems destined to lie elsewhere, of course, and we will not be surprised if the systematic marginalisation of Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass will not capture the attention of the Synod Fathers – not forgetting the lay participants – for very long.
Nevertheless, the framing of our contributions in the reports is interesting. We have been set down, not unreasonably, as one of various ‘marginalised’ groups. We tend to be mentioned at the end of a list of disaffected groups of Catholics, such as those in illicit unions and those with same-sex attraction. Several of these reports were at pains to emphasise that we constitute a very small minority, but the same is clearly true of the other groups they mention as well. I wonder what the reaction would be if homosexual Catholics were told that they must not attend Mass in the same ecclesiastical building as respectable people, but would have to make do with the parish hall or a nearby gymnasium, as some Traditional Catholics have been told in the United States and elsewhere. What
would people say, again, if divorced and (invalidly) remarried Catholics were told that they would in future have to drive for an hour or more to attend services?
I don’t think we would need a specially convened Synod in Rome, at vast cost, to work out that such rules are ‘unpastoral’. Pope Francis would not lose any time in reminding us that the Church is a ‘field hospital’, a remedy for the sick, and not a prize for the righteous. And he would be right to do so. The Church is indeed a hospital for the sick, and this fact should focus our attention on the spiritual remedies the Church must employ, not to gratify patients’ disordered appetites but to restore them to spiritual health. The remedies certainly include the sacraments. Following the fashion in politics for medicalising disagreements, some of our opponents like to imply that Traditional Catholics are suffering from some psychological pathology, but if so, making it more difficult for us to access the sacraments, or trying to make us do so in conditions designed to demoralise us, doesn’t seem a very logical response The saying, of obscure origin, that ‘beatings will continue until morale improves’, could have been invented for our situation. Those wondering about the resilience of the traditional movement should remember, however, that this has always been our lot. Even under Summorum Pontificum, many of the Federation’s member associations faced extraordinary opposition, and even open hostility, from those charged with providing them with pastoral care. Our lay associations, religious communities, and priestly institutes were not founded to bask in the approval of bien pensant opinion or the favour of the ecclesial establishment. Our movement was formed in the grief of Catholics deprived of the liturgy they loved, and since then it has been engaged in unending difficulties, and sometimes outright persecution. However imperfect we ourselves may be, we know the value of what we are defending, and we also know that, in end, the Church will remember it too.
Qui seminant in lacrimis, in exsultatione metent.
Those who sow in tears, shall reap in joy. (Ps 125:5)
Read the full online version of Gregorius Magnus here: https://lms.org.uk/sites/default/files/resource_documents/gregmag/winter2024web.pdf
As President of the International Una Voce Federation I hereby give notice for the
XXIV STATUTORY GENERAL ASSEMBLY
to be held at
Istituto Maria Santissima Bambina, Via Paolo VI, 21, 00193 Rome
on Saturday 28th October at 3pm
Participation by Zoom will also be possible.
Delegation and Procuration
All Member Associations should be represented by a delegate, who may be accompanied by up to three other members of his member association in the General Assembly (Statutes, 6.4). The delegate shall exercise his Member Association’s vote. Any Member Association unable to send a delegate is requested to arrange for another Member Association to exercise its vote by procuration (proxy) (Statutes, 6.5).
http://www.fiuv.org/2023/04/synod-on-synodality-continental-reports.html
Europe (pdf)
67. From a fundamental point of view, it is possible to detect the link between Church and liturgy, between ecclesiology and the theology of liturgy: The liturgical dimension in the Church is a place of strong tensions. These tensions are part of a deeper tension of an ecclesiological nature. Ecclesiological tension often arises from a vision of the Church based on one’s own expectations (Italian language working group). In this context, the tensions and sufferings concerning the ancient form of the Roman liturgy should be understood, with explicit references by France, England and Wales, and Nordic countries to the pre-conciliar liturgy according to the Missal of 1962.
North America (pdf)
27. Some participants in the synodal process reported on the profound sense of suffering of those prevented from receiving the Eucharist. While there are a variety of reasons for this reality, perhaps preeminent among them is Catholics who are divorced and remarried without an annulment, and others whose objective situation in life contradicts the beliefs and teachings of the Church. Additionally, some delegates spoke of those wounded by the limitations placed on the pre-conciliar Latin rite. Unfortunately, liturgy is not always experienced as unifying. “We could find our unity in common prayer, but liturgy is one of the things that is divisive in the Church and we must break through that” (Session X Group 18).
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International Federation Una Voce (with One Voice!) has published the latest issue of Gregorius MagnusDear FIUV Members and Friends: |
From the FIUV President, Joseph ShawGregorius Magnus 15 is published!Gregorius Magnus 15, Summer 2023, is now available as a PDF. *and on ISSUU*, optimised for mobile devices. Would you like to print copies to distribute locally? You can download a print-quality pdf here. Would you like to advertise? Or to contribute to future editions? Click on the links. |
Past issuesOn ISSUU, which optimises viewing for mobile devices, the most recent editions are available here. PDF downloads: For more issues see here. |
FIUV General Assembly, 2023Advance notice for member associations: this will take place on Saturday 28th July at 3pm, at Istituto Maria Santissima Bambina, Via Paolo VI, 21, 00193 Rome. |
Support the FIUV by becoming a FriendThe Friends of the FIUV support the Federation with a regular donation. They are added to the Gregorius Magnus mailing list and we arrange regular Masses for their intentions. See more about the Friends here. |
Appeal for prayers and penances
for the Liberty of the Traditional Mass in Lent
From Una Voce International and others
Una Voce International and other organisations, groups and individuals concerned with the Traditional Latin Mass would like to appeal to all Catholics of good will to offer prayers and penances during the season of Lent, particularly for the intention: the liberty of the Traditional Mass.
We do not know how credible rumours of further documents from the Holy See on this subject may be, but the rumours themselves point to a situation of doubt, conflict, and apprehension, which is severely harmful to the mission of the Church. We appeal to our Lord, through His Blessed Mother, to restore to all Catholics the right and opportunity to worship according to the Church’s own venerable liturgical traditions, in perfect unity with the Holy Father and the bishops of the whole Church.
Una Voce International (Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce, FIUV,) https://fiuv.org
Some commentary on this project from the President can be found here.
In Domino,
|
https://lms.org.uk/sites/default/files/resource_documents/gregmag/winter2023web.pdf
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Dear friends,
It is with great pleasure that I confirm that the 11th Ad Petri Sedem pilgrimage will take place on October 28, 29 and 30, 2022.
– Friday, October 28, with our traditional Vespers at the Pantheon;
– Saturday, October 29, with our procession, preceded by a time of adoration, to Saint Peter’s Basilica for the celebration at the altar of the Chair at 11:30 a.m.;
– Sunday 30 October, with the Mass of Christ the King, our closing ceremony, at 11:00 a.m., at the parish of the Trinità dei Pellegrini.
In addition, on the occasion of this pilgrimage, as it happens every year, “Oremus-Paix Liturgique” will organize a meeting at the Augustinianum on Friday 28, 2022, during which Father Claude Barthe, Trinidad Dufourq, don Nicola Bux, Peter Kwasniewski, Ruben Pereto and Christian Marquant will intervene.
It seems to me that we should make a special effort this year to bring as many priests and faithful as possible from everywhere, and I thank you in advance for all the publicity you will able to do so that the greatest number of participants note these dates in their diaries.
Anyone who wishes can find us on our website https://en.summorum-pontificum.org/
In the meantime, I wish to assure you of my prayers, and I entrust myself to yours.
Christian Marquant.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SCHEDULE
28 October 2022, 5h30 p.m. –
Vespers, Basilica of Santa Maria “ad Martyres” (Pantheon)
29 October 2022, 9h30 a.m. –
Adoration, Basilica of San Celso
29 October 2022, 10h30 a.m. –
Departure of the Procession to St. Peter’s Basilica
29 October 2022, 11h30 a.m. –
Mass at the altar of the Chair, celebrated
30 October 2022, 11h00 a.m. –
Mass, church of the Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini
![]() |
LATIN MASS SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND |
26 July 2021
The Latin Mass Society of New Zealand, an affiliate of the International Federation Una Voce established in 1965 (FIUV), the world-wide organisation of lay faithful attached to the Traditional Latin Mass hereby endorses their statement released on 19 July 2021.
We share the disappointment expressed in that statement regarding new restrictions on the celebration and promotion of the Traditional Latin Mass as stated in the moto proprio of Pope Francis, Traditionis Custodes:
“…as sons and daughters of the Church we wish to express our sadness over the restrictions on our ability to continue to nourish our spiritual lives using parish churches, as any Catholic would like to do. If there is one thing we fervently desire, it is to be able to live a normal life without being forced to use hidden or inaccessible spaces.
We believe that the beautiful spiritual fruits of this Missal should be shared, and we pray that we can be instruments of God inside and outside the Church.
The International Federation is deeply grateful to each of the Bishops who are generously providing for the faithful attached to the ancient Mass In their dioceses and to the Priests entrusted with the care of their souls.
Una Voce groups all over the world are united in prayer, as always, with their bishops and with the Pope…”
Felipe Alanis Suarez
President
18 of July 2021
Neil A Coup
Chairman
Melda F Townsley
National Secretary