President's Briefing No. 2: International reactions to Fiducia supplicans

From the President: Pope Francis risks his authority over the blessing of irregular unions

In this second President’s Bulletin I wish to consider international reactions to Pope Francis’ recent document, issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the blessing of irregular unions (same sex unions, illicit second marriages, and so on). I considered the meaning and intentions of the document in a message to supporters of the Latin Mass Society, here. Links to documents quoted below can be found here.

See the whole message here.

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FIUV Universal Calendar Ordo 2024

  

The Federation's own Ordo, giving the Mass to be said every day of the year according to the Universal Calendar (1962), is now available as a pdf download here.

Hard copies are now available to buy in the New Year, from the LMS online shop.

The FIUV took up the publication of this Ordo when the PCED, which used to do it, ceased to exist. It is modelled on the old PCED Ordos.

Please direct corrections to 

fiuvordocomments@mailbox.org.

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Introducing: President's Briefings

In order to keep in touch with member associations and supporters, I have initiated a series of 'Briefings'. These are irregular, as they are occasioned by news items, but I am aiming at producing about one a month.

This is the first one.

From the President: in persecution, we triumph

News from the Catholic media and social media platforms is very negative, and most of our member associations are feeling pressure on their activities, due to the implementation of Pope Francis' Apostolic Letter Traditionis custodes.

I have been able to take a global view of the situation in the context of the great gathering of traditional faithful in the Ad Petri Sedem Pilgrimage to Rome and the FIUV's own General Assembly. I have heard from journalists, priests, curial officials, and Una Voce groups from South Africa to Norway, and from Japan to Peru.

One thing stands out: the Traditional Mass is not going away.

See the full Briefing here.

Sign up to receive them here.

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Gregorius Magnus 16 publishd

Gregorius Magnus 16 is now available!

See it on ISSUU, optimised for mobile devices.

Download the pdf for viewing on a screen.

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, 1966-2007

(More on the book here)

The 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.

Past issues

On ISSUU, which optimises viewing for mobile devices, the most recent editions are available here.

PDF downloads:

Gregorius Magnus 15

Gregorius Magnus 14

Gregorius Magnus 13

For more issues see here.

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Rome launch of 'The Latin Mass and the Intellectuals'

The Latin Mass and the Intellectuals: Petitions to Save the Ancient Mass 1966-2007. 

Edited by Joseph Shaw; with a Preface by Martin Mosebach.

It was launched at the Pax Liturgia Conference in Rome, 27th October 2023.

If you click on the video below it will start at 3 mins 35 secs and skip the introductory matter.

More about the book here; available from Arouca Press (in the USA) and the Latin Mass Society shop (in the UK); and Amazon.

 

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Rome Pilgrimage 2023: Photos

The FIUV was delighted to take part in the 2023 'ad Petri Sedem' Pilgrimage. I don't have any photographs of the Vespers in the Pantheon from this year, but here are the other events.

Mass in SS Celso & Julio before the procession, on Saturday.

  

This church is served by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.

FIUV General Assembly 2023

Last weekend the annual Summorum Pontificum 'Ad Petri Sedem' Pilgrimage took place, in which the FIUV participated. Following the singing of Sext in St Peter's, we had our General Assembly in the afternoon. Our General Assemblies take place every two years.

This is rather bad photo of us beginning the meeting by singing the Veni Creator Spiritus. For the first time, we allowed online participation, via Zoom, and about half of those who took part used this option. About 20 member associations attended in total, from all over the world: from Mexico to Japan, from Russia to India, from Canada to Argentina.

As well as other business, the General Assembly (re)elects the President, and members of the Council, of the Federation. Following the General Assembly, the Council (re)elects the Secretary and Treasurer, and can co-opt extra members. The Officers of the Federation are now as follows:

President, Joseph Shaw (Latin Mass Society, England and Wales)

Secretary, Andris Amolins (Una Voce Latvia)

Treasurer, Monika Rheinschmitt (Pro Missa Tridentina, Germany)

The President and Treasurer are the same as last time, but the Secretary is new: perhaps the first time we have had an officer from the Baltic States, though Mr Amolins is a long-standing member of the Council. Here he is with his national flag, outside St Peter's.

You can see the whole Council on the dedicated page of this website here.

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Walking Pilgrimage in Estonia

We've all heard about the Chartres Pilgrimage in France, the Christus Rex Pilgrimage in Australia, the Covadonga Pilgrimage in Spain, the Walsingham Pilgrimage in England, and the similar pilgrimages in the United States and Canada. But in Estonia?

Here is a nice video from last year about the walking pilgrimage from — from Urvaste to Vastseliina: a distance of 80 kilometres [50 miles] covered in three days. This year numbers were up, and forty pilgrims walked it.

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General Assembly 2023: information for members

The FIUV General Assembly GA will take place on Saturday 28th October in Rome.

Everything officers of member associations need to know about the GA and what they need to do in advance of it can be found on this page.

Participants at the FIUV GA 2019 in Rome. The 2021 GA took place online due to COVID.

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Synod on Synodality: Continental reports

The 'Continental Stage' of the Synod on Synodality has concluded, with the publication of the 'Continental Reports': they can be seen here.

Since the FIUV and the LMS asked people to contribute to the consultation process, it is interesting to see whether our voices have actually made it through to these reports. I discussed the national reports here.

The voice of Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass do emerge in two of the reports: not surprisingly, those of Europe and North America. This is not because Traditional Catholics are absent from Oceania, Asia, Africa, and South America, but because the bishops of those regions have been unwilling to allow celebrations or to acknowledge their point of view. It is worth reminding ourselves that the Traditional movement is well-established in Australia and New Zealand; there are many apostolates of the Traditional priestly institutes in Africa, notably the ICKSP in Gabon; and South America is home to the Apostolic Administration of St Jean Vianney in Campos, Brazil, the one place in the world where one can find a bishop exercising ordinary jurisdiction over a community of traditional faithful.

The reports are a reflection not only of the inputs, of course, but of the process of selection. The reports as a whole have very little to say about the liturgy.

This is what got through in the European and North American reports: emphasis mine.

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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Gregorius Magnus 15 published

Gregorius Magnus 15, Summer 2023, is now available as a PDF. 

*and on ISSUU*, optimised for mobile devices.

This issue has two appreciations of Pope Benedict XVI and a report of the most recent Summorum Pontificum 'Ad Sedem Petri' Pilgrimage in Rome, and meeting of CIEL in Rome.

Would you like to advertise? Or to contribute to future editions? Click on the links.

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The Rescript: Press Release

On Tuesday 21st February the Holy See Press Office published a Rescript confirming, for the Dicastery for Divine Worship, certain legal points in relation to the interpretation of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes.

The key point is that from now on permission for the use of a parish church for celebrations of the 1962 Missal may only be granted by the Dicastery. The Rescript makes reference to Canon 87.1 which states that bishops may lift the obligations of universal law for the good of souls in their diocese: this no longer applies, as the matter is ‘reserved to the Holy See’.

The effect of this ruling will depend on the degree to which current provision for the celebration of the 1962 Missal depends on the use of parish churches in a particular locality; the willingness of bishops to seek permission from the Dicastery for celebrations in such churches to continue; and the response of the Dicastery to these requests.

If bishops all over the world seek permission for all the celebrations of the 1962 Mass taking place in parish churches in their dioceses, the Dicastery will be faced with many hundreds of cases to consider, raising the question of the practicability of them discharging their role.

The Latin Mass Society and the FIUV would like to express its dismay that authority over a matter of such pastoral sensitivity has been centralised in this way.

Serious pastoral harm will follow if permission is not granted where alternative places of worship are not readily available for the use of communities attached to the older form of the Mass.

Instead of integrating them into parish life, the restriction on the use of parish churches will marginalise and push to the peripheries faithful Catholics who wish only to worship, in communion with their bishops, with a form of the liturgy permitted by the Church. This desire was described as a ‘rightful aspiration’ by Pope John Paul II, and this liturgy was described as representing ‘riches’ by Pope Benedict XVI.

We call upon all Catholics of good will to offer prayer and penances this Lent for the resolution of this issue and the liberty of the ancient Latin Mass.

Pray for the TLM this Lent

 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.

This initiative has the support of The Remnant newspaper, Preserve the Latin Mass, the many member associations of Una Voce International, and others.

Other language versions: French