Dowry Summer 2020, Issue N˚46 “O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England thy Dowry.”

In this issue: Editorial: Our Kin Beyond the Seas English Rule in Paris Safer-Than-Thou: The New Righteousness? Poem – The Seven Crowns A Defence of Columbus and Digital Communion: A Modern Invention From Satanic “” to Apostle of the FSSP Anniversary & LMS Annual Homily Open Letter of Appeal to Downside Abbey A Fable from the Sugarland Chronicles Parents as Primary Educators of their Children Priory Campaign Completed with £1m Raised Support Our Apostolate (N˚41, Spring 2019)

Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) Editorial: Our Kin Beyond the Seas

n America a fortnight ago, a admitted to try his vocation with the Are they truly gone young woman from one of our Redemptorists of Papa in anyway? Have they deserted us? No I parishes in England was the Islands, in far north one is remote if he lives in God. For invested with the white habit, . Two more young men we what is proximity in space when wimple and veil as a novice in a met are about to start a year of souls are estranged? Even married religious community. Anti-Covid- discernment to the sacred couples may experience this bitter 19 travel regulations prevented priesthood. And surely there must truth (lovers don’t, loving not). In family and friends from attending be many more such courageous truth, the one common dwelling is the moving and simple ceremony, young adults whose stories are not God’s holy will. Anyone entering but they were pleased to watch it known to us. this spiritual inhabitation will find it live via the Internet. A few days resounding with the songs of later, the new Sister Mari Caritas (a Friends, how comforting this new innumerable kin, regardless of Welsh and name) was exodus! On the one hand, we should physical distance, as anticipation beaming with supernatural joy mourn the flight of our daughters here below of heaven. Thank God when some of us were privileged to and sons to foreign lands, for they then, for the young people just speak with her through a video wouldn’t have needed to leave our mentioned. Please God now, let application. shores if they had found what their many more be called! Let many souls sought among our few more listen! Let many more answer! A few weeks earlier, another young remaining English monasteries, As to those whom God destines to woman from our youth group in convents, and seminaries. On the rebuild his kingdom through London also became a novice at a other hand, we must thank God founding families, let them take Benedictine Abbey in America. Who provided them with solutions heart at the examples of two more Divine Providence allowed those to answer their calling, albeit of our young couples who, through two generous women to reach their abroad. It wouldn’t be the first time much anxiety and after many religious havens last February just that British youths received prayers, were married this summer before the Covid-19 calamity would religious formation beyond the seas. despite fierce anti-Covid-19 rules, close harbours and ground aircraft. Under penal times, dozens if not and now expect their first children. Less fortunate, three more young hundreds of our best youths flew to women from our youth groups were the Continent, to , to the Friends, those various youths are set to visit American convents Spanish Netherlands, to Italy and the sparks of Catholic England. earlier this year, and sadly were for the sake of religious They are the ones rebuilding the prevented by the pandemic from training. God rewarded their waste land. Let us pray and sacrifice doing so. But they will not be sacrifice within the same generation for more. Let us encourage those deterred any longer, please God. as many of those young and discerning. Let us comfort those not Meanwhile, another two young monks died as martyrs, healing finding. If the world seems to us women of our same groups joined English soil with their innocent bleak, barren, or even hostile, let us two convents in Italy. blood, sometimes shortly after their retreat into the holy will of God, the return home. Within a few more only safe and blissful dwelling. Let Yet another one came from abroad generations, once the Church was us abandon ourselves to the Lord to Cornwall to try her vocation in a allowed again in this realm, our who made our country great Carmel in this country. Only daughters came back in the persons through his grace, once, and ‘whose yesterday, a young Englishman flew of their own spiritual progeny, gifts and calling are without to Germany to enter our when holy flotillas of women repentance’ (Rom 11:29). international seminary in Bavaria, religious sailed for Mary’s Dowry for a total number of six with humble determination, hailing seminarians from the UK in at the white cliffs of Albion more formation with our Fraternity. Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, jubilantly than the Conqueror of Superior of the English FSSP Another young man, also from our old. Thus, our daughters will come Apostolate, 25th September 2020. □ youth group in London, was back, and our sons.

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) English Rule in Paris

hese paintings depict exile English Augustinian nuns at a Paris convent in 1729. Nicolas de Largillière who had T famously painted both Louis XIV and James II was commissioned for this triple portrait. The three nuns belonged to the same recusant family, the Throckmortons. Their pictures were placed prominently alongside a contemporaneous Largillière portrait of Robin, by now fourth baronet and family head, in the family seat at Coughton Hall.

Anne Frances Throckmorton (top) was Prioress of the English Augustinian Convent of Notre-Dame-de-Sion, in Paris. Elizabeth Throckmorton (middle) was the daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court. She joined the convent where her Aunt was a member as a schoolgirl aged 14. In 1714 she took her vows with her sister Mary. Although not always in good health, Elizabeth Throckmorton was twice elected Abbess and her death was recorded as a great loss to the community. Her interest in reading and study is emphasised by the book in her hand. She died in 1760.

“The education of the Throckmorton daughters and their cousin Anne Woollascott is detailed in letters sent by their aunt, Sister Anne‐Frances, to their father Sir Robert. The girls attended the school attached to the English Augustinian Convent of Our Lady of Sion in Paris where Anne‐Frances was novice mistress and later prioress. Attending school at a young age was common among Catholics and so it likely had a formative effect on their behaviour”.

Now run by the National Trust, the Coughton estate in Warwickshire has been in the Throckmorton family since 1409. The Throckmortons and Coughton Court have since the Reformation been notable in their deep and continuous adherence to the Catholic faith, in spite of the costs (cf Marriage Choice and Kinship among the English Catholic Elite, 1680-1730, by K.L. Gibson, 2016, Sheffield University - http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/97692/19/Author%20Accepted%20Cat holics.pdf). Catholic priests were hidden at the house and Mass continued to be celebrated there in the Tower Room, which one can still visit.

History scattered the paintings far and wide: Aunt Anne Frances Throckmorton’s remained at Coughton Court, Warwickshire; but Niece Elizabeth Throckmorton’s is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; while Cousin Frances Woollascott’s (bottom) ended up in the Art Gallery of South , Adelaide. While on earth, the exile nuns remained closely united with their relatives in England through letters and prayers. We still have every reason to rely on their intercession for us, their spiritual kin in Our Lady’s Dowry. □

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020)

Safer-Than-Thou: The New Righteousness?

By Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP

t has been six months since faces of our friends, colleagues, or many more people than will be unprecedented restrictions were mere pedestrians? When will masks saved by prophylaxis. Nevertheless, I imposed on the citizens of become unnecessary? most citizens comply dutifully with Great-Britain to counter the Covid- the norms imposed to counter the 19 virus. Half a year is a long time. Even more than in wartime, threat. Restrictions were partly eased in restrictions to fundamental liberties August, but as we write a new peak apply and even increase, allegedly And yet, government figures tell us in Covid-19 cases led local to protect the British population that less than 0.1% of the entire authorities to further limit from the Covid-19 virus. The British population have died from movement and gatherings. Many negative impact of such measures the virus since its beginning last people think: Not again! Not so on the economy, on mental well- March. You read correctly, not 10% soon! When will it end? When will being and, most important, on the of the population have died. Not 1% we be able to socialise normally, to religious life of the nation is has died. Not 0.1% has died. All go about our lives and make plans? enormous. Authorised voices warn UK Covid-19 deaths amount to To shake hands or to hug? When about the societal impact of the 0.062% of the total population (cf. will we simply be allowed to see the antiviral measures, which will harm latest Government figures accessed on 19th Sept. 2020). By comparison, the leading cause of death in the UK in 2018 was dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, accounting for 12.7% of all deaths registered. Even if doubling up the number of Covid- 19 deaths recorded over the past six months (so as to provide us with an estimate over a one-year span rather than half a year), the number of British people having died of Covid-19 would still be 102 times less than those having died of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. According to Government statistics last June Covid-19 ranked similar to heart and lung diseases among causes of death, well below Alzheimer’s. In addition, most of the Covid-19 deceased were 70 years of age or more, so that statistically they were very likely to have died within a year of some other cause. Sad as their passing is, and while sympathising with their families, based on yearly population records they can hardly be counted as unexpected casualties. This is very different from the Spanish Flu in 1918/1919, which targeted young adults in their 20s. 4

Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020)

Furthermore over the past six months, twice as many British people have died from abortion as from Covid-19. Yes, you heard correctly, for each person who died of Covid-19 since last March, twice as many persons have died of abortion. Abortuaries were among the very few facilities allowed to remain open during lockdown, unlike churches. Those deaths by abortion were not caused by ageing or sickness; on the contrary, they were inflicted upon people who had every expectation to live.

Anyone will admit the discrepancy between the very low mortality rate of Covid-19 and the colossal curtailing of basic liberties worldwide. Why such discrepancy? Flu a century ago, that is, 2.7% of collectively and individually. The Who knows the answer? Who will the world population (which natural and divine intermediaries make sense of it? In addition, amounted to 1.8 billion at the time). between God and soul such as the anyone should see the contradiction Nowadays, about 57 million people family, the village, the and between the immense imposition on die every year in the world. But the fatherland are actively the country to counter Covid-19, over the past half a year, only 0.9 undermined. This weakening of and the total absence of concern for million deaths were recorded in institutions makes each person less the twice as many victims dying of connection with Covid-19 protected, hence more vulnerable to abortion daily. Why then is Covid- worldwide, amounting to only manipulation, intimidation, and 19 presented as if it were the major 0.012% of the world population perversion. Souls forget God and threat on the population, justifying today (7.8 billion today). their last ends; sin is glorified; and unprecedented suspension of basic humanity is artificially modified. Is liberties? While taking proportionate this not a much, much direr threat precautions against Covid-19, how It is nowhere near as deadly as the than the virus that killed 0.012% of are we Catholics to understand this the population? Is not the harm Spanish Flu. Then, a century ago, situation? We cannot help notice “Young adults between 20 and 30 done to society and souls that the universal call to holiness enormously greater? years old were particularly affected seems to have been changed into a and the disease struck and universal call to safety. Even in One wonders what author C.S. progressed quickly in these cases. Catholic circles, righteousness, or Lewis (pictured above) would have Onset was devastatingly quick. superciliousness rather, seems to written about this situation, perhaps Those fine and healthy at breakfast shift from holier-than-thou to safer- in a further chapter of his Screwtape could be dead by tea-time. Within than-thou. Some pastors enforce Letters if the book had been hours of feeling the first symptoms anti-Covid-19 regulations with a published today rather than during of fatigue, fever and headache, sense of civic duty that one would WWII (1942). In this epistolary some victims would rapidly develop love to see demonstrated in novel, the senior demon Screwtape pneumonia and start turning blue, promoting moral safety. Indeed, the teaches his nephew Wormwood, a signalling a shortage of oxygen. real safety is sanctity. Sanctity? junior Tempter, how best to entrap They would then struggle for air Who praises it? Who remembers it? human beings. One could imagine until they suffocated to death. A Alas, we must admit that divine and the following update: quarter of the British population natural laws are trampled upon, were affected and 228,000 died in especially in the western world, as “My dear nephew, you complain Britain alone.” Worldwide, over 50 never before. This affects us that leading humans into sin is million people died of the Spanish much more difficult during the

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) present Covid-19 lockdown, hit by it last spring. The risk of saving truths through active care for because early closure of bars and contamination does exist. Taking our neighbours’ concrete needs? nightclubs reduces promiscuity, proportionate precautions against it while face-covering makes is morally good. Those can involve In the Holy Bible, the ‘face’ of man allurement much less effective. You such steps as sanitizing, face- or of God is often synonym with are wrong. Can’t you see that the covering and social distancing. Last ‘presence’. On Mount Horeb, “The current virus could be turned into a month we advertised on our website Lord would speak to Moses face to timely diversion from man’s moral a series of face-masks upon which face, as one speaks to a friend” obligations? No man will boast of very eloquent Catholic symbols (Exodus 33:11). “Whenever Moses acting against his conscience, but were depicted, including a medal of went in before the Lord to speak all will adopt civic precepts that St Benedict and Our Lady of with Him, he would remove the veil conceal the elephants in the room, Guadalupe (cf two examples until he came out.” In the New namely, their sins to confess and displayed in this article, from Testament, St Paul writes that, “We their souls to reform. redbubble.com). From the are not like Moses, who would put a beginning, we priests have veil over his face to keep the “We could display the Covid-19 encouraged caution and awareness Israelites from gazing […]. virus as a threat that we would within our flock. Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, control and inflate at will. The the veil is taken away” (2 Co threat would evolve weekly and demand of everyone a constant updating of their social behaviour and a reassessing of domestic and professional rules. A new righteousness would thus be promoted to reward those abiding by the safety scheme. While its true moral value would be superficial, it would provide all with clearly identified criteria of honourability such as: 1) wearing a mask, 2) washing one’s hands, and 3) social distancing. Most humans would adopt those three commandments, so much simpler to obey than God’s Ten Commandments. Contraveners would be immediately sanctioned as complicit in the threat. Compliers Our purpose here is different. The 3:13;16). Dear friends, while taking would be honoured without needing point is to examine our souls and to reasonable precautions in in any way to reform their lives check the order of precedence. Do proportion with the viral threat, let morally. Meanwhile, the real social we acknowledge that the soul is us Catholics display our hearts and spiritual cancer would be more than the body? Truly? If so, unmasked to God and neighbour. allowed to spread further: abortion, do we protect our souls even more Let us fear sin far more than germs. contraception, adultery, carefully than our bodies? Do we do Better than safe, let us be . pornography, inversion, genetic our utmost to support people around Wider than gel, let us spread grace. engineering, primary sexual us through caring for their own Let us pray for our countrymen, that initiation classes, Sunday working, souls? If our souls are contaminated they may seek God’s kingdom and religious indifferentism, and more. by sin, do we urgently seek his justice first, and every other Needless to say, most of those absolution from the priest before goods and blessings will follow. involved would feel as if acting in Holy Communion? Do we train our May Our Blessed Lady guide us all good faith.” souls in daily prayer? Do we muscle through these difficult times, as up our intellect through hearing loyal fellow-citizens on earth, and Dear friends, we know there is such sound Catholic conferences or already as citizens of heaven, where a virus as Covid-19. For example, reading good books on theology and we belong; where we are called. □ our seminary in Bavaria was badly spirituality? Do we implement these

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) Poem – The Seven Crowns

By Victor Britton

Again I heard the Psalmist sing A crown of mystery then came another tune for Heaven's King from that most blessed noble dame and in that song I caught the sight Of roses fifty top the piece of seven crowns of royal light and over that the cross of peace and ask I to the Virgin Queen and on the cross, as noble jew'l and all the hosts that shine unseen the Star of David's holy rule to grant me words both wise and fair But born it was by humble head to honour David's holy Heir that used a manger for a bed and call to mind what saw my heart A man, a lamb, a vine, a loaf, through Poetry's most noble Art a light to guide us from the wolf

A crown of stars I saw at first A crown of thorns I when all was made as from a burst saw in tears when God created through his Word between the from water's fish to heaven's bird wicked's laughs and Then Sun and Moon adorned his head cheers as jew'ls more bright than rubies red A crown of pain, of The stars, the Earth, both mount and ford sin, of hate, bowed down before th' Eternal Lord the husband's hand, and all Creation sang with glee the sword of State, the coming of Reality the lover's oath, the arrows hurled, A crown of wreaths of evergreen the blood that flows in garden first always pristine from all the world, I saw that day when Mankind fell the jealous rage, the from mountain top to lowest dell cheater's gaze, What sad reprise, what sad reprise the thieving eye, the we have each day before our eyes wicked phrase of that one moment of regress All that I saw, upon the head when Satan called and Eve said yes th But God then promised to us all (18 century Coptic Ethiopian crown with of He whose blood that One would yet undo the Fall Twelve Apostles and Four Evangelists, V&A.) revives the dead

A crown of waves then felled the fold to doom and wipe out horrors old A crown of glory from the sky The One in ire snuffed out the seed I see before my weary eyes, of all that were of evil deeds of hope, of light, of ever youth, But one He kept to keep His Name of song, of joy, of holy Truth and everlasting is his fame A crown engraved upon the chest What sorrow fell to our blue Earth! of those who eat of bread the best but in that sorrow hope gave birth A song it is, a holy hymn, to Abraham and Israel that turns to light all that is dim, and from them both Emmanuel and brings about the final chord when all the world will praise the Lord A crown of flames I saw alight on mountain top, a fire bright, I tremble with the sight sublime when Moses gave to Jacob's tree that cannot be defined in rhyme the Law of the Divinity The time will come when seven hosts and Israel was born anew will come together for the toast and there proclaimed that which they knew When Heaven's Lord, upon the clouds, that Lord there was of mount and sea will make unveiled all under shroud and all of which the eye could see and under light of golden hue But fall they did, as did the Land He everything will make anew and then the Lord stretched out his hand [↑] Let's pray then for Who loves us most, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. □ 7

Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) A Defence of Columbus and Christendom

By Dr. Matteo Salonia, an Assistant Professor in European and International History at the University of Nottingham Ningbo.

ow are Catholics to make Columbus, and more importantly regions that had nothing to do with sense of the violent the civilization that he represents: the Chinese empire, even as late as H iconoclasm that we have Christendom. the 19th century. One of the reasons recently witnessed in squares and for BLM’s selective memory is streets across the United States and The first observation that I invite surely the desire to reduce History Europe? When we see statues of you to make is that the Black Lives (which is messy, contradictory and saints like Junipero Serra being Matter movement seems to be very even paradoxical) to a simplistic, vandalised and removed, we know selective in its outrage and two-dimensional narrative of that an anti-Catholic sentiment is condemnation of imperialism: the oppressors and oppressed. A key motivating these acts. But what only imperialism that this movement clue to the uses of such a narrative about statues of men whom we is interested in is European comes from the official website of know were pious Catholics, yet have imperialism. Yet, world history is BLM and many of the statements not been declared saints by the characterised by the rise and fall of from its leaders: this is a Marxist Church? Should Catholic be hundreds of empires across the organization, and as such its end bothered by the systematic attack globe. Surely, the Aztec empire was goal is the destruction of against Christopher Columbus? not a peaceful political project, and , of the traditional Here I will attempt to briefly sketch what today we carelessly call family, and of private property three lines of defence with regard to “China” is actually the product of rights. And what is the one centuries of violent expansion into civilization in world history that was born of Christianity, affirmed the sacredness of monogamous marriage, and spread around the world market institutions? Christendom, of course. To be clear: here I am not suggesting that massacres and injustices do not matter when committed by Christians; rather, I am suggesting an explanation for BLM’s apparently inexplicable conflation of Western civilization and injustice, as if only Western civilization had committed atrocities and built empires.

The second line of defence that I would recommend to readers is the following. Christendom did have something unique, but this was not violent colonialism: instead, it was a spirit of self-criticism coming from the Christian idea that each human being has dignity, because he/she is made in the image of God. So, while it is important to study the crimes

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) committed by Europeans in the course of colonial expansion (and I myself regularly teach and publish research about some of these crimes), it is even more important to realise that the moral compass with which we judge massacres and conquests, with which we defend the oppressed and seek justice for the poor, is itself coming from the religious and philosophical treasures given by Christianity, and which have been unique to Western civilisation for a very long time. Let’s see an example of this with Columbus and Spanish empire- building. As soon as the Spanish Queen, Isabela, received the news of slaves being brought to Seville from used by the churchmen who is that Columbus wished to become the ‘Indies’, her conscience was defended the American ‘Indians’ in friend with the native Taino people torn, so much so that she stopped the 16th century would later be whom he first met. His core desire the selling of these poor souls and picked up again by the abolitionists was not to murder innocent people ordered a committee of theologians who in the 19th century brought the or to enrich himself but rather to and legal scholars to look into the Atlantic slave trade to an end. What gather enough gold or open up a question. The committee, as early as is difficult to appreciate for us is the trade that would fund a crusade to 1500, outlawed the enslavement of fact that these arguments for finally liberate Jerusalem. With peaceful ‘Indians’ in the Americas. freedom that we take for granted regard to the violence taking place Of course, laws and legal decisions were unheard of without Western in Hispaniola, one has to consider penned in Spain were hardly applied civilisation. that Columbus was a Genoese with and respected on the other side of a Portuguese background, and as the Atlantic, but Christian Thirdly and finally, a few words early as his second voyage he had cosmology was impossible to specifically on Columbus. We do lost control of the Spaniards, who silence. A few years later, on not have statues of Columbus despised him. Moreover, historians Christmas 1511, a Dominican friar because we consider him a human like Francisco Guerra have named Antonio de Montesinos used rights philosopher, but rather demonstrated that diseases (not his homily in front of the Spanish because he was one of the greatest violence) were killing most of the colonial elite living on the island of navigators to ever live, and his native (and Spanish) population, and Hispaniola to accuse his countrymen enterprise changed the history of the these started as early as 1493 with a of evildoing and gratuitous violence world and deserves to be part of our swine influenza. There would be against the natives – crimes that collective memory. Moreover, while much more to say about Columbus, would have made them end up in Columbus was not a perfect man, his courage and his flaws, his Hell. Montesinos then refused to the accusations of genocide levelled stubbornness and his piety. But even give sacraments to such evil men against him are untenable and from this brief historical sketch it unless they repented and stormed slanderous. The word genocide seems clear that history is too out of the church. This was the start means the deliberate, planned, complex to fit simplistic political of an extraordinary and long human intentional extermination of a narratives, and that Catholics should rights campaign – led by churchmen people. Neither Columbus nor the have the patience to join the public like Bartolomé de Las Casas and Spanish Crown committed such a debate and defend both Columbus Pope Paul III – which would last for crime. In fact, as explained also by and his civilization, Christendom, decades and would force the non-Catholic scholars like Carol which gave to today’s world much Spanish Crown to abolish forced Delaney, if one bothers to read the of its hitherto unthinkable moral labour for ‘Indians’ in the colonies. historical documents in their compass. □ Crucially, some of the arguments entirety, what emerges quite clearly

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) Digital Communion: A Modern Invention

By Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP

Introduction What is digital Communion? Is it which gave our English word digit about receiving Holy Communion (whence also the IT meaning of the rom Lent to summer 2020, online, as some people wished could same word digit: “any of the for fear of a virus, guidelines be the case with sacramental numerals from 0 to 9, especially F forbade the faithful to absolution of sins? No, digital when forming part of a number, receive Our Lord in the Sacred Host Communion has nothing to do with following the practice of counting (or from the Chalice). Being the Internet (even though its on the fingers”). deprived of sacramental appearance in the Communion, people got used to coincided with that of the first spiritual communion instead. In personal computer some fifty years No fingers ever involved spiritual Communion, those in state ago). Digital Communion is a of grace commune from a distance modern invention; it never existed Why a new expression, then? with Our Lord in the Sacred Host, in Christian antiquity. It is when one Digital Communion, you may think, without consuming the Host or even takes the Sacred Host with one’s merely describes Communion on the touching it. But it is a third type of fingers and puts it into one’s own hand. If this were the case, there Eucharistic Communion that we mouth. We call it digital because would be nothing new to add, since would like to examine here. We call digital is the adjective derived from you were told that Communion on it digital Communion. the word digitus, a finger in Latin, the hand had always existed.

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020)

Communion on the hand, you learnt, was used by early Christians.

So we assumed, like you did, until we read the short but enlightening study by a bishop from Asia. This little book is called Dominus Est: It is the Lord (2008, Newman House Press), by Bishop , the Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference in . Holding a doctorate in Patristics from , the author studied intensively the Fathers of the Church who tell us how things were done in early Christian centuries. In short, Bishop Schneider proves that never did our Christian forefathers (Pictures: Fra Angelico’s Last Supper; First Mass of Fr Seth Phipps, FSSP) take the Sacred Host with their fingers to put it into their mouth. For a few centuries, in some regions, the the thing. And this seemed reverence and the gratuitous gift Sacred Host was laid by the priest disrespectful toward the Sacred Host from God communicating Himself into the right hand of the who is God Himself. Only the priest truly to us under the externals of a communicant (her hand veiled if a celebrant at Mass consumes the little piece of bread. These early woman). The right hand was Sacred Host from his own fingers, Christians knew very well that the deemed nobler than the left one. At because he has just consecrated the presence of God in the Host is not Holy Communion the communicant Sacred Species. The celebrant is the imaginary or merely symbolic; but would bow his head low towards his only one acting in the Person of on the contrary, that it is true, real right palm and would receive the Christ as of the Holy and substantial. They knew that Sacred Host directly with his lips Eucharist. This enables him to act from by the priest and tongue, without using his later on as distributor of the same onwards, no bread whatsoever is left fingers at all. In his latest book sacrament, by virtue of his identity on the altar, but only the mere Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph as “sacerdos”, literally, “the one externals of bread. Similarly, they over the Darkness of the Age who gives the sacred”; and in direct knew that from Consecration by the (Angelico Press, 2019), Bishop fulfilment of Christ’s mandate to his priest onwards, no wine whatsoever Athanasius Schneider describes apostles in the multiplication of the is left in the chalice, but only the palm-to-mouth Communion as loaves prefiguring Holy mere externals of wine. follows: “[T]he practice had a Communion: “give you them to eat” Furthermore, time and again the different form in ancient times than (Mt 14:16). Traditionally, priests Fathers of the Church drew attention it does today: the Holy Eucharist attending Holy Mass wouldn’t to the fact that even small fragments was received on the palm of the receive Holy Communion from their of a Sacred Host are the Lord. Each right hand and the faithful were not own fingers, but on their tongue fragment is God, literally. Using allowed to touch the Holy Host with from the priest celebrant. This is directly one’s lips and tongue to their fingers, but they had to bow still the case for newly ordained consume the Sacred Host lying on down their head to the palm of the priests who receive Holy one’s palm was thus also more hand and take the Sacrament Communion on the tongue from the secure than using one’s digits, since directly with their mouth, thus, in a bishop at their Mass of in small fragments adhering to the position of a profound bow and not the traditional form. palm would then be consumed as standing upright.” well rather than be lost on Thus, rather than digital fingertips. Out of reverence for the Why this? The reason is that using Communion, our Christian Lord, the Fathers of the Church also one’s fingers to seize something forefathers in antiquity chose a insisted strongly on the washing of denotes authority and power over gesture that to them best expressed

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) hands necessary before such places for a few centuries. Already Communion from another – namely Communion in the palm. in the first millennium, in many the priest, standing for Christ – places Holy Communion directly directly into our mouth teaches us From palm to digital into the mouth had become the that we must aspire to spiritual Communion norm. The Church had learnt from childhood to be made acceptable to experience that it was safer for the God. Thus, we Catholics need to be more Sacred Host, and also more precise nowadays when speaking of reverent. The posture of adults being But if hand Communion has always ‘Communion on the hand’. fed to their mouths shows very meant in reality Communion from Referring merely to ‘Hand clearly that they are children before one’s palm, not from one’s digits, Communion’ is too vague. For, God. It is not childish, but childlike. where does digital Communion what is a hand? The hand consists of Avoiding childishness, Christian come from? In other words, if hand the palm and the five digits (the four adults should emulate childlikeness. Communion was ever only palm-to- fingers and the thumb). Communion The Lord Jesus warned us: “Amen I mouth Communion, who started from one’s digits never existed i say to you, unless you be converted, digits-to-mouth Communion? Holy anywhere at any time in the Church. and become as little children, you Church did not invent digital Communion from one’s palm to shall not enter into the kingdom of Communion. John Calvin did. A one’s mouth did exist in some heaven” (Mt 18:3). Receiving Holy minor cleric in sixteenth-century France, poor John Calvin (1509– 1564) lost his Catholic faith. He thought that the Sacred Host was just a piece of bread. (Notably though, Calvin denied adulterers such ritual bread.)ii Calvin assumed that the eyes of his soul were not capable of seeing further than the eyes of his body. Because our eyes of flesh see only bread at Holy Mass, poor John Calvin decided that the Sacred Host was not Jesus, but only a sign of the love of God feeding us spiritually. When he started his own Calvinist sect, Calvin was consistent. He granted communicants freedom to handle the bread and wine as they preferred, provided it was not kneeling and on the tongue: “In regard to the external form of the ordinance, whether or not believers are to take into their hands and divide among themselves, or each is to eat what is given to him: whether they are to return the cup to the or hand it to their neighbour… is of no consequence”.iii In Calvinist Geneva, people got used to walking to the “table” and, standing, to take up the elements with their own hands. Calvin knew that receiving kneeling and on the tongue expressed the reality of the divine

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) presence. To fit his lost Eucharistic faith, Calvin suppressed these traditional gestures of reverence. Claiming to return to the original mode of Communion in force in the early Church, that is, palm-to-mouth Communion, Calvin invented digital Communion instead. But by then, sadly, he had already left the Church.

Let us quote further Bishop Schneider’s book Christus Vincit: “[T]he faithful take and touch the Host directly with their fingers and then put the Host in the mouth: this gesture has never been known in the entire history of the Catholic Church but was invented by Calvin — not even by Martin Luther. The Lutherans have typically received the Eucharist kneeling and on the tongue, although of course they do not have the Real Presence because they do not have a valid priesthood. The Calvinists and other Protestant free churches, who do not believe (Pictures: Anonymous Portrait of John Calvin; Princess Grace Kelly receives Holy Communion during her nuptial Mass.) at all in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, invented a rite which is void of almost all gestures digital communion to the bread, presence of Christ in the Most Holy of sacredness and of exterior only palm-to-mouth. Sacrament of the Altar. adoration, i.e., receiving ‘Communion’ standing upright, Adopting the Calvinist gesture of and touching the bread ‘host’ with Communion was not at all a their fingers and putting it in their Permitted by the Church unanimous decision within the mouth in the way people treat Catholic Church. On the contrary, ordinary bread.” To help us Fifty years ago the Catholic Church when Paul Pope VI asked all the visualise the difference between borrowed this novel rite of digital bishops in the world if they wished palm-to-mouth Communion and Communion from the founder of digital Communion to be digits-to-mouth Communion, let us Calvinism. We say this with respect, introduced, 567 said yes, but 1233 remember St Isaac Jogues (1607– acknowledging it is nothing said no. Thus, two and a half more 1646). He was a courageous Jesuit personal: we all know fellow voted against digital Communion. in North America. The Catholics who strive for holiness One wonders how many among ferocious Iroquois Indians tortured while abiding by this new rite of those who supported the proposal him, cutting off most of his digits. Communion, in obedience to their knew that it was not the rite of If, God forbid, Fr Jogues had lost pastors’ preferences, or because antiquity. Had they known, would his Eucharistic faith like poor John they assume that early Christians they have approved it? This Calvin did earlier, he would have did so. Our purpose then is not to consultation was completed by been unable to seize the host in his pass judgment but to state an March 1969 as reported in the digits after the Calvinist invention, historical fact. We should not fear Instruction Memoriale Domini, because his digits were no more. examining it, especially as it which logically concluded against For him there could have been no pertains to the most sacred reality in the innovation: “Therefore, taking the world, that is, the salvific into account the remarks and the

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) advice of those whom ‘the Holy Host with his own fingers: it seems Sacred Host on the tongue of the Spirit has placed to rule over’ the inaccurate to call this method communicants. Of course, no lay Churches, in view of the gravity of “traditional” if one follows Bishop minister was ever allowed to the matter and the force of the Schneider’s account showing how distribute Holy Communion at arguments put forward, the Holy digital Communion was invented Mass. Outside of Holy Mass, in Father [Pope Paul VI] has decided outside the Church in the sixteenth times of persecution for instance, not to change the existing way of century. Since then, as we know when all priests were dead or administering holy communion to well, digital Communion was imprisoned, the laity were allowed the faithful.” allowed in the New Rite of the to rescue the Blessed Sacrament and Mass. Of course, Holy Mother to bring it to the people. A witness Paradoxically, an annexe to the Church has the authority to regulate to this heroic tradition is St same document allowed digital the Eucharistic rites: this point is not Tarcisius who was put to death Communion where it had been questioned. But the fruits of such a rather than give away the Blessed started without permission: “With change and the way it was Sacrament he was carrying in secret. regard to the manner of introduced call for examination. Pope St Damasus I rightly praised administering the sacrament, one the young martyr: “When an insane may follow the traditional method, Even so, digital Communion is not gang pressed saintly Tarsicius, who which emphasized the ministerial the norm but a mere permission. was carrying the sacraments of function of the priest or deacon, in The norm is still to receive Holy Christ, to display them to the having them place the host in the Communion on the tongue, also in profane, he preferred to be killed hand of the communicant. One may the New Mass. In the traditional and give up his life rather than also adopt a simpler method, Mass, there is only one way, and betray to rabid dogs the heavenly allowing the communicant himself that is on the tongue. As to the body”. to take the host from the ciborium.” minister of Holy Communion during (Memoriale Domini, Annexe 4.) Holy Mass, Bishop Schneider Let us recapitulate: never did Bishops availing themselves of this teaches that it always and ever had communicants seize the sacred host tolerance were to report on the to be a priest. Not even a deacon with their fingers to put it in their experiment six months later, by the was allowed to give the Sacred Host own mouth. Only the priest end of the year 1969. Please note during Holy Mass. could celebrant at Mass would do so, then that what is described as “the help with distributing the Sacred acting in the Person of Christ. Using traditional method” is in actual fact Blood when Holy Communion was one’s fingers denotes power and digital Communion, that is, the given under both kinds. But only the (Picture: St Tarcisius, by Alexandre communicant seizing the Sacred priest, not the deacon, could put the Falguière ca. 1880, MET, New York)

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020)

authority over God. This was felt of eight descriptions then (four for they are forgiven them; and whose unbefitting for the communicant and the Host and another four for the sins you shall retain, they are unsafe for the brittle sacrament. Chalice), six do not mention the retained” (Jn 20:22). No Evangelist, verb ‘take’ in the Greek original. neither St Paul, mentions ‘taking’ At the Last Supper Only two do so, St Matthew and St for the chalice at the Last Supper. Mark, using the same Greek verb Thus, as we see, six times out of Let us now ask ourselves how Holy ‘labēte’ (imperative, second person eight (equivalent to 75% of cases), Communion was administered the plural) which can be translated as there is no mention of taking Holy very first time, namely, by Our Lord ‘take’ or as ‘receive’.iv This word Communion, either from the Host or to his apostles at the Last Supper in occurs seven times in Holy from the Chalice. In the two Jerusalem. Numerous ancient Scripture, always in the New occasions when the Greek verb mosaics and parchment Testament. Significantly, the very ‘labēte’ is used for the Sacred Host, illuminations depict Our Lord same verb is translated as ‘take’ it allows for opposite meanings: administering the Sacred Host when the intention is sacrilegious; take if sacrilegious, or receive if directly into the mouths of his but it is translated as ‘receive’, when pious. apostles. This was the assumed the intention is pious. Thus in St mode of the very First Holy John’s Gospel on Good Friday: This is not enough to rule out every Communion ever, even though in “When the chief priests, therefore, possibility of the apostles having this case the communicants were and the servants, had seen him, they seized the Sacred Host with their clerics and even bishops, just cried out, saying: Crucify him, own fingers to bring it to their ordained by the divine Founder of crucify him. Pilate saith to them: mouths. But it makes a very strong the Church. Let us see whether the Take him you, and crucify him: for I case for the traditional assumption, New Testament concurs with this find no cause in him” (Jn 19:6). But namely, that the apostles received pictorial tradition. in the next chapter, after the Holy Communion to their mouth from the Saviour Himself. There is St John’s Gospel does not describe Resurrection: “Peace be to you. As no use deploring the absence of the institution of the Most Holy the Father hath sent me, I also send definitive certainty on this matter. Eucharist. Only Sts Matthew, Mark you. When he had said this, he Rather, this slight ambiguity should and Luke do so in their three breathed on them; and he said to prompt us to examine our Synoptic Gospels, and St Paul in his them: Receive ye the Holy dispositions towards the Eucharistic first Letter to the Corinthians. Out Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, Lord, as St Paul wrote to the

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020)

Corinthians: “whosoever shall eat was soaked with wine, laying it in doctrinal and liturgical, along this bread, or drink the chalice of Judas’ hand would have been Church history. Second, and directly the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty impractical; furthermore, it was a relevant to our topic, the hand of the body and of the blood of the Jewish custom for the host to bring Communion promoted in modern Lord. But let a man prove himself: food directly to the mouth of his times is not the one of antiquity. The and so let him eat of that bread, and honoured guest. It is significant that modern one is from fingers to drink of the chalice. For he that it is the same verb, lambanō, which mouth, whereas the early one was eateth and drinketh unworthily, is used here as later for Holy from palm to mouth. The early hand eateth and drinketh judgment to Communion, in this case clearly Communion meant to express himself, not discerning the body of indicating ‘receive’ rather than ‘take reverence, whereas the modern one the Lord” (1Co 11:27-29). This with the hands’. The fact that Our fosters familiarity. Furthermore, observation invites us to ask Lord fed ordinary bread and wine non-digital Communion concurs ourselves what we mean to do when directly to the mouth of this apostle with the biblical narratives of the we come for Holy Communion. Do makes it even more likely that He institution of the Holy Eucharist at we take possession of what is ours administered his Eucharistic Body the Last Supper. But digital by right? Or do we humbly beg for and Blood in the same manner to all Communion was invented sixteenth God’s gratuitous gift? Receiving apostles that same evening. centuries later and outside the directly to one’s mouth better Church, specifically to deny the fosters the correct disposition of Real presence of the Lord under the heart but doesn’t dispense one from Eucharistic species. The expression Conclusion self-examination. After all, Judas “hand Communion” is thus v received directly to his mouth and Hand Communion has been justified misleading without further from the Lord Himself according to over the last fifty years based on its qualifying. Hence our suggestion to St John, a direct witness: “[W]hen alleged use in early Christian distinguish, within hand he had dipped the bread, he gave it communities. This argument is Communion, between palm and to Judas Iscariot. […] Having insufficient for two reasons. First, a digital Communions. received [Greek ‘labōn’] the morsel, return to antiquity for the sake of it he went out immediately” (Jn 13:26; can be sheer regression since It is worth noting that another 30). Because the morsel of bread legitimate developments occur, both equivocal appeal to Eucharistic traditions occurred in the same period about priestly concelebration, according to liturgical scholar Dom Alcuin Read OSB. In 1963 Sacrosancum Concilium stated that “concelebration… has remained in use to this day in the Church both in the east and in the west” (Chapter 2: 57-1). But Alcuin Read remarked that, based on historical evidence, the type of concelebration which has always been in use in the Church is not the sacramental one but the ceremonial one. When priests and bishops were concelebrating, roughly up to Vatican II, what was meant and what was happening was not transubstantiating together. There was only one minister transubstantiating, normally the bishop, while all others were associated in his action ceremonially, including at the Chrism Mass (cf Preface to The

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déxomai – which means ‘to receive in a welcoming way’. This verb is used of people welcoming God’s offers and salvation. Finally, Our Blessed Lady is our surest guide in finding the best bodily posture and disposition of soul to receive Her Son, as she did at her Annunciation; and later on in Ephesus when receiving Him in Holy Communion from St John, his priest. □

Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP is the author of Ego Eimi: It Is I — Falling in Eucharistic Love (Lumen Fidei Ireland, 2018), and of X-Ray of the Priest in a Field Hospital (Arouca Holy Eucharist—The World’s tongue, which better expresses and Press, 2020). Salvation by Fr Joseph de Sainte- protects the Eucharistic presence. Marie, Gracewing, 2015). Admittedly, digits are the best-fitted i For the sake of concision, one could Sacramental concelebration wasn’t limbs in the human body for probing term palm-to-mouth Communion unknown, but it was rare. And yet, and seizing. Our Lord made use of ‘palmoral’ (combining ‘palm’ and over the past sixty years, most his digits to cure the deaf-mute (Mk ‘oral’), as distinct from ‘digital’ Catholics have assumed that 7:33-35), and of St Thomas’ digits Communion (digits-to-mouth). But neologisms are to be used sparsely. systematic sacramental to cure him from his unbelief (Jn ii “I excommunicate all idolaters, concelebration had always been the 20:26-27). In both cases, digits blasphemers and despisers of God, all norm. The two clerics just allowed close physical contact heretics and those who create private mentioned offered a timely between the Saviour and a sinner. sects in order to break the unity of the Church, all perjurers, all who rebel clarification to priests as This confirms that our digits are not against father or mother or superior, all of the Holy Eucharist. per se unworthy of divine touch. who promote sedition or mutiny; brutal It seems no less opportune to do the But in Holy Communion, we and disorderly persons, adulterers, same, this time for the laity’s abandon ourselves with humility lewd and lustful men, thieves, ravishers, greedy and grasping people, drunkards, benefit, as regards the distribution of and faith to the Saviour who enters gluttons, and all those who lead a the same sacrament. our body under the guise of food, so scandalous and dissolute life. I warn as to feed our souls genuinely with them to abstain from this Holy Table, lest they defile and contaminate the holy Finally, digital Communion was his grace. Since the use of digits food which our Lord Jesus Christ gives introduced only fifty years ago as a denotes power, non-digital to none except they belong to His concession to disobedience, while Communion better expresses household of faith.” Cf Exhortation for Communion on the tongue remains abandonment to and confidence in the Eucharist. iii Institution of the Christian Religion, the norm. For over a thousand years, the Eucharistic Lord. Chapter 17, No43. receiving kneeling and on the iv No knowledge of the Greek language tongue has been the approved In the Temple of Jerusalem the old is required to discover the fascinating custom in the Latin Church. This man Simeon prefigured the explanations of the various meanings of the verb ‘to take’ (‘lambanō’) in the mode of Communion is undoubtedly Eucharistic attitude when he New Testament, as helpfully detailed on more reverent and safer than the received the Lord Jesus corporally. the website palm-to-mouth Communion of In supernatural faith he confessed https://biblehub.com/greek/2983.htm. v antiquity, let alone digital that the Baby Jesus brought in by The morsel dipped in wine was not Holy Communion but belonged to the Communion. When digital his parents was God. St Luke ritual Passover meal. Scholars affirm communicants in good faith realise describes how Simeon “received the that there is room for debate as to this, they are likely to choose child in his arms” (Lk 2:28). The whether Judas received Holy Communion afterwards. receiving Holy Communion on the Greek verb chosen by St Luke is

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) From Satanic “Priest” to Apostle of the Rosary

By Henry Walker

lessed Bartolo the University of Longo was Naples, named B born in 1841 Vincenzo Pepe. to a devout and Vincenzo asked him: wealthy Catholic “Do you want to die in family in Southern an insane asylum and Italy. Yet despite a be damned forever?” privileged upbringing, These words must have young Bartolo fell penetrated deeply into prey to spiritualism Bartolo’s soul, as he and anti-Catholic subsequently agreed to political ideas while he meet with a holy was studying law at Dominican priest, Fr the University of Alberto Radente, who Naples. Many would be the man to professors at the hear his confession and university during this reconcile him with the time were apostate Church. Bartolo priests who espoused a became a devout third- vehemently anti- order Dominican after clerical and this conversion, taking nationalistic ideology. the name “Brother Bartolo consequently Rosario” due to his began to doubt the special devotion to the Faith of his parents, Holy Rosary. and adopted a hatred for the and the It is said that Bartolo almost turned his back Church due to after rigorous fasting and various exposure to these dangerous ideas. yet again on the Faith. He occult rites. He gave himself over to considered that once a priest of the Without the safeguard of the Faith, a particular spirit who would act as Bartolo was seduced by the popular Catholic Church is ordained, he is a his “guide”; this guide was priest forever. This caused Bartolo “spiritualist” movement, which was undoubtedly a demon. Bartolo’s prominent at that time. His thirst for to undergo a sudden and powerful hatred of priests and religious temptation to despair, one which meaning and spiritual fulfilment increased, and he fostered an lead him to seek out “mediums”, almost overcame him. Bartolo especial hatred for the Pope. He thought that just as a Catholic priest who were believed to be able to would preach against the Catholic commune with spirits. Bartolo is consecrated for all eternity, he too Church in public, blaspheme God, was forever consecrated a “priest” began to attend séances and would and was almost entirely consumed eventually preside over them of the devil. However, in the midst by evil. Unsurprisingly, Bartolo’s of this anguish, Bartolo recalled the himself. He would follow this dark life began to be affected evermore path into other occult practices until words of the holy Dominican who by depression, paranoia, and a had formed him in the faith, he became a practitioner of outright terrible anxiety overtook him. As Satanism. referring to the promise given by Bartolo began to attack the Church the Mother of God: “One who It is believed that Bartolo Longo more venomously, he was propagates my Rosary shall be was “ordained” a Satanic “priest” confronted by a devout professor at saved.” It was after considering this

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) promise and believing it that likewise bears witness to the truth as Our Lady promised: “The faithful Bartolo dedicated himself entirely of the fifteen promises of the children of the Rosary shall merit a to propagating the Holy Rosary. Rosary, which the Blessed Virgin high degree of glory in Heaven.” Mary gave to both Dominic This is why the Mother of God It is known that after his conversion and Blessed Alan de la Roche, constantly reminds us to recite the Bartolo returned to the places he particularly Promise twelve: “All Rosary and promote it to others. had frequented as a Satanist, and those who propagate the holy Through the power of the Rosary while holding up the Rosary he Rosary shall be aided by me in their conversions can be effected that no publicly decried his former errors. necessities.” And Promise thirteen: amount of learning, eloquence, or Bartolo intensified this apostolic “I have obtained from my Divine talent can equal. Miracles can be vigour after overcoming the Son that all the advocates of the worked, great sanctity can be temptation to despair. He Rosary shall have for intercessors achieved, and souls can be wrestled powerfully exhorted all to pray the the entire celestial court during from the jaws of the enemy. Saint Rosary with his words and prolific their life and at the hour of death.” Louis de Montfort elucidates this writings. He commissioned the With these promises in mind, it is truth beautifully in his book, Secret Basilica of Our Lady of the Most very important that we ourselves of the Rosary: Holy Rosary to be built in Pompeii, heed the call to propagate the where his apostleship of the Rosary Rosary, and become apostles of the “It is scarcely possible for me to put truly flourished. Bartolo also went Rosary in our own right. into words how our Lady esteems on to found orphanages and schools, the Rosary and how she prefers it to as well as forming a friendship with There will be many saints in heaven all other devotions. Nor can I Pope Leo XIII, who himself had a who slipped through the fingers of sufficiently express how wonderfully profound devotion to the Rosary. the devil due to the prayers of the she rewards those who work to Blessed Bartolo Longo can also be Holy Rosary; Blessed Bartolo is just make known the devotion, to said to have started the movement one of them. There will be many establish it and spread it nor, on the which lead to the declaration of the souls raised to a sublime degree of other hand, how strictly she dogma of the Assumption of the glory in heaven due to their love punishes those who work against Blessed Virgin Mary in 1950. The and apostleship of the Holy Rosary, it.” □ shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii remains to this day a popular pilgrimage site, many flocking to see the miraculous image of Our Lady of Pompeii, which Bartolo Longo procured from Friar Alberto and had restored himself. Bartolo Longo continued to propagate the Holy Rosary until his death at age 85. His last words were: “My only desire is to see Mary who saved me and who will save me from the clutches of Satan.” Bartolo Longo was beatified on October 26, 1980.

God has given us a powerful testimony to the efficacy of the Holy Rosary through the life of Blessed Bartolo Longo. Through the Rosary the Mother of God is able to rescue even the most destitute of sinners from the brink of the abyss. Blessed Bartolo

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) FSSP Anniversary & LMS Annual Mass Homily

Homily by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP at St Mary’s Church, Warrington, on 18th July 2020.

ear Friends, communities. All had some very good aspects. But if joining the Holy Mass today is FSSP, I was told, I would have to offered for the attend and later offer Holy Mass Priestly Fraternity always in the traditional form. I was D of St Peter and for perplexed, because that was alien to the Latin Mass Society. The FSSP me. Then I compared the new nd celebrates today the 32 missal in which I had been raised, anniversary of its foundation. The and the traditional missal which I LMS chose today’s date for its didn’t know. Using my literary annual event, taking place remotely. background from university, I St Mary’s Shrine is honoured to concluded that the traditional missal have been asked to host the annual expresses the fundamental truths of LMS Mass, which is broadcast live our faith with higher precision, on our LiveMass channel and on the strength and beauty than the new LMS channel. missal. Simply put, it is a much More and more people love the better instrument. I chose it then, below). Most of them were former traditional Latin Mass. Why? Out of and entered the FSSP. I was young, members of the Society of St Pius not old. I was hopeful, not nostalgic. nostalgia? Out of elitism? Out of X. They had left the Society after I was average, not elitist. fear of modernity? Not in my hearing that Lefebvre had withdrawn his signature from experience. I was raised in the In the modern struggle for our the Agreement recently reached Novus Ordo Mass. I entered the Catholic faith, we all learn and with Rome. These priests were FSSP motherhouse in Bavaria 25 receive from other people of good deeply indebted to Archbishop years ago for doctrinal reasons, not will. I am indebted to the founders (cf picture above) liturgical. I was seeking a place of of the FSSP. This day in for standing up for the Roman priestly formation where absolute , in 1988, 12 priests met traditions of the Church, when orthodoxy was guaranteed. I looked at the Cistercian Abbey of nearly no other bishops in the world at various conservative Hauterive near Fribourg (cf picture would speak up to save the treasure of the Roman traditions, which for centuries had been the backbone of the Latin Church. For his heroic courage at the time, we the FSSP profess deep gratitude towards Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Anyone coming to value these same traditions will equally be indebted to the Archbishop.

But our founders could not follow him when he consecrated new bishops without permission from the pope. Traditional doctrine does foresee cases of necessity, when a

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) bishop or a priest might perform a formula of Profession of Faith collapses, more families look with sacrament without explicit including the following statement: hope towards the traditional Mass permission from his ecclesiastical “I believe in the primacy, not only centres. As legal pressures increase superior. But this is permitted under of honour, but also of jurisdiction, against natural law and against two conditions: of the Roman Pontiff, successor of divine law, many people of good St. Peter, prince of the apostles, will realise that doctrine, culture,  Condition 1: The superior vicar of Jesus Christ”. As of philosophy, family morality and cannot possibly be reached. this Shrine by appointment of the education are best conveyed, , himself protected and enhanced through the  Condition 2: Approval by the appointed by the Vicar of Christ, I traditional liturgy. superior must be assumed. received their profession holding As more clergy retire, get sick or That 18th July 1988 in Hauterive, the book of the Holy Gospels. die out, more bishops discover that these twelve priests could not in Dear friends, like many of you, priests of traditional communities conscience affirm that the two including our many LMS friends, I are worth inviting into their conditions were met to justify the give thanks for the huge dioceses. For instance in this episcopal at Ecône. achievements of the past 25 years. country where the FSSP arrived  As to Condition 1: The twenty years ago, we are superior could be officially established in the reached – Pope John Paul Archdioceses of Liverpool II. and Edinburgh, and in the dioceses of Portsmouth and  As to Condition 2: His Northampton. We are glad to permission to consecrate bring the distinctive note of one bishop was granted our traditional charism to the as part of the earlier service of souls within the Agreement, the same dioceses; and to develop Agreement since then good relations with the local rejected by Archbishop clergy. Lefebvre. Our Fraternity and the Latin The founders of the FSSP Mass Society worked hard to wanted to keep alive the show that one can love the Roman traditions of the Roman traditions and be Church, but in full loyal to the hierarchy of the hierarchical communion with Church. Some would claim the Church. Humanly that it is not possible. That speaking, their move was one is bound to choose one madness. They were leaving against the other. We are not By the grace of God, with the a good institution where they had saying that ours is always an easy support of the sovereign pontiffs, served with fruit and merit. They path to walk. But that there is a and through the zeal of clergy and had no indication at all that the path, anyone with eyes can see it. the laity, more and more people Vatican would welcome them. At Looking back and remembering come to realise that the traditional best, they could expect to be how difficult it was even twenty liturgy is not about smells and bells. assigned to various dioceses, with years ago to attend a traditional As sadly parishes are merged and dire difficulties to continue and Latin Mass, one is amazed at the seminaries and convents are shut offer the Traditional Mass and growth of Mass centres, served by down at an accelerating pace, in sacraments exclusively. They acted diocesan clergy and by priests of contrast, the vitality of the in supernatural faith. Their traditional institutions. I invite you traditional movement becomes more courageous witness echoed deeply to visit the interactive map of Mass manifest. As the number of children yesterday night when, in this very centres on our LiveMass.net page, per Catholic family continues to sanctuary, our five latest adult or on the LMS webpage. It is drop and as family itself as an converts recited the traditional encouraging. It shows that tradition institution is undermined and often

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) in communion is not only a met. You can’t transmit the faith if Our Archbishop Malcolm possibility but a reality. This fact you are spiritually dying. Friends, McMahon of Liverpool also comes makes it possible for any Catholics we need to regroup and secure every year to confirm our of good will to overcome possible Catholic life as core communities, candidates, and again this afternoon ideology and bias and to see for not as a matter of preference, but for to confirm nineteen more. Please themselves what the riches of the sheer survival. The stronger we are pray for them. As you know, we roman traditions are about. as communities, the better we can have bought a sizeable building next evangelise. Yes, we want the door, the former St Mary’s School. Thanks to the efforts of the Latin Traditional Latin Mass. But it calls Please pray that we might raise the Mass Society, the traditional Latin for the full range of pastoral remaining amount this summer to Mass has always been offered in support: catechism, spiritual complete the Priory Campaign. communion with the Church direction, instructions of converts, Allow us to do more. Invest with us hierarchy in this country. As to the vocations, school, youth groups in the Church of tomorrow. Fund Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, such as , and of course the village. despite our limited numbers, our all the seven sacraments. ministry shows that priests can Please pray for our priests and serve in good standing in this vocations. country while offering always the Traditional Latin Mass. It is a fact.  We need many more young God granted this not only for the men to answer the call, so that benefit of the LMS or for the benefit in ten years from now there will of the FSSP, but for all: to make the be fully fledged traditional treasures of the Roman traditions Mass communities in every available for all those who seek. city. This includes converts in growing  We need many more young numbers. Again, yesterday, in this men to answer the call, so that very church, five adults were in fifteen years from now, there received into the Catholic Church. will be fully fledged traditional The same occurred here last year. Mass communities in every I know that many good Catholics town. still have no traditional Mass centre  We need many more young near them. Sometimes the bishop men and women to answer the has not answered their needs, even call to religious life, the though the asked that such priesthood and matrimony, so needs be met fully; even though the that in twenty years from now, bishop would know to invite Am I a dreamer? I am not a there will be fully fledged traditional clergy if he wished, dreamer. I saw it happen in more traditional Mass communities, while empty churches are easy to than one place. Here in Warrington, convents, abbeys, friaries, locate. This makes it extremely this beautiful church was to be shut hospitals and schools all across difficult for these people. Some down for want of priests. There was this Dowry of Mary! such families and individuals are no traditional Mass precedent in this earnestly considering relocating church or in town. Our Fraternity Friends, shall we start tomorrow? near firmly established Traditional was invited to take over. Overnight, Some started yesterday or longer Mass centres. I think they are wise. the congregation went from daily ago like the LMS and the FSSP The times are awkward; some might Mass in English to daily traditional founders. Let us follow them if we say the times are evil. Episodes such Mass. They tried it. Many liked it. came later on. Today we begin. as the current lockdown bode not Now all love it. And more have well of what looms ahead. You come. This is the only parish church The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass can’t be the salt of the earth if you out of the entire country where even today is offered for the members are spread so thin that you lose your the sacrament of has and supporters of the LMS and of flavour. You can’t evangelise if been administered – in the the FSSP. May Our Blessed Lady your basic Catholic needs are not traditional form – on two occasions. guide and protect us all. □

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) Open Letter of Appeal to Downside Abbey

Fr Christopher Basden offers practical solutions to safeguard religious life in Downside Abbey and across Britain

The news that the monks of OPEN LETTER OF APPEAL Augustus and countless female Downside Abbey in Somerset are to communities). Have we no faith in abandon their home of more than TO DOWNSIDE the grace of God and the irresistible two centuries, including the On behalf of untold people attraction to the consecrated life and fabulous Abbey Church which is throughout the world I write to the eternal truth of the Catholic one of only four Minor Basilicas in Church? appeal against the monks of England, came as a shock to Let us look at the success stories in Downside surrendering to the English Catholics. It is difficult to current zeitgeist and leaving their the otherwise devastated vineyard imagine them surviving as a monastery. Downside is part of the of the modern Church. The French separate community, and we know Abbey of Fontgombault have made fabric of English Catholic history. that many other religious five successful foundations in the The restoration of the Catholic communities are not far behind the Church and of monasticism is one last forty years; Randol, Triors, monks of Downside in terms of of the great victories of Grace after Pyrenees, Clear Creek in Oklahoma declining numbers. Which will be the horrendous rape and interruption (which after twenty-one years is the next to go? making moves for its own by Henry VIII in the 16th Century. foundation) Wisques. What is the We appeal against this decision in Fr Christopher Basden, long-time secret of Fontgombault? Simply - Parish Priest of St Bede's Clapham the face of a more insidious enemy: that of secularism, relativism and traditional Catholicism from Park, in South London, and now observance to worship to belief. modernism which destroys the Parish Priest in Ramsgate and This is true also of the Benedictine Minster in Kent, has written the Church from within. Communities of Le Barroux (with following letter appealing to the its foundation near Toulouse), community to think again. St Bede's Surrendering does not solve the problem. We have faced enemies Norcia in Italy, Silverstream near has been a model of the integration Dublin and countless other smaller before and a flight or dispersal to of the Traditional Mass into a communities in the USA. territorial parish, and demonstrates another location(s) is simply the recipe for swift extinction as we the way this can contribute to I can hear the immediate scornful securing the future of a church. have seen previously (Fort Decline is not inevitable: some monastic communities are growing today: those who have reconnected themselves with the roots of tradition.

Reproduced with permission.

(Picture: LMS priests session at Downside; next page: St Paul de Wisques Abbey.)

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) repudiation that this simply going France) which are merely The wisdom was that they were backwards. In so many fields we conservative and not traditionalist. finished and that they would have to have to go back to rediscover the If we want to conserve the precious move. Thankfully, a higher wisdom genius of our respective traditions treasure of the Catholic Faith and all intervened, Dom Cyril Pierce took from Education to Architecture to of its fruits, we simply have to over and as a remarkably successful Entertainment. We have to have the move towards this direction even if Master of Novices at The Grand humility to admit mistakes in not espousing it completely. Chartreuse (twelve men to solemn seeking renewal and modernity. profession) also oversaw a It is said that there is no unity in confident formation of new men. In Look at the great Empire of community today. We have to addition to this he oversaw lottery American Catholic University surrender our differing individual funding to repair the sorry state of Education. With the infamous preferences to the Science of The the monastery. Thirty years later “Land of Lakes” Agreement of Saints to ensure the hermeneutic of they have twenty-seven monks. It 1967, Catholic universities in the continuity and not of dissipation. takes but one man with the vision name of renewal and academic We have to unite in order to and determination and grace to freedom surrendered their preserve; we have to surrender our succeed. distinctive Catholic identity to the forces of modernity and secularism. This resulted in a disastrous cessation of vocations and a complete erosion of the ordinary regular transmission of the practice of the Faith from one generation to the next. Fifty years later the great Catholic Universities are Catholic in name only, often benefiting by federal money but no longer bearing fruit for God’s Church. Starting again from scratch there are five Universities (Ave Maria in Florida, Steubenville, Christendom, Thomas More and Thomas Aquinas). What is the result? The transmission of a confident, orthodox faith to the younger generation and the spawning of Catholic marriages and a huge own wills to forestall the Why do we have to see our Catholic variety of consecrated and ordained disintegration of the Institutions of Church in this country despoiled? vocations. the Catholic Church. Why do we have to despair in the face of secularism, so called If you have an allergy to undiluted One example from our otherwise modernity and the ugly rotten fruits Catholic tradition, then distil it devastating English monastic of the sexual revolution which have slightly. Go for orthodoxy and scenario – Parkminster, our only infected and corrupted our morals challenging observance. If you are Charterhouse. In 1990 my dear late and our minds? Many mistakes have wedded to the Second Vatican friend, Dom Bernard O’ Donavon, been made. Can we not learn for our Council, then follow its central and then , felt they simply could mistakes and proceed humbly novel precept: ‘The Universal Call not go on. They were down to towards a better future? to Holiness’. Sanctity and schools eleven old men. The buildings were of The Lord’s Service are simply crumbling all around them. Fr Christopher Basden, Parish Priest irresistible! There are so many Continual Postulants and Novices of Ramsgate and Minster, England dioceses and religious groups simply came and went with none □ (Community of St. Martin in persevering for almost twenty years.

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020)

A Fable from the Sugarland Chronicles

Prince Sugarhill and the Giant sugarflowers. How pleased the sugarbuds. It was rumoured that, sugargoddess was with such more than once, expect-ants had nce upon a time in precious offerings! Alas, alas, not even gotten hold of some of the Sugarland, very far from everything was safe and sound in noble ladies and dragged them down O here, there was a valiant Sugarland. Worship was under into their dens, never to be heard of young man called Prince Sugarhill. threat. Attracted by the sugar anymore near any sugarshrine. Prince Sugarhill battled for offerings, hideous ants lay in wait everyone to be free in Sugarland and by the sugarshrines. Their dreadful Despite this most impious abroad. Better than armour, he aspect and nauseous smell would harassment, worship went on at the nearly always wore a collarless deter many a dame from entering sugarshrines, thanks to the bravery tunic called teeshirt. The teeshirt the sugarshrines. Ants crave sugar: of the knights. When a dame proved that Prince Sugarhill was they delighted in the sugarbuds. hesitated, understandably repelled free from conventions, traditions and any sort of oppression. Did Prince Sugarhill fight for freedom with a sword or with a lance, you ask? Neither. Prince Sugarhill’s wonderful weapon was the magic sugarframe. The sugarframe displayed the faces of any inhabitant in Sugarland and abroad. The freer one was, the more often one’s face showed on the sugarframe (or perhaps the other way round). Since everyone in Sugarland wanted to be free, they loved the sugarframe (or perhaps the other way round). In grave danger, one only needed shouting: “Prince Sugarhill, brave Prince Sugarhill, save us with your sugarframe!” And immediately Prince Sugarhill erased the danger on his sugarframe. They hoped to snatch and carry by the hideous aspect of the ants, What a beautiful country Sugarland away the precious votive offerings her knight would persuasively guide was! It was particularly renowned to their anthills and horribly feed on her toward the door of the shrine, for its piety. Every day, many high them, experts assured. The more manly shielding the lady behind and mighty knights escorted elegant common type of ant preying outside him. Don’t ask me about the dames to the sugarshrines for the sugarshrines was the remn-ant. preposterous claims of children: no worship. The knights usually Remn-ants would normally walk adult really took these seriously. remained outside while the dames along the pavement waving their Why, these little ones affirmed that stepped indoors to offer with antennas, as if scouting the area. a much more terrible kind of ant devotion exquisite sugarbuds to the Much worse, but rare enough, were existed, whose name they whispered sugargoddess. Some sugarbuds were the expect-ants. They stretched their in dread, at night, under their bigger than others. In fact, many had mandibles with fierce determination, duvets: the gi-ant! Help! Allegedly, already blossomed into magnificent trying to catch the precious gi-ants were not only of colossal

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) size, but also endowed with and ran for shelter into the gi-ant. It was a cup of irresistible, supernatural powers, like reading in sugarshrine, leaving behind one of creamy and warm chocolate. Our a man’s soul. Gi-ants also emitted a the ladies, frozen with fear, until she heroin had mixed the melted pestilential smell, children said; and retreated into her carriage. Then the chocolate with beaten eggs, making spread on their victims’ foreheads a beast slowly crouched, obviously its substance light and fluffy! Her substance called ‘water’, preparing for a predatory pounce! master stroke against the gi-ant had blasphemously dissolving the Such a desperate situation called for been to spread cocoa powder and precious sugar, better to suck it. But radical action. All inside the cane sugar on top, now slowly all experts assured that evolution sugarshrine started shouting “Prince melting over the hot brown liquid… had long done away with gi-ants, Sugarhill, brave Prince Sugarhill, In case you wonder whether a whose fossils could not be seen even save us with your sugarframe!” marshmallow floated in the middle in museums. as a coup de grace (looking like a Alas, alas, after nearly an hour sugarberg, rather than an iceberg), And yet, what if children knew elapsed in dire anguish, the devilish well, these Sugarland Chronicles better? One afternoon outside a creature still hadn’t been erased. won’t mention it. Having laid the sugarshrine, a knight had valiantly Worse, it had extracted from its tantalising cup at the far end of the scared off two remn-ants when a shell a thread of tiny poisonous street, the young woman ran for her dreaded expect-ant jumped in, spheres – about fifty – held in its looking terribly voracious. The danger was such that the sugarshrine ministers asked for reinforcement. In haste, men of arms wheeled additional weaponry into the sugarshrine. The beast having reluctantly left, the courageous staff were giving thanks for their narrow escape, when… No! Under their feet, at slow intervals, the floor started shaking, less and less faintly. In the stables, horses neighed, as if terrified. Lampposts were now quaking rhythmically, while a pestilential smell spread along the street. Was it a…? No! Impossible! Surely this could not happen, not in Sugarland. And yet, slowing arthropod legs. Whether those were life all the way back into the growing in size in the distance, eggs being laid or projectiles to be sugarshrine whose thick door was horribly menacing and with spawn across, the situation in the slammed behind her. Safe at last! paralysing stench as it crawled besieged sugarshrine was soon to be towards the sugarshrine, there totally hopeless. What was Prince Her spirit of self-sacrifice was appeared… A gi-ant. Sugarhill doing? In dire panic, the rewarded. Thankfully, the effect on the gi-ant was immediate. Alerted The monster looked much worse sugarshrine staff now envisaged the by its sensors about the prodigious than dinosaurs, plesiosaurs and even worst hypothesis: an invasion. density of sugar contained in the raptors. Its black shell rustled in Horribly, all across Sugarland, cup, the beast scurried away with many shiny folds exuding poisonous sugarshrines were possibly under frightening velocity to the end of the fluid, while its cruel little eyes left simultaneous attack by gi-ants, and street where, assumedly, it sucked no doubt as to its murderous poor Prince Sugarhill was the precious beverage and soon intention. No collarless teeshirt for desperately trying to erase the disappeared – for now. But what a the gi-ant: on the contrary, a huge thousands of monsters on his narrow escape! The knights rigid collar – the dreaded symbol of sugarframe. Knights were put to suggested that Prince Sugarhill was oppression – ran around its neck. shame when a frail woman, risking the one, rather than the woman, Even the knights lost their valiance her life, dared to walk out of the shrine carrying powerful bait for the who’d erased the monster on his

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) sugarframe. But the shrine ladies CEO Mark Zuckerberg who presence opposite. The pro-life guessed that the knights were only publicly admitted to having banned couple left, having arrived earlier. trying to minimise the girl’s feat out pro-life ads to preserve the integrity The priest remained alone, still on of bitterness, their gallantry having of the Irish campaign. We now give his knees, with the three chatting proved cowardly in such dire straits. the deleted post without further women opposite. A police officer When Prince Sugarhill visited next, comment, only praying that our walked into the building, then left which version would he confirm: entire server will not vanish, nor our without asking the priest or the the ladies’ or the knights’? editorial team evaporate as by 'Sister Supporters' any question. A Regardless, one would need him by magic. delivery man arrived, wheeling on a the sugarshrine very soon, now that trolley three large the gi-ants had located such a sacred metal bottles venue. Please, for the sake of towards the rear sugarpiety, that sugarworship might door. The priest never be under threat again, not could not see if the even merely slowed down! “Prince bottles contained Sugarhill, brave Prince Sugarhill, oxygen or gas, but save us with your sugarframe!” what difference would it make to the - The End - babies?

As the priest was about to go, after We offer the fable above in an an hour of silent attempt to understand our censors’ prayer, the entrance point of view. Censors? Indeed, this door of the tale is a fictional equivalent of a No hot chocolate at the abortuary! abortuary opened and a female staff deleted post on social media. This is shouted towards the 'Sister how it happened… That is, unless you are a self-styled Supporters': 'Hi ladies, you're not 'Sister Supporter' The beginning of Lent 2020 seems a too cold out there, are you? Can I (sistersupporter.co.uk) as my priest long time ago, like any event that get you a cuppa? Coffee, tea?' Two found out last Wednesday. Wearing occurred before the COVID-19 answered 'yes'. The third woman his customary cassock, he went to lockdown. Sadly, some issues ventured: 'Could I have a hot pray peacefully outside the affecting our lives, even the very chocolate?' – 'Sure!'. Manchester abortuary as part of the right to life for those in the womb, Lenten '40 Days For Life' effort to For some reason, my priest wasn't remain as pressing as before. As the save unborn children. A middle-age offered a hot drink. Perhaps, the Church’s penitential season was couple stood next to him on the staff knew that hot chocolate would starting, freedom of speech was pavement, praying in silence. No not have flown easily down his undermined when a short pro-life one carried signs or banners; no throat while innocent blood was post on a social network was chairs were set. He was on his knees being shed indoors. Still, he was suppressed without notice or the first thirty minutes. Directly glad to be allowed to pray out there, acknowledgment to the owner of the opposite them, three youngish since a pending resolution of the account. It was surprising to see that 'Sister Supporter' women wearing local borough council is to post being deleted, because its pink jackets with the sign 'Stop 'criminalise prayer' on this contents were not far-reaching and Harassment' were sitting on the low pavement. 'Criminalise prayer': not because the page hosting it barely wall outside the abortuary. They sure these two words often appear had a few thousand ‘likes’, making kept chatting all the time, paying no together on official media outside its influence very limited by social attention to the 'customers' walking North Korea, Communist China and media standards (where followers in or out. a few other unfortunate countries. are usually counted by the hundreds At least, now we know where we of thousands). Furthermore, the post Inside the building, from several stand – or kneel. was uploaded long after the Irish windows, abortion staff took Referendum legalising abortion, an photographs to document the Signed: 'Brother Intercessor', as my outcome facilitated by Facebook 'threat' involved by the prayerful priest calls himself. □

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) Parents as Primary Educators of their Children

SPUC shows that the new school curriculum in England gravely undermines this natural right of parents.

Important information for situation, the Government is Engagement on Relationships parents on Relationships allowing schools, if necessary, to Education’. The main message in Education and Relationships and delay the full implementation of the this publication is that schools Sex Education (RSE) [extracts] new subjects until the start of the should offer parents the opportunity summer term (April 2021). This to have their say, but ultimately the wo new compulsory school allows further time in many cases school decides what will be taught. subjects are coming into for parental consultation. 2. Will I be able to see the policy? T force in all schools in England in September 2020. These 1. Do I have any say in how Yes, the policy on Relationships are: Relationships Education and RSE Education or RSE must be made 1. Relationships Education in all will be taught in my child’s available to parents. The policy Primary Schools school? must ‘meet the needs of pupils and 2. Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in all Secondary Schools.

Under the new legislation: • Parents will not be able to withdraw their children from Relationships Education. • Parents will be able to withdraw their children in Primary School from sex education. • Parents will not be able to withdraw their children from RSE at Secondary School. • Parents will only be able to request that their child be withdrawn from the sex education parts of RSE with the final decision being given to the head teacher. From the age of 15 the child has the right to override In theory, yes. The Government’s parents and reflect the community any parental request that they be guidance states that schools are they serve’. The policy must also withdrawn from Sex Education. required to consult with parents include information about ‘how the when developing their policies for policy has been produced and how it An additional compulsory subject, Relationships Education and RSE will be kept under review, in both Health Education, will also come (cf Relationships Education, cases working with parents’. The into force in all primary and Relationships and Sex Education policy must be published on the secondary schools and may also be (RSE) and Health Education school’s website. of concern to parents (for Statutory guidance for governing … independent schools, this will be bodies, proprietors, head teachers, taught as part of PSHE which is principals, senior leadership teams, 4. Who has the final say about already compulsory). teachers; 2019). what is taught in Relationships Education and RSE? Although these compulsory new However, the Department for subjects officially come into force in The school. … Education has published a 14-page September, due to the Coronavirus document titled ‘Parental

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020)

5. But hasn’t the Government said parental consultation is the No. The Government is trying to that parents are the primary opportunity for parents to speak out sugar coat its policy on LGBT educators of their children? against any teaching which confuses teaching by saying that the new Yes. … children about the real nature of compulsory school subjects ‘don’t marriage. “promote” anything, they educate’. 6. Is it still worth engaging with Educating a child about LGBT my child’s school? 11. Will my Primary age child be relationships cannot be done in a Yes. … taught about LGBT neutral manner in the same way as, relationships? 7. Can I still take my child out of for example, teaching maths. Not necessarily. The Government sex education lessons in Primary has stated that Primary Schools are 14. If my child goes to a faith School? ‘strongly enabled and encouraged to school will he/she be exempt from Yes. You will still have a legal right cover LGBT content’, but this is not Relationships Education and to do this after September 2020. The stating that schools are legally RSE? school governors must make sure that clear information is given to all parents about withdrawal from these classes.

8. Is there a clear distinction between Sex Education and Relationships Education in Primary Schools? No. This has been a concern since the new compulsory subject of Relationships Education was announced. …

9. Can I take my secondary age child out of the sex education component of RSE? Yes, but only with the permission of the headteacher. You do not have an automatic right to do this and for three terms before your child’s 16th birthday your child can go against your wishes and attend sex education classes.

10. Are schools required to teach pupils about marriage? Yes. The Government has clarified that marriage must be taught as part of Relationships Education, even if this topic is covered in other areas required to do so. No. These new subjects are of the curriculum, for example compulsory in all schools in 12. Will my secondary age child PSHE. The Government has England, including faith schools. be taught about LGBT stressed that marriage must be part The Catholic Education Service has relationships? of the Relationships Education welcomed the Government’s new Yes. … policy ‘and therefore form part of subjects saying: ‘The proposals the parental engagement process’. 13. Will the school simply be announced by the Government…are (Emphasis added.) However, the educating my child about LGBT compatible with the Catholic model Government’s RSE guidance states relationships rather than curriculum’. You may like to raise that marriage is understood in law to promoting them? this with your bishop if you are a include same sex couples. The Catholic. □

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) Priory Campaign Completed with £1m Raised

By Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, with Fr Matthew Goddard, FSSP

ur heartfelt thanks go to all the necessary conversion work God and all our benefactors and adaptions for Shrine use.” O for the success of the Priory Campaign. The Trustees of It seemed very fitting for us to try to FSSP England are delighted to buy back the old Priory and announce that the remaining funds convent, both on Buttermarket needed to complete the purchase of Street, because they were part of St Priory Court (Unit 1) and to Mary’s Parish – originally owned undertake the necessary conversion and run by the Benedictine monks work have now been raised and we of Ampleforth Abbey. Similarly, have ceased fundraising. Priory Court stands on the site of the old parish school of St Mary’s. But Fr Goddard, our charity’s Bursar, happy to put towards Campaign we started this Campaign two years has written as follows: “This much funds. When we add the expected ago in adverse circumstances. The needed addition to St Mary’s Shrine Gift Aid rebates on some of your owner – a large company letting facilities involves significant donations, along with other funds office and industrial space funding, and it would not have been received towards hall facilities, this nationwide – granted us three possible without your financial raises the total to about months, between 18th July and 18th support. At the time of writing, with £1,019,300.00. With last year’s October 2018 to raise the £1.5 a few final administrative checks purchase of Units 2 and 3, and some million needed to make the still to be undertaken, we are fairly remedial works completed in recent purchases. However, with everyone certain that the Priory Campaign months, roughly half of this figure going on holiday, including final total stands at £957,917.48. has been spent. However, the benefactors, this was the worst time This includes a legacy of remaining funds will allow us to in the year to launch a fundraising £139,800.00 which the executor was comfortably buy Unit 1 and make campaign. And yet, money started

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020) being sent to us. from Downside Abbey in the news recently, the success of the Priory Articles in national media such as Campaign speaks of the reclamation The Catholic Herald and some of part of Warrington’s Benedictine international blogs draw attention to patrimony. The Abbey of the project. The Priory Campaign Ampleforth in Yorkshire used to run received official support from The four parishes in Warrington. St Latin Mass Society, pro-life Mary’s was the last one they had to organisations such as SPUC, 40 relinquish, due to lack of vocations. Days for Life, Good Counsel There is something symbolic in the Network, and other prominent saving of St Mary’s Church from Catholics such as Archbishop likely closure in 2015, followed by Malcolm McMahon OP, Jacob the reclaiming of the site of the old Rees-Mogg and Viscountess parish school next door. To English Ashbrook. Catholics and to anyone in love with our Catholic heritage and faith, it The October 2018 deadline was speaks of hope, of ardour and of extended over time and our scope trust in the Lord and His saints, had to be limited to the amount helping us rebuild Our Lady’s raised and to administrative Dowry. constraints. After one year, in October 2019, we managed to buy Special intercessor: two units of Priory Court, while Born in Shrewsbury, the Servant of allocating funds for the necessary God Elizabeth Prout (1820-1864) conversion costs from office to our founded the female branch of the use. One year later, we are now Passionists with Bl. Dominic please obtain from God’s completing the purchase of the final Barberi. Her congregation served Providence the successful unit and can allocate space within deserving families in the North completion of the Priory Campaign the entire building for various needs. West. The Sisters of the Cross and in Warrington, on the very location Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ where your Sisters served for seven Work should start shortly to make arrived in Warrington on 3 January decades.” Priory Court a versatile venue for 1899. Their convent, 80 Catholic activities and events. We Buttermarket Street, was beside St Dear benefactors, while the Priory wish this venue to support Mary’s Benedictine Priory. They Campaign is satisfactorily ended, Catholicism not only in Warrington came to teach, to visit sick and please continue to pray and support but further afield through family needy parishioners, to instruct us in our ongoing expenses. To give activities and through liturgical, converts and to help the poor. The you a recent example, the cost of a doctrinal, pro-life and artistic Sisters taught in St Mary’s girls’ and necessary Visual Condition survey events. We thank wholeheartedly infants’ schools from 1899 to 1967. (N.B. not including yet any repair) our benefactors, including those Her congregation now asks to be of St Mary’s church roof, tower and who offered sacrifices and prayers informed of any favour granted external areas amounts to rather than or in addition to money, specifically through her £12,447.30 incl. VAT. The body of according to their means. From the intercession. This could lead to her Elizabeth Prout lies at the Sutton St start the Priory Campaign was beatification. In anticipation of the Helens Passionist Shrine, fifteen th entrusted to Our Blessed Lady. St 200 anniversary of her birth this minutes from St Mary’s, along the Joseph was also regularly invoked, September, less than a month before bodies of Bl. Dominic Barberi and as well as the Servant of God the fundraising deadline for our Ven. Ignatius Spencer. What a grace Elizabeth Prout. The success of the Campaign, the following petition if this saintly woman could be Campaign demonstrates their was suggested: “Servant of God beatified soon and intercede even blessing through the generosity of Elizabeth Prout, to further your more powerfully for our service to our benefactors and supporters. In work of Catholic education and souls at Priory Court and St Mary’s. happy contrast with the sad assistance to Catholic families in God bless you! □ departure of the Benedictine monks our country so much in need of it,

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Dowry – Catholic periodical by the FSSP in Great Britain & Ireland (N°46, Summer 2020)

Vocation Weekend of discernment 29-31 Jan. 2021, Warrington WA1 2NS - for Catholic men 18+ Support Our Apostolate Clergy Retreat, 7-11 June 2021, Douai Abbey, Berks RG7 5TQ Both events subject to Covid-19 regulations hank you for your generosity in support of our apostolate. fssp.co.uk/category/dowry/. Email us your comments to T FSSP ENGLAND (& Wales): be included in our forthcoming readers’ feedback Cheques in British Pounds payable to FSSP England, section. to be sent to: FSSP, St Mary’s Priory, Smith Street, IMPORTANT: Data Protection Update— Warrington WA1 2NS, England. How to Subscribe to Dowry Magazine:

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DOWRY Magazine Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, Is our shared printed medium all across these Isles. We therefore invite readers from Scotland and Ireland to St Mary’s Priory, Smith Street, make this publication more widely known, as well as in Warrington WA1 2NS England and Wales. Dowry is given to you for free, but Cheshire, England contributions are welcome since each copy of Dowry costs £2 to produce, print and post. Please also visit our 01925 635 664 websites, where you will find regular news and updates, and the full series of Dowry readable on-line: [email protected]

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