Oriens Journal of the Ecclesia Dei Society 
 
   
 Unless the Lord builds Especially for those of an of activists to contemplatives that is excellence by St Benedict and St Bruno, activist bent, one of the great imperiling the Church – and has killed by St Francis of Assisi and St Dominic temptations we face is to imagine Christian society – from within. Guzman, by St Teresa of Avila and St that the things we do are – or John of the Cross. Throughout the Islamic world should be – important. today there is a ferment as men The fascinating thing about these Big plans, great ambitions: they consider what must be done to restore pillars of civilization is that their fascinate us, and we yield to their the power that once was Islam. The ambition was not to be in the world allure. Projects we conceive beyond talk is of caliphates, armies, deeds and and to achieve great things. They our powers to fulfill and into them we did not want to exercise influence in plunge unprepared by knowledge of the Church, in the state, or in society. self or of the rôles we have presumed They did not want to be great popes, to play. Setbacks, defeats, humiliations Public square bishops, canons, priests, princes, accumulate; and finally, unless we should yield soldiers, merchants, lawyers, doctors, have learned from our history of folly, professors, or ‘movers and shakers’ of disaster strikes. For some the learning to private any kind. They did not even want to is hard, for others impossible. Doomed be modest, unnoticed, good popes, by want of sight and the measure of chamber. bishops, priests … or ‘movers and things, they tread the mill of ambition. shakers’ of any kind. They wanted Some, eventually, are chastened; others nothing but God, to be alone with are unhinged; the simple die meek but blood. Great and terrible plans are in Him and available for his service. unwise; the proud despair. motion. The new and ‘asymmetrical’ And for this they sought detachment, silence and stillness – and, necessarily, The private square warriors of Muhammad are making such a din of preparations that their that threefold renunciation of means, To build something like a great presence among us, and their plans, of procreation, and of autonomy that society – or to rebuild it once destroyed are no longer secret. That is one provides the paradigm for a life lived – requires less action than inaction, model for making a civilization. solely in God. less design than contemplation, less Another is that offered by our own energy expended than accumulated, High, higher, highest society. Again clamour: meetings, plans, less noise in the public square than One of the many confusions to legislation, protests, debates, news, silence in the private chamber. The have entered Catholic thought in commentary, propaganda, building up, great societies we are concerned with recent times is one that disguises tearing down, claim, counter-claim, here – the Catholic Church (near from Catholics the fact that the indignation, recrimination, prattle mortally wounded) and Christendom model of life represented by these – and the thump and roar of popular (completely destroyed) – do not great people is objectively the highest culture. require activists for their restoration life that anyone can live. We call it so much as contemplatives. It is, in Set against both these is another – – with dry, numbing technicality fact, in great part the disproportion and that is the model represented par – the religious life. The necessary continued page 3 Summer 2005 1 Oriens 

Oriens Page 1 Volume 10, Number 2 Editorial – Unless the Lord builds Summer 2005 Published by the Ecclesia Dei Society Religious life, not secular, is the foundation of GPO Box 2021, Canberra ACT 2601 Catholic culture www.oriensjournal.com Page 4 Editor Gary Scarrabelotti Obituary – Michael Davies RIP Contributing Editors Rev Fr Ephraem Chifley O.P. Page 7 Gerard McManus Stephen McInerney Obituary – Dr Robert Edgeworth RIP Martin Sheehan Page 8 Layout Luna Graphics Letters from America

Kirk Kramer reports American events Oriens is the Journal of the Ecclesia Dei Society, a lay association of Catholics who foster, nurture and promote the traditional liturgy. The Society’s name is Page 9 inspired by the Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei of His Holiness Pope John Paul II, issued in 1988, in which Farewell, son of St Bruno the Pontiff asked for a “wide and generous application” of the norms governing use of the liturgical books of 1962 to those faithful of the Latin rite who felt an Robert Reavis bids farewell to a Carthusian friend attachment to the traditional liturgy, which His Holiness called a “rightful aspiration”. Membership of the Page 11 Ecclesia Dei Society includes a subscription to Oriens. To join, simply fill in the form below and return to: Triumph of the East The Ecclesia Dei Society GPO Box 2021 Canberra ACT 2601 Anthony Brown says there is no plot. Islam really does want to conquer the world. I hereby apply to join the Ecclesia Dei Society: Annual Ordinary Membership $30 Pages 14-24 5 year Supporting Membership $150 Life Membership $600 Reviews Martin Sheehan reviews The Right Nation. Or Please send me more information. Name Stephen McInernery reviews Marcel Lefebvre: A Address biography.

Christopher Dowd OP reviews Looking Again at Telephone the Question of the Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger: Signature Date / / Proceedings of the July 2001 Fontgombault Liturgical Conference

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  continued from page 1 and belated re-discovery of the high definition” to be brushed impatiently life. God is not, of course, limited by value and irreplaceable character of aside. It is of vital practical history, culture, traditions, modes of the lay vocation has unleashed, in importance. Unless we understand life, or even by His sacraments. It certain circles, an enthusiasm and that religious life is the highest state of is clear that the lives of perfection exaltation that naturally comes with life – and why it is so – then we cannot and contemplation can – and should making a great find. But the pleasure understand why a genuine Christian – be lived in the midst of the world culture is impossible without the has been rather too great and lingered and in new secular, as distinct from over rather too long. As so often houses in which men and women give ancient monastic, forms. God willing, happens when pleasures are taken up everything to be with God. there will be more of them. What, immoderately, a fogginess of mind God is the Alpha and the Omega: however, God has chosen, He does and a blurriness of vision set in. This the beginning and the end. Those not unchoose. What He has set up particular exhibition of the symptoms that are nearest to Him are those upon the foundation of His saints He has obscured from view the summit of most like Him; and those most like does not annul. The models He has Christian life upon which one enters Him are those who are chosen to be fashioned in the traditional religious the company of Benedict and his as He was: poor, chaste, obedient; communities are perennial and friends. Many are called, but do not and having become most like Him, normative precisely because they are hear, or cannot see the path. and nearest to Him, they receive not secular and thus acutely subject On the intellectual plain the upon them the impress of the A and to the motions of time and cultural problem arises, in part, from a failure . So it is that in houses where the to draw distinctions. While it is true religious life is lived to the full that alteration. In fact, the marked that the best for one person might we encounter a presence that is the changes and variety that we see in be to be a layman and for another presence of God – and, where God the development of secular forms of to be a priest, what is best for those is present, good things are kindled Christian life render them dependent particular people is not the same and brought to their highest end. for their authenticity upon models that as the best or highest life to which This is why the religious house is the stand aside from the flux of history. It Christians can be called. For one centre of Catholic civilization: with is to those models the Church must for whom it is right and fitting to the rise of the monastery civilization return if the new and the secular are be a layman, it is wrong-headed and arises; with the endurance of the not to become disconnected from the unfitting to be a monk (or to want to monastery civilization endures; and story of Catholic experience. be one contrary to wise advice). So with the decline of the monastery In the meantime, there is no way too it is wrong and unfitting for one civilization falls away. This is not who is called to the religious life to a work of man; of this we must be that we can force the pace. To attempt it aspire (contrary to wise advice) to the clear. Human plans and action are would mean yielding to the temptation to lay state. We are dealing here with futile. Nisi Dominus action – the very thing that compromises our disponibilité to the providence of God. hierarchies. They are normal in the “Unless the Lord builds the house, Meantime, what we can and should do is life of grace – not to say the whole of they labour in vain that build it.” creation – but in our culture we find (Ps 126). to pray: to pray that God will once more it difficult to bring them into focus. choose and inspire men and women to For us perspective has been flattened Perennial models abandon the human project in favour of by “democratism” and the imperative There are those who believe His presence, and to grant the rest of us of social mobility. that we have left behind the age of the means and charity to support them. The position of monk and nun in monasteries and that a new Catholic Such a prayer incessantly made ought the hierarchy of states of life is not just civilization will arise founded upon to be a defining characteristic of every some arcane theological “matter of new lay (or secular) styles of Christian traditional Catholic community.

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 Michael Davies RIP

MICHAEL Treharne Davies level examinations, he came under the counter the revolutionary methods of – the “lion of Catholic tradition” influence of a fine history teacher. teaching religion in Catholic schools. – died of a heart attack at 9.20pm By 1972 Davies enthusiasm for the “He was an agnostic actually,” Davies at his home in Bromley, Kent, on Council had waned considerably said. “But he was very objective and it September 25 last year following and he began publishing his famous just seemed obvious to me that neither an 18-month battle with prostate trilogy on the liturgical revolution: King Henry VIII nor Elizabeth I had cancer. He was aged 68. Cranmer’s Godly Order, Pope John’s any mandate from God to start a new Council, and Pope Paul’s New Mass Teacher, writer, historian, polemicist religion, which is what happened.’’ – books which resulted in thousands and one of the most influential Catholic Three years after his unit was of laymen and hundreds of priests laymen of his age, Davies was born in turned into a “demonstration battalion returning to traditional Catholic Yeovil, Somerset on March 13, 1936 of at Warminster’’, Davies decided in worship. Although Cranmer’s Godly a Welsh father and English mother. 1960 on a career change into what Order did not mention the Council Although born in England, Davies he later acknowledged to be his true explicitly, it was later described as the always considered himself a true vocation – teaching. He trained at St most devastating critique of Vatican II son of Wales; he spoke the Welsh Margaret’s Catholic Training College, ever written. language fluently, was a passionate Twickenham, and qualified in 1964. Davies also wrote works on great Welsh nationalist, and one of his According to reports Davies was Catholic figures, including Newman dying but unfulfilled wishes was to initially enthusiastic about the Second and St John Fisher. have seen Wales win the six-nations Vatican Council (1962-65) which rugby championship. Inevitably, Davies was drawn into coincided with the teacher training the controversy over French Archbishop years. Davies interest in liturgical matters Soldier Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society was spurred by an editorial in the British of St Pius X (SSPX). Davies wrote a three On leaving school Davies enlisted Catholic newspaper The Universe which volume Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre as a regular soldier in the Somerset argued that while adults may be sad covering the archbishop’s conflict with Light Infantry, and saw service about the change from Latin, it was a the Vatican up to 1982. He also had in Malaya during the Malayan sacrifice which had to be made “for the some of his children confirmed by the Emergency, in Egypt during the Suez sake of the children’’. Crisis, and in Cyprus. archbishop. Though Davies was later to disagree with Archbishop Lefebvre’s He later recalled that his years War of ideas 1988 decision to consecrate four as a soldier were the happiest of his Davies wrote to the newspaper bishops without papal mandate, Davies life, and it was during this time that, challenging the editorial, suggesting always held that Lefebvre’s suspension having been raised an Anglican, he that having the liturgy in the vernacular in 1976 by Pope Paul VI was unjust and began to be drawn to the Catholic would not have any good effect on the always defended the general position faith. He attributed his eventual children who, he feared, had already adopted by the archbishop toward conversion in 1956 to the writings of begun losing the entire Catholic ethos. the post-conciliar ‘reforms’. In one of John Henry Newman and to events he That letter was the beginning of a life his last public addresses in the United witnessed during active service. of letters, articles, pamphlets and 20 States, Davies expressed his belief that full-length books. Davies recently recalled that future generations of Catholics would during 1953-54, while studying the Davies first book, Dossier on come to regard Archbishop Lefebvre Reformation in England for his A- Catechetics, was an attempt to as a saint.

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Davies sought to maintain good after a requiem Mass celebrated at fellow man. He refused to enter into relations with the Fraternity of St Peter, St James Spanish Place in London, those petit squabbles which so often the Institute of Christ the King and the captured more of the man who won the plague the traditional movement; he other officially approved communities affection and inspired the admiration of hated unkindness. of traditional priests and religious. At so many. “Michael’s only ambition was for the same time, he continued to lend “Michael’s literary output was truth; he had none for himself and practical support to the Society of St phenomenal and covered an that explains his achievement.’’ Pius X where possible. He took the astonishing breadth of subjects, not view that the SSPX was not in schism In 1992 Davies left his teaching only liturgy and theology, but history, and that it was permissible to attend post in London to write full-time and, biography and current affairs,’’ Masses celebrated by SSPX clergy – a soon afterwards, to lead Una Voce Fr Hudson said. position that attracted criticism from International and to champion the cause both allies and opponents alike. “Michael loved conviviality, of the traditional Mass throughout the conversation and laughter and, in the world. He became president in 1993 Keeping the course truly Catholic sense, wine and more and served in that position until 2003, One of Davies’ great attributes was his ability to transcend the factions within the Catholic traditional movement. No one in the movement “owned” Michael An unsparing critic of liturgical Davies. He belonged to no camp and, so far as he could, he sought to discourage abuses – and of the very idea of conflict when it broke out. While he respected the different groups that designing and imposing a new make up the movement, he did not see it as his mission to advance the cause of liturgy – Davies remained firm in one against the other. Rather he stuck his attachment to the Holy See doggedly to his last – to promote the traditional Latin Mass pure and simple. and to its teaching authority. The difficulties of the road taken by Davies can be gauged from some of the judgments passed upon him often whisky prolonged the joy of the and was made “President d’Honneur” soon after he died – both by supporters occasion. Michael, echoing Belloc, was the following year. of the traditional Mass and by its very suspicious of water drinkers. opponents. One obituary in the United Davies established good working States shockingly described him as the “Michael achieved something relations with senior prelates in the “Lefebvrist worm in Una Voce’’. Another, very rare in the little world of what Vatican including Cardinals Joseph in an SSPX journal, offered a cold tribute the French term ‘La Tradition’; Ratzinger and Alfons Stickler, who shared describing him as someone who had he combined uncompromising similar views on the liturgical changes, “drifted toward the Indult Mass’’ though convictions with almost perfect and with Jorge Medina Estevez, former he had left the traditional movement charity; he never confused principles prefect of the Congregation for Divine some useful apologetics. The Times of and personalities. Worship, who Davies persuaded to offer the traditional Mass at the Chartres London described him as a “champion “If he disagreed with you he would Pilgrimage in 2001. Davies undertook of ultra-conservative Catholic doctrine’’. argue the matter out and usually came this pilgrimage for 13 consecutive years. However, the eulogy given by Fr William out the victor, but he never resorted Hudson of the Institute of Christ the to personal attacks of character; he He also visited Australia in 1996 King and Sovereign Priest, delivered would never sully the reputation of a on one of his many international

Summer 2005 5 Oriens
 tours. On that occasion he was the precedence over the magisterial V, who would have the courage principal guest speaker at the Ecclesia teaching authority of the Church. to dissent from the insistence of Dei Society conference held at Sancta For the many loyal Catholics Cardinal Basil Hume that there Sophia College, Sydney University. outside the traditional movement, must be no turning back from the Davies sounded the alarm bells however, Davies can be a perplexing if policies … adopted to implement about many things. He was the first not scandalous figure. His reputation the Council. has been handicapped by the fact that to report that the chief architect of the “We are witnessing not the liturgical reform, Archbishop Annibale he easily grasped distinctions between renewal but the ‘accelerated Bugnini, had been accused of being a the Church’s teaching authority on decomposition of Catholicism’, Freemason. Bugnini always denied the the one hand and its governing our bishops, beginning with charge, but in 1975 was mysteriously authority on the other, matters not the bishop of Rome, insist that removed from his position in the well understood by most of his fellow Vatican and redeployed to be Papal Catholics. Davies also had a rare ability we are basking in the fruits of a Nuncio to Iran. to see things just how they are and to new Pentecost.’’ report them in unclothed nakedness. In later years Davies devoted It is on account of this essential Most of us prefer “denial” over seeing considerable energies to exposing toughness and fearless truthfulness, ourselves as we have become, but events in Medjugorje, where and his indifference to reputation, that Davies never flinched. apparitions of Our Lady have allegedly Michael Davies will be recognized one been occurring at a phenomenal Two years ago he published Liturgical day as a hero of the Catholic Faith. rate since 1981. Davies described Time Bombs in Vatican 11: the Destruction Davies had an eclectic enthusiasm the apparitions as “totally phoney’’, of Catholic Faith through Changes in for many subjects from military history the so-called seers as engaging in a Catholic Worship. Here Davies described to television detective programs. money-making racket, and the whole how clinging to the so-called liturgical He was passionate about rugby and phenomenon as “the biggest ‘con’ in reforms remained the last desperate the whole history of the Church’’. hope of a desperate Church unwilling to his dogs. He had a reputation for admit its great mistake: stubbornness, and his blunt, front His legacy row forward’s style infuriated some “In the Conciliar Church today Vatican officials. At the same time, Despite his many critics, including there is one, and just one, a good number within the Catholic absolute, and this is, to repeat however, he carried things off with hierarchy, Davies has been responsible the words of Pope John Paul II, witty style and a self-deprecating for helping perhaps hundreds of that the little seed planted by sense of humour. He was a gifted thousands of disillusioned and Pope John XXIII has become teacher both within and without the abandoned Catholics to remain faithful ‘a tree which has spread its profession. He was greatly attached to to Rome despite their disaffection from majestic and mighty branches the company of young people – this the post-conciliar revolution. over the vineyard of the Lord’, came out especially on the Chartres While an unsparing critic of and that ‘it has given us many pilgrimages – and he loved talk and liturgical abuses – and of the very fruits in these 35 years of life, jokes that never seemed to end. He idea of designing and imposing a and it will give us many more was, simply, a lovable and generous new liturgy – Davies remained firm in the years to come.’ character. in his attachment to the Holy See “I cannot imagine any Michael Davies is survived by and to its teaching authority. He had bishop in the world, no his wife Maria, three sons and a little patience with those whom he matter how orthodox in his daughter. described as “neo-protestants”, to personal belief, no matter how be found even within the traditional generous to traditional Catholics Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine; movement, who give private judgment in authorising the Missal of St Pius et lux perpetua luceat ei.

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 Dr Robert Edgeworth RIP

Dr. Robert Edgeworth, Professor Great parts translation of the Novus Ordo Mass and onetime Chairman of Classical – the only Latin-rite Mass available Bob was certainly a man of many Languages at Louisiana State at the time – and insisted on saying parts, introducing impressionable University, and longtime friend “and my soul shall be healed”. This undergraduates like me to unfamiliar and supporter of the Latin Mass, seemed shocking to those of us who aspects of US culture, including had swallowed liturgical reform in passed away on Friday, 22 October blueberry pancakes, strangely lethal our youthful innocence, ignorance 2004, after a lengthy illness. Dr. cocktails, and Chicago-school and enthusiasm for change, but Edgeworth was 57 years old and economics, what would now be called had bravely confronted several “economic rationalism” – a subject on it planted in our minds the first conditions over the last decade, which he was remarkably eloquent for suspicion that “reform” might not be repeatedly defeating all odds and a classicist. I recall his story of lining an unalloyed boon. continuing his work and travels. up to pay his taxes on the last possible Bob also had a keen interest in Bob, as we knew him, was known to day, as apparently people did in the US, sacred and secular history. Indeed, and being confronted by a protester many Australian Catholics, particularly he himself was a collateral relation urging him to withhold that portion of those of us based in Canberra, while he of the Rt Rev Monsignor Henry Essex taxes which went to fund defence. Bob was a visiting lecturer in Classics at the Edgeworth de Firmont, chaplain to shocked her by saying, “But that’s the ANU in the 1970s. King Louis XVI, who ministered to only part I am happy to pay!” the King on the scaffold and is said to Father John Parsons describes More importantly, he introduced a have uttered the immortal words “Fils first meeting Bob in the Blackfriars number of us to Latin (up to a point) de St Louis, monte au ciel!” – “Son of library – and being taken aback at and the works of St Thomas. I recall he St Louis, ascend to heaven!”, as the hearing anyone describe himself as was explaining the Five Ways on one blade fell.’ a Thomist. occasion to a St Thomas study group This is ironic, since Bob was given At that time I probably thought when a group of evangelicals who had to arguing, perhaps mischievously, that meant he liked large books, but surely strayed in by accident stormed that St Thomas would have been a out in protest at what they realised it was strange, nevertheless, to meet a Republican. (Although as an American, was an attempt to demonstrate God’s relatively young American academic one can’t rule out the possibility that existence by reason! who was not only a Catholic but a he meant merely that St Thomas conservative one. He was soon active Some people found the idea of an would have voted Republican!) in his support for the pro-life cause on American classicist paradoxical, but campus, then as now a topical issue as a visiting lecturer in Classics at the Latin liturgy on campus, instructing naïve students ANU, he was passionate about classical The Co. Longford Historical Society in ways to argue the case against languages and civilisation, and was and the Edgeworth Society plan for abortion, from sacred or secular aghast when black-figure vases on a colloquium in Edgeworthstown, premises depending on the audience. display in the classics department Co. Longford for the occasion of the Only much later, however, did I were overshadowed by a large plastic bicentenary of the Abbe’s death, and discover he had wept when he heard copy of an Aztec Sacrificial stone. fittingly they hope to have a Solemn of the election of Paul VI, fearing what As a classicist, he also had strong Requiem Mass in the traditional rite, at was to come. views on the defects of the English which those present will be asked to continued page 23 Summer 2005 7 Oriens
 Letters from America By Kirk Kramer

While the November elections furthest thing from that,” said Father but instead won a scholarship to in the United States have made Beck, bursar for the Society’s United Cambridge and after a few years gave headlines all over the world in States district office in Kansas City. up practicing the Faith. recent months, the preoccupation ”Football toughens the boys and For 25 years, Hendra wandered, of the media with politics does not teaches them to fight for a cause within participating, indeed taking a leading necessarily reflect the priorities a certain structure. It’s not a game for part, in the social revolution begun in of most Americans. Events in the girls, and not a game for boys to play the 60s. But throughout those years, culture at large and in the life of against girls. We don’t want to train his friendship with Father Joe endured. the Church often fly under the them to treat girls that way.” Through letters, phone calls, Hendra’s radar, and their importance can occasional visits to Quarr, Father Joe – be neglected. An official of the Kansas State Dom Joseph Warrilow – was an anchor High School Activities Association, in Hendra’s restless life. Father Joe’s Kansas gentlemen still which oversees football programs in fidelity recalls a phrase of Ronald Knox’s the state, also spoke to the reporter. One such event was about the apostolate of friendship. His remarks are an indicator of the reported on September 24 in relentless advance of feminism on Father Joe’s apostolate of loyalty The Kansas City Star, a secular American society. and love eventually bore fruit when newspaper in an area of the American Hendra began making his way Midwest that is home to several “In the year 2004, one would hope back to the Church. Hendra’s book traditional Catholic communities of that individuals would not stereotype contains dozens of striking insights varying ecclesiastical stripes. The small boys’ and girls’ athletics to the point into history, monasticism, and the life town of St Mary’s, Kansas, two hours where they wouldn’t play a football of the Church since Vatican II, whose west of Kansas City, is home to the game if a girl is on the team,” Rick changes Hendra mostly deplores. country’s largest community of layfolk Bowden said. associated with the Society of St Pius X. A sampling: “It’s a disservice to the young ladies In September, the football team in this state.” “Father Joe’s favorite spiritual at the Society’s secondary school in writers were those who inspired St Mary’s cancelled its game against Chartered accountancy, No! rather than systematized. Of the nearby White City, because one In 2004 Random House published Spanish mystical contortionists member of the White City squad was Father Joe, a remarkable memoir of he said: ‘O Dear me, no! I could a 14-year-old girl. faith and friendship from an unlikely never remember all those steps and exercises. Like learning to be a ”The game was scheduled to be at author: Tony Hendra, a humorist chartered accountant.’ St. Mary’s, and with us having a female who was once editor of an unsavory player, I asked if they had a separate American magazine called The ”Father Joe responded to the room or office where she could National Lampoon. person, to the simplicity and limpidity dress,” White City Coach Robert Hendra was born in England of the writing, rather than to the degree Rehse told the Star. “They told us during World War II and was brought of order which could be imposed on they had a school policy where they up a Catholic there. As an adolescent, the volcanic and mysterious processes didn’t play teams with female players.” he discovered Quarr Abbey and of salvation. The reporter for the Star who covered formed a friendship with a monk “He suggested the pithy, punchy the contretemps that followed spoke there – the Father Joe of the title and passionate 13th-century German to Father Gerard Beck. – that became the deepest and most Meister Eckhart. I loved Meister ”We’re trying to form the boys enduring relationship of his life. Eckhart, who wrote: ‘O When to be gentlemen, and knocking a Hendra intended to become a God laughs at the soul and the soul girl around on a football field is the novice at Quarr when he left school, laughs back at God, the persons continued page 10 8 Summer 2005 Oriens  
Farewell, son of St Bruno Old friends bid farewell to an American Carthusian called back to St Bruno’s Grand Charteuse. By Robert E. Reavis

We have all, at one time or and so we left the guesthouse and After Vespers Dom Robert and the another, realized that the only entered the enclosure. My heart Prior came to assist my leave from solution to the problems of Church was beating so fast as we entered the the guest pew (one doesn’t just walk and world is a few more saints. We Monastery that I felt myself acting like around in a Charterhouse). know that the mere presence of an adolescent appearing before a crowd God’s grace is capable of moving – sweaty palms, a plastered smile, and Welcome us and others without words or the boyish fear that something might, The Prior is one of those men gestures of any kind. And so it is and probably would, go wrong. who instinctively and by their mere at the Charterhouse in Vermont. The monastery is austere and presence suggest a genuflection, a kiss Arriving there to meet a monk is beautiful on the inside but like a of peace or some other form of pious like meeting someone under the FBI penitentiary on the outside. The walls respect. I did all of the above as he said witness protection program. First, they are made of huge slabs of granite. Seven quietly to me, “ You are welcome here, must be expecting you, otherwise you thousand pounds a piece (they could so receive God’s peace.” I asked for could roam for days on their seven only haul three at a time on the huge his blessing and he smiled very large thousand-acre enclave without a hint semi trucks that brought them from and laid his hands on my head. These of any monks or monastery. Second, the quarry) and there are hundreds things are personal and so I skip the even if you knew where the monastery of them. Unfortunately the roof is flat. inadequate description. He assisted was, you could not drive there because Perhaps someday they will add a roof me up from my kneeling position and of big gates that would keep out that befits the austerity of the building said, “Give my love to your family.” almost everything but an Abrams tank. and give the brothers a break from He smiled big again and then turned Evidently these desert monks take their always patching the flat roof. to walk away with that peculiar kind solitude rather seriously. And they do. of Carthusian purpose, down the long cloister towards his cell. I had just been Yet, you would never know it when A door opens in the presence of a holy man of God you meet one. They are bursting with Dom Robert took me around and and I knew it in the only way that we charity, grace and intelligence. They talk down a few passages then to two humans can really know such things non-stop and you find yourself admiring small wooden doors that he opened – in the spirit and truth of something not any one thing about the encounter for me. I entered and was in the guest like a whistling breeze. but just about everything at once – the pew of the monastery (yes, there is place, the smile, the words, the joy and only one). Before me was a huge grill As I say, we had come to visit Dom most of all, the presence of something made out of big timbers in which one Marie Robert something not usually we don’t ordinarily recognize but what I could see the altar straight ahead, but permitted. But since Dom Robert will call – for lack of a better explanation not the choir from side to side. The was being transferred to the Grand – the Holy Ghost. altarpiece has to be from the hand of Chartreuse in France an exception one of the old European masters – it was made. Discreet visit is like nothing we could paint today. Dom Robert hails from Tulsa, We visited – my wife and I – for The chant is Carthusian – beautiful Oklahoma, where he was raised a about an hour and a half before Vespers in its simplicity and the liturgical Catholic, studied under Dennis Quinn and it seemed like three minutes giving books to follow along in were of the and John Senior in the Integrated meaning to what St. Paul said about huge, illustrated variety of the Middle Humanities Program of the University how our “conversation is in heaven.” Ages. You felt as though you were in of Kansas, and later at St Andrews Dom Marie Robert said I could attend another world, and for another half Scotland. Like many other students of Vespers, but “we must be very discreet.” hour that seemed like three minutes, Quinn and Senior, Dom Robert also I always take that to mean very quiet I guess I was. took the road to the Benedictine Abbey

Summer 2005 9 Oriens  
of Fontgombault in France. Here the He avoided giving an answer with argue about and nothing for the Church Father Abbott encouraged him to another question, “Maybe you should to impose or forbid. consider a Carthusian vocation which have come here when you were After Mass we visited briefly he did, successfully, at Selignac. younger?” outdoors. Alison and I then left with When this monastery was closed, My response, “I really did think about joyful hearts and tearful eyes. Dom Dom Robert was moved to the Grand it, but did not have the courage.” Robert is a man not of this world Chartreuse, near Grenoble. Given that he is an American, a transfer to the Dom Robert just giggled like a and so words don’t really describe the Charterhouse of the Transfiguation, the little child, slapped my back and said feeling of being in his presence or in only Charterhouse in the United States, nothing. his home. If you live to be old, you was always a possibility. And so it Next he offered Mass for us in the won’t meet many like him because happened. But now, sadly, he has been guest Chapel. The Carthusians have they are few and solitary. Only God called back to France and we given their own rite which goes back to the really knows them and their life is permission to see him a last time. 12th century rite of Grenoble. Mass the evidence of things unseen because After Vespers Dom Robert then begins with the priest laying down without God they would be lonely escorted me to his hermitage: the before the Altar and preparing himself. curmdgeons and bachelors. But to garden, the workroom, the Blessed If the beginning is more than half the those born not of blood, or the will of Mother’s Chapel, the cell. If the dinner whole, you can imagine the reverence the flesh, or the will of man, he gives described by Homer is “something like of the rest. There is nothing recognizable power to become sons of God. And perfection”, then the life I saw at the in their Mass of what we think of as the that is what I think Carthusians are. Novus Ordo, though it is very spare. If Charterhouse is probably perfection What a privilege to have known one itself. It was unbelievable – and I this austere worship were the reality of and what an honor actually to be one. asked Dom Robert if he was sad to be parish life throughout the Church, there leaving for France. would be nothing for traditionalists to God Bless Dom Robert. continued from page 8 of the Trinity are begotten. When Of the attitude towards the past only by the noncognitive: evocation, the Father laughs at the Son and characteristic of the generation of the allusion, metaphor, incantation – the the Son laughs back at the Father, 60s, he had this to say: tools of the poet. that laughter gives pleasure, that ”To reject any vast group of one’s ”Before ‘reform’, the individual pleasure gives joy, that joy gives love, cultural ancestors in the cause of some and that love is the Holy Spirit.’” quirks of the priest – whether he was a current theory is not just arrogance; saint or a thug or merely a potato like it’s posthumous mass murder. It’s the Hendra wrote wisely of the change old Father Bleary – were submerged in his friendship with Father Joe in same kind of thinking that makes genocide possible.” beneath the timeless rhythms of a later years: universal script. Now priests had “We were speaking as equals, as Anchorman English huge discretion in deciding the details friends, the way fathers and sons do of the ‘modern’ Mass, and all those And of his reaction, when he when age begins to lessen the gap returned to the Church in middle age, egos were on parade.” between them.” to the changes in the liturgy he had Perhaps the book’’s most moving Writing of the time after he moved missed out on – he had given up Mass passages, too long for quotation here, to America as a young man in his 20s, before Vatican II – Hendra wrote: are Hendra’s account of the death of in a passage that resonates with anyone “Latin was gone entirely, replaced by his old friend. who has immigrated to a new country, dull, oppressive, anchorman English, Ronald Knox wrote that men Hendra spoke of “the metaphorical slavishly translated from its sonorous adolescence all immigrants go through, source to be as plain and direct as forget that the Church is not just in which the basics of work and sex possible. It didn’t seem to have occurred an organization, but an organism, and community are learned and the to the well-meaning vandals who’d constantly sending out green shoots. social reflexes and instincts that swim thrown out baby, bath and bathwater That new growth appears chiefly in just below the surface of the collective that all ritual is a reaching out to the men’s hearts, a fact to which Hendra’s consciousness are absorbed.” unknowable and can be accomplished book bears radiant testimony.

10 Summer 2005 Oriens 
 The triumph of the East There’s no plot, says Anthony Browne *: Islam really does want to conquer the world. That’s because Muslims, unlike many Christians, actually believe they are right, and that their religion is the path to salvation for all. The Spectator offers a view on Islam from an agnostic’s perspective.

A year ago I had lunch with these lands without armies. We want is nothing more than the product an eminent figure who asked if I an army of preachers and teachers who of its encounter with our Islamic thought she was mad. ‘No,’ I said will present Islam in all languages and civilisation in Andalusia [mediaeval politely, while thinking, ‘Yup.’ She in all dialects,” he broadcast in 1999, Spain]. The reason for [Western had said she thought there was a according to the Middle East Media civilisation’s] bankruptcy is its reliance secret plot by Muslims to take over Research Institute, which translates on the materialistic approach, and its the West. I have never been into his programmes. On another detachment from religion and values. conspiracy theories, and this one programme he declared, “Europe will [This approach] has been one reason was definitely of the little-green- see that it suffers from a materialist for the misery of the human race, for men variety. It is the sort of thing culture, and it will seek a way out, the proliferation of suicide, mental BNP thugs claim to justify their it will seek a lifeboat. It will seek no problems and for moral perversion. racial hatred. life-saver but the message of Islam.” Only one nation is capable of Obviously, we all know about resuscitating global civilisation, and Far from being on the fringe, his Osama bin Laden’s ambitions. And that is the nation [of Islam].” immensely popular programmes we are all aware of the loons of al- are watched by millions across Al-Sudais is the highest imam Muhajiroun waving placards saying the Middle East and Europe. appointed by our Saudi government “Islam is the future of Britain”. The BBC cooed that he has ‘star’ ally, and his sermons are widely But these are all on the extremist status among the world’s Muslims. listened to across the Middle East. fringe, representative of no one but When he came to the UK in June themselves. Surely no one in Islam Dr Al-Qaradawi, who is based in to open the London Islamic Centre, takes this sort of thing seriously? I Qatar, is also the spiritual guide of the thousands of British Muslims flocked started surfing the Islamic media. hardline Muslim Brotherhood, which to see him, our so-called race relations minister Fiona Mactaggart shared the Islam will return is growing across Europe, and whose leader Muhammad Mahdi Othman platform, and Prince Charles sent a Take Dr Al-Qaradawi, the ’Akef declared recently, “I have video message. He is probably the controversial Egyptian imam who was complete faith that Islam will invade closest thing in Islam to the Pope, but recently fawned over by the Mayor Europe and America, because Islam I haven’t recently heard the Pope call of London even though he promotes has logic and a mission.” for the overthrow of all other faiths. the execution of homosexuals, the Saudi Arabia, whose flag shows right of men to indulge in domestic Overthrow the West a sword, seems unabashed about violence, and the murder of innocent In the most sacred mosque in its desire for Islam to take over the Jews. During the brouhaha it went Islam, Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al- world. Its embassy in Washington unnoticed that he also wants to Sudais of the Grand Mosque in recommends the home page of its conquer Europe. Don’t take my word Mecca uses his sermons to call for Islamic affairs department, where it for it, just listen to him on his popular Jews to be “annihilated”and to urge declares, “The Muslims are required al-Jazeera TV show, “Sharia and Life”. the overthrow of Western civilisation. to raise the banner of jihad in order “Islam will return to Europe. The “The most noble civilisation ever to make the Word of Allah supreme conquest need not necessarily be by known to mankind is our Islamic in this world.” Saudi Arabia has used the sword. Perhaps we will conquer civilisation. Today, Western civilisation billions of its petrodollars to export

Summer 2005 11 Oriens 


Saudi preacher Sheikh Said al-Qahtani said on the Iqraa TV satellite channel, “We did not occupy the US, with eight million Muslims, using bombings. Had we been patient and let time take its course, instead of the eight million there could have been 80 million [Muslims], and 50 years later perhaps the US would have become Muslim.” It is difficult to brush this off as an aberration of Islam, which is normally just tickety-boo letting the rest of the world indulge in its false beliefs. Dr Zaki Badawi, the moderate former director of the Islamic Cultural Centre in London, admitted, “Islam endeavours to expand in Britain. Islam is a universal religion. It aims to bring its message to all corners of the earth. It hopes that one day the whole of humanity will be one its particularly harsh form of Islam, overwhelming economic, military and Muslim community.” Wahabism, paying for mosques and scientific power, it could take some Islamic schools across the West. About time, and a full frontal assault could In Muslim tradition, the world 80 per cent of the US’s mosques are prove counterproductive. Muslim is divided into Dar al-Islam, where thought to be under Wahabi control. immigration and conversion are seen Muslims rule, and Dar al-Harb, the as the best path. “field of war” where the infidels live. Saudi Arabia’s education ministry “The presumption is that the duty of encourages schoolchildren to Saudi Professor Nasser bin jihad will continue, interrupted only by despise Christianity and Judaism. A Suleiman al-Omar declared on truces, until all the world either adopts new schoolbook in the kingdom’s al-Majd TV last month, “Islam is the Muslim faith or submits to Muslim curriculum tells six-year-olds: “All advancing according to a steady plan, rule,” wrote Professor Bernard Lewis in religions other than Islam are false.” to the point that tens of thousands of his bestseller The Crisis of Islam. A note for teachers says they should Muslims have joined the American “ensure to explain” this point. In Egypt, army and Islam is the second largest Mohammed’s predictions the schoolbook Studies in Theology: religion in America. America will be destroyed. But we must be patient.” The first jihad was in AD 630, Traditions and Morals explains that a when Mohammed led his army to particularly ‘noble’ bit of the Koran is Islam is now the second religion conquer Mecca. He made a prediction “encouraging the faithful to perform not just in the US but in Europe that Islam would conquer the two most jihad in God’s cause, to behead the and Australia. Europe has 15 million powerful Christian centres at the time, infidels, take them prisoner, break Muslims, accounting for one in ten of Constantinople and Rome. Within 100 their power — all that in a style the population in France, where the years of his death, Muslim armies had which contains the highest examples government now estimates 50,000 conquered the previously Christian of urging to fight.” Christians are converting to Islam provinces of Syria, Palestine, Egypt every year. In Brussels, Mohammed has and the rest of North Africa, as well as Immigration and been the most popular name for boy Spain, Portugal and southern Italy, until conversion babies for the last four years. In Britain, they were stopped at Poitiers in central A popular topic for discussion on attendance at mosques is now higher France in AD 732. Muslim armies Arabic TV channels is the best strategy than it is in the Church of England. overthrew the ancient Zoroastrian for conquering the West. It seems to Al-Qa’eda is criticised for being empire of Persia, and conquered much be agreed that since the West has impatient, and waking the West up. of central Asia and Hindu India.

12 Summer 2005 Oriens 


Ibn Warraq, a Pakistani who lost his 100 years. Just 50 years ago, Lebanon Islam is enshrined in law. Christians are Islamic faith, wrote in his book Why I am was still predominantly Christian; it is free to convert to Islam, while Muslims not a Muslim, “Although Europeans are now predominantly Muslim. who convert to Christianity can expect either death threats or a death sentence. constantly castigated for having imposed Of course, Christianity has been The Pope keeps apologising for the their insidious decadent values, culture just as much a conquering religion. Crusades (even though they were just and language on the Third World, Spanish armies ruthlessly destroyed attempts to get back former Christian no one cares to point out that Islam ancient civilisations in Central and lands) while his opposite numbers call colonised lands that were the homes of South America to spread the message of for the overthrow of Christendom. advanced and ancient civilisations.” love. Christians colonised the Americas It took 700 years for the Spanish to and Australia, committing genocide as In Christian countries, those who get their country back in the prolonged they went, while missionaries such as warn about Islamification, such as the ‘Reconquista’. In the meantime the Livingstone converted most of Africa. film star Brigitte Bardot, are prosecuted, Turks, a central Asian people, had been converted to Islam and had conquered the ancient Christian land of Anatolia “The conquest need not (now called Turkey). In 1453 they captured Constantinople — fulfilling necessarily be by the sword. Mohammed’s first prediction — which was the centre of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The glorious Hagia Sophia, Perhaps we will conquer these which had been one of the most important churches in Christendom lands without armies.” for nearly 1,000 years after it was built in AD 537, was turned into a mosque, - Iman Al-Qaradawi, “Sharia and Life”, al-Jazeera TV. and minarets were added. The Turks went on to occupy Greece and much of the Balkans for four centuries, Rigging the market while in Muslim countries those who call for the Islamification of the world turning the Parthenon into a mosque But the difference is that are turned into TV celebrities. In and besieging Vienna, before retreating Christendom has — by and large — the West, schools teach comparative as their power waned. stopped conquering and converting, religion, while in Muslim countries and indeed in Europe simply In the Middle East, there are regular schools teach that Islam is the only true stopped believing. Even President calls for Mohammed’s second prediction faith. David Blunkett in effect wants to Bush’s most trenchant critics don’t to come true. Sheikh Muhammad bin ban criticism of Islam, a protection believe he conquered Afghanistan Abd al-Rahman al-’Arifi, imam of the not enjoyed by Christianity in Muslim and Iraq to spread the word of mosque of the Saudi government’s countries. Millions of Muslims move Jesus. It is ironic that by deposing King Fahd Defence Academy, wrote to Christian countries, but virtually no Saddam, who ran the most secular recently, “We will control the land of Christians move to Muslim ones. the Vatican; we will control Rome and of Arab regimes, the US actually introduce Islam in it.” transferred power to the imams. In the last century some Christians justified the persecution and mass I believe in a free market in Not all conversion has been by murder of Jews by claiming that Jews religions, and it is inevitable that if you the sword. Muslim traders peaceably wanted to take over the world. But believe your religion is true, then you converted Indonesia, now the these fascist fantasies were based on believe others are false. But this market most populous Islamic nation. But deliberate lies, such as the notorious is seriously rigged. In Saudi Arabia nor have the conquests stopped. fake book The Protocols of the Elders the government bans all churches, Islam has continued spreading in of Zion. Now, many in the Muslim while in Europe governments pay to sub-Saharan Africa, most notably world are open about their desire for build Islamic cultural centres. While in Nigeria and Sudan. Abyssinia Islam to conquer the West. in many Islamic countries preaching – Ethiopia — is an ancient Christian Christianity is banned, in Western *Anthony Browne is Europe land where Muslims have come to Christian countries the right to preach correspondent for “The Times” outnumber Christians only in the last of London.

Summer 2005 13 Oriens  The Empire strikes back The rise and rise of religious and social conservatism in America

time, they combine an obvious love for The Right Nation: conservative power in America; by America and its people, with detached John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge; New York, The and objective observations of what are Penguin Press, 2004 often controversial political and social issues in American politics. Reviewed by Martin Sheehan Only forty years ago, conservatism seemed a fringe movement in In his recent book, Of Paradise phenomenon in American society the US political landscape. The and Power, Robert Kagan charts the – a book whose insights have been major intellectual proponents of growing cultural and ideological rendered more penetrating in the conservatism seemed to the majority rift between Europe and the light of Bush’s recent election for a eccentric and lonely voices cutting United States, highlighted by their second term and by the triumph of against the liberal grain. By the mid- differences over the War on Terror his Republican party in both houses 1960s liberalism had triumphed in and the invasion of Iraq. What of Congress. The Right Nation: American political life, and with the seemed at first to be a disagreement conservative power in America by John ascendancy of Lyndon Johnson and between the political elites in Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, his Great Society programs, liberalism Washington and various Western is both a history of conservatism in seemed set to become synonymous European capitals, has become a America, from its origins in the 1930s with the American way of life: yawning chasm between the two and 1940s, to its ultimate triumph in In the 1960s, American continents on a range of issues. the Presidency of George W. Bush, liberals advocated the creation and a study of the changing nature of a European-style welfare Conservatism explains of American society. The authors state… They imposed greater America also take a look at how a more restrictions on firearms and they Europe, increasingly secular, pacifist, rightwing America might approach mounted campaigns to outlaw and committed to diplomacy through the international community in the executions, legalize abortion and 21st Century. As the authors declare the UN and the European Union to introduce not just racial equality in their introduction: “[t]his book is solve the more pressing problems on but positive discrimination both a portrait and an argument. The the international scene, seems to have in favor of minorities … The portrait is of Conservative America – less and less in common with the liberal elites of Boston and New America of George W. Bush. Increasingly the Right Nation. The argument is that York felt that they had a good conservative, both socially and conservatism explains why America chance of civilizing what some economically, religious, and committed is different.” of them called “the Yahoos.” to dealing harshly with those who Bush The authors are well placed to refers to as “evil doers”, such as terrorists, conduct such a study: Micklethwait is A counter-culture America seems to be launching onto a the US editor for the British Economist, Or so they dreamed. The liberal different path to Europe. and Wooldridge is the Economist’s ambition of creating a more “civilised” A new book has been dedicated Washington correspondent. Having and “Europeanised” America now seems to understanding this conservative lived and worked in the US for some imperilled. According to the authors of

14 Summer 2005 Oriens  the The Right Nation, it was the liberals the Atlantic in the UK and Western exemplified than in the rise of the themselves who were the chief cause of Europe. While the UK Conservative religious right and the closely aligned their own downfall, through their refusal Party maintains strong links with the home schooler movement. It has long to take into consideration the depth of US Republican Party, and shares much been known, at least since the time of conservative feeling among ordinary in common with its American cousin the first Reagan Administration, that Americans. Drawing on the feelings of in terms of ideology, the British party the Religious Right in America, made disenfranchisement and disillusionment lacks the kind of radical populism that up mostly of Protestant Evangelical with the social democratic drift of the galvanises US Republicanism. Europe’s churches in the South, plays an nation under successive Democratic Christian Democrats have even less in enormously significant role in the administrations, conservatism took off common with the American right: most success of the Republican Party. In in 1964 with Barry Goldwater’s bid for European conservatives recoil in horror recent years, however, George W. Bush the presidency. from the American right’s crusades and his team have concentrated on against abortion and in favour of the winning conservative, church-going One of the prime reasons for political conservatism’s success in America is that it provides an outlet for the instinctively conservative The liberal ambition of and patriotic sentiments of ordinary people, unlike liberalism, which failed creating a more “civilised” and to become a popular movement, and whose bastions have remained the “Europeanised” America now elite, east and west coast universities, and the media. From the early 1950s seems imperilled. onwards conservatism began its own “Long March through the institutions”, death penalty, and the socialist inclined Catholics over to the Republican to borrow a phrase beloved by 1960s political culture of the European Union, Party, particularly in east coast states, radical activists to describe their own with its post-Christian, neo-pagan and among blue-collar workers ideological project. Starting with emphasis on comfort and hedonism, – traditionally Democrat voters since William F. Buckley’s declaration of war is anathema to the American right. the New Deal era in the 1930s. In this against liberalism in the first edition According to the authors, “[t]he heroes he has had some success: of National Review in the early 1950s, of modern American conservatism Bush easily won the votes conservatives began building their own are not paternalist squires but rugged of a majority of religiously anti-liberal counter-culture. Magazines individualists who don’t know their active Catholics in 2000 [a like National Review, and think tanks place: entrepreneurs who build mighty feat repeated in 2004] the like the American Enterprise Institute businesses out of nothing, settlers who best showing among them by a Republican presidential and The Heritage Foundation, sprang move out West and, of course, the into existence to carry the battle of ideas candidate since 1984. He has cowboy. There is a frontier spirit to the made a great show of visiting to the enemy. Conservative America Right – unsurprisingly, since so much prominent Catholic institutions contains a plethora of groups and of its heartland is made up of new like the University of Notre organisations, books and magazines, towns of one sort or another.” Dame … The White House has each with their own agenda but united a weekly conference call with in their opposition to liberalism. Right school, right stuff an informal group of Catholic Advisors, and the Republican This sense of counter-cultural The sense of American conservatism National Committee has radicalism sets American conservatism as counter-cultural, is nowhere better revived a Catholic task apart from its ideological cousins across force. Bush tries to include

Summer 2005 15 Oriens 

fashionable Catholic phrases, this I mean conservatism’s refusal to interference in the lives of their such as “the culture of life,” in accept what it views as the materialism flocks. Americans believe passionately his speeches. And in Catholic and conformity, the rootlessness and that men have God-given rights that circles at least, he plays down cultural nihilism found in many cannot be over-ridden by the state his party’s anti-government stance: Catholic voters are modern liberal democracies. American – and much of this belief derives from much more enthusiastic about conservatives, if they stand for nothing the influence of Christianity, rather government activism than are else, stand for absolute religious belief than from secular liberal humanism. Southern Evangelicals. against liberal agnosticism; for a stoical I would have liked to see more Closely allied to the Religious patriotism and willingness to sacrifice discussion in The Right Nation of Right, both Protestant and Catholic, for the nation against liberalism’s what is sometimes referred to as is the home schooling movement. concern with material wellbeing; and conservatism “properly understood” While not all home schoolers are most important of all, conservatives and its relationship to the American conservative, or even religious, the value a virile righteousness against conservatism. Conservatism properly Religious Right have taken the lead in what they see as the softness and understood refers to the great tradition leaving a public school system they ease of contemporary technological of conservative politics in Great Britain fear is teaching godless relativism and civilisation. Conservatives fear what and Western Europe, as expounded by cultural nihilism to their children. Alexis de Tocqueville referred to as Edmund Burke, with its emphasis on Instead, they have built up their the “benevolent despotism” of modern community, continuity and tradition. own alternative school system, with liberal democratic states, where the Such a tradition of politics is obviously a firm basis in traditional Christian citizenry is reduced to child-like at odds with the radical individualism teachings and Biblical values. dependence on the state, and where and progressive optimism about the Home schooling in the US has not individuality and variety are worn human condition inherent in much only promoted a return to Judeo- down by the relentless conformity of American conservatism. Indeed, Christian values, but has also seen democratic majorities. even some American conservatives, a revival of classical learning: some A major factor identified by the like The Washington Post’s self-styled home schoolers are taught grammar, authors for the conservative nature European conservative, George F. dialectic and rhetoric, and children of American society is this deeply Will, have argued that American are required to learn Latin and Greek. religious character of American life. conservatives would learn more from In 2000, home schoolers founded Settled by Puritan refugees fleeing “the conservatism of Augustine and their first university: Patrick Henry religious persecution in the Old Aquinas, Shakespeare and Burke, College. With 242 students and 12 World, America has continued to be Newman and T.S.Eliot and Thomas faculty members already, and plans a haven for religions of all kinds. The Mann”, than from libertarian radicals to expand its undergraduate school secular state and the free market have like Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine. to 1,600 in the near future, the also influenced churches and religious Be that as it may, The Right Nation college is well on its way to meeting movements, injecting a healthy dose is a fascinating study of the political the needs of the ever-growing home of freedom and competitiveness into right in contemporary America. The schooler market. religion, Americans have responded authors make a powerful case for with an enthusiasm for things spiritual viewing conservatism as the dominant Conservatives untraditional that would put many religious people ideological and cultural force in What struck me most, however, in Europe and Australia to shame. American politics at present. This reading this book, is not just the The basically non-establishmentarian book is well-worth a read by anyone radicalness of American conservative nature of religion in America has also interested in how American political thought, but its almost existential meant that churches remain bastions culture may affect the world in the rebellion against modern society. By of resistance to federal government early 21st Century.

16 Summer 2005 Oriens  The ghost at all our tables

In Marcel Lefebvre: the Biography, Bishop Marcel Lefebvre: the biography; by Bernard Tissier de Bernard Tissier de Mallerais (one of Mallerais; Angelus Press, 2004; 714pp.; $A60 those consecrated bishop that day) provides us with a lucid, thoroughly Reviewed by Stephen McInerney researched account of the various forces that shaped the personality of a man In 1986 Pope John Paul with a greater devotion than who spent 40 years as a missionary convened the astonishing meeting when they receive the Host. priest and seminary professor, 15 years of religions at Assisi. In an as Archbishop of Dakar and Apostolic Allocution to the Roman Curia in The great question Delegate to French-speaking Africa, a brief period as Bishop of Tulle, and a December of that year, he urged Were these the images that further six years as Superior General of that this “spirit of Assisi” be kept Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre had in his the Holy Ghost Fathers and canonical alive forever. mind when he took the momentous superior of Rome’s French Seminary, decision to consecrate four bishops Four years later, Silvio Cardinal before becoming famous throughout the against the will of the Pope in June Oddi gave his impressions on the world for his defence of the Traditional of 1988, for the continuation of what event in an interview with the Latin Mass and his criticisms of the he mischievously described as “the magazine 30 Days: Second Vatican Council and Popes Paul ‘experiment’ of Tradition”? Lefebvre On that day, I went to Assisi VI and John Paul II. had been contemplating the action for as the Pontifical Legate for at least five years before the event. He Those who reject the stance the Basilica of St. Francis, was in no hurry. He sought advice on adopted by Archbishop Lefebvre will and I saw true profanations in not be persuaded to change their the matter from his closest advisors some places of prayer. I saw minds by a biographer who can hardly and commissioned studies to explore Buddhists dancing around the consider his subject as anything other the question. While the initial feeling altar, on which they had put than heroic. Be that as it may, this was that such a consecration could Buddha in the place of Christ, work – the most comprehensive since never be justified, there appeared and they were burning incense Michael Davies’ trilogy, Apologia Pro to be a vein of thinking traceable to the Buddha and venerating Marcel Lefebvre – sheds a fascinating amongst the Fathers and Doctors that it. A Benedictine protested light upon the personal and historical pointed towards the possibility that – he was thrown out by the influences which helped to shape such extraordinary action could be police. I did not protest, but Lefebvre’s decisions and actions. warranted in certain (commensurately my heart was scandalized. extraordinary) circumstances. Confusion was apparent on Matrix France the faces of the Catholics who If (as seems certain) most traditional Marcel Francois Marie Joseph were attending the ceremony. I Catholics are aware of the reasons Lefebvre was born in Tourcoing, thought: if at this moment the offered by the Archbishop and his France, in 1905, the son of René Buddhists were to distribute supporters to justify the actions of and Gabrielle Lefebvre. Tourcoing is bread consecrated to Buddha, 1988, what is less clear, and less well a small town near Lille in the north these people would be capable known, is the familial, social and of France. René Lefebvre, a factory of agreeing to eat it, perhaps historic milieu that nourished the man. owner, was known to all as a just

Summer 2005 17 Oriens  man, “who believed in the principle This was the doctrine of the Church orders to found houses in the regions of order and hierarchy”. Both René communicated in Pius IX’s Syllabus. in which he worked, seeing them as the and Gabrielle had a deep piety and This was not, and never would be, soul of the missionary life. Yet the true a strong sense of Christian charity negotiable for Lefebvre. heart, the culmination of all prayer and which they passed on to their son. As all missionary work, was the Sacrifice The Holy Ghost Fathers, then the of the Mass which spread the Blood a young man, Marcel became actively largest missionary congregation in of Christ through the Mystical Body. involved in the St. Vincent de Paul the world, ran the French Seminary. Lefebvre saw first hand the power the Society and began working with the Lefebvre had gone there under the Mass had over people’s lives, how it region’s poorest souls, visiting the sick auspices of the Cardinal Bishop of transformed unregenerate pagans into and, in one notable instance recorded Lille, but after serving one year as a models of Christian virtue, and how it here, finding work for a paralysed parish priest immediately following his gradually transformed whole villages man suffering from depression. “His ordination, he requested permission into little outposts of Christendom, charity was effective but discreet, like to join the Holy Ghost Fathers and so becoming the centre around which his temperament.” became a missionary priest. schools, halls and homes were built. In 1923 Marcel followed his brother to the French Seminary in African mission Watershed Rome, taking his father’s advice (or Pope Pius XII called Lefebvre This heightened awareness of rather, obeying his father’s command) “the best of apostolic delegates”. As a the importance of the Mass as a to avoid the diocesan seminaries, missionary, he rose steadily through the Sacrifice, both the source and model which he suspected of liberal leanings. clerical ranks, but it is clear that he was of Christian life, only increased when The first skirmishes in the battle that almost entirely without ambition in this Lefebvre returned to France as Bishop would define his son’s life had been regard, except in so far as he wanted to of Tulle in the early 1960s. There he playing themselves out in the diocese exercise his missionary zeal. He went found depressed priests unsure of of Lille for some years – socialism first to Gabon, soon becoming the their vocations and parishes largely battling with Christian trade- rector of the seminary, an experience abandoned by the populace. The unionism; liberalism competing with that heightened his awareness of appointment was regarded by many authoritarianism; the pragmatism of the desperate need for solid priestly as a demotion but Lefebvre was not Leo XIII and Benedict XV competing formation. He later became superior concerned, using his brief time there for hearts and minds with the of various missions, most notably to reinvigorate as best he could the “romance of orthodoxy” of St. Pius in Donguila and Lambaréné, before sense of purpose amongst priests and X; the Sillon movement doing battle becoming Archbishop of Dakar and people. His practical reforms included with Action Française. This historic the Apostolic Delegate. A single word organising transport to the Catholic backdrop throws into relief the first characterises these years: fortitude. schools for children who had slipped years of the seminarian’s life in Rome, Whether supporting a Catholic union into the secular system, “like poor which were marked by peace and like the African Workers’ Confederation orphans”, and bringing the priests security. It was there that the young of Believers, suppressing ‘fetishism’ together into deaneries so that they seminarian abandoned the liberal or other superstitions, or fighting could live a common life of prayer and notion he had brought with him – a against the residual trade in slaves, mutual support. This would become belief in the fundamental separation Lefebvre proved a man of firm resolve. one of his models for reform when, after of Church and State – a position held Yet underlining all his work was an the turmoil of the Council and a period by nearly all the candidates. Christ the immense charity, the gift of diplomacy during which the Communist Red Flag King must not only reign over families and an awareness that his whole was raised in the French Seminary, a and individuals, the seminarians apostolate was built on prayer. For this small group of seminarians approached learned, but over societies at large. reason he encouraged contemplative the now-retired bishop in a last attempt

18 Summer 2005 Oriens  to save their vocations. The rest, as they Lefebvre mixed with politicians History still unwritten say, is history. Lefebvre took them on; throughout his episcopal life, meeting de What this work establishes is that arranged financial support; sent them Gaulle and, during the crisis of the 70s, any attempt to push Lefebvre aside, to study at Fribourg and eventually receiving a stern letter from then Prime to dismiss him as a crank, or to organised them into the Society of St. Minister, Jacques Chirac, urging him not mock those who follow him, is not Pius X which was canonically erected to break with Rome. As for Jean Marie an option for any serious Catholic at Econe, Switzerland, in 1970 and Le Pen, we learn that the Archbishop thinker, much less for anyone attached then suppressed by Rome in 1975 after admired his “courage as a politician and to the old rite – for no history of the pressure had been brought to bear on recognised that his political efforts could liturgy, no history of the Council and be supported, but he saw his disregard the Holy See by the French hierarchy. its aftermath, can be complete without for the social reign of Christ.” Thus Lefebvre set himself and his reference to this remarkable man. followers on the path (made to seem For all that, it is the drama of If the old rite of Mass were restored inevitable by the author) that led to the Econe and the defence of the Mass and the Church were to recover her consecrations of 1988. toward which the narrative energy of equilibrium, then Catholic historians As well as the detailed descriptions this biography impels the reader, and would be obliged to follow the events of the key events in Lefebvre’s life it is difficult not to be moved by the that prepared this restoration back to – the period in Africa; his role in account of the last 25 years of the man’s Archbishop Lefebvre. Or if, as seems helping to form Coetus Internationalis Patrum during the Council in a quixotic effort to defend Sacred “This is the situation in which Tradition; the founding of Econe and the consecrations – the biography we find ourselves. I have not shows the intersections of broader historical questions with the life. created it. I would die to make it Lefebvre lived through the two world wars, the first as a youth, the second go away!” as a priest in Africa. In Africa, as in France, Catholics were divided in their - Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre loyalties between Pétain and de Gaulle and it is a mark of this work’s calibre that it brings to light the complexities life when he felt himself compelled to more likely, the ancient tradition of of these divisions. Lefebvre’s father, a choose between papal policy and the Catholic worship remains marginalised fighter for the Resistance, died in a Mass: “This is the situation in which for many years to come, then the same we find ourselves. I have not created it. historians will need to explain how Nazi-run gaol, but there was never a I would die to make it go away!” And, this came to be and how it was that complacent acceptance of de Gaulle on in a sense, he did. In the end, Lefebvre, a patently successful missionary and a the part of his son (nor had there been always practical, chose to guarantee the courageous and devout bishop was first on the part of the father), especially survival of his priestly society and the suspended and then excommunicated after the War when de Gaulle formed Tridentine Mass by an act of self-sacrifice for adhering to this Mass. One way government with socialist support. Yet which that rite had taught him to make, or another, the fate of this rite and the neither would Lefebvre ever become pleading that it was in no way in a spirit name of Lefebvre have been bound an absolute devotee of the ‘new right’ of schism that he acted. The fruits of this inseparably by history. and he was worried by certain neo- sacrifice are still growing, both with and pagan elements that were drawn to without canonical approval. his movement.

Summer 2005 19 Oriens  The future of the rites: convergence or restoration

of the Fontgombault conference in the Looking Again at the Question of the Liturgy with hope that they will facilitate a deeper Cardinal Ratzinger: Proceedings of the July 2001 understanding of the real nature of the liturgy so that this question, ignored for Fontgombault Liturgical Conference; Dom Alcuin Reid too long, might be looked at afresh and OSB (ed.), Saint Michael’s Abbey Press, Farnborough, 2003. without further delay. Reviewed by Christopher Dowd OP War on sacrifice While this is a hope-filled collection It is rare, in my experience, to held in the presence of Cardinal Joseph of papers, it does not always make for come across a book which, while Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation comfortable reading. In his paper on dealing with such abstract and for the Doctrine of the Faith. The idea the theology of the liturgy Cardinal theoretical regions of thought as of the conference arose from a series Ratzinger observes that it is only against theology, ecclesiology, liturgiology of meetings between the Cardinal the background of the virtual denial of and anthropology, nevertheless and a number of people looking to the Council of Trent’s reaffirmation of the manages to connect immediately, reposition the liturgical movement on Catholic position on the priesthood and directly and usefully with the a sounder base by critically reassessing the Mass as sacrifice that the intensity work that one actually does on a the course of the post-conciliar reform of the campaign against allowing daily basis. and exploring paths into the future. celebrations according to the missal of Ratzinger’s genius presided over the 1962 can be understood. The real war, As someone who, without being conference, extending beyond the he insists, is over the faith itself. Despite turned, I think, into a hopeless two papers and the homily which the sound and fury it has generated, the rubrical schizophrenic, regularly the Cardinal himself contributed. liturgical battle is ultimately only a side- celebrates the Eucharist according Those of us who love the old Mass show, symptomatic of a deeper division to four ritual usages – English Novus should be grateful to him because it within the Church, an effect rather than Ordo, Latin Novus Ordo, classical is in no inconsiderable degree due a cause. Ratzinger adds, “Where, on the Roman and Dominican – in a rather to the influence of this senior Roman basis of such ideas [flowing from the febrile climate in today’s Church, I prelate that we have been given rejection of scripture, dogma and found this book to be, not only a permission, and the space, within the magisterium], the liturgy is manipulated treasure trove of wisdom, insight and Church to express our concerns and ever more freely, the faithful feel that, in knowledge, but also highly relevant to ask our questions. This point is made reality, nothing is celebrated, and it is my daily work as a priest and a motive explicitly in the introduction by the understandable that they desert the for confidence in the future. editor of the collection, Dom Alcuin liturgy, and with it the Church”. In The book makes available in Reid, OSB, of St Michael’s Abbey in the same tenor, in his paper Professor English translation the proceedings Farnborough, England, who reminds Robert Spaemann, member of the and papers of a conference that took the reader that Ratzinger once wrote, Pontifical Academy and founder and place at the Abbey of Notre Dame, “The Church stands and falls with president of the association Pro Missa Fontgombault, in France, between the Liturgy”. Taking up that note of Tridentina, provides a chilling reminder 22-24 July 2001. The conference was urgency, Reid introduces the papers of the words of another cardinal, John

20 Summer 2005 Oriens 

Henry Newman, that the Church has the one thing that we now know for believes that rationalism and never abolished a rite and could not certain about the liturgy of the ancient romanticism can be resolved into a do so without gravely endangering church is that we know very little about third force that he calls “the intelligence religion. It has always been a matter of the liturgy of the ancient church. Pius of the heart”, a faculty that transcends worry to me to remember that the first XII’s admonition about archaeologism in yet unites thought and feeling, soul and person in the history of Christianity to Mediator Dei in 1947 was disregarded. body, reason and sensation. He thinks attempt a wholesale rejigging of the In a striking phrase, Caldecott’s paper this notion of “the intelligence of the liturgy was Martin Luther. reminds us that the sacred liturgy is heart” can provide the Church with a not a machine to be tinkered with but a way out of the liturgical impasse. Fathers spooked garden to be tended. Once the new rites In what, for me, is one of the most were in place, the romanticist impulse Future of liturgy interesting papers in the anthology, the of modern culture took over to ensure The Fontgombault conference Oxford-based Mr Stratford Caldecott, an unrelenting emphasis on warm was decidedly future-oriented in its European Director of the Chesterton feelings, experiential sensations and the concerns for solutions to current Institute for Faith and Culture and erroneous idea that the object of the difficulties. The paper presented by editor of Second Spring, explains how liturgical assembly is the assembly itself. Mgr André Léonard, Bishop of Namur, the Church was manoeuvred into Community became everything. As calls for a new Liturgical Movement and doing something that it had never early as the 1960s sympathetic cultural this is echoed by Dom Charbel Pazat de done before. Spooked by losing control philosophers, anthropologists and Lys, OSB, a monk of Le Barroux Abbey, of culture, in northern Europe at the sociologists were warning of the pitfalls who takes courage from Liturgicam Protestant Reformation and in the south of trying to redesign religious rites in a Authenticam’s reference to “a new era at the French Revolution, the Church at culture which increasingly viewed ritual, of liturgical renewal” which he takes first fought against the two twin modern custom and reverence with profound to imply that the first renewal, in some intellectual movements of rationalism suspicion but they, too, were ignored by respects, did not achieve its purposes. and romanticism, but then, in a state of the official Catholic reformers. Needless to say, all the participants rapidly fading self-confidence, allowed are emphatic about the necessity, not both streams to flow more or less freely Head vs heart only of the survival, but also of as into her own life after the Second World Caldecott sees society trapped in great as possible a flourishing of the War and especially in the 1960s in the the dichotomy of western thought classical Roman rite. On this point the hope of mastering and transcending since Descartes, in the radical papers of Cardinal Ratzinger, Professor them and thereby reconnecting with division between cold objectivity Spaemann and Dom de Lys converge. culture. It was not to be. Caldecott (rationalism) and mindless subjectivity The traditional liturgy functions as charges that those commissioned with (romanticism). If two realities are a point of reference, a criterion, a carrying out the liturgical reform in the to be united without losing their standard for future liturgical changes. name of the Second Vatican Council, distinctiveness, they must find It also provides a haven for those far from transcending rationalism and their unity in a third. At this point faithful who, in their own parishes, romanticism, managed to perpetuate the Caldecott looks to the capacity of the no longer find a liturgy celebrated in worst features of both. The functionalism anthropological philosophy of Pope accordance with norms authorised by and activism of rationalism merged with John Paul II to resolve the liturgical the Church. (This is a sound point the sentimentalism and emotionalism of dilemma, not at a merely historical, but the reviewer notes that, in a land romanticism to produce a liturgy at sociological or aesthetic level, but at the size of Australia, it usually works once stark, cold, didactic, moralising a more fundamental ontological and only in metropolitan centres, as the and unctuous. Motivated by the meta-anthropological level, where the faithful in isolated rural communities rationalist imperative, the reforming root of the problem lies. Appealing are too often left to fend for themselves committees “chopped, trimmed, to the “watermark” of the Trinity and, consequently, sometimes find manipulated and manhandled the throughout all creation and John themselves in the arms of the Lefebvrist Liturgy as though trying to reconstruct Paul II’s trinitarian anthropology of schism.) Cardinal Ratzinger thinks the a primitive liturgy”, a futile task because asymmetrical nuptiality, Caldecott contemporary Church’s permission for continued page 23 Summer 2005 21 Oriens 
  Traditional Masses in Australia Note: this directory covers Sunday Masses only. For other times, use contact details provided.         

ARCHDIOCESE OF MELBOURNE ARCHDIOCESE OF HOBART ARCHDIOCESE OF ADELAIDE Contact: FSSP Melbourne Chaplain Lower Sandy Bay St Peters Presbytery: 036 2252157 Fr Glen Tattersall Contact: Rev Fr G Small: 0883621644 Ph 03 9583 9926 St Canice Holy Name Church Fax (03) 9583 7981, [email protected] 15 St Canice Ave, Lwr Sandy Bay Payneham Road Website: http://latinmassmelbourne.org/ Ist Sunday, 11.30 am. masstimes.html Sunday 9.30am Caulfi eld       St Aloyisius’ Church ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY 233 Balaclava Road ARCHDIOCESE 0F CANBERRA Sunday, 11.00am (Sung Mass) Darlington 4.00pm Vespers & Benediction Chapel of the Resurrection Garran East Kew St Michael’s College, City Rd Contact: Fr J Fongomie FSSP 0410 121 588 Sunday, 10 .00 am St Anne’s Church Sts Peter & Paul Church Cnr Beresford & Windella Sts Lewisham Boake Place, Garran Sunday, 8.30 am Contact: Fr L Gresser Ph (02) 9688 4287 Sunday, 11.30 am E-mail:[email protected] Geelong Website: http://www.maternalheart.com/ Australian National University St John’s Church, Chapel of the Maternal Heart St John the Evangelist Chapel St David St., North Geelong Cnr West & Thomas Sts Sunday, 8.30 am Sunday 11.30 am Sunday, 10.30am DIOCESE OF SANDHURST DIOCESE OF PARRAMATTA  Bendigo Doonside ARCHDIOCESE OF BRISBANE St Francis Xavier Church St John Vianney Strickland Rd Cameron St Contact: Fr G Jordan, S.J.: 0738780638 Sundays & Holy Days, 9.30 am Sunday, 11.00am Buranda DIOCESE OF BALLARAT Prospect St Luke’s, Contact: Fr L Gresser Ph (02) 9688 4287 Taylor Street, Buranda Skipton E-mail:[email protected] Sunday, 9.15 am St John’s Church Website: http://fssp.net/sydney.html Cnr Anderson & Wright Sts St Marks, DIOCESE OF TOOWOOMBA 3rd Sunday, 5.00 pm Coptic Catholic Church Cnr Reservoir Rd & Prospect Hwy Toowoomba      Sunday, 8.00 am Holy Name Church 190 Bridge St Perth/WA Masses, contact: Rev. Michael Rowe Lawson Our Lady of the Nativity 2nd Sunday, 11.30 am Ph/Fax: (08) 9444-9604 254 Great Western Highway [email protected] Diocese of Rockhampton Sunday, 5.00pm Nth Rockhampton ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH DIOCESE OF WAGGA WAGGA St Mary’s Church Palmyra Contact: Diocesan Office - 0269215667 Nobbs St Our Lady of Fatima Church 2nd Sunday, 7.30 am 10 Foss Street Albury Sunday, 12.00 pm St Patrick’s Church DIOCESE OF CAIRNS Smollett Street Sunday, 3.00 pm Cairns 
 Wagga Wagga Contact: Mr Bob Stewart 074 095 8066 St John’s Pro - Cathedral Mount Erin Chapel Our Lady, Help of Christians Victoria Avenue Edmondson St 18 Balaclava Rd, Westcourt Sunday 7.30 am & 9.15 am Sunday, 11.00 am First Saturday, 10.30am

22 Summer 2005 Oriens  continued from page 21 continued from page 7 the use of the 1570 missal underlines have to get used to living with liturgical pray for “one of whom the Abbé would the fact that there has been no essential diversity whether we like it or not. To himself have been justly and rightly break in the eucharistic faith of the tell the truth, it is something that we proud – one who defended the Faith and Church. The Church which worships should like to live with because it has the Traditions of Holy Church with the according to the missal of Paul VI can been the way of the Church in both East same degree of fervour, zeal and charity also worship according to the missal of and West for centuries. Dom Cassian as did his revered and saintly ancestor”. Pius V. What was fundamental before Folsom, OSB, a monk originally of 1969 remains fundamental afterwards. St Meinrad’s Archabbey in Indiana, a According to the website of the US- Spaemann and others agree with the former director of the Sant Anselmo based Latin Liturgy Association, Dr. Cardinal that the old rite must be Institute in Rome and now superior Edgeworth, a former LLA Chairman, kept as a living and lived reality, not of a new Benedictine community at “is best known for his tireless work in as a relic from the past, as something Norcia, shows historically how ritual promoting the Latin Liturgy [this includes snap-frozen in time. The old rite will diversity has been a simple fact of both old and new rites]. He was one of survive only if it is open to gradual, life in the Church while Dom Daniel the early members of the LLA, and became organic change. Ratzinger advocates Field, OSB, cellarer of Randol Abbey in its secretary-treasurer in 1984… in 1987, the insertion of recently canonized France, explores some of the practical he became the LLA’s first vice chairman, saints’ days into the traditional calender implications and applications of multi- and planned the first ever national and of the richer collection of Novus ritualism for today. The co-existence convention in Washington, DC--a custom Ordo prefaces into the 1962 missal. of two or more rites of worship in that continues as a standard biennial Spaemann goes further and speculates the same territory ought not to be gathering of LLA members and friends. about omitting the recitation by the the great drama that it has become. In 1994, he became chairman, continuing priest of texts being sung by choir or The liturgical variety of the Eastern congregation and about communion Church is well known. Even in the his voluminous correspondence with under both kinds (which, after all, the Western Church there was a matter- Catholics throughout the world. He Council of Trent itself was prepared, in of-fact diversity of rites, whether of established the LLA national advisory principle, to concede to the German particular regions, dioceses or religious board... He served as a consultant to the Church in the hope of defusing the orders, most of them closely related Credo group, which promotes authentic Protestant revolt). to the Roman liturgy, right up to the translations of Latin liturgical texts. He time of Vatican II. Nobody was upset regularly attended the Tridentine Mass in Diversity of rites about it. Despite the Council’s directive Baton Rouge, maintaining cordial relations Convinced that the classical Roman that all the rites of the Church were to with the bishop there. [An achievement rite has a future, several of the papers be preserved, respected and fostered, that speaks well of both parties.] are interested in how precisely it will many of the Western variants fell into “He served as LLA chairman until fit into the larger liturgical life of the desuetude. However, even today in Catholic Church in the years to come. the Western Church the reformed 1999.” The expectation of Tridentine zealots Roman rite is not the only way of Vale, Bob – the wisest and kindest that the Church will one day backtrack worshipping. The Ambrosian and of men, well described by another to the ways things were in 1962, Mozarabic liturgies remain in albeit old friend as “one of the most holy, that Latin will again be the de facto limited currency and the Dominican learned and amiable people whom I usage, while abandoned by the normative liturgical language of the have ever met”. Western Church and that everyone Dominican Order itself as its corporate will live happily ever after is not way of worship, has been conceded by Doctor Edgeworth’s passing was going to be realised. The vernacular the Holy See to the French Dominican- commemorated with a sung Traditional Novus Ordo Mass, or some kind of inspired Fraternity of St Vincent Ferrer. Latin Mass at St Peter & Paul’s, Garran, descendant, is here to stay. Given Every major Western city now has its ACT on 22 November 2004. that the disappearance of either the sprinkling of Byzantine, Maronite and - Lyle Dunne traditional rite or the reformed rite other Eastern-rite communities in full is extremely unlikely, we are going to communion with the See of Rome. continued page 24 23 Oriens  continued from page 23 This acceptance ought to apply equally the Novus Ordo restoring to it a sense receptivity by which we open our to the ancient Roman rite which, as of the sacred and preserving its best hearts and minds to God to receive life Cardinal Ratzinger reminds us, is a rite features such as its greater openness from him and, at the same time, to give of the Church, belongs to the Church, to the languages of the people and the ourselves to him in worship. Actio is is one of the treasures of the Church richness of biblical texts. The proposals essentially prayer. However, as things and deserves therefore to be preserved of the Adoremus “reform of the reform” panned out, “active participation” in the Church. One would have movement could provide a model for degenerated into a fussiness over thought that fraternal and peaceful co- this process. Spaemann thinks that the merely outward bodily and vocal existence of worshipping styles would end result would look something like activity which conspired to shut out not be a problem in a Church in which, the short-lived interim missal of 1965 any sense of mystery, transcendence, at the parish level, because of the determination of the clergy to “do their own thing” there is not any more even one standard reformed Roman rite We can only understand but thousands of them. However, as Spaemann points out, when it comes the intensity of the campaign to the 1962 missal, we live in a climate against the traditional Mass of intolerance. This intolerance, by the way, is not all on one side. Who if we consider that many has not had their ears assaulted after a traditional Mass by someone with a Catholics now deny Trent’s real contempt for the contemporary Church and all its works, the Holy reaffirmation of the Church’s Father himself not excluded, based on some conspiracy theory involving Jews position on the priesthood and and Masons or the latest rumour of a Marian apparition? With his typical on the Mass as sacrifice. gentle irenicism, Cardinal Ratzinger says that what we need is not liturgical uniformity or liturgical chaos but which incorporated all that Vatican II reverence, contemplation, silence. In liturgical reconciliation. asked for but maintained a very clear his homily for the opening Mass of Convergence of rites textual and ceremonial continuity the conference, a reflection on the with tradition. Spaemann seems to gospel story of Martha and Mary, This idea is taken up by Professor rather like that idea but I doubt if his Cardinal Ratzinger observes that “The Spaemann when he refers to another enthusiasm would be shared by many consequences of forgetting God are possible solution to the current other traditionalists. terrible: the moral foundations of our liturgical problem: a convergence of society are being destroyed. This is not Some of the papers reproduced the 1962 and 1969 missals towards a ‘progress’....” Ratzinger underscores in this volume plumb real spiritual unity which would change them both the supreme importance of being open depths. At this level, Stratford Caldecott into an expression of ‘the intelligence to the one thing necessary, to the better offers some stimulating insights into of the heart’. This scenario would part, to the presence of God who, in the notion of “active participation”, involve, from one side, going back his Word, gives himself to us. Liturgy that – badly translated – phrase to scratch and applying a cautious, is essentially about placing ourselves from Sacrosanctum Concilium which sympathetic, sensible reform of the old contemplatively and receptively at is often waved threateningly in the rite which would adhere strictly to the the feet of the Lord. This book is faces of devotees of the old Mass. He criteria and conditions laid down by about helping us to understand that. suggests that what participatio actuosa Sacrosanctum Concilium and, from the It succeeds. really signifies is an intensely active other, a careful, critical readjustment of

24 Summer 2005