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Madeleine Beard

REDISCOVERING LOST TRADITIONS IN 2000

(published by Mass of Ages, November 2000)

I believe that this Holy Year great graces have been given to those who have for long struggled to revive the One True Faith in its teaching and in its liturgy. I believe that this Holy Year seeds have been sown in this quest, which shall bear fruit that will last. This Holy Year, on the Feast of Our Lady of Ransom, I visited the diocesan seminary of Arundel and Brighton at Wonersh. I was dreading it. I found myself there simply because the Catholic Writers' Guild had arranged a series of talks and visits, comprising an account of the history of St. John's Seminary, Wonersh by Father Sean Finnegan, a familiar name to members of the Latin Mass Society, a visit to the church of St. Edward the Confessor at Sutton Park, an account of the survival of the Faith through English Catholic Illustrated Books in the Age of Shakespeare by a Benedictine monk, a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation at West Grinstead and the chance to see a video of the Solemn High Mass in the Sarum Rite.

As soon as Father Sean Finnegan began to speak about the history of the seminary, which he has been commissioned to write, I realised that devotees of the Latin Mass have much to inspire them from the history of this one seminary. First of all, the building is beautiful, built in the French Renaissance style. With its terracotta-coloured brick, its line of magnolia trees on either side of the entrance, its solid stairway which leads up to the panelled door, its loud monastic doorbell, once inside one sees immediately in front of the entrance an alcove containing a statue of Our Lady. Above her are the words Regina Cleri Ora Pro Nobis. And if immediately one turns around in the large ambularum with its peaceful air reminiscent of a cloister and looks up, from one end of the long ambularum to the other, in capital letters in Latin, is the first sentence of St. John's Gospel. The parquet flooring, the statue of St. Thomas More in a niche near the Refectory, the proportions of the building with its large windows and high ceilings, the tranquil air of the gardens and fields which surround the seminary is a silent testimonial to the importance of a building designed for a purpose. It is a retreat in the country. Its founder, Bishop Butt, had a distinct view of what a seminary should be. It was to be a place to nurture holy men, to prepare them for the simple but difficult mission they had ahead of them as parish priests. His emphasis was less on academic qualifications but more on spiritual growth, knowing that holy priests produce devout congregations. His disciplined outlook, where long-distance running, team sports and cricket were as integral to the day as study and prayer, produced priests with the courage and ability to undertake their task, that of saving souls and the conversion of England.

I believe that in time, through the grace of Almighty God and allowing for a proper re-assessment by those in authority of the crisis in the Church, St. John's Seminary could be such a place of preparation again. Because so much depends on leadership, it is as true for the seminary as it is for the Church. Significantly, the current Rector is a former Army officer who studied for the priesthood at the English College in Rome, was ordained by the Holy Father, appointed as assistant priest in a parish in Kent and very soon after appointed Rector. It is, of course, still a modern seminary. We cannot tell what the future holds. However, I noticed indisputable facts which I believe may point the way to the future.

In the early 1960s substantial extensions were made to the original building which are indistinguishable from the original. This encapsulates what the Second Vatican Council intended. It was meant to herald growth in the Church, inspired directly by its glorious past. At Wonersh, that early optimism was there and it was implemented. Tragically the false interpretation of the Council documents meant that by 1970 the number of conversions and the number of young men offering themselves for the priesthood diminished rapidly. At Wonersh, those empty rooms are waiting to be filled again. The impressive side altars in the seminary chapel are waiting for the Mass for which they were created to be said again. Above each altar in the side chapels are beautiful paintings: St. Francis de Sales in one, St. Thomas of Canterbury and SS Thomas More and John Fisher in another. St. Charles Borromeo in a third. It is on this altar that there remain, in expectation, where the Old Mass is occasionally celebrated, altar cards. Conscious of the past, the current seminarians are creating a small museum for some of its many treasures. In one small room one seminarian, somewhat disconcertingly, announced that it was to contain a liturgical museum. Somewhat taken aback I then noticed, in this so-called liturgical museum, propped up against the wall, a portrait of Pope Paul VI. I took comfort from this. Let us pray through the intercession of the Curé d'Ars, Patron Saint of Seminarians, that this was an inadvertently prophetic statement. Let us pray, too, that, through the capable pen of Father Sean Finnegan, many will read his forthcoming history of St. John's Seminary, Wonersh, and a wise re-assessment will be made of the past and lessons learnt.

This seminary in the south of England reached the nadir of its fortunes in the early 1970s as liturgical changes became entrenched. Monks at the Abbaye St. Madeleine du Barroux in the south of France never embraced those changes. As a result, numbers have grown. These sixty monks, the majority of whom are remarkably young, are a living testimony to the truth of a lively tradition drawing on the past. This year on the Feast of St. Louis I looked down from the Gallery at the Ordination of two young monks. The August heat was almost unbearable, but the distinctive sound of Latin sung by French monks, the profound symbolism of every aspect of the Ordination ceremony, the sight and sound of the sixty monks of the Abbaye of St. Madeleine du Barroux, caused the many families present throughout the two-and-a-half-hour ceremony to observe and listen and watch quietly throughout. That, in itself, is a testament to the Church in her wisdom. Its liturgy is both soothing and fascinating. I can just remember that same atmosphere from visits to Buckfast Abbey in the mid-1960s. For children, there is something profoundly compelling about watching and listening to monks at prayer.

We were crowded into this recently-constructed abbey thanks to one monk who, exactly thirty years before these ordinations, arrived at the Chapel of Bedoin, dedicated to Saint Madeleine in Provence. He wanted to continue his life of traditional monasticism through prayer, silence, manual work, the Office in Latin and the traditional liturgy. He was called Père Gérard. Three days later, his first Postulant arrived. Other Postulants, also trusting in Divine Providence, began to join them. However when, four years later in 1974, Monsignor Lefebvre ordained some monks, Père Gérard was asked by his superior to close the monastery. Now living in caravans, the community still continued to grow. In 1978 land was purchased at Barroux. Donations came in. In 1980 the foundation stone of a new abbey was inscribed with the words "Pax in lumine". The following year the monks installed themselves in Barroux, without light or heating. Five years later the first wall of the Abbey church was constructed. In 1989 Rome gave the monastery canonical status and the Abbey church was consecrated by the Archbishop of Avignon. In 1993 a list of French Bishops who would come to the Abbey for the Ordinations was drawn up. For the Bishop at the Ordination this August this was the first time he had celebrated the Old Rite. One of the sixty monks is an Englishman, guided towards his vocation to the traditional Benedictine monastic life in this part of France by Father Hugh Thwaites, S.J. and with what joy it was that Father Thwaites preached, only two weeks after these Ordinations in Le Barroux, on "Dominus Jesus". At last, the Church had spoken out. The Church was daring to do what it was founded to do. To preach the Truth shortly after two Popes whose names resonate throughout the Catholic world were beatified. Here was a Jesuit priest who has never faltered from bringing the Catholic Faith to his parishioners, in its teaching and in its liturgy. There is in France a Benedictine English monk joyful in his witness to the living tradition of the Church. The day before Father Thwaites celebrated the quarterly Mass in St. Peter's Church Winchester, I saw an elderly Dominican helped into the choir stalls in Blackfriars Oxford. This Dominican priest saw four young men move the altar from its temporary position in the middle of the large sanctuary out of the way. A short time afterwards, Solemn High Mass was celebrated by Father Devillers of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. The Gregorian chant resonated in the Priory church. The High Altar at Blackfriars Oxford was being used for its original purpose.

Three months before this High Mass, hundreds of people had gathered in that same church on the afternoon of 26th June for the first Corpus Christi procession for thirty years. This procession had set out from the Oxford Oratory, Newman's dream having been established by priests from the Birmingham Oratory only ten years before. Leaving Blackfriars, this Corpus Christi procession - with its many clergy, first Communicants in white dresses scattering petals, members of the University in their academic dress - made its way through the centre of Oxford for Benediction in the garden of Campion Hall. So it was that the Blessed Sacrament was carried in procession through the City of Oxford for the first time since 1558.

Less than a month later I found myself in the small airport of Rockford, Illinois in the heart of America's Mid West. I had been asked to speak at the parish of St. Mary's in Elm Street, a parish which some three years ago was given by the Bishop of Rockford to the Institute of Christ the King. This beautiful church is now being brought back to its proper use by Father Brian Bovee, I.C.K.S.P. Two future seminarians were staying with him in the presbytery, to whom he was teaching French before starting their training in Gricigliano. Hundreds of parishioners now fill the pews of the church on Sundays. Even at a weekday Mass (Father Bovee celebrates a Low Mass twice every day) the congregation was impressive, comprising American Catholics of all ages who have rediscovered the Mass which they thought they had lost. Families noticeable for their large numbers of children, families who travel miles to get to Mass at this church on a Sunday. Families who have literally uprooted themselves from other parts of America and moved to Rockford and its environs. While in Rockford I went to look at a Pioneer Museum and it struck me that these lively and courageous American Catholics are themselves pioneers within the Church. These men and women are putting themselves and their families through difficulties and hardships in order to find a better life as Catholics. Their source of strength is the Sacraments celebrated in the Old Rite. Here in the Mid West they are drawing on the rich seam of the precious and hidden jewels of the Church's liturgy. They are investing their lives in the riches that the Church provides for its children. Thanks to particular bishops in America, the treasures of the Church are being manifested again and rediscovered by Catholics throughout North America. One member of Father Bovee's congregation is the founder of TAN Books, Thomas A. Nelson. From the vast warehouse in Rockford, the great classics of Catholic literature are being reprinted and distributed throughout the English-speaking world. It was a joy to witness the regeneration of an inner city parish, not only in Rockford, Illinois, but in Washington D.C. in the Church of Old St. Mary's where two of the nine members of the Supreme Court of Justice are regular Communicants among the many who flock to the Old Rite.

It was thanks to Americans based in Brussels that I and other members of the Latin Mass Society joined a traditional pilgrimage in Belgium, revived some six years ago, to Foy. Foy is a small village not far from France which came within a few miles of the Battle of the Ardennes in 1944. The pilgrimage dates back to the early seventeenth century when a quartz statue of Our Lady was miraculously discovered in an oak tree. As we travelled through Brussels on our way to join other pilgrims at the start of the pilgrimage at Dinant on the River Meuse, I glimpsed a statue of General Montgomery. It struck me that we, as seemingly beleaguered Catholics devoted to the Latin Mass, could draw some inspiration from the positive outlook of this wartime general, with his ability to look ahead, his clear mental outline of the future and his talent for simplification. It was a characteristic prevalent in his family's past. Because it was Roger of Montgomery, William the Conqueror's chief army commander, who, after winning many battles and a successful military career, found solace in his Faith, spending the last years of his life, until his death in 1094, as a monk in the monastery which he himself had founded, the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul in Shrewsbury. The parallels between the Norman Conquest in 1066 and the invasion of the ancient French duchy of Normandy in 1944 are compelling. They show that we as Catholics must be ever mindful of the lessons of the past. They show that inspired leadership can change the course of history. I believe that such inspired leadership was shown by the Bishop of Namur who, for the first time for thirty years, celebrated a Solemn High Mass in the church dedicated to Nôtre Dame de Foy. He too walked with the pilgrims the nine miles from Dinant to Foy. He shared a meagre meal with the pilgrims at their halt half way. He walked with the pilgrims up and down the wooded hills, through the open countryside where some cows and horses gazed in bewilderment at the 150 men, women and children who made their way carrying flags and banners to the shrine. The Bishop walked the muddy and steep paths in the wood before reaching the church and at the end of the Mass, instead of continuing in the procession out of the church, Bishop Leonard turned to greet some of the 450 members of the inter-national congregation who had come to this historic mass. Here was a Bishop doing what he had to do. Here was a Bishop, in a church dedicated to Our Lady, who had blessed each of the pilgrims with a replica of the miraculous statue of Our Lady of Foy. He was here because of a pilgrimage revived by the School of St. Peter and St. Paul in Brussels in 1995. Such leadership is essential if there is to be a true revival of Catholicism. Such leadership was demonstrated by Duke William in 1066 and again by General Montgomery in 1944.

In 1066 Duke William had been thought mad to set sail for England without a favourable wind and was forced to shelter at the mouth of the Somme. Prayers were offered to St. Valery. The storm moderated and William set sail. In June 1944, after many days of bad weather, the Channel storms abated and the invasion of Normandy began. Both commanders, in 1066 and 1944, were isolated in their warships from the rest of their invasion fleets and both were forced to anchor in mid-Channel. Neither commander was deterred. They both achieved their objectives.

Montgomery was of Anglo-Irish ancestry. Six hundred years after the Norman invasion, descendants of Earl Roger Montgomery established themselves in Donegal. The year was 1623. In that same year a church was built in the tiny village of Foy. At the end of 1944 the village and church of Foy was miraculously protected from the German advance in the Battle of the Ardennes, which Montgomery himself commanded. This was one of the last land battles of the Second World War involving American troops who, assisted by the British, prevented the Germans from crossing the River Meuse, where our pilgrimage began at the Abbey of Leffe in Dinant.

Our English-speaking Chapter was led by Father Gerard Duroisin of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. America, Nigeria, Australia, Ireland, England and Wales were represented among our number and we walked behind Dutch, French and German groups. On land that within living memory had seen such terrible fighting and many lives lost, the pilgrims, led by a bishop, recited the rosary, sang hymns and were led in meditations by our priest. On this pilgrimage were monks from Le Barroux. On this pilgrimage were Americans from parishes where the Sacraments in the Old Rite are celebrated regularly. On this pilgrimage were pilgrims who had been on the Corpus Christi procession in Oxford, who had attended the High mass in Blackfriars, had heard the former prisoner-of-war Father Hugh Thwaites preach in Winchester. Whether from Australia, Nigeria, Wales or Belgium, that which united this pilgrimage was a common language and a love of the Old Rite. General Montgomery once said, addressing officers in Camberley in 1948: "Some people talk of war as if it were an act of God. But war is not an act of God. War grows directly out of things which individuals, statesmen and nations do or fail to do. It is, in short, the consequences of national policies of lack of policies. And once the nation's destiny is submitted to the terrible decisions of war, victory or defeat likewise ensues from what we do or fail to do."

Let us pray, through the intercession of Notre Dame de Foy, that the former Army officer who is now Rector of St. John's Seminary Wonersh will take heed of these wise words of the General and set out to restore the Faith in its teaching and its liturgy, taking as his inspiration the recent and successful stories of St. Mary's Shrine in Elm Street, in the heart of the Mid West, the Abbaye de St. Madeleine in the heart of Provence and the leadership shown by the Bishop of Namur. For this we rely on the continued prayers of the Curé d'Ars, Patron Saint of Priests and Seminarians. Regina Cleri, Ora Pro Nobis.