The Latin Mass Society’s residential training conference for priests wishing to learn the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass) held at Downside Abbey, Somerset, from Tuesday 10 August to Friday 13 August was a great success.
The highlight was the Solemn Pontifical Mass celebrated at the Faldstool by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Karaganda in Kazakhstan on the Thursday. Father Andrew Southwell, LMS National Chaplain, and Rev. Matthew McCarthy FSSP were Deacon and Sub-deacon, with Canon Marcus Kunkel ICKSP as Assistant Priest. There were over thirty priests in choir and a congregation of more than 100.
During the conference twenty priests received intensive tuition in the celebration of the Usus Antiquior and eleven laymen were instructed in serving the Mass.
Bishop Schneider gave a well-received keynote lecture on the priest as ‘Eucharistic man’ and was also the main speaker at the closing conference dinner. His book, Dominus Est, which advocates receiving Holy Communion on the tongue whilst kneeling has attracted worldwide attention.
The conference included daily Sung Mass, Lauds and either Vespers or Compline in the evening; there was Benediction after Vespers.
Father Ray Blake, the well-known blogger, who attended the conference, said: “Downside was a tremendous experience. Most of all I enjoyed the sense of fraternity amongst the priests, the solidarity, the sharing of our love for Holy Mother Church and her liturgy”.
Doctor Joseph Shaw, LMS Chairman, said: “This conference was the sixth to be organised by the LMS during the last three years. Over 100 priests have now attended, of whom about 85 now regularly celebrate Mass in the Usus Antiquior. The LMS will organise a further two conferences in 2011”.
All photos by Eric Caudle.
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