Westminster Cathedral Ends 50 Years of Masses for the Latin Mass Society, by Joseph Shaw

By Joseph Shaw, Crisis Magazine, Oct. 3, 2023

Dr Joseph Shaw has a Doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford University, where he also gained a first degree in Politics and Philosophy and a graduate Diploma in Theology….

The cancellation of the decades-long biannual celebration of traditional Latin Mass at Westminster Cathedral appears to be another attempt to marginalize traditional Catholics.

The Cathedral was packed with people, many standing all down the aisles, in the galleries, and at the back of the Church. It was a most impressive celebration and astonished the foreign visitors by the beauty of the church, the music, and the intense devotion of the congregation. We could not have hoped for a more triumphant assembly.… There were representatives from Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland and other places.

This is a description by Geoffrey Houghton-Brown, my predecessor as Chairman of the Latin Mass Society, of the first Traditional Mass to be celebrated in Westminster Cathedral after the liturgical reform, on Saturday, June 17, 1972. The previous celebration of the Traditional Mass on the Cathedral’s High Altar had taken place in November 1970. The gap was short because Pope Paul VI issued a decree allowing the bishops of England and Wales to permit ongoing celebrations for the good of the faithful, the so-called “English Indult.” The rest of the world had to wait until 1984 for the same possibility. …

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