Pastoral Letter from my Bishop

Posted on Tuesday, 31 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

I publish this Pastoral Letter from my Bishop at his request. I am thankful for his fatherly care for us all, clergy and laity. He has my prayers for his protection, his safety and his health.

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Diocese of the United Kingdom

From the Bishop

Passiontide 2020

To the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of the United Kingdom,

Since at least Anglo-Saxon times England has been referred to as the “Dowry of Mary”. We often think of dowries as being settlements on a bride which she brings with her into marriage. However, it has another meaning, and it is from this meaning England has this title.

You may be aware that many grand old English Country Estates – think of “Downton Abbey” type Houses! – often have a smaller, although sometimes still impressive, house, such as the one the dowager Countess of Grantham (played by the indomitable Dame Maggie Smith), lived in Downton Abbey. Known as the “Dower House”, this was a property provided for a widow (the dowager) from the estate of her late husband – it was a place where she could live and maintain herself, but it would often require considerable care and attention perhaps a complete renovation before it was a fit dwelling place.

England’s Patron Saint has long been St George, but it was not always so. The ninth century St Edmund the Martyr, was St George’s predecessor. But above them all is set Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, as Patroness of England. There were, and possibly still are, more Churches dedicated to Our Lady in England than any other Saint. Prior to the Reformation you could hardly move for Shrines dedicated to her.

In 1381 England was ravaged by the Peasants’ Revolt, when the imposition of a poll tax caused the south-eastern counties to rise in open rebellion. This revolt was suppressed but it was a struggle. After regaining control of England King Richard II consecrated England to Our Lady in thanksgiving for the victory.

Later there was issued at Lambeth a decree, on 10th February 1399, which read: “The contemplation of the great mystery of the Incarnation has brought all Christian nations to venerate her from whom came the beginnings of redemption. But we, as the humble servants of her inheritance, and liegemen of her especial dower – as we are approved by common parlance ought to excel all others in the favour of our praises and devotions to her.”

This year, on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25th March, there was to have been a re-consecration of England to Our Lady by the Roman Catholic Bishops of England and Wales at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, in Norfolk. Sadly, with our country in lockdown, this big event was not able to take place.

With the Covid-19 virus and the threat it poses, causing the Prime Minister to declare an emergency -not to mention the general moral and spiritual decline we have seen in our nation, in recent decades, England, Mary’s Dowry, and the whole of the United Kingdom, most definitely has need of God’s mercy and Mary’s prayers. Also, like the Dower Houses I mention above, our Country, will require considerable care if not a complete renovation before it will become a worthy place for of Our Lady to call home.

Since the Council of Ephesus in 431 Mary has been called ‘Theotokos’, meaning God-bearer or Mother of God. For we know Christ cannot be truly man as well as truly God unless he is born of a human mother.

We recall the Angel’s salutation of Mary at the Annunciation and the revelation of the unique role she was to play in her own, and our, salvation. Mary, as the Mother of Jesus, also HAS to be Mother of God. To deny this is to deny Jesus’ divinity.

As the Creed we recite and affirm regularly proclaims:

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God; Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God; Begotten, not made;
Being of one substance with the Father;

Scripture directs us to Galatians 4:4,”when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman” , and to John ‘s Gospel where Mary is always called ‘the Mother of Jesus’ and in 20:31 we find the words ‘ Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name’.

In a fragment of papyrus preserved in the Rylands Library, Manchester, dated no later than 270 A.D., there is the earliest recorded prayer to Mary in Greek, which translated reads: ‘we fly to thy (her) patronage’.

This clearly illustrates how from the earliest times the Church saw the Blessed Virgin Mary’s maternal role for followers of her Son, for us … and so it follows for England, her dowry.

And Oh, how we need a Mother’s love and prayers today!

The challenges of this present crisis requires all of us to respond with fortitude and faith … and not a little creativity. We find ourselves, I hope, trying wherever possible to maintain some form of Christian practice and worship in the face of much which is familiar being temporarily taken away through the closure, albeit necessary, of our church buildings.
I have always resisted the broadcasting of services online – except for big special events. Certainly not my Sunday services. However, I decided the time had come, from my own lock down, that I should try to provide what I hope is a helpful contribution to salve these feelings of frustration. I am pleased that other clergy are also doing similar things and thank them for their pastoral efforts.

Quite understandably this has prompted some people to ask about the effectiveness of watching worship on television, computers or smart devices. Of whether there is a difference between live streaming or recorded worship.

My own feeling is that, although of course gathering together and engaging in worship with others physically, and enjoying fellowship with other Christians is an essential part of our life and witness as Christians, I think it highly likely that the Lord of Time and Space, who is not constrained by our calendar or our feet of clay, can share His Grace in any way He chooses including with those watching and participating in faith regardless.

I will, Dv, be uploading services from my Domestic Chapel of St Nicholas, at my home in Lydd, with a Low Mass on Palm Sunday, the Diocesan Chrism Mass (at which I will perform the annual blessing of the Holy Oils) on the Wednesday of Holy Week and Mass on Maundy Thursday evening. On Good Friday I hope to celebrate the Liturgy of the Day and will also try to upload a meditation on the Stations of the Cross. These will appear on the Diocesan Facebook Page (@ACCDUK), my own YouTube Channel (search “BishopMead”) and be linked on the Diocesan website (www.anglicancatholic.org.uk). I will not be attempting the Holy Saturday Vigil on my own, but I will bless a new Paschal Candle for the Pro-Cathedral on Easter Day and celebrate a Sung Mass – Pontifically!
My prayer for you all is to remain safe and well during this present crisis. To keep smiling in adversity and to put you trust in Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I would like to end with the Prayer from the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

O Mary, recall the solemn moment
when Jesus, your divine Son,
dying on the cross
confided us to your maternal care.
You are our Mother;
we desire ever to remain your devout children.
Let us therefore feel the effects
of your powerful intercession with Jesus Christ.

Make your name again glorious in this place,
once renowned throughout our land
by your visits, favours and many miracles.

Pray, O Holy Mother of God, for the conversion of England, restoration of the sick, consolation for the afflicted, repentance of sinners, peace to the departed.
O Blessed Mary, Mother of God, Our Lady of Walsingham,

intercede for us. Amen

In Christ

The Right Reverend Damien Mead Bishop Ordinary

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Rubricism

Posted on Monday, 30 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

I am not pointing any fingers in any particular directions, but I have been aware since the early 1980’s of a certain fashion of interpreting the rules of the liturgy. It is something we could also call canonical positivism. In his book The Mass, Adrian Fortescue describes the incensing of the altar and said “Such increased definiteness was bound to come and, after all, you must incense an Altar somehow; it does not hurt to be told how to do so“. It is a subject I encountered when researching the Tridentine codification of the Roman rite in 1570 and its ulterior regulation by the Congregation of Rites. A popular accusation of the old liturgy is that of rubricism where the hidden thought is the dissolution of all liturgical form. For this reason, I will try to isolate a moderate position between the two extremes of rubricism and anything goes.

The word appears to have been coined by Newman in a letter to Keble in 1840:

Right views and practices are spreading strangely; nor do I think with you that they tend to nothing more than rubricism.

The word plainly comes from rubric, which is the red print in liturgical books to distinguish rules or instructions from the text to be sung or said. As an American priest recently expressed as a slogan – Say the black, do the red. It is reasonable for us to be asked to learn the ceremonies and celebrate the liturgy correctly. Once the rules are learned, we then operate by habit and routine.

Rubricism is an extreme adherence to the rubrics to the last detail. It is a question of degree beyond “doing it properly” and excluding improvisation, the opposite extreme. It is possible to become obsessed to such a degree that we become unable to see the wood for the trees, the profound meaning of the liturgy for such details as the order of lighting the altar candles by the server.

It is something I have noticed in the English-speaking world in contrast with the more laid-back attitude among some of the old French priests I have known. Roman Catholicism before Vatican II was heavily influenced by a legalistic and tutiorist attitude. Probabilism and tutiorism are roughly two attitudes in regard to an ambiguous moral situation calling for a judgement. Probabilism

– is the moral system which holds that, when there is question solely of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of an action, it is permissible to follow a solidly probable opinion in favour of liberty even though the opposing view is more probable.

This can be helpful in unblocking a situation where the correct thing to do is unclear, and some measure of pragmatism is called for. However in tutiorism in its most extreme form:

It is not lawful to follow even a most probable opinion in favour of liberty.

In a less extreme form, tutiorism is

– the doctrine that in cases of moral doubt it is best to follow the safer course or that in agreement with the law

Neo-scholastic moral theology is a jungle of speculations and a legalistic mentality. As I was taught by Fr Servais Pinckaers OP at Fribourg University, following a compromise between Thomism and ressourcement theology, the moral act is judged by its end (finis operis) and the intention of the agent (finis operantis). Laws themselves are judged by their finality and not simply as the expression of the law’s legislator. This is why any system of law is preceded by a treatise on the principles of interpretation and application. Canon law is governed by the principle of epikeia, roughly expressed as necessity needing no law. For example, Jesus taught that it was legitimate to rescue a trapped animal on the Sabbath. This is the vital distinction to be made between the spirit and letter of the law, the essence of Christ’s teaching faced with the legalism and hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees.

The principle of epikeia holds also for the rubrics in the liturgy. In most circumstances, the rubric tells us what to do and we do it, the alternative being some arbitrary choice of our own for no justifiable reason. What about omitting one of the vestments, like the maniple, because it is missing from the set of vestments, or taking a maniple from another set of vestments of another colour? What about reading the Epistle and Gospel in the vernacular and facing the people at a Mass in Latin? What about “being trendy” and improvising the Eucharistic Prayer? The first of these examples is making do with what we have. The second is a measure of “pastoralism” or a pastoral measure to avoid alienating the laity. The third is a wanton violation of the very principles of the liturgy.

I now come to the notion of pastoralism, a term that was coined by a Papal master of ceremonies by the name of Msgr Léon Gromier in his criticism of the Pius XII Holy Week ceremonies. He refers to les pastoraux as those liturgists working for the Vatican who wanted to bring about liturgical reforms on pastoral grounds. It is a difficult problem which in history caused rood screens to be removed from churches and the plans of Jansenists at the Synod of Pistoia up to Fr Louis Bouyer and the philistinism of Msgr Annabile Bugnini. In its extreme form, pastoralism describes a concern for the pastoral relevance of the liturgy according to subjective tastes and desires. However, in a less extreme form, it defined an expression of French and German liturgical ministry – for example the biblical readings in the vernacular and read away from the altar, the possibility of vernacular hymns, a loosening of that feeling of the tutiorist and rubricist sarcophagus suffocating any human agency in the liturgy. Some of us seek what was  probably the spirit of the pre-Reformation liturgy, a healthy balance of a notion of tradition and custom, and a great measure of popular participation. We would like to see a cultural framework that makes liturgy live rather than be a mummified corpse as Louis Bouyer described what he must have seen in some churches in the 1930’s or 50’s.

In reaction to the post-Vatican II reforms, many traditionalists resumed the old rubrical tutiorism, the letter of the law for its own sake. There were also the more cranky excesses like some lay faithful believing that the Mass would be invalid if the priest was not wearing the maniple. Though it is more desirable to wear a maniple, when such is possible, it is hardly the matter and the form of the Eucharist (if we are defining things in Thomist terms).

One possible analogy with the correct observance of a liturgical rite is eating at table as a family. Children are taught to hold a knife and fork in the acceptable way. In England, we generally follow Debrett’s rules, depending on how formal the meal is. When eating peas, the diner squashes them onto the convex side of the fork with the knife to convey them to his mouth. Even faced with such a practical difficulty, it is improper to turn the fork over in the left hand and push the peas onto it with the knife – but it is much easier. French table manners are much less rigid about exceptions. At a family meal, the father of the family can surely be a little less rigorous as long as the children know what the right thing is for a formal meal. I remember as a child that my father came over so heavily about table manners that I left the table feeling nauseous. I was probably doing something incorrect and should have known better. I think my father then realised that he had been too strict and needed to be more patient with me. Nowadays, children often eat like pigs!

There has to be a balance between doing things properly in church, but without forgetting or burying the profound meaning of Christ’s Mystery. It is indeed the relationship between man and the Sabbath…

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Our Church’s outreach in these uncertain times

Posted on Monday, 30 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Fr Jonathan Munn has come up with an excellent initiative on our Diocesan website:

There are recordings of Mass from private chapels, including our Bishop who preached a lovely sermon yesterday. My “musical offering” is also featured in which I play a piece of music and a hymn tune on my little pipe organ so that people can sing the words at home.

Since doing this video, I find that my mobile phone captures the sound better than my webcam. Future recordings will thus be an improvement. Requests for hymns are most welcome. I just ask that they are hymns included in the English Hymnal or Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised. I will include the words on the YouTube page.

It is very heartening to see our Church adapting to this situation of emergency and our duty to remain in quarantine and avoid infecting other people, whether or not we have the virus and / or its symptoms. Any institutional Church that is able to make such an adaptation of its pastoral outreach will at last be providing disinterested service to its faithful. Material concerns take second place behind what the Church is really for – that of being a communion of souls in God. Like in the political world, the common good must prevail over the selfish interests of the elite few.

As the world suffers this cruel reboot, we hope and pray that what our liturgy and sacramental life mean in metaphysical terms may emerge purified and ever more resplendent in the coming weeks and months.

There are predictions that this week and much of April will bring confusion and violence. Millions of people being shut in at home – not in nice houses like mine with gardens, but in grimy city flats with no beauty or goodness to behold – cannot last for long. Every day, I read the political rants about skulduggery and conspiracies. We just don’t know what to believe, and it is best to be sceptical about everything, suspend our judgement and keep our heads low. This is Passiontide and the time of the worst level of hatred against Christ coming from the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees. This is not the time to complain about our loss of freedom and having to be shut in. There are worse places than our own homes!

We try to put out the good word, food for meditation and prayer and prepare for our liberation, just like the French people who awaited the Allies in 1944. This time, the enemy is invisible and silent. It has no life of its own but lives from the life of our cells. This is the analogy between viruses and evil spirits wandering in the world for our ruin. Our war is a spiritual one, fought by doctors and nurses with their expertise and dedication, the rest of us by continuing to stay home and work on our spiritual lives.

Keep safe and well…

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Passion Sunday

Posted on Sunday, 29 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Here is my recording of Mass and Sermon for Passion Sunday. The rite is the Use of Sarum in Latin except the Epistle and Gospel.

I intend to record also the Masses of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, the Mass of the Presanctified and ceremonies of the Easter Sepulchre on Good Friday, the Paschal Vigil and Easter Sunday. I will try to incorporate some singing, especially the Exultet. It is not easy to do everything alone, but I have a few years’ experience at this.

For those troubled at inaccuracies like liturgical colours and the absence of an apparelled amice, I have simply not got round to doing everything. Also, much of my liturgical materials is from the time when I used the Roman rite. I wear gothic and “fiddleback” vestment indifferently. I was given this black chasuble more than thirty years ago. The “correct” colour for Sarum Passiontide is bull’s blood red with black orphreys. This chasuble is the other way around. I used accessories from a dull red French set. I have reason to believe that in the early sixteenth century, liturgical observance was far from uniform. This is not a theatrical performance but a real Mass celebrated pro populo as are all my Masses whether or not they are recorded.

Another thing to consider is that we Anglicans normally celebrate Mass and Office in the language of the people. I habitually celebrate in Latin, because there are no people present at my Mass, and also because I think a priest in an expatriate chaplaincy needs to transcend denominational frontiers. I have no illusion of being “acceptable” to traditionalist Roman Catholics, because they have all they need. My Bishop is also recording his Mass celebrated in his home chapel because of the quarantine, and he uses the Anglican Missal. Other priests of our Diocese are also recording their Mass or doing a live broadcast via feature on Facebook like “watch parties”.

Many of the clergy are concerned that people may not return to church at the end of our quarantine period. They consider the lowest common denominator of people going by habit, hanging by a slender thread. It is a pastoral concern. However, the pandemic and the quarantine will be a trial for us that we have to overcome in ourselves. Some of us may lose loved ones, and not be allowed to go to their funeral. We cannot afford to remain at the same shallowness of faith, commitment and spiritual life. What remains when the externals are taken away are the measure of what there was in the first place. Much of the institutional Church will not survive, any more than the present world economy and monetary system. Much will have to be swept away. The gold will be tried in the crucible by fire.

I wish you all a holy Passiontide in our common prayer for new life after this confinement and our Paschal joy.

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Learning Common Sense

Posted on Monday, 23 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

The UK is about to go into compulsory lockdown. We have been in lockdown here in France for just one week and Italy for quite a bit longer. Still, some people are in denial and spout all kind of conspiracy theories – or they grumble and moan because their employers have been unable to provide masks and sanitising gel for everyone. Sophie and I got our supplies in at the end of February and sanitising gel was still available in supermarkets and the chemists’ shops. We bought two small bottles, and they are quite enough when used sparingly. We were even able to order four FFP2 masks from Amazon that protect against viruses and extremely fine dust. They haven’t yet been worn, but I will probably do so for our next food order and necessaries from the chemist. I remember the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Sophie was once in the Girl Guides and I had a good formation at boarding school and my other formative years. Be prepared! When you see a crisis coming, you get ready for it – you don’t go into denial. When the chips are down, we have oil in our lamps for when the Bridegroom comes in that image of the eschatological Kingdom. It is not a reason to be smug, but a moment to be grateful and humble – and assume responsibility.

One thing to learn right now is that most supplies we normally buy in the shops are not available because the shops are closed. Amazon is now only supplying essential goods. It’s no good thinking about doing jobs around the house unless we already the materials and tools. Otherwise it has to wait until the end of our confinement. We can go and buy food, go to the chemist and see a doctor for anything other than coronavirus. The banks are still open, but I do all my banking by internet. The dustbins are still emptied and the postal service is still working, because those people don’t need to take risks. If they have registered mail or parcels, they leave it at the door and take a photo as proof of delivery – no signatures or contact with people. We learn to think in a new way and take all these precautions not only for self-preservation but to avoid infecting others in case we have the virus. In the absence of a diagnostic test, we just don’t know. The probability goes down dramatically after one week’s quarantine and almost to zero after two weeks. I last went to a supermarket one week ago, but with all recommended precautions. So far, so good… I keep praying and I keep on my guard.

A while ago, I wrote an article on My Take on Transcendentalism which includes a reflection on Emerson’s Self-Reliance. Our time of crisis is one for creative thinking and not “groupthink”. One example that has annoyed me here in France is the controversy over chloroquine which is usually used to treat malaria. It contains quinine and is not something without potential side effects. It has been used for Covid-19 in China and has produced results. Dr Didier Raoult in Marseille, a highly qualified specialist, has been appealing for the use of this drug until something better becomes available. The medical establishment in France wants to put it through the full test protocol before approving it, though now the French Government is in favour of its use. At present, there is nothing else, and Dr Raoult has been called a charlatan and just about everything else. Now, I don’t have medical expertise, but my immediate reaction is to ask the simple question – Is it better to leave someone to die or risk side effects using a drug that can do some good? At least, let doctors use chloroquine until a properly formulated and tested drug becomes available. I hope and pray that common sense will prevail.

This seems to be an example of creative thinking coming from a professional doctor who doesn’t seem to be an idiot! Groupthink seems to ignore the fact that many patients who are at the stage of pneumonia and needing intensive care are going to die. What is wrong with giving them some hope? We need to pull the blinkers away from our eyes and come out of denial.

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Stop press as of 23 March 8.15 pm: Chloroquine is now allowed in French hospitals for serious cases. Deo gratias for pragmatism until a more specific drug can be formulated and approved. See this article if you read French.

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Creative thinking is a part of our ability to be self-reliant. For the time being, many of us have some money (dwindling away) and the possibility of buying food. We might not have that forever. Perhaps this is the moment to turn our garden into a mini-farm, but this is not time for dreaming and being in illusions. There are things I do well, but I know precious little about permaculture and animal husbandry. The garden isn’t that big, so meat would essentially be from chickens (less heart-wrenching to kill than rabbits). In any case, at this time, the garden shops are closed. The next opportunity will be bartering with farmers, but they are hard-nosed characters! I do have assets like woodworking and just about every manual trade I turn my hands to.

One thing is sure. We have to be able to solve our problems by anticipating. We don’t go to the doctor or call the emergency services unless we are really in trouble – not even in normal times, but especially now. Our isolation from other people is above all going to force us to be self-reliant in spiritual and psychological terms. Some people are unhappy unless they are in a crowd and socialising. Now, they are shut in their small and grim flats in town, or in a house in the country. I am well adapted because I rely less on being with other people and am used to solitude or my “brother and sister” marriage.

Perhaps something is going to come out of this crisis. We are going to travel much less, and especially by air. I have always hated flying, not because of the risk of the plane crashing and killing everyone on board, but being forced into a kind of “factory” that processes people through the stages of checking tickets and documents, luggage handing, getting people to the right gate, onto the plane and to the right seat where human bodies of strangers are bustling together. There comes a time in life where world travel is just not worth it, especially on a budget. Those who are “people” people like cruises on modern ships built for that purpose, but promiscuity is to such an extent that sickness goes through the whole ship like a fox in a chicken coop. Life has taught me the joy of travelling much shorter distances to have a week on my little sailing boat or the two of us camping in some quiet and remote place. The main cause of this pandemic is mass tourism. That has to change in the future.

Being at home or away from home, I do like self-reliance as much as possible. My experience of quarantine gives me another angle from that of many who live it as a kind of imprisonment. Whatever kind of home we have, we can at least make things and read – but if we have at least that level of culture. The way some people live is unimaginable. Whoever we are, confinement and being away from society is going to bring us face-to-face with ourselves. Faced with ourselves, will we find heaven or hell? The ultimate solitude is being at sea in a boat or high up in the mountains, the laboratory of Nietzsch’s philosophy. I once wrote about a sailor who was all wrong with himself, and his solitude at sea drove him to madness and suicide.

We have to learn from necessity and live with it…

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Impressions of a quick shopping trip

Posted on Saturday, 21 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

After nearly a week of being at home, we needed a few supplies from a local farm shop where they breed pigs and sell their meat.

I had seen scenes of cities in France and Italy without a soul in the street. Did such a world exist? I took my regulation paper in case of being stopped by the Gendarmes together with a pair of latex gloves. I started my car and set off. There were tractors driving around, farmers doing their jobs, and there were a few cars like mine. The main road towards Yvetot was almost deserted, a road that is more familiar to me than the road from Kendal to Ambleside when I was a schoolboy. Yet, this seemed to be another world. I drove through the first village, and it seemed totally deserted – but I knew that there was a family in each house.

A short distance after the village called Autretot, I turned off to go to the farm shop that opens on Fridays and Saturdays. If there are too many people, I said to myself, I’ll just turn round and go back home. There was just one man of about 70, and we kept apart by more than the required distance. Before leaving the car, I put on my gloves and took my credit card out of my wallet. Let’s keep the things in the car clean, I thought. Leave the wallet, keys, mobile phone, everything. My routine would be to return to the car with the goods, take off the gloves and put them into a plastic bag for disposal, wash my hands with alcohol gel and rub down the edges of my credit card. I would then be able to get back into a clean car.

In the shop, the owner and assistant greeted us warmly. 12 slices of ham, the same number of pork sausages, two dozen eggs and some cheese. I slid my card into the reader myself and punched in the PIN. It seemed so strange to be on edge and thinking carefully about my every gesture: Don’t touch my face, not even to scratch an itch. The probability of catching Covid-19 in this shop was certainly very low, but they weren’t taking any chances either, not even with their good customer!

What I have to relate from this experience is a feeling of detachment from reality. What is reality? The collective consciousness has made the world another world. Should I go and have a look at Yvetot and see what it looks like empty? No, because I had no reason to go there and might be sanctioned by the Gerndarmes, but this whole idea of confinement is, more than obedience to the law, solidarity and not believing I have any privilege over others. I resisted the temptation to go down the road to the unknown, and returned home immediately after my errand was run.

There is a feeling of anxiety in the air, fear which in the words of characters of Star Wars leads to the Dark Side. I feel their fear rather than experiencing fear myself. Last night, I saw a video of a scene in an Italian hospital. Patients were gasping their last breaths and the doctors could do no more for them. Alone in the ward was a man of about 50 who was recovering, but still had an oxygen mask and was as yet too weak to sit up on his bed. The commentator said that within a day or two, all the other patients in that ward had died. It is not only the shadow of death over elderly people suffering from various health conditions, but their families and their villages. This virus has put a stop to the joie de vivre and the social life so sorely missed by people of all generations. We are driven apart, and all we can do is use modern technology to communicate and express our love and friendship in other ways. All these thoughts flooded through my mind as I drove back home. I was almost in tears.

I read articles about how this world will not be the same again, something like before and after a war against a visible enemy. Our political leaders talk about being at war, and M. Macron sounded like a cross between Winston Churchill and Général de Gaulle. I hope he was being sincere and felt his nation’s need for a true father! Perhaps what hurts me the most is the attitude of those who claim that all the state wants is to imprison us in a kind of Orwellian dystopia by exaggerating the gravity of this disease – and then go socialising and then go to visit elderly parents and grandparents. All around me, people are straining at the bit to live normal life again. I am grateful to live in a nice house in the country with my wife, books, music, garden, workshop, boat to get ready for the new season, chores and improvements. Others live in a city in a small apartment with young children or rebellious adolescents. Either people will wake up and understand the notion of sacrifice for all, or the tension will become unbearable in the weeks to come.

I easily imagine the possibility of an insurrection or even a civil war. Many have been predicting such for decades. The Communist CGT trade union has calmed down since the pension reform was shelved by Macron. The Gilets Jaunes have created trouble here and there, but the police have been ready for them in the cities. Perhaps the greatest threat is from a large number of young immigrants and uncultured young white French men. Until recently, I was worried about Brexit, but now I am more concerned about the deep fissures in Europe and the present establishment and the brewing discontent. For once I am at one with the American preppers, except that I am already “bugged out” and in the country. No, I have no firearms. This is Europe and not the USA. If civilisation collapses in the cities, people won’t come and rob the homes in the country, but we might be deprived of food and medical supplies.

We stand before the unknown, a new Ungrund from which a new beginning will be possible and necessary. This is how the world must have been in April 1945 when Hitler blew his own brains out and Germany surrendered, leaving thousands of German and Allied families and children without homes or food. Yet, Germany was rebuilt after the end of the Nazi curse and the rest of Europe reconstructed with courage. I have confidence in God’s mercy that this Ungrund that now stares us in the face will be a bringer of grace and consolation. May these days be shortened for the sake of the just…

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Attend Mass by Live Streaming

Posted on Thursday, 19 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Those who wish to attend Mass at home by live streaming may do so:

Fraternity of St Peter

St Eugene, Paris, France – via their YouTube channel and Facebook page. Mass every weekday at 7:00 pm local time (6 pm in the UK). Sunday: Mass at 11 am, Vespers at 5:45 pm, Mass again at 7:00 pm.

See my Bishop’s introduction to his church of St Augustine, Painter’s Forstal near Faversham, Kent.

Bishop Damien has had to suspend public Masses in his church during the epidemic. Keep an eye on our Diocesan page on Facebook. Our Diocesan Synod, scheduled for 23rd May 2020, has had to be postponed because of the epidemic.

I must learn how to do live streaming and see if it practical – ie. an internet connection between my chapel and the wi-fi source in the house. Advice would be most welcome.

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Mass sine populo

Posted on Thursday, 19 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

There is quite a lot of discussion going on in various Facebook groups about what priests can do when the civil authority has forbidden all gatherings of people because of the present epidemic of coronavirus.

Several years ago, I wrote Mass without a congregation to which there are several comments. The Reformation did away with private masses on pretext of superstitious notions of sacramental theology and the purpose of the Eucharist. Orthodox churches cancel the Liturgy if no one turns up on a given day. The priest packs up and goes home. Is this what we are all called to do? Alternatively, is it not good for people unable to go to church to know that Mass is being celebrated for them?

Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien – the best goes against the good. Sometimes, observing laws to the letter demolishes the reason the law was there in the first place. In these circumstances, not celebrating Mass when the people are obliged to stay away is simply closing down the Church. I’m sure the atheists are rubbing their hands with glee! The Church has just shot itself in the foot! At the same time, people who attend church will transmit and catch the virus, and there will be no miracle by God to stop it.

My own thought is the following. Were I to refrain from celebrating Mass because there are no faithful, either because they are not allowed to come or simply are non-believers or faithful of another Church, would there be any positive consequence? If I gave up the priesthood, what good would that do? I have often turned these thoughts over in my mind. Perhaps it’s all a load of bunk like the atheists say… But atheism and materialism are no solution, and deny the reality of consciousness.

I cannot bind the conscience of another priest, but I simply carry on in an attitude of availability for any pastoral need I might encounter. There are times when Mass is impossible, because I am away from home and have no access to all the things needed like the altar, chalice, cruets, missal, etc. There is the Office, which can be prayed by anyone, priests and laity alike. Mass and Office go together, and the Office can stand alone when nothing else is possible. These are the high and visible points of exoteric Christianity.

Esoteric Christianity is our inmost spiritual life and something a person alone can experience. It is approached in so many different ways – as a small community or each person alone. The epidemic has broken up the human community, and many people complain about not being allowed to go for walks on the beach or other things that finish up by bringing humans into close contact and risk of infection. It seems to be a dreadful punishment, but it is teaching us to live the solitary life to the best.

Life has made me a solitary long before the epidemic. My married life has settled to a balance that respects my need for times of solitude and impels me to give to the community and resist the temptation of selfishness. My priesthood and marriage have never been compatible, and this was very painful for many years – and I have very much revised my former opinion against priestly celibacy. However, priestly celibacy can only be based on the integration of the person, otherwise things go wrong like the frustrated person beginning to adopt predatory behaviours.

This epidemic has exposed many deep fissures in the Church. It has not been experienced in our part of the world since the Spanish Flu of 1918-20. Many say that the world will never be the same as now, and we march into the unknown. That is possible. Many of those dispensed from the obligation of attending Mass, or who stay away in a gesture of self-preservation and solidarity with those who would die if infected, will not return to the Church. I am sure that this happened in 1920, as attested by the Journal d’un Curé de Campagne by Bernanos. The world sank into Nazism and Fascism, and World War II came within an inch of destroying civilisation. Amazingly, after 1945, human resilience brought Les Trente Glorieuses and the poem by Kipling I quoted in my previous posting.

What harm can a solitary Mass do? We must carry on until we know that a greater good will come from us finding a new and different vocation from God…

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Why are the Churches closed?!!!!!

Posted on Tuesday, 17 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

Fr Jonathan Munn has written a touching reflection on his blog Pestilence and Penitence.

As with our social life, people are indignant about being told to shut themselves in. There are still people in the streets in some places gathering, socialising, kissing and hugging, shaking hands. Some are still saying that the virus is a hoax or “just the flu”.

I have already given my reflections on being very privileged to be living in quite a large house in the country, having a chapel and being a priest. I will certainly be judged in proportion to my privilege! Many live in small apartments or are homeless. Parents have to live with bored children who don’t understand why they’re not allowed to go outside and play in the street with their mates.

Like Fr Jonathan, I often read about opinions of people who bitterly criticise the “lack of faith” of bishops and priests who incline to common regulations about gatherings of people. Last Sunday in Paris, hordes of people were picnicking in public gardens in Paris – “The virus is elsewhere. I’m not going to catch it”. If they do, they will probably recover, but their grandparents they go on to visit will die!

For once, our political authorities (at least here in France, Italy, Austria) etc. are not working for the money of the rich but for the good of the population, the common good. President Macron spoke again yesterday evening as a statesman. It might have been his “De Gaulle moment”, but public health and survival come before economics. Economics can be reconstructed. The lock-down regulations also concern churches.

I am also privileged in being less dependent on social life than many people. For one, I have an Aspergers level of autism, so being with people for its own sake is not my priority in life. That doesn’t means that I don’t care about others or respect them. This is fundamental to Christian morality, charity which is greater than both faith and hope. I live alone much more easily, and at this present time, it is an asset. I also have a certain experience of monastic life through having been a working guest for six months in a French abbey. Priorities are different. With these “other” priorities, I have plenty to do with books, my chapel, the internet, the organ, my boats to get into shape for the new season and the garden. It is another philosophy of life that “neurotypical” people can learn to an extent – how to spend time alone and keep in touch with family and friends by telephone and internet-based communication.

I mentioned a couple of days ago the notion of “giving up religion for Lent”. This does not mean rejecting God or a life of prayer. It means living a spiritual life without the social dimension and the externals of church – and just for a time.

Isolation and retreat from the world are essential. It has always been a part of my life with my training for the priesthood and life in seminary, the periods of silence and study, and social life in recreation times. Silence and solitude (or the time we are not with the wife) are essential for our self-knowledge and consciousness. Also, this is Lent. Many Christians go and spend the time as guests in a monastery. This year, it is at home, treating all external people as potential forms of infection.

Yes, I do think that our real dis-ease is spiritual. We protect ourselves and our loved ones by quarantine against physical disease, but this is also an opportunity for the most profound retreat of our lives.

If we are priests, we can celebrate Mass sine populo and do videos or streaming to enable others to see and hear from a distance. When we are not priests, we can pray the Office and use formulas of prayer to unite ourselves with a priest doing his duty alone in the church. Is this not how things are already outside times of epidemic? People complain that they don’t have enough priests, and then reject a priest who would be willing to serve them because his “ordination pedigree” wasn’t quite “perfect” enough. Congregations with priests are often the most ungrateful and destructive to the man who is doing his best to serve the Communion of the Church. I have often said “Let them live in China, North Korea or Saudi Arabia”. Now they have an epidemic!

From today, the law in France binds us to stay at home except for going to work when distance work is not possible, essential shopping, going to the chemist for medicines or to see the doctor (for problems other than this virus), helping people who most need it or for things like going for exercise or walking the dog without socialising. There are police and gendarmes on the roads, and we have to show an official paper on which we state one of these reasons for being out. This first period of quarantine is for two weeks, and we can expect that the government will need to extend it. On one side, this is a law I am glad to obey, but it is something we had already begun to do for the very purpose of what the State is requiring for those who do not understand.

This thing is going to begin with many people getting bored and looking for ways to game the system. This is France! There will probably be a certain margin of tolerance. People will probably watch a lot of television and play computer games. Perhaps some will develop a taste for reading real books and playing board games like chess or scrabble with the family. As the soul seeks more meaning, a person resorts to prayer and supplication. For me, two weeks in quarantine is nothing, but an eternity for others. I already hear shouting from my next-door neighbour where there are two teenage boys. There is no school or university. Libraries are closed.

Two days ago, it was the third Sunday of Lent, the day when the catechumens in the early Church received their first exorcisms. The Jews of old made little distinction between physical sickness and a state of sin. There is a strong analogy between the powers of darkness, evil spirits and viruses.

The Gospel. Luke xi. 14-28.
At that time, Jesus was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

The last state of that man is worse than the first. Possession by a virus is very similar to the spiritual equivalent, and the idea is chilling. Viruses were once thought to be poisonous chemicals, but are generally thought of by scientists as life-forms – except that they are in a grey area between life and inanimate matter. They cannot reproduce on their own, and have to live as parasites in living cells of the host. What they do to the host’s cells is what causes the illness. The Latin word virus means poison. A chemical poison like cyanide works by depriving red blood cells of the capacity to carry oxygen. The host dies from asphyxiation. We see similarities between chemicals and viruses at the frontier between life and chemistry, but the virus is essentially made of DNA (RNA) enclosed in a protein container. The chemical structure is highly complex like simple living organisms. They have no life of their own but depend on the living cell for its life.

What defines life? Is it the ability to be autonomous and to reproduce, but with a lifespan limited in time. Viruses can be inactive for thousands or millions or years and be in a perfect condition for taking life from any living cells they find. They can be killed (destroyed) by chemicals or extremes of heat. Another way to think of this is looking at a part of our bodies, for example fingers or brain neurons. There needs to be a degree of complexity between these components for life and consciousness to be defined. Viruses are extremely diverse in their form and the kind of effect they have on living organisms. There are theories that some viruses might be survivals of decomposed cells that seek new life, a kind of “zombie” existence. The most successful virus is one that does not kill its host or cause critical illness, but one that leaves the host apparently healthy whilst living the life of its host. The science of viruses is incredibly complex even for the boffins in their laboratories.

My point about the virus is that it is for the physical body (a manifestation of consciousness) what the evil spirit is for the soul. The evil spirit has no life of its own, but seeks life from its host, and avoids what would not be in its own self-interest. In my own thought, I make no real distinction between consciousness and matter, the supernatural and nature. There is a real parallel as when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Imagine that being the “attitude” of the virus that takes advantage of the very efforts made by a person to be clean and hygienic, yet creates the very favourable conditions for the viruses to thrive.

Sometimes, human (and non-human) souls become possessed through no fault of their own (eg. dabbling in the occult). Some descriptions made by exorcists find a certain likeness between these parasitic evil spirits and a biological agent like a virus. For this reason, we cannot rely purely on medical means to resist this virus (since our immune systems are useless against it). We have also to treat it as an evil spirit, the Tempter, the one who tries to entice us into materialism and lust for power and money. Yes, we wash our hands, but we also wash our hands at the Offertory of Mass to be as worthy as possible for our contact with the Mystery of Christ’s Body and Blood.

Our war is not one of flesh and blood, even though the virus is something that can be seen by electron microscope, but against that almost lifeless and parasitic consciousness that has blighted humanity and the world from the very beginning.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Eph. vi. 12

And this kind of spirit can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. Jesus spent forty days in the desert all alone, which gave him the spiritual strength to affront the enemy. Beside that, it matters little whether those who lust for social contact can be physically present at Mass.

We are living at the beginning of a dark night of the soul, with some hope that what will come out of it will be Berdyaev’s New Middle Age, that world beyond for which we yearn. A part of this dark Ungrund will be our time of solitude and retreat. In our own homes, we can pray for and offer hope to those who are sick or who are worried about whether they have caught the virus before battening down the hatch.

It is our rejection of God that means we must take the consequences of our actions whereby this virus lives in the disorder we created for it.

This is a profound thought, whether the virus was caused by man’s treatment of this planet and the environment, or via some evil scheme gone-wrong to inflict biological warfare on the “enemies of the people”. There are theories – maybe with some element of truth or completely wrong. I do not believe this to be the end of the world. We will survive this plague as humanity has survived others even more murderous like Ebola or the Bubonic Plague (Black Death). May the future world be less about money, consumption and growth than about humanity, love and the harmony of all creation under God. Maybe the New Spring will come as our incessant gales and rain give place to sunshine, birdsong and colourful flowers…

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Teach us Delight in Simple Things

Posted on Monday, 16 March, 2020 by Fr Anthony Chadwick

We in France have just had a stricter order to stay at home for fifteen days, which is something we are doing anyway apart from essential errands like buying something from the chemist’s shop. If we are wise, we have already got our food supplies in – and various things needed for personal hygiene.

Quarantine is the ultimate weapon to win the war against this virus. Man is a social animal, but some of us are fortunately a little more introverted and have no need of parties or gatherings when we know about the dangers. Any of us can catch the disease and none of us has a guarantee that we won’t become critically ill and die. I just have a feeling that God wants me to live longer to fulfil my vocation which is far from complete, and help to reconstruct the future. I am sure that I am not alone…

Some of us might need to prepare ourselves for staying home and changing our routine of life and paradigm. I appreciate that it will be much harder for families with children, especially if they live in a small apartment and have no garden. How do you explain to children that they must stop playing with their friends for several weeks? I am far from having all the answers.

It will be easier for me, especially with these mighty weapons of war:

Yes, books – reading and study. Lent calls us to a more reflective and prayerful life to prepare for our Transitus Domini from slavery to true freedom and joy. Here in this house, I have books, music (a little pipe organ) and the internet. I also have the chapel and my duty of the Office and the Mass. Through the Mass, we remain together and united, even if you are not present with me before the altar. We also have a garden to look after and two dogs and two cats. The spring weather is taking over from the gales and rain we have endured this winter. How fortunate we are to have a new way of life to call us to values other than money and consumption, or yet trying to please other people.

This epidemic promises us hardship and adversity, even if we avoid catching the disease. I work to earn a living like everyone else and have to pay bills, together with my wife who also works. Only, she has to get used to working at home and having less social life. I don’t know if the general paradigm will change, but we have to change and live according to simpler values.

I leave you with the beautiful Children’s Song by Rudyard Kipling:

Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee
Our love and toil in the years to be;
When we are grown and take our place
As men and women with our race.

Father in Heaven who lovest all,
Oh, help Thy children when they call;
That they may build from age to age
An undefiled heritage.

Teach us to bear the yoke in youth,
With steadfastness and careful truth;
That, in our time, Thy Grace may give
The Truth whereby the Nations live.

Teach us to rule ourselves alway,
Controlled and cleanly night and day;
That we may bring, if need arise,
No maimed or worthless sacrifice.

Teach us to look in all our ends
On Thee for judge, and not our friends;
That we, with Thee, may walk uncowed
By fear or favour of the crowd.

Teach us the Strength that cannot seek,
By deed or thought, to hurt the weak;
That, under Thee, we may possess
Man’s strength to comfort man’s distress.

Teach us Delight in simple things,
And Mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And Love to all men ‘neath the sun!

Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride,
For whose dear sake our fathers died;
Oh, Motherland, we pledge to thee
Head, heart and hand through the years to be!

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