The Unstripping of the Altars

From Rorate Caeli:

TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2011

Report - TLM at York Minster

From our friends at The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales:

Huge Success for the Latin Mass Society at York Minster

Over 700 Catholics committed to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass) converged on York Minster on Saturday 26 March to attend the first celebration of a Catholic Mass in the Minster since the Reformation. Sung Mass in the ancient Latin Rite, complete with beautiful vestments, ceremonial and incense, was celebrated at the High Altar by Fr Stephen Maughan of the Catholic diocese of Middlesbrough.

Photos of the event may be found here.

Diarmaid MacCulloch (not someone with whom I always agree but undeniably an accomplished scholar) posits in his history of the reformation that at its eve the Catholic Church in England was in a better state of repair than anywhere else in Europe, the least corrupt and least in need of reform; thus it is all the more the tragic the events that followed. Heartening, then, to see at York Minster a well-attended Sung Mass, lovingly celebrated using the old rite. Perhaps England's Catholics will lead the way back to traditional worship in Holy Church. They won't, however, get help from most of their bishops, who are fighting "reform of the reform" every inch of the way.