SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (6) - Re: "Foreword" (2010) written for Dominican Lay Missal (Leicester - Ordinary Form of Mass, in Latin); concerning the use of Latin and vernacular language, Gregorian Chant, orientation of worship, and the document Sacramentum Caritatis; limited remarks only; Notes #6

We thought it timely to re-publicise the following. It's the beautifully inspiring "foreword" (provided in full below) written by His Grace The Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon OP, ninth Archbishop of Liverpool, in 2010 (when he was still Bishop of Nottingham), for a lay missal – Missale – produced by his fellow Dominicans, for use at Mass in the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo - aka The Mass of Paul VI) celebrated in Latin at Holy Cross Priory, Leicester.

We say "re-publicise" only in the sense of acknowledging that it was the estimable blog of Fr Simon Henry – Offerimus Tibi Domine – which originally heralded (in 2011) the fine words of His Grace which were penned a year earlier, a full four years before he was appointed at Liverpool and back when there were still three years of H.H. Pope Benedict's XVI's papacy remaining.

From the "Catholic Who's Who & Year Book 1915" - excerpts from: "The Catholic Year" (January to November 1914: January - Concluding Post #2)

St John the Evangelist by Paolo Veronese (sacristy of San Sebastiano, Venice -
one of four ceiling depictions of the Evangelists); shown here in memory of His Grace,
the Most Rev. John McIntyre D.D. (d. 1935) second Archbishop of Birmingham
(as featured in the post below) whose commentary on the Gospel of St John is
a forgotten true treasure of the early C20th English and Welsh Catholic Church   

Continuing our series of excerpts from the Catholic Who's Who & Year Book 1915; specifically to finalise our two-part reproduction of the retrospective entry for the month of January 1914 in the section of the publication entitled "The Catholic Year".

We hope to complete reproduction of the entries for the remaining months of 1914 prior to the end of 2015.

As per previous posts in this series, we have sought to offer – via links and other references – as much background information to the transcribed entries (provided verbatim) as we can.

This has been especially so – and most satisfyingly, too – in this instalment regarding the joyful research of the memory of His Grace, Most Rev. John McIntyre D.D., (1855-1935), the second Archbishop of Birmingham (1921-28) who the reader will soon recognise as a true giant of the Church in England and Wales in the early 20th century and the very late years of the 19th.

Alas we were unable to locate an image for His Grace (we would be grateful if any of our readers – we've gained a fair few! – could point us in the direction of one). However, as shown, we have very aptly illustrated this post with an artistic depiction of St John the Evangelist, for among Dr McIntyre's canon of superior writings, his magnum opus was surely his Commentary on the Gospel of St John (which we link to below).

As to why we are reproducing these entries: see here

Without further delay, then, we start the short but magnificently rich remainder of the Year Book entry recounting January 1914 (the first entry for that month can be found here):

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (5) - Re: Los Angeles Religious Education Congress (LAREC) "liturgies" 2013, 14 and 15; including "Didgeridoo Mass"; YouTube and photos; limited remarks only; Notes #5

His Grace, the Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon OP, the ninth Archbishop of Liverpool, is a devotee of LAREC having attended its annual event eight times as guest speaker and concelebrant (2004, 05, 06, 07, 11, 13, 14 and 15). We include links (at the foot of this post) to the official YouTube footage of the 2015 (the so-called "Australian Culture Liturgy" - aka the "Didgeridoo Mass" - screen grab above), 2014 and 2013 major "liturgies" – as per the LAREC schedules for those years.

Amongst its "liturgical" offerings, LAREC now boasts "Masses" and other "services" described as: Black, Celtic, “From the Islands”, Spanish, Vietnamese, Jazz, Urban Fusion, Young Adult and Australian.

Remember, that it is the Extraordinary Form of Mass (aka the Usus Antiquior, the Vetus Ordo, the Traditional Latin Mass, the Tridentine Mass, the Mass of Ages, the Old Rite Mass etc.) that is considered to be "divisive".

You are encouraged to watch as much of the following as you can. If you can't quite stomach the contents, then you should ask yourself why – and moreover ask yourself who could possibly endure such an event (footage of which is freely available on the Internet as part of the LAREC evangelisation programme)? We would also draw attention to the comments underneath the YouTube videos (double clicking the YouTube link at the foot of the video takes you directly to the YouTube site - we're not precious about you leaving this site in order to do so).

At the very least, we would ask you to start watching the "Australian Culture Liturgy" (again, that's the "Didgeridoo Mass") from the start and as far into it as you're able to.

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (4) - Re: "I would like to see it developed"; BBC Radio 4 interview, May 4th, 2014, with Edward Stourton; fuller transcript, without additional commentary: Notes #4

Three days after his enthronement as Archbishop of Liverpool, in May 2014, His Grace, the Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon, was interviewed by the broadcaster and journalist, Edward Stourton, a known Catholic progressive. Amongst other things, the pair spoke about the, then forthcoming, Synod on the Family due to take place at the Vatican in October 2014 and their expectations of the event. Stourton exhibited a received knowledge that His Grace had already expressed a view that he was "expecting great things" from the Synod. This undoubtedly referred to an interview His Grace had given, whilst he was still Archbishop-designate of Liverpool, several weeks earlier, to the liberal, London-based, weekly Catholic news magazine, The Tablet, of which Stourton is a trustee. The Archbishop did not challenge Stourton's assertion regarding the attributable "expecting great things" quote. The blog The Sensible Bond, provided a good commentary at the time on certain salient extracts from His Grace's interview with Stourton and for good measure offered some (admittedly unsupportable) insights into what may have been the background process behind the appointment of His Grace as the ninth Archbishop of Liverpool.

At time of writing, the interview is still available on BBC iPlayer: 

His Grace features from 36 mins 25 seconds.

Without further commentary from Liverpolitanus, we provide a fuller transcript of the discussion as it pertains to Church matters (part of the conversation referring to the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, and the ongoing inquests into the same, has not been included).

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (3) - Re: Invitation to the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter to the Archdiocese: Notes #3

As alluded to in a post last month, an anticipated slice of good news – for those attached to the Usus Antiquior in the Archdiocese of Liverpool – seems to have arrived.

His Grace The Archbishop of Liverpool, Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon, has invited into the Archdiocese the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP) – a Traditionalist Catholic clerical Society of Apostolic Life, enjoying Pontifical Right, canonically established by Pope St. John Paul II in the tumultuous summer of 1988 under the papal motu proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta.