Latest news with #LatinMass
Otago Daily Times
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Packed audience treated to powerful work
The Southern Youth Choir and Chamber Orchestra are directed by John Buchanan in a performance of The Armed Man to a capacity audience at St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin yesterday. PHOTO: GERARD O'BRIEN Southern Youth Choir The Armed Man St Paul's Cathedral Sunday, May 25 St Paul's Cathedral was a sellout yesterday afternoon for a performance by Southern Youth Choir (director John Buchanan) of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. The Armed Man is an anti-war work composed in 2000 by Karl Jenkins, using liturgical Latin Mass text, prose and poetry from other religions, assembled by librettist Guy Wilson. The event began with the SYC Chamber Choir, conducted by Noah McBirney-Warner in Geistliches Leid (Brahms) and a beautiful setting of Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd (Rutter), with oboe obligato and counter-melodies (Callum Fotheringham) and organ (David Burchell). The Southern Youth Choir, currently with 60 members, organ and chamber orchestra (including three percussionists) then presented an absolutely outstanding 70-minute performance, full of dynamic contrast and emotion, expressing war, horror and loss, ending with a prayer for a peaceful future. As the final words faded to silence, the entire audience sprang to a standing ovation until the very last performer had left the stage. So deserved. Choir members taking solos were soprano Rosie Auchinvole, alto Tessa Campbell, tenor Teddy Finney Waters and bass Ewen Clarke-Wallace. The opening Mass simulated a marching army with drum beat, then a gradual orchestral build-up assembled the choir, singing 15th century text The Armed Man. Style and pace matched the beginning of war; Adhaan, a Muslim call to prayer, Kyrie, Sanctus, Hymn Before Action, with text by Rudyard Kipling ("Lord grant us strength to die"). The climax came with Charge — a long drawn-out chorus of screaming and wailing depicting the worst action of war, followed by silence and Last Post (Ralph Miller). So effective. An excerpt from the poem Angry Flames, about the horrors of Hiroshima, Torches, Agnus Dei, Benedictus and lines by Tennyson's Better is Peace completed the work. Text in the programme enabled full understanding of each section in this epic, never-to-be-forgotten performance. Review by Elizabeth Bouman
Otago Daily Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Youth choir hitting all the right notes
From standing ovations to high praise from critics, Dunedin's Southern Youth Choir is going from strength to strength. Rebecca Fox asks choir members and its director, John Buchanan, about its success. When members of the Southern Youth Choir begin to sing The Armed Man , many will be thinking of what their ancestors went through while serving in the armed forces. The "Mass for Peace" by Sir Karl Jenkins celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Originally commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum, it premiered at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on April 25, 2000, and was dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo crisis. Written for a choir with soloists and a symphonic orchestra, it is considered an anti-war piece, using the text of the Latin Mass and poetry and prose from around the world to tell the story of going to war and the horror and loss that results. It ends with a prayer for peace. It has been performed around the world more than 3000 times — including in New York on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The 3000th performance was conducted by Sir Karl, celebrating his 80th birthday, at the Royal Albert Hall last year. Southern Youth Choir director John Buchanan says they selected the work as it commemorates 80 years since the end of World War 2. "I think it's an appropriate work in these times to do." Having conducted the piece twice before, Buchanan is no stranger to the work, which he describes as very relatable for an audience. "He weaves poems to it, like one of the Rudyard Kipling ones about getting ready for war, going to war. Then we know that we could be going to die. It's quite a powerful poem. It was that Victorian thing about being brave and going off to die for your country. "And then it takes you to the actual battle. And then at the end there, there's this amazing part where the choir just makes this huge noise like the sounds of battle, the sounds of people dying, really horrific-sounding and then silence." It also includes "Benedictus" played on the cello, before finally concentrating on peace being better than war. "It ends up with a beautiful unaccompanied chorale, just about God shall wipe away your tears." Choir member Kate Koller, 20, a student from Christchurch, says it is also appropriate as it is coming up to the first Matariki since the last member of the 28th Maori Battalion (Sir Bom Gillies) died. "So it's coming up to the first chance to remember him and I guess the members of the Maori Battalion, so that's special." For the choir members it is also a chance to remember their own great and great-great grandparents' contributions to various wars around the world, as well as the impact on and ramifications for their families. Soprano and New Zealand Youth Choir member Rosie Auchinvole's great-grandfather on her father's side was a Royal Air Force squadron leader who was in a plane which crashed on the Isle of Mull during World War 2. Her family went to Mull in 2015 and visited a whisky shop, which turned out to be owned by the descendants of the people who saved her great-grandfather. "It was, like, middle of winter, high up on a mountain, he had to trek through the snow in the middle of the night [to save them]. It's just a crazy, weird story." Her grandfather Chris, who was in the armed forces in the United Kingdom, but now lives in Dunedin, sings in the RSA Choir and Auchinvole, who grew up in Dunedin, is an RSA choir scholar, so they sing together sometimes. "Which is really, really cute, so that's a nice connection to The Armed Man as well." The grandfather of fellow chorister George Warren was in the British Army for most of his working life and served a lot of time in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Holding his grandfather's medals, Warren, 25, of Kaiapoi, says his grandparents travelled to a lot of different postings over the years, and his late uncle was born in Germany while they were stationed there. "Performing this concert makes me think of Granddad in a way because, I mean, he's still with us and me and him used to attend all of the Anzac Day services together ever since I was a wee lad." That had only stopped this year as, after a car accident last year, his grandfather, who is 85, struggles to walk. Koller's great-grandfather was more like a grandfather to her, but died when she was 9. Before he died, the Royal Air Force navigator, who had been reluctant to talk about the war, spoke about his time in the Pacific. "He had some really cool stories ... [such as] one day the pilot dropped something so he bent over to pick it up right as a bullet went above his head. He had some close experiences. I think it really impacted him. My mum said her granddad was the same. He didn't talk about it at all. He survived everything he fought but he didn't talk about it ever." The worst family story for her was learning of her relatives in the mounted services having their horses killed before returning home. "I'm such a big animal lover and that has always got to me." Dunedin's Ewen Clarke-Wallace, 21, who is one of the longest-serving choir members, having joined at 15, will be remembering his great-grandfather, who died in Egypt at the beginning of World War 2. But other ancestors, two brothers from Lawrence, luckily returned from the war. Another was involved in the South African Light Horse Brigade in the Boer Wars. "It kind of just underscores the reasons why people went to war and why they actually did that. Because it's very easy to be like 'these silly people with their silly killing each other'. But they did that for a reason. And we are that reason. So it's important for me that there's, you know, both sides of that interaction." Buchanan says performing a full work like The Armed Man will be the biggest performance the choir has done in recent years. The choir will be performing the "reduced orchestration" option, so a cellist — choir member Portia Bell — flautist, three trumpets and a group of percussionists have been enlisted. Having conducted the piece before, he is impressed at how well the choir are singing it in rehearsal. "There's this wonderful youthful freshness that this choir's got. It's just wonderful." The choir was was established in 1992 by Maureen Smith and Anthony Ritchie for young singers aged 16-25, whether students or working. "It's open to all people but they're mainly university students, and it's had its ups and downs as far as numbers are concerned over the years." In recent years, they have stopped auditioning and opened the choir to anyone who has performed in a secondary school choir, and numbers have grown to about 65. The singers all enjoy the collegiality of the choir, the ability to meet others with similar interests and how it provides a break from the stress of study. The aim is to do at least two performances a year. Last year the choir performed Vivaldi's Gloria at the Big Sing, and have also performed concerts featuring a mixed bill of classical and popular music. "And those concerts got a standing ovation. They're singing really well. They are singing magnificently." Buchanan puts their success down to a change in the ethos of the choir, which has a student committee very involved in its work. "There's a good range of experience in the choir. There's people who have sung in school choirs their whole lives. There's people doing music degrees. People in national choirs. Everyone gets along." To see: Southern Youth Choir and chamber orchestra, The Armed Man , May 25, 2.30pm, St Paul's Cathedral.
Epoch Times
19-05-2025
- General
- Epoch Times
The Traditional Latin Mass Movement and the Romance of Orthodoxy
Commentary The Traditional Latin Mass recently has been the subject of a surprising number of articles in mainstream publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. It is estimated that only 2 percent of Catholics attend this ancient form of the Mass, yet it is attracting much attention. Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) communities in America have seen growth of about 10 percent year over year since 2022, according to one priest who surveyed several TLM parishes across the United States. Many other parishes experience a 3 percent decrease yearly. The story of the diocese of Oakland, Calif., on the one hand, and the parish of St. Vitus in Los Angeles are representative of what is happening in the Catholic Church at large right now, and it would behoove the newly elected Pope Leo XIV to pay attention to the traditionalist movement in the Church, a movement driven by young laypeople and young priests. In 2022, Oakland Bishop Michael Barber commissioned a report to investigate solutions to the collapse of the faith in the diocese. This 73-page document details the lack of priests and lack of funds and discusses the possibility of parish closures, mergers, and clusters. Right now, Oakland is working on clustering parishes together under shared priests. This is happening in other cities, too. In Los Angeles, on the other hand, a single priest has grown the Latin Mass to such an extent that several church upgrades have not been enough. The TLM parish of Related Stories 12/27/2023 1/14/2022 However, because it continued to grow, coexistence became difficult. St. Vitus was soon able to purchase its own church, which its parishioners fixed up and beautified. Yet it quickly outgrew this space and, during COVID, 'expanded' with the use of a large outdoor tent. Last year, the parish purchased a larger property north of the city, and yet even here, on an ordinary Tuesday, the Masses are standing-room only. For the Easter Vigil Mass at 8 p.m., one family arrived at 4:30 pm to get seats inside of the church. This is happening at many traditional Latin Mass parishes around the country. In order to understand why the old Latin Mass is experiencing an incredible revival, it is necessary to look beyond the explanations that most of the mainstream media outlets offer. Contrary to these narratives, the TLM movement is not political, social, or aesthetic. It is liturgical. The The liturgical life of many traditional Latin Mass Catholics encompasses much more than church on Sundays. They honor saints with real feasts; seasonal festivities such as Christmas and Easter take place after an extended fast and last for a whole season, not just one day. Children often do not have cellphones until late high school or college. It is not uncommon for their homes to lack a television, or for it to be relegated to the basement for family movie night. These folks sometimes uproot and move or drive very long distances to celebrate the Latin Mass. They seem to live according to a pre-modern rhythm of life. The very 'weirdness' of this older form of Christianity is part of what makes it attractive to young people, who form its base. A 2022 survey that found that over 80 percent of priests ordained after 2020 identify as 'conservative/orthodox,' while none of the priests described themselves as 'very progressive.' This marks a distinct change from the views of older clergy, Pope Francis having been among them, who embraced the 'modernizing' efforts of the Young people are rebelling against a disenchanted world of materialism, nihilism, and depression. They yearn for re-enchantment, for beauty, and for the ancient form of worship that gives meaning and rest to restless souls. Pope Leo XIV would do well to encourage this blossoming youth movement, and to remove the restrictions on it that his predecessor put in place. Wherever a Traditional Latin Mass is celebrated, a community grows around it. Within a couple of years, formerly dying parishes could be utterly revived. Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Hill
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Conservatives are cautiously hopeful that Pope Leo XIV will restore rigor to the papacy
VATICAN CITY (AP) — They went into last week's conclave vastly outnumbered and smarting after being sidelined by Pope Francis for 12 years. And yet conservatives and traditionalist Catholics are cautiously optimistic over the historic election of Pope Leo XIV, hopeful that he will return doctrinal rigor to the papacy, even as progressives sense he will continue Francis' reformist agenda. Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a titan of the conservative bloc, said Monday he was very pleased with the election and expected that Leo would heal the divisions that escalated during Francis' pontificate. Mueller, who was fired by Francis as the Vatican's doctrinal chief, suggested as a first step that Leo would restore access to the old Latin Mass that his predecessor had greatly restricted. 'I am convinced that he will overcome these superfluous tensions (which were) damaging for the church,' Mueller said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'We cannot avoid all the conflicts, but we have to avoid the not necessary conflicts, the superfluous conflicts.' His sense of hope is significant, given that conservative cardinals went into the conclave at a numerical disadvantage. Francis appointed 108 of the 133 electors, including the former Cardinal Robert Prevost and other pastors in his image. But in the secret dynamics of the conclave, the Augustinian missionary who spent most of his priestly life in Peru secured far more than the two-thirds majority needed on the fourth ballot in an exceptionally quick, 24-hour conclave. The speed and margin defied expectations, given that this was the largest, most geographically diverse conclave in history and the cardinals barely knew each other. 'I think it was a good impression of him to everybody, and in the end it was a great concordia, a great harmony,' Mueller said. 'There was no polemics, no fractionizing.' Speaking in an interview in his apartment library just off St. Peter's Square, Mueller said Francis' crackdown on traditionalists and the old Mass created unnecessary divisions that Leo knows he must heal. Pope Benedict XVI had loosened restrictions on celebrations of the Latin Mass, which was used for centuries before the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, which allowed the liturgy to be celebrated in the vernacular. Francis reversed Benedict's signature liturgical legacy, saying the spread of the Latin Mass had created divisions in dioceses. But the crackdown had the effect of galvanizing Francis' conservative foes. 'We cannot absolutely condemn or forbid the legitimate right and form of the Latin liturgy,' Mueller said. 'According to his character, I think (Leo) is able to speak with people and to find a very good solution that is good for everybody.' Mueller is not alone in his optimism. Benedict's longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, who also was fired by Francis and exiled from the Vatican, said he was pleasantly surprised by Leo's election and hopeful for the future. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Gaenswein said the new pontiff's choice of his name, referencing Pope Leo XIII, who led the church from 1878-1903, as well as Leo the Great and other popes, sent a signal that he would respect tradition, restore doctrinal clarity and pacify divisions. 'Pope Prevost gives me great hope,' Gaenswein was quoted as saying. In newspaper stories, social media posts, TV interviews and private conversations among friends, some of Francis' most vocal critics also are sounding cautiously optimistic, rejoicing over some of the smallest — but to them significant — gestures. They liked that Leo read a written statement when he emerged from the conclave on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, rather than improvise. They liked that his first words referenced Jesus Christ. They loved that he decided to wear the formal red cape, or mozzetta, of the papacy, which they viewed as a show of respect for the office that Francis had eschewed. Another plus: He sang the noontime Regina Caeli Latin prayer on Sunday, instead of reciting it. Many point to the fact that one evening before the conclave began, Prevost was seen entering the apartment of Cardinal Raymond Burke, another tradition-minded cardinal whom Francis fired as the Vatican's supreme court chief. Burke would have played the role of a 'kingmaker' in the conclave, rallying conservative votes behind a particular candidate. Asked if he voted for Prevost, Mueller demurred. 'Oh, I cannot say. But I am content, no?' he replied. And yet Prevost also pleased moderates, with many seeing in his first words a continuation of Francis' priorities to build bridges. The buzzwords signal to some a pope who reaches out to the LGBTQ+ community and people of other faiths. But to others, it is the literal meaning of 'pontifex' and a sign of internal bridge-building to heal divisions. 'The pope, as successor of St. Peter, has to unite the church,' Mueller said. Mueller said he expected Leo would move into the papal apartments at the Apostolic Palace, which he said was the proper place for a pope. Francis chose to live in the Vatican's Domus Santa Marta hotel because he said he needed to be around people. But the decision had the practical effect of taking over the entire second floor of the hotel, reducing rooms for visiting priests. Part of the dynamic at play in these early days of Leo's papacy is that it appears progressives and conservatives can see in Leo what they want. He has virtually no published history, and played his cards very close to his vest while in Rome as head of the Vatican's bishops office. He granted few interviews and shied away from the public appearances that fill Vatican cardinals' days after hours: book presentations, conferences and academic lectures. George Weigel, the biographer of St. John Paul II and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said Leo's doctrinal position should be self-evident: that 'a man who spent a lot of his life in the Peruvian missions believes in the truth of the Gospel and the truth of the world.' As for the papal cape and stole, it means 'we have a pope who understands the nature of the Petrine Office, which should not be bent to personal idiosyncrasies,' Weigel said in an email. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Conservatives are cautiously hopeful that Pope Leo XIV will restore rigor to the papacy
VATICAN CITY (AP) — They went into last week's conclave vastly outnumbered and smarting after being sidelined by Pope Francis for 12 years. And yet conservatives and traditionalist Catholics are cautiously optimistic over the historic election of Pope Leo XIV, hopeful that he will return doctrinal rigor to the papacy, even as progressives sense he will continue Francis' reformist agenda. Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, a titan of the conservative bloc, said Monday he was very pleased with the election and expected that Leo would heal the divisions that escalated during Francis' pontificate. Mueller, who was fired by Francis as the Vatican's doctrinal chief, suggested as a first step that Leo would restore access to the old Latin Mass that his predecessor had greatly restricted. 'I am convinced that he will overcome these superfluous tensions (which were) damaging for the church,' Mueller said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'We cannot avoid all the conflicts, but we have to avoid the not necessary conflicts, the superfluous conflicts.' His sense of hope is significant, given that conservative cardinals went into the conclave at a numerical disadvantage. Francis appointed 108 of the 133 electors, including the former Cardinal Robert Prevost and other pastors in his image. But in the secret dynamics of the conclave, the Augustinian missionary who spent most of his priestly life in Peru secured far more than the two-thirds majority needed on the fourth ballot in an exceptionally quick, 24-hour conclave. The speed and margin defied expectations, given that this was the largest, most geographically diverse conclave in history and the cardinals barely knew each other. 'I think it was a good impression of him to everybody, and in the end it was a great concordia, a great harmony,' Mueller said. 'There was no polemics, no fractionizing.' Speaking in an interview in his apartment library just off St. Peter's Square, Mueller said Francis' crackdown on traditionalists and the old Mass created unnecessary divisions that Leo knows he must heal. Pope Benedict XVI had loosened restrictions on celebrations of the Latin Mass, which was used for centuries before the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, which allowed the liturgy to be celebrated in the vernacular. Francis reversed Benedict's signature liturgical legacy, saying the spread of the Latin Mass had created divisions in dioceses. But the crackdown had the effect of galvanizing Francis' conservative foes. 'We cannot absolutely condemn or forbid the legitimate right and form of the Latin liturgy,' Mueller said. 'According to his character, I think (Leo) is able to speak with people and to find a very good solution that is good for everybody.' Mueller is not alone in his optimism. Benedict's longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, who also was fired by Francis and exiled from the Vatican, said he was pleasantly surprised by Leo's election and hopeful for the future. In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Gaenswein said the new pontiff's choice of his name, referencing Pope Leo XIII, who led the church from 1878-1903, as well as Leo the Great and other popes, sent a signal that he would respect tradition, restore doctrinal clarity and pacify divisions. 'Pope Prevost gives me great hope,' Gaenswein was quoted as saying. In newspaper stories, social media posts, TV interviews and private conversations among friends, some of Francis' most vocal critics also are sounding cautiously optimistic, rejoicing over some of the smallest — but to them significant — gestures. They liked that Leo read a written statement when he emerged from the conclave on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, rather than improvise. They liked that his first words referenced Jesus Christ. They loved that he decided to wear the formal red cape, or mozzetta, of the papacy, which they viewed as a show of respect for the office that Francis had eschewed. Another plus: He sang the noontime Regina Caeli Latin prayer on Sunday, instead of reciting it. Many point to the fact that one evening before the conclave began, Prevost was seen entering the apartment of Cardinal Raymond Burke, another tradition-minded cardinal whom Francis fired as the Vatican's supreme court chief. Burke would have played the role of a 'kingmaker' in the conclave, rallying conservative votes behind a particular candidate. Asked if he voted for Prevost, Mueller demurred. 'Oh, I cannot say. But I am content, no?' he replied. And yet Prevost also pleased moderates, with many seeing in his first words a continuation of Francis' priorities to build bridges. The buzzwords signal to some a pope who reaches out to the LGBTQ+ community and people of other faiths. But to others, it is the literal meaning of 'pontifex' and a sign of internal bridge-building to heal divisions. 'The pope, as successor of St. Peter, has to unite the church," Mueller said. Mueller said he expected Leo would move into the papal apartments at the Apostolic Palace, which he said was the proper place for a pope. Francis chose to live in the Vatican's Domus Santa Marta hotel because he said he needed to be around people. But the decision had the practical effect of taking over the entire second floor of the hotel, reducing rooms for visiting priests. Part of the dynamic at play in these early days of Leo's papacy is that it appears progressives and conservatives can see in Leo what they want. He has virtually no published history, and played his cards very close to his vest while in Rome as head of the Vatican's bishops office. He granted few interviews and shied away from the public appearances that fill Vatican cardinals' days after hours: book presentations, conferences and academic lectures. George Weigel, the biographer of St. John Paul II and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said Leo's doctrinal position should be self-evident: that 'a man who spent a lot of his life in the Peruvian missions believes in the truth of the Gospel and the truth of the world.' As for the papal cape and stole, it means 'we have a pope who understands the nature of the Petrine Office, which should not be bent to personal idiosyncrasies,' Weigel said in an email. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
