A year of Pope Leo: me in Ad Vaticanum

I've written for the first time in the new Catholic news website, Ad Vaticanum.

It begins:

The first question for the Catholic press about a new pope is inevitably where he sits on the ideological spectrum: will he support readers’ causes and punish their opponents? Popes are complicated figures, however, and do not arrive neatly labelled.

The first indication of the Holy Father’s ideological allegiance came before his election, when the journalist Edward Pentin encountered Austin Ivereigh and Fr James Martin SJ in a street in Rome. It was a moment when Cardinal Prevost’s handling of a clerical abuse case in his former diocese in Peru was being discussed in the media, and Ivereigh was upset about this. The encounter, which is described on Pentin’s Substack, suggested that two of the best-known supporters of Pope Francis regarded Prevost as “their man”. His election a few days later was indeed welcomed by many who had been looking for a “continuity candidate” to continue the work of Pope Francis.

Read it all there; there's no paywall.

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Walsingham Pilgrimage: call for singers

 

Booking is now open for the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham; the 2026 dates are Thursday 27 to Sunday 30 August 2026, and the 'early bird' discount applies until Pentecost Sunday, 24 May.

But before we can welcome 200+ pilgrims, we need to be able to look after them. We need volunteers! Today I am going to talk about singers.

Good Music, along with good food, may be said to power the pilgrimage in its natural aspect. But unlike the food, however good, the music has a significance at the supernatural level as well, because it can also be prayer.

It will be no surprise for readers to hear that a lot of prayers are said on the pilgrimage. Pilgrims are divided into 'chapters' which are small enough for people to hear instructions from the front to the back, with the help of megaphones, and also for collective prayer. When we say the Rosary, we sing it: we have settings of the Hail Mary in English, Latin, and French. We also sing the Litanies of Our Lady, of the Saints, of St Joseph, and of the Sacred Heart. In addition, we sing many popular chants, such as the O filii et filiae (though we sing it better than the guys in the link), vernacular hymns, and when the going gets tough, even some patriotic songs.

We believe the singing is very important and go to a lot of trouble over it. We have a book of all the chants and hymns, often with the music (and other useful prayers and information), the Vademecum Peregrini, which everyone has, and every chapter has a cantor.

Farewell to the Hereditary Peers

I have marked the occasion of the final disappearance of the hereditary peers from the UK's House of Lords with this defence of the hereditary principle.

This is the conclusion:

I have a high regard for democracy, because unless it is unusually corrupt, it makes possible the eviction of unpopular ruling parties without bloodshed, and that counts for a lot. Democratic institutions are regarded as having legitimacy, and elected officials who promised particular things when campaigning for votes are regarded as having a “mandate” to implement them. These are good things which help political systems to function and to overcome all kinds of challenges. But this all works because of the western political tradition, which attributes legitimacy to these things. This tradition is reasonable, but it is not necessary. Things could be done in different ways, and in different times and places they have been done in different ways.

The Homeric tradition regards a warrior elite as having the mandate to rule: perhaps it makes sense that those prepared to die for their community should rule it, and it may make for an efficient and just political system. Other communities, living in other circumstances, may focus on a religious elite, or an intellectually, culturally, or economically preponderant class of one kind or another, as natural rulers. If it works for them, it is not for us to criticise it.

The hereditary principle is characteristic of a pre-modern political system, but if it was reasonable then, there is no sense in which it is in principle wrong now. The test of its legitimacy, in fact, is the degree to which it is part of the political tradition of a community. The hereditary House of Lords has been part of Britain’s, and England’s, political system for at least 800 years, so the case for it is pretty conclusive. 

Read the whole thing there (paywalled).

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Book launch for biography of Michael Davies: photos

This was a splendid occasion in the St Wilfrid Hall at the London Oratory, addressed by the author, Leo Darroch.

You can buy the book from the LMS here. You can see a review of it by me on the Catholic Herald here.

 

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LMS Spring Latin Course: photos

This year, for the first time ever, the LMS is having not one but two Residential Latin Courses, on in April, that has just taken place, and one that will run from Monday 29 June to Saturday 4 July.

Both are taking place this year in the Carmelite Retreat Centre at Boars Hill, near Oxford.

More details, and booking, here.

All are courses are taught in small groups arranged by students' level of knowledge, so all are welcome: complete beginners and more advanced students. The Traditional Mass is celebrated each day. There are big discounts for students, and even bigger ones for clergy, religious, and seminarians: plus those intending to join seminary.

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Oxford Pilgrimage 2026

The annual LMS Oxford Pilgrimage in honour of the Catholic martyrs who died in the city will take place on 

Saturday 17th October, with Mass in Blackfriars at 11am

This will be followed by a procession from Carfax to site of the Castle gallows at 2pm, returning to Blackfriars for Benediction.

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Review of Michael Davies biography, and other recent work

For the Catholic Herald, I have written a review of Leo Darroch's biography: Michael Davies: Defender of Catholic Tradition,

which are launching in the London Oratory on Thursday 23rd April (come along, its free!),

and also a review of a very different book: Inversion, a collection of essays written by homosexuals disaffected by the direction their movement has taken. In the review I argue that this movement arose out of the Protestant society of the industrial age, and compare the role of marginalised groups
in pre-industrial Catholic societies. As I write, 'Perhaps a society creates the dissidents that it deserves.'

My review of the Michael Davies biography begins:

Michael Davies (1936-2004) was from the 1970s until his death the foremost lay advocate of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). His books, particularly the trilogy Cranmer’s Godly Order, Pope John’s Council, and Pope Paul’s New Mass, were an enormous influence on a generation of Catholics attached to the TLM, and set the terms of the debate. He rejected the extreme claims made by some, that the reformed Mass was invalid or that recent popes were not real popes, and when he died he was praised by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Nevertheless his support for the Traditional Mass and the traditional teachings of the Church were uncompromising.

Leo Darroch’s biography starts with Davies’ early life. He was born into a Protestant family with Welsh roots, and attended a Grammar school. Instead of doing National Service he joined the regular Army, and served in Malaya. Back in civilian life he became a Catholic, married Maria Milosh, a Yugoslavian teacher who had been studying in England, and became a teacher himself. The young Davies had a growing family and was devout, conscientious, and intelligent, but those who met him in the 1960s would have had little reason to imagine that he would devote the second half of his life to writing, speaking, and campaigning about the Church’s teaching and liturgy, with unrelenting industry and very little earthly reward. It is interesting to ask what radicalised him.

Read it all there.

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