Success of Downside EF Training

The LMS residential training conference for priests wishing to learn the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass) held at Downside Abbey in Somerset from Tuesday 11th August 2010 to Friday 13th August 2010 was a great success. The highlight was the Solemn Pontifical Mass celebrated at the Faldstool by Bishop Athanasius Schneider (Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganda in Kazakhstan) on the Thursday. Fr Andrew Southwell (LMS National Chaplain) & Rev Matthew McCarthy FSSP were deacon & subdeacon with Canon Marcus Kunkel ICKSP as Assistant Priest. There were 30 priests in choir & a congregation of more than 100. During the conference 20 priests received intensive tuition in the celebration of the 'Usus Antiquior' & 11 laymen were instructed in serving the Mass. Bishop Schneider gave a well-received keynote lecture on 'The priest as Eucharistic man' & was also the main speaker at the closing conference dinner. His book 'Dominus Est', which advocates receiving Communion on the tongue whilst kneeling, has attracted worldwide attention. The conference included daily Sung Mass, Lauds & either Vespers or Compline in the evening; there was Benediction after Vespers. Fr Ray Blake, the well-known blogger, who attended the conference, said "Downside was a tremendous experience. Most of all I enjoyed the sense of fraternity amongst the priests, the solidarity, the sharing of our love for Holy Mother Church & her liturgy." Dr Joseph Shaw (LMS Chairman) said; "This conference was the sixth to be organised by the LMS during the last 3 years. Over 100 priests have now attended, of whom about 85 now regularly celebrate Mass in the 'Usus Antiquior'. The LMS will organise a further 2 conferences in 2011."