Leading British figures appeal for access to Latin Mass in echo of ‘Agatha Christie Letter’
Leading British figures appeal for access to Latin Mass in echo of ‘Agatha Christie Letter’ Nearly 50 prominent British figures of culture, academia and politics have signed a letter appealing for continued access to the Traditional Latin Mass amid rumours that swingeing new restrictions are imminent.
The letter echoes the sentiments of the famous “Agatha Christie letter” of 1971, which was signed by leading cultural figures of that time and which persuaded Pope St Paul VI to grant an indult permitting the celebration of the pre-conciliar rite in certain circumstances.
The new letter, published in The Times today, hails the ancient Mass as a valuable cultural artefact, “a cathedral of text and gesture” and an irreplaceable spiritual treasure, with a unique ability to “encourage silence and contemplation”.
It was organised by Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan, a patron of the Latin Mass Society, and signed also by Lord Moore of Etchington (Charles Moore), a fellow patron, former newspaper editor and a high-profile convert to the Catholic faith.
The letter says: “On July 6, 1971, The Times printed an appeal to Pope Paul VI in defence of the Latin Mass signed by Catholic and non-Catholic artists and writers, including Agatha Christie, Graham Greene and Yehudi Menuhin.
“This became known as the ‘Agatha Christie letter’ because it was reportedly her name that prompted the Pope to issue an indult, or permission, for celebration of the Latin Mass in England and Wales. The letter argued that ‘the rite in question, in its magnificent Latin text, has also inspired priceless achievements … by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs. Thus, it belongs to universal culture’.
“Recently there have been worrying reports from Rome that the Latin Mass is to be banished from nearly every Catholic church. This is a painful and confusing prospect, especially for the growing number of young Catholics whose faith has been nurtured by it. The traditional liturgy is a ‘cathedral’ of text and gesture, developing as those venerable buildings did over many centuries. Not everyone appreciates its value and that is fine; but to destroy it seems an unnecessary and insensitive act in a world where history can all too easily slip away forgotten. The old rite’s ability to encourage silence and contemplation is a treasure not easily replicated, and, when gone, impossible to reconstruct. This appeal, like its predecessor, is ‘entirely ecumenical and non-political’. The signatories include Catholics and non-Catholics, believers and non-believers. We implore the Holy See to reconsider any further restriction of access to this magnificent spiritual and cultural heritage.”
The letter was signed by Robert Agostinelli; Lord Alton of Liverpool; Lord Bailey of Paddington; Lord Bamford; Lord Berkeley of Knighton; Sophie Bevan; Ian Bostridge; Nina Campbell; Meghan Cassidy; Sir Nicholas Coleridge; Dame Imogen Cooper; Lord Fellowes of West Stafford; Sir Rocco Forte; Lady Antonia Fraser; Martin Fuller; Lady Getty; John Gilhooly; Dame Jane Glover; Michael Gove; Susan Hampshire; Lord Hesketh; Tom Holland; Sir Stephen Hough; Tristram Hunt; Steven Isserlis; Bianca Jagger; Igor Levit; Lord Lloyd-Webber; Julian Lloyd Webber; Dame Felicity Lott; Sir James MacMillan; Princess Michael of Kent; Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest; Lord Moore of Etchingham; Fraser Nelson; Alex Polizzi; Mishka Rushdie Momen; Sir Andras Schiff; Lord Skidelsky; Lord Smith of Finsbury; Sir Paul Smith; Rory Stewart; Lord Stirrup; Dame Kiri Te Kanawa; Dame Mitsuko Uchida; Ryan Wigglesworth; AN Wilson and Adam Zamoyski.
Sir James said: “The people who have signed this letter are an impressively mixed bunch – Catholics, Protestants, Jews, agnostics atheists, all convinced that the Traditional Latin Mass is a thing of great beauty, wonder and awe, and a profound shaper of our culture, one way or another over the centuries.
“I stand with them in my appreciation of the form – ‘a cathedral of text and gesture’, which has given rise to great music and poetry through the ages.
“But it is as an observant and loyally practising Catholic that I wrote my cover article for The Times. If Rome were to do what is rumoured, it would be grossly unjust and make an utter mockery of ‘synodality’.
“And many observers outside the Church, in these difficult days of ideological and political tension, see this now as an issue of religious freedom. It is surely a mark of diversity, inclusion and equity that the Church can celebrate different rites – the Old Dominican rite, the liturgy of the Ordinariate, the rites of our eastern co-religionists, the Novus Ordo and, God willing, the Traditional Latin Mass.”
The Agatha Christie letter of 1971 was signed by 105 intellectuals, musicians, politicians, and cultural figures.
They argued that the Latin Mass has “inspired a host of priceless achievements in the arts – not only mystical works, but works by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs”.
“Thus, it belongs to universal culture as well as to churchmen and formal Christians,” their letter said.
Signatories included the Controller of Radio 3, the Director of the National Gallery, a former Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral, two Anglican bishops, the philosopher Iris Murdoch, the sculptress Barbara Hepworth, the soprano Joan Sutherland, the novelist Robert Graves, and many others. An earlier petition, in 1966, had been signed by Benjamin Britten and W.H. Auden; a later petition, in 2007, was signed by Franco Zeffirelli and René Girard.
The permission granted by Pope St Paul for continued celebration of the traditional Latin Mass, using the 1962 Missal, was extended to the whole world in 1984 by Pope St John Paul II.
Restrictions were fully lifted by Summorum Pontificum, the 2007 motu proprio of Pope Benedict XVI, but were partially reimposed by Pope Francis Traditionis Custodes, his motu proprio of July 2021.
Two further waves of restrictions followed, leading to bishops cancelling the Old Rite Mass in parish churches all over the world.
Last year, Pope Francis explained that the restrictions were necessary to prevent the Old Rite from being misused “in an ideological way”.
The Pontiff told a group of fellow Jesuits in Hungary that he was afraid of the rise of ideological “restorationism”, which he believed was a form of indietrismo, an Italian word meaning “backwardness”, agitating against the reforms of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.
Francis said the trend toward restorationism also ran counter to the intentions of Pope St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI when they liberated the traditional form of the Latin Mass from restrictions imposed after the Council.
“Going backwards does not preserve life, ever,” he said. “The danger today is indietrismo, the reaction against the modern. It is a nostalgic disease.”
According to news sources, new restrictions are being planned because of the resistance in the Church to Traditionis Custodes and the rescripts, with young people in particular drawn in increasing numbers to Mass in the traditional rite, rendering the actions to suppress it effectively defunct.
