Alison Girone
CV NEWS FEED // Almost 50 Catholic and non-Catholic British artists, writers, and nobility this week signed a letter urging the Vatican to not ban the Latin Mass, calling the old rite a “magnificent spiritual and cultural heritage.”
The Times published the appeal, referred to as the Sir James MacMillan letter, on July 2. On the same day, a French Catholic magazine reported that anonymous sources in the Vatican recently said that the rumor about a potential Latin Mass ban does not have standing and that no such document on banning the Latin Mass is under preparation.
The appeal is named after signatory Sir James MacMillan, a Scottish classical composer and conductor. Other signatories of the letter include Nicaraguan former actress Bianca Jagger, who is a human rights activist and goodwill ambassador at the Council of Europe; Italian American billionaire and Catholic Robert Agostinelli, a financier who is the chairman and co-founder of private equity firm Rhône Group; and English opera singer Sophie Bevan, who is one of the world’s leading lyric sopranos.
The letter points to rumors and reports of an unpublished document in the Vatican that would prohibit the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in dioceses across the globe.
“This is a painful and confusing prospect, especially for the growing number of young Catholics whose faith has been nurtured by it,” the letter reads. “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 letter continues. “The old rite’s ability to encourage silence and contemplation is a treasure not easily replicated, and, when gone, impossible to reconstruct.”
The Sir James MacMillan letter also directly referenced the “Agatha Christie” letter, which was published by The Times in 1971 to appeal to Pope Paul VI not to banish the Latin Mass. Mystery writer Agatha Christie signed the letter along with other Catholic and non-Catholic artists and writers, urging the Pope not to restrict the Latin Mass.
The Sir James MacMillan letter recalled that the Agatha Christie 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.’” The letter was successful in its goal and reportedly caused Pope Paul VI to issue a special indult granting permission to churches in England and Wales to celebrate the Latin Mass.
The Sir James MacMillan letter concludes: “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.”
On the same day as the letter’s publication, The Times also published an op-ed by MacMillan titled, “Traditional Latin Mass is a jewel that must be treasured.”
In 2021, the Vatican published a document titled “Traditionis custodes,” which heavily restricted and reduced the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in parishes.
“This decision,” MacMillan wrote in reference to the 2021 document, “was a shattering blow to Generation Z Catholics who have found their spiritual home in the old liturgy.”
“They are bewildered by the new hostility they face — but now it appears that worse is to come,” he continued, referencing the circulated rumors about the unpublished document that would almost entirely ban the celebration of the Latin Mass.
“The fact that there are Vatican functionaries indulging in this petty, philistine authoritarianism against their own co-religionists is shocking for a non-Catholic audience,” MacMillan wrote.
He highlighted that once again, similar to the Agatha Christie letter, a group of artists and public officials have stepped up “in defense of religious freedom via a letter to The Times.”
“The full list of signatories includes Catholics, Protestants, members of non-Christian faiths and non-believers,” he concluded: “It represents a broad political spectrum and artists born 60 years apart. In the spirit of our common humanity, we appeal to the Holy See to restore to Catholics the precious freedom to participate in the glorious liturgy of their ancestors.”
A number of British lords and Princess Michael of Kent signed the letter. Also among the signatories is Lady Victoria Jane Getty, an English philanthropist and trustee of the J. Paul Getty Trust; Nina Campbell, a renowned English interior designer and businesswoman; Alex Polizzi, an English businesswoman and television personality; and English actress and three-time Emmy Award winner Susan Hampshire.
Political figures among the signatories include Rory Stewart, professor of Human Rights at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a former minister in multiple government departments and member of Parliament; and Tristam Hunt, an English broadcast journalist, former politician, and director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Several journalists, authors, and historians also signed the letter, including English political journalist Fraser Nelson, who is also editor of the Spectator magazine; Andrew Norman Wilson, an English writer of critical biographies and newspaper columnist; Adam Zamoyski, a British-Polish author and historian of Chopin and Napoleon; and Tom Holland, an English bestselling book author and popular historian who has written on the origins of Islam.
A number of top musicians and singers also signed the letter, including English musician Mishka Rushdie Momen, a distinguished pianist; Ian Bostridge, an English tenor well-known for his performances as an opera and lieder singer; Meghan Cassidy, one of the top viola players in Britain; Kiri Te Kanawa, an opera singer and soprano from New Zealand; Japanese-English classical pianist and conductor Mitsuko Uchida; and Ryan Wigglesworth, an English composer and orchestra conductor.
