Cardinal to celebrate traditional Mass at Westminster
By Mark Greaves
21 March 2008

A Vatican cardinal is to celebrate Mass in the extraordinary form at Westminster Cathedral for the first time in almost half a century.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, president of Ecclesia Dei, the body responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Pope's Motu Proprio, will visit Britain in June at the invitation of the Latin Mass Society (LMS).

He will celebrate the traditional High Mass on Saturday, June 14 after delivering an address at the LMS's annual meeting. In a statement the LMS said it hoped to arrange a meeting between Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.

Julian Chadwick, chairman of the LMS, said: "This is the highlight of the LMS's 43 years of struggle on behalf of the traditional Latin rite.

"Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos has been unstinting in his work on behalf of the extraordinary form and this Mass is a clear signal from Rome that it wants the traditional rite reinserted into the heart of the Church's liturgical activity."

He added that the LMS was grateful to Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor and Mgr Mark Langham, the cathedral administrator, for agreeing to hold the Mass. "This Mass literally represents the prayers of many thousands of LMS members and supporters offered up through the years and now come true," Mr Chadwick added.

The LMS explained in a statement that Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos would be welcomed at the Cathedral west door in a cappa magna - a voluminous cape now rarely worn by Church leaders that extends into a long train at the back.

He will pray at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and then vest in the sanctuary while the Cathedral Choir sings. He will celebrate the traditional High Mass at the high altar using Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor's throne, and he will also preach.

The LMS organises two High Masses each year at Westminster Cathedral and until recently they have been celebrated by the society's chaplain, Fr Anthony Conlon.

But last year its November Requiem Mass was celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop John Arnold of Westminster, who became the first bishop of England and Wales to lead an old Mass at the Cathedral since the 1960s.

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, 78, was born in Medellin, Colombia, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1952. From 1996 to 2006 he served as prefect of the Congregation for Clergy and in 2000 he was appointed president of Ecclesia Dei, a pontifical commission set up to bring traditionalists back into full communion with the Church. He was also considered a possible successor to John Paul II before Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected in 2005.

Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio, published in July last year, allowed priests to celebrate the traditional Mass without the permission of a bishop. It stipulated that cases of dispute should be referred to Ecclesia Dei.