LONDON (LifeSiteNews) — A Protestant politician from Northern Ireland asked the British Government in the House of Commons if they would intervene with the Holy See about the future of the Latin Mass pilgrimage to Chartres after concerns were raised that it would be restricted.
In a noteworthy development, Jim Shannon, the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland Member for Strangford, Co. Down, made an intervention to the British government, apparently in defense of the Catholic Church’s ancient liturgy – or of the religious freedom of its devotees.
On December 9, Shannon sent a written question to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the Labour-led U.K. government, asking if there were any plans to intervene with the Holy See on the Chartres pilgrimage.
“To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Holy See on the future of the Tridentine Mass at the Chartres pilgrimage in France,” read the question.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the government response sought to avoid controversy or entanglement in the issue. On December 18, a minister in the Foreign Office replied, waving the matter aside as an affair only for the Church.
“This is an internal matter for the Catholic Church,” said Stephen Doughty. “We continue to engage the Holy See regularly bilaterally and in multilateral fora on areas of mutual interest. Most recently, on 27 November Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner met Cardinal Parolin, with whom she discussed homelessness, inter-faith dialogue, and climate.”
Shannon’s question followed reports that the Vatican might prohibit the thousands of traditional pilgrims from celebrating the final Mass of the Latin Mass pilgrimage inside the ancient cathedral of Chartres.
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Chartres pilgrimage will continue even if Vatican cracks down, president says
The annual event, always held on Pentecost weekend, draws thousands of pilgrims, chiefly young, enthusiastic in their support for the Catholic Church’s ancient liturgy.
Speaking to respected Catholic journalist Jeanne Smits, Jean des Tauriers (president of Notre Dame de Chrétienté which organizes the pilgrimage) was unable to confirm the rumors.
However, he pointed to the strong likelihood of such a move, given the outlet which first published them and the hostile attitude of some of the French bishops towards the Latin Mass.
“I cannot speak for all bishops, but in any case, the bishop of Chartres, and certainly the bishop of Paris, too, have a great deal of difficulty in accepting the fact that the spirituality of our pilgrimage is attached to the Extraordinary Form,” he said. “This has been going on for 43 years. So this is nothing new.”
Des Tauriers suggested that the French bishops would lobby the Vatican for the Chartres pilgrimage to have their closing Mass in the new rite, the Novus Ordo, as opposed to to the ancient liturgy which is the “spirituality of the pilgrimage.” He added:
What they want is for us to have private Masses or the closing Mass in the rite of Paul VI. In fact, they don’t accept our exclusive attachment to the traditional Mass. It’s as simple as that. There are certainly very deep-rooted reasons for all this; perhaps they also want to please certain authorities in Rome. Some [authorities], because I’m not sure everyone in Rome agrees on that point.
Shannon himself is described as a Baptist, and serves as co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief. He is also a member of the Orange Order.
His question seemingly in defense of the ancient Catholic liturgy is noteworthy given his political party’s historic anti-Catholic traits. Shannon also served in the Ulster Defense Regiment of the British Army, and thus his allegiances would be expected to lie with the Protestant rather than the Catholic side of a debate.
Against the still recent memory of Northern Ireland’s often bloody “Troubles” and in the still embattled, closely linked world of politics and religion in Northern Ireland, Shannon has set himself the role of “everyone’s” politician.
His interventions in the House of Commons have included highlighting the plight of persecuted Christians in Nigeria, when he declared a need to “speak up for those with a Christian faith, those with other faiths, and those with no faith, and … ‘not grow weary in doing good.’”
LifeSite contacted Shannon for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.