TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC CHURCH MUSIC

at Our Lady's Church in Hampton, Vic. Aust.

By VINCENT T.H. PATTON
Here, at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and St. Andrew in Hampton, Victoria, Australia, we have a
small but dedicated choir of approximately 20 voices. I say "approximately" since some of our members have large
families who require their attention in the body of the church at times and so can only join with us on special
occasions. They are predominately young people which, by the Grace of God, should ensure that the choir continues
on long after we oldies have left this world.
The organ is a fifteen-years old electronic instrument, but adequate for the task.
We sing the full Gregorian Chant for the 10 a.m. Missa Cantata every Sunday of the year as well as the High Masses
for all of the major Feasts throughout the year. As an example, only last night the Choir sang Missa Cantata for the
Feast of Corpus Christi. Despite the fact that many of the choristers (and, indeed, the organist/choirmaster) have to
travel vast distances, there was a 75% attendance of the choir and more than 100 people in the church. There had
also been a Low Mass said earlier in the day. By vast distances I mean from Ballarat in the west of Victoria (about
100kms.(62 miles)/more than 1 and a half hours travel) and Moe in the east of Victoria (about 120kms.(75 miles)/1
hour and 45 minutes travel) from the church at Hampton. The SSPX College of St. Thomas Aquinas which features
in the pages of the SSPX site is also about 50 minutes to 1 hour travelling time from the church at Hampton. These
distances might seem astronomical to someone in Great Britain but Australia is a vast country. There are those
whom I've met who travel more than 6 hours each way over dirt tracks to attend Holy Mass at Mildura in the north
of the State! This is what one must call "real dedication". One would also have to wonder how many would travel
such distances to attend the Novus Ordo services!
As well as being fairly proficient in sight-reading from the Liber Usualis the chant for the Proper of the Mass on
each day, the choir has a repetoire of several Polyphonic Masses which are used mainly at Solemn High Masses.
These include three written by a Benedictine, Dom. S. Moreno, OSB: his Missa Decima, Missa Undecima and
Missa Duodecima. Dom. Moreno wrote these whilst at the monastery of New Norcia, Western Australia during the
1930s. The Organist/Choirmaster is presently engaged in the composition of a completely new Polyphonic Mass
called "Missa Australis" dedicated to the memory of His Grace, Archbishop Marcel LeFebvre. It remains to be seen
how this Mass will be accepted. The choir also has a repetoire of many traditional motets by the masters such as
Palestrina, Lambilotte, Ignereri, Allegri, et al. Only three years ago, when the choirmaster had access to the services
of two exceptionally talented young boy trebles, Allegri's "Miserere mei" was included during the singing of
Tenebrae. Unfortunately, their voices have now broken and they sing as a Tenor and a Baritone. Please God, another
suitable treble will surface in the not-too-distant future.
To add that touch of grandeur to High Masses, the Organist will often play a Prelude and a Postlude by the masters
including works by Bach, Buxtehude, Handel and others from the Baroque period but also including more modern,
but appropriate works by later composers.
Our church dedicated to Our Lady has a small but beautiful sanctuary. Above the Altar is the picture of Our Lady of
Perpetual Succour which was blessed by His Holiness, Pope Saint Pius X, who also attached to it a certificate stating
that it had been touched to the original miraculous picture in Rome.
Since we have no shrines of apparitions of Our Lady in Australia, during May of each year the faithful of the chapels
of SSPX throughout the country journey to Melbourne to make the Pilgrimage to Our Blessed Lady under this title.
On the Saturday evening there is a candle-light procession of Our Lady through the streets of Hampton in the
vicinity of the Church after Mass to the accompaniment of hymn singing and the recitation of the Holy Rosary. On
Sunday morning, after the High Mass, there is a Procession of The Most Blessed Sacrament through the same streets
of Hampton - much to the intrigue of the local citizens, some of whom have been seen to kneel on the pavement as
Our Lord passes by in the Monstrance. Many of you will have read of these events in the Australian "Catholic", that
excellent publication of Don and Andrina McLean, both parishioners at Hampton. Many of you will no doubt,
remember taking part in such processions and public affirmations of our faith little more than thirty years ago.
As a schoolboy I recall taking part in processions through the streets of Melbourne where, under the leadership of
our late illustrious Archbishop Daniel Mannix, 100,000 people would fill Bourke Street in the central business
district of Melbourne on St. Patrick's Day. Another 40,000 would journey about 30kms. northwards, in 7 special
trains and many buses, to "Rupertswood" Sunbury - a college run by the Salesians of St. John Bosco - for the annual
Eucharistic Festival. Dr. Mannix himself would carry the Monstrance in the rather lengthy procession around the
college grounds. He continued to do this until he was well into his 90s. Sadly, all this has now gone since Vatican II.
The Prior, is Rev. Fr. Todd Angele, and he is devoted to the full and correct celebration of the Liturgy of the
Church. He actively supports the choir and personally trains the altar-servers, several of whom have been trained to
the level of Master of Ceremonies. He is ably assisted by Rev. Frs. Alan Mullan and Kevin Robinson. These
priests have their work cut out bringing our Holy Catholic Faith to people over a "parish" which covers the entire
States of Victoria and South Australia. One need only refer to a map to see how vast an area this is. They all work
tirelessly for those of us who have been blessed to have found the Traditional Catholic Faith is still alive and well in
this country. A similar situation exists in the States of New South Wales and Queensland - from where the priests
service areas as far afield as Tasmania, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
Vincent Patton Organist/Choirmaster

The Society of St Pius X

welcomes
The Rev Father Edward Wesolek SJ
(This story has only just broken in the Catholic Press in the UK. (12/4/98) Though it has been publish on the "Society of Saint
Pius X" Polish www-site as long ago as December 1997.) The Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, has been pleased to
welcome to its ranks and to the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church of tradition, The Reverend Father Edward
Wesolek SJ of Poland.
The UK Catholic papers, says 53 years old Jesuit Father Wesolek "…is a leading Polish priest who has become his
country’s first prelate to join the Priestly Society of St Pius X, founded by the late, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre."
He headed the Polish Church’s gypsy pastorale since its formation in 1978. Father Wesolek told reporters he had
been attracted to the traditional liturgy and teachings of the Church and so had visited one of the Society’s
seminaries to learn more of the immutable Truths of the Catholic Faith. Father eventually celebrated his first
Sacrifice of the Holy Mass, the immemorial Mass, in Austria.
Once Father Wesolek had joined the Society he became heir to the suffering of Jesus our Lord. The persecution
started. The censure "suspens a divinis" was issued, as unjustly as it was issued, in the case of our saintly founder
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
The re-entrance of Father Wesolek into the traditional Roman Catholic Church, and into the Priestly Society of
Saint Pius X, has caused more than mild disturbance in the "Society of Jesus" in Poland. The head of Poland’s
central Jesuit province, Father Provincial Andrzej Koprowski SJ, said he had to explain Fr Wesolek’s departure in a
letter to members of the Jesuit Order. He said he stressed the importance of loyalty to the conciliar Bishop’s
Conference and the conciliar Vatican. Fr Provincial Koprowski told the press: "He has been suspended as a Catholic
priest, and there can be no doubt that Fr Wesolek is now outside the Church."
These words coming from the learned Jesuit Father Provincial, may surely, amount to mortal sin on his part. (Yet,
he may not anymore, believe in "mortal sin".) He knows that suspension does not equate to being outside of even the
conciliar-Church. So far no one has told Father Wesolek that he "is now outside the Church." Father Provincial
Andrzej Koprowski, has not done so! Nor has the conciliar Vatican!
Fr Wesolek said that "enemies of the Church" had persuaded priests to "move closer to man and his dignity, and
away from God, His Rights and His Dignity" and that many new practices such as receiving ‘Holy Eucharist’ in
the hand amounted to " serious acts of sacrilege." The thirty year old Vatican II’s "New rites have brought in
atrocious liberalism and great looseness of personal behaviour in the clergy. The way the Holy Mass is now
conducted depends on the priest, with his various and often unstable moods and fantasies," he said.
Back to Content