Michael
Davies with His Eminence Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI
In 1963, when Michael Treharne Davies had qualified as a
teacher from St. Mary’s College [n Twickenham, England], his Senior Lecturer in English stated in a
testimonial that he was the most hard-working student he had known. He said he had
an incisive, scholarly, questioning mind and an insatiable curiosity which made
him willing to range widely and tackle any topic that was presented to him, and
carry out his own research and probe into it. In spite of the scope and success
of his activities, he said there was no sign of superficiality in Michael Davies’
work or of affectation in his general outlook.
He went on to say that Davies
regarded every piece of work as a job to be done, did it with thoroughness and
intelligence, and was then very diffident about his own achievement – not
looking for applause, but only anxious to get on with the next task. He ended
by describing him as open, reliable, co-operative, firm in his religious faith
and tenacious in pursuing his ideals without fuss or outward show. It was an
admirable and perceptive summation of the qualities that Michael Davies would
display throughout his life.
Michael was also noted for his loyalties - loyal to his roots as a Welshman (and to their rugby team!), loyal to his friends and loyal to the Church in which he now found the fullness of the truth.
As a schoolteacher, and also as a parent, Michael knew the
importance of guiding young minds along the path of truth; and especially so in
matters of the Faith. It is well known that initially he had a degree of
enthusiasm for Vatican II but he quickly realised that things were not as he
and many others had expected.
He joined the Latin Mass Society in February 1967
and very quickly became actively involved. In October 1968 he addressed a
conference in Cambridge
Maria Davies clearly remembers Michael’s first foray into
print. In May 1967 The Tablet had
printed an article on the Vietnam War by a priest who had made various claims
about Americans bombing Catholic churches in North Vietnam
Michael
Davies with Walter Matt, then editor of the Remnant, US traditional
Catholic newspaper, celebrating 30 years since the first edition
This was
never more clearly demonstrated than in his clinical analysis of the new order
of Mass.
For Michael, the truth was everything and he was appalled at
the way the modernist pseudo-intellectuals and their fellow travellers had
infiltrated the Catholic media, the seminaries, the publishing houses, and were
introducing a new religion to our churches and schools to the detriment of the
faithful. He was also equally appalled not only that the hierarchies of the
world had abandoned their duty to their flocks and allowed these "experts" to
peddle their destructive theories unchallenged, but even worse, that many
actively supported them while condemning as divisive those Catholics who were
not prepared to abandon the faith of their parents and earlier generations.
Michael
Davies as a young soldier in the British Army in the 1950s in Malaya, during
the Emergency
By the mid-1970s the crisis within the Church was deepening.
In his general research on the various novelties that were being introduced he
had amassed a huge amount of data on the Council and how the great majority of
the Fathers had been deceived by the well-orchestrated plan of a clique of
European bishops and their liturgical advisers.
Michael Davies with Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI,
at a General Assembly of the Federation
Michael Davies argued that the
Church’s attempted headlong rush into unity with other Christian bodies would,
in fact, have the adverse effect to that being claimed and was leading swiftly
to its decline. Thus was born his great trilogy, Liturgical Revolution.
His
first volume, Cranmer’s Godly Order
(1976), examined the Protestant Reformation, what happened, and why. His second
work, Pope John’s Council (1977), was
written "to provide an objective and documented explanation of the fact that
the Church in the West is disintegrating and that the responsibility for this
disintegration must be laid at the door of" a false understanding of the Second Vatican Council. His
third volume, Pope Paul’s New Mass
(1980), provided a detailed examination of the development of the Roman rite,
the liturgical legislation pouring out from the Vatican
Michael Davies’ books were read by many priests and prelates.
One bishop commented to me that he had found Michael to be a man of the highest
integrity, vision and commitment. He said he had ploughed a lonely furrow for
many years and, specifically, in his writings on the Mass, he had kept an
awareness of Pope St Pius V to the fore in all our minds. He ended by saying
that his writings will, in time, reveal his real greatness. Another prelate said that he had hoped and
prayed that he would meet him but was disappointed that it never happened. It
was Michael, he said, who had led him to a true appreciation of the sacred
liturgy.
Michael
Davies on the Paris to Chartres pilgrimage, carrying the Welsh flag
Perhaps the publication in July 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum was the greatest vindication of Michael’s unceasing public support for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and for the traditional Roman rite. It was a relationship based on mutual trust and on the occasion of Michael’s death in September 2004 His Eminence sent this tribute to the Latin Mass Society:
"I have been profoundly touched by the news of
the death of Michael Davies. I had the good fortune to meet him several times
and I found him a man of deep faith and ready to embrace suffering. Ever
since the Council he put all his energy into the service of the Faith and left
us important publications especially about the Sacred Liturgy. Even though he
suffered from the Church in many ways in his time, he always truly remained a
man of the Church. He knew that the Lord founded His Church on the rock of St
Peter and that the Faith can find its fullness and maturity only in union with
the successor of St Peter. Therefore we can be confident that the Lord opened
wide for him the gates of heaven. We commend his soul to the Lord’s mercy."
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger,
(Translated from the original German)
9 November 2004.
(Translated from the original German)
9 November 2004.
His legacy, and what an immense legacy he has left us -
seventeen full length books and several dozen booklets and pamphlets - provides
a body of work of truly Catholic genius which will enlighten, educate and
sustain Catholics in future generations. While it is true to say that Michael Davies
was a man who was hugely admired and respected within the world of traditional
Catholicism, and well known in the corridors of power in Rome
The immensity of the man will only be fully
appreciated in the years and decades to come when his writings, particularly on
the Mass, will be recognised as a major contribution to the resurgence and
restoration of the traditional liturgy and faith of the Church.
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Since the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum the debate concerning the liturgy has been re-ignited and more and more senior figures in the Church are raising their voices in support of a new analysis of the failed policies of the 1960s.
The re-publication of Pope Paul’s New Mass was as a timely and valuable contribution
to this debate and will surely bring Davies’ work to a new audience; an
audience that has no first-hand knowledge of the years surrounding the Second
Vatican Council and who will appreciate his clinical assessment of the changes
that were imposed, and his exposé of the flawed and false scholarship that
drove the changes. It is a book that
deserves pride of place in the libraries of all Catholic seminaries.
Perhaps
the greatest tribute we could pay him for his service to the Church, and to the
Faithful, is for each of us who has one or more of his books, to make his name
known to those who have no knowledge of him or his work. If we are indeed serious in our desire to
restore the ancient liturgy to our altars we must make it our apostolate to
persuade our parish priests to read his trilogy on the liturgical revolution –
it could produce remarkable fruit.
Taken from a foreword in July 2009 by Leo Darroch to the new edition of Michael's book Pope Paul's New Mass. Leo Darroch is a former President of the International Una Voce Federation
