The Latin Mass Society of Slovakia becomes a member of Una Voce International

During the 2021 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Rome (29–31 October), the President of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales and President of the International Una Voce Federation, Dr Joseph Shaw, formally welcomed the Latin Mass Society of Slovakia as a member of the Federation.

The Society was established in August 2021 and was admitted to the Federation in September. These events marked the culmination of Fr Ľubomír Urbančok’s efforts to create an association of the faithful who have a deep attachment to the usus antiquior of the Holy Mass – also known as the Tridentine Mass or traditional Latin Mass. It was just a year earlier, during the same annual pilgrimage, that discussions began regarding the establishment of the Society in Slovakia. Its founding General Meeting was held on the Feast of the Assumption, with the first members being drawn from among the faithful attending the traditional Mass at the Chapel of Our Lady of Fatima in Trnava. Mr Peter Čambál was elected as the Society’s first Chair and Fr Ľubomír Urbančok became its Chaplain.

 The Society shares the objectives of the International Una Voce Federation, in particular to work to ensure that the traditional Roman Mass is maintained – both in practice and in law – as one of the forms of Eucharistic celebration which are recognised and honoured in the universal liturgical life of the Church. The traditional Mass is the Eucharistic liturgy as it developed within the Catholic Church in the West over a period of about 1,600 years, from the fourth century, through the Middle Ages and down into modern times. The last edition of its altar missal was published by Pope Saint John XXIII in 1962.

The Society’s admission to Una Voce was announced while its first members and supporters were taking part in the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, during which they met with the Una Voce leadership. Slovakia was among the countries with the largest number of participants in the pilgrimage.

The Society was founded almost 50 years after Pope Saint Paul VI granted the first indult for the traditional Mass, permitting its use in England and Wales. This was nicknamed the Agatha Christie indult, after the most famous signatory of the petition that brought it about. The petition was initiated by another writer, Alfred Marnau, who happened to be a native of Bratislava. Could he have imagined that half a century later the country in which he grew up would have an organisation sharing his commitment to preserve the Mass of the Ages?