Enter Michael Davies...

 My first meeting with Michael Davies was the first time I did the Paris-Chartres walk.  This was in 1995.  I went with the Baden-Württemberg chapter, but I spent time with the British and American chapters too, and did my best to connect with people.  There was no Irish chapter at this stage, but there were a group of Irish people with the British chapter - this was organised by the Brandsma Review.  Michael Davies was walking with the American chapter organised The Remnant newspaper.

So the fact he was going to address the Ecclesia Dei Ireland AGM was something to look forward too.  He gave a talk about the Prayer Book revolt in Cornwall in the reign of Edward VI.  This was an interesting talk in itself but it was the rest of the meeting which exposed the weakness of Ecclesia Dei Ireland.  I am going to do a further post of the issue of Requiem Masses, especially in the Archdiocese of Dublin, but at this point, I will just describe the proceedings of the EDI meeting.  A number of people had received permission in writing to have the traditional Mass for their funerals.  This sparked a lively discussion.  At some point in the deliberations, somebody raised the question of traditional Extreme Unction.

The trouble about all this was first of all, it made a statement about the age and priorities of the group.  I have no idea how Michael Davies reacted to it.  Secondly, a lot of the petitioning was personalised.  There was no place here for developing strategies or tactics to get the traditional Mass to places it was.  The SSPX made its presence felt and I saw a couple more or less monopolise him after Mass the following day.

In the course of the meeting, the AGM voted to affiliate with the FIUV, of which Michael was then the president.  I thought this was curious.  Three years before this was voted down.  Two years before, the vote wasn't put because the society voted not to amend its constitution to exclude clergy from governing positions.  This year, that issue wasn't addressed and remained unaddressed.  But Michael was never very interested in legal niceties.  EDI applied for membership of the FIUV.

Michael Davies came to Ireland with a dual purpose.  EDI only made up one part of this.  The other was the proposal to re-order Carlow Cathedral.  Most older Irish churches, let alone cathedrals, suffered some vandalism in the name of the Second Vatican Council, but this topic would require a blog in its own right to cover the problem.  Carlow Cathedral was one of the few Irish cathedrals which was unscathed and the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Laurence Ryan, was determined he was not going to allow this distinction continue.  

The resistance group in Carlow were more determined and most of them had petitioned for the traditional Mass shortly before.  Michael certainly encouraged them and they got straight to work.  There would be a few more years of campaigning which ended up in a High Court action.  But that is all ahead of us.