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A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh & John Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes
Expanded Edition English author Evelyn Waugh, most famous for his novel Brideshead Revisited , became a Roman Catholic in 1930. For the last decade of his life, however, Waugh experienced the changes being made to the Church's liturgy to be nothing short of "a bitter trial". In John Cardinal Heenan, Waugh found a sympathetic pastor and somewhat of a kindred spirit. This volume brings together the personal correspondence between Waugh and Heenan during the 1960s, a trying period for many faithful Catholics. It begins with a 1962 article Waugh wrote for the Spectator followed by a response from then Archbishop Heenan, who at the time was a participant at the Second Vatican Council. These and the other writings included in this book paint a vivid picture of two prominent and loyal English Catholics who lamented the loss of Latin and the rupture of tradition that resulted from Vatican II. In the light of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, many Catholics are looking again at the post-conciliar liturgical changes. To this "reform of the reform" of the liturgy now underway in the Roman Catholic Church, both Heenan and Waugh have much to contribute.
128 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 21, 2013
Read the first essay - or the main part of this book, i.e., Waugh's fear of the liturgical changes brought by the Second Vatican Council. To me, a born Catholic of Tamil region, a person born in 1980's the change effected by Vatican II was never felt. But later I got to read about Vatican II documents and the "positively speaking essays" on Vatican II.
Heard very rarely few commenting on the hard times brought about by the change at least to certain sections of the Catholic community. And, now after reading Waugh's essay the hardships of that community is poignantly felt.
After the first essay there are very many correspondence between Waugh and Archbishop Heenan. But they are merely repetitions of the sentiments expressed in the first essay and Heenan presents the Church's positions in those times.
Heard very rarely few commenting on the hard times brought about by the change at least to certain sections of the Catholic community. And, now after reading Waugh's essay the hardships of that community is poignantly felt.
After the first essay there are very many correspondence between Waugh and Archbishop Heenan. But they are merely repetitions of the sentiments expressed in the first essay and Heenan presents the Church's positions in those times.
September 10, 2012
The collection of letters - like most in that genre - is disjointed. While I have the highest respect for Alcuin Reid, this tome is poorly edited and can't possibly be of interest except to HUGE Waugh fans or professional liturgical and historical theologians.
The one positive thing I can say is that it's nice to get a sense how viciously opposed profound thinkers like Waugh were to the Liturgical changes imposed by "Bugnini and his henchmen." Waugh saw through the novus ordo to it's modernist roots and called that out to his bishop. It's nice to know that's where he stood, but a 1500 word essay could communicate that as well as a collection of his letters.
The one positive thing I can say is that it's nice to get a sense how viciously opposed profound thinkers like Waugh were to the Liturgical changes imposed by "Bugnini and his henchmen." Waugh saw through the novus ordo to it's modernist roots and called that out to his bishop. It's nice to know that's where he stood, but a 1500 word essay could communicate that as well as a collection of his letters.
January 27, 2022
A fascinating insight into the heart of one of the world's greatest authors. Waugh's love for the Faith is palpable in each missive. Worth reading for anyone who has an interest in the Traditional Latin Mass or the post-Vatican II Church.
March 8, 2022
A heartbreaking look into how the changes in the liturgy and suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass affected and threatened the Faith of Catholic laity as seen through the letters of English author Evelyn Waugh. This is a topic which fascinates me and I’m slowly working my way though every title I can find which address it.
January 23, 2020
Evelyn Waugh is one of the most famous, perhaps the most famous English novelist of the twentieth century. Brideshead is of course his masterpiece, and the most adapted of his works. Waugh is also famously Catholic. A Bitter Trial collects letters, diary entries, editorials, and other miscellania from the end of his life on the subject of the changes occurring in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.
It was fascinating to see the period of the Second Vatican Council through the letters exchanged between Waugh and Cardinal Heenan. The good Cardinal seems to have shared some of Waugh’s distress at the changes that were at first proposed, and then imposed by the Second Vatican Council, but Cardinal Heenan also seems to have been compelled to present the party line in public. Reading his letters in this fashion, I get the impression that it all turned out in way the Cardinal didn’t much care for, but lacked the will or the ability to do anything about.
For example, contrast the Cardinal’s letter to Waugh from 25 November 1962:
To this Pastoral Letter from the Cardinal in 1964 for Lent:
And finally this from Cardinal Heenan to Waugh in August of 1964:
Which is of course exactly what happened, and what Cardinal Heenan was forced to impose on his own faithful, even though many of the laity didn’t want it. Cardinal Heenan did secure the Heenan Indult, which nonetheless was interpreted strictly. Summorum Pontificum was the exact reversal of the policy that mandated all Masses in the new Rite, except for special occasions. Something like it fifty years earlier would have resulted in a very different Church. As John Reilly would later note of the creation of a liturgy that incorporated the best elements of the Anglican tradition, such innovations tend to come too late to really change what needed to be changed.
The reason given in the Heenan Indult, and by the liturgists before that, was that allowing the use of the older Mass alongside the new Mass would damage Catholic unity. The existence of groups like the SSPX doubtless confirmed such fears, but one of the bitterest fruits of this policy is that nothing has fractured Catholic unity quite like the liturgical chaos that followed upon the well-intentioned liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council. The new Mass is perfectly capable of being celebrated with piety and reverence, but in practice it seems to have been felt that the rubrics of the Mass could be disregarded at will following the introduction of the new Mass. Endless controversy has followed.
This triumph of theory over experience is in many ways simply typical of the twentieth century. The same spirit can be seen at work in McNamara’s Folly, at about the same time. An excess of trust in expert opinion has not done us any favors. In its slow way, the Catholic Church seems to be recovering the liturgy, but the shocking sexual abuse revelations of the early twenty-first century [many of which occurred during the same time frame as the liturgical experimentation] are still fresh on everyone’s mind. Based on the experience of the liturgy, perhaps another fifty years will suffice to begin again.
It was fascinating to see the period of the Second Vatican Council through the letters exchanged between Waugh and Cardinal Heenan. The good Cardinal seems to have shared some of Waugh’s distress at the changes that were at first proposed, and then imposed by the Second Vatican Council, but Cardinal Heenan also seems to have been compelled to present the party line in public. Reading his letters in this fashion, I get the impression that it all turned out in way the Cardinal didn’t much care for, but lacked the will or the ability to do anything about.
For example, contrast the Cardinal’s letter to Waugh from 25 November 1962:
Venerabilis Frater– as we say in the Council–I was delighted to see your article. There is nothing in there with which I don’t agree.
To this Pastoral Letter from the Cardinal in 1964 for Lent:
The faithful also feel strongly about these questions. I know that from your letters. Take, for example, changes in Holy Mass. Some of you are quite alarmed. You imagine that everything will be changed and what you have known from childhood will be taken away from you. Some, on the other hand, are all for change and are afraid too little will be altered.
Both these attitudes are wrong. The Church will, of course, make certain reforms. That is one of the reasons Councils are held. But nothing will be changed except for the good of souls. With the Pope, we Bishops are the Teaching Church. We love our Faith and we love our priests and people. We shall see that you are not robbed.
And finally this from Cardinal Heenan to Waugh in August of 1964:
But do not despair. The changes are not so great as they are made to appear. Although a date has been set for introducing the new liturgy I shall be surprised if all the bishops will want all Masses every day to be in the new Rite.
Which is of course exactly what happened, and what Cardinal Heenan was forced to impose on his own faithful, even though many of the laity didn’t want it. Cardinal Heenan did secure the Heenan Indult, which nonetheless was interpreted strictly. Summorum Pontificum was the exact reversal of the policy that mandated all Masses in the new Rite, except for special occasions. Something like it fifty years earlier would have resulted in a very different Church. As John Reilly would later note of the creation of a liturgy that incorporated the best elements of the Anglican tradition, such innovations tend to come too late to really change what needed to be changed.
The reason given in the Heenan Indult, and by the liturgists before that, was that allowing the use of the older Mass alongside the new Mass would damage Catholic unity. The existence of groups like the SSPX doubtless confirmed such fears, but one of the bitterest fruits of this policy is that nothing has fractured Catholic unity quite like the liturgical chaos that followed upon the well-intentioned liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council. The new Mass is perfectly capable of being celebrated with piety and reverence, but in practice it seems to have been felt that the rubrics of the Mass could be disregarded at will following the introduction of the new Mass. Endless controversy has followed.
This triumph of theory over experience is in many ways simply typical of the twentieth century. The same spirit can be seen at work in McNamara’s Folly, at about the same time. An excess of trust in expert opinion has not done us any favors. In its slow way, the Catholic Church seems to be recovering the liturgy, but the shocking sexual abuse revelations of the early twenty-first century [many of which occurred during the same time frame as the liturgical experimentation] are still fresh on everyone’s mind. Based on the experience of the liturgy, perhaps another fifty years will suffice to begin again.
February 4, 2012
Certainly worth the read, but more a sketch of a (rightly) disappointed soul than a reflection on the sources or nature of that disappointment.
April 4, 2022
“Every attendance at Mass leaves me without comfort or edification. I shall never, pray God, apostatize but church-going is now a bitter trial.”
― Evelyn Waugh, A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh & John Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes
From the first review on the books page (I think it puts into print a story I have heard many times):
"As to the contents of the book, I can appreciate the sorrow which Mr. Waugh and others felt when the Liturgy of Pope Paul VI was instituted. Lest anyone should feel the same degree of temptation to apostatize which Mr. Waugh honestly expressed (and valiantly fought against), I believe it would be a good idea to weigh what is expressed in the pages of this book with the facts laid forth in Denis Couran's work titled "The Liturgy Betrayed".
We can only imagine what liturgical infractions were occurring in the nascent Church by the Ebionites and Gnostics as they infiltrated the ranks of the Church in the spirit of Antichrist. What perversions of the celebration of the sacred Mysteries must have scandalized the faithful under the guise of Apostolic paradosis!
When I was a Protestant in search of the ancient Catholic faith, my path led me to some catholic-esque Protestant communities which I found were far more reverent, beautiful, and mysterious in their celebration of an invalid Mass than many of the Catholic parishes I attended which thought themselves to be celebrating according to the rubrics of the GIRM. Granted: irreverence, banality, and pedestrian celebrations of the sacred liturgy do not amount (in and of themselves) to an invalid Eucharist, but it was heart-breaking to feel so Protestant in the true Church and so Catholic in a false Church. It felt like I was being forced to choose between truth and beauty.
Much to my joy, I soon discovered that in my home diocese, there is a parish which our bishop gave to the priests of the Fraternal Society of Saint Peter (F.S.S.P.), a society of apostolic life established by Pope St. John Paul II who exclusively devote themselves to the celebration of the sacraments according to the liturgical books of 1962.
I share this so as to advise readers of "A Bitter Trial" not to despair if they find themselves also tasting the bitterness which the letters in this book express. There are faithful priests out there who desire to honor our Lord's sacrifice in a manner befitting His divinity. There seems to be a movement toward restoring true beauty in places where modernism has wreaked its havoc.
And even if one is not able to find such a haven, we can still have the hope that the tears we sow now will one day reap a harvest of joy if we persevere. Our Lord has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail over His Holy Catholic Church. His word is true and it cannot fail. The mystical body of Christ will always have persecutors without and wounds within. The Church militant must carry these sorrows faithfully to the end with the hope that they will be exchanged with the joy of resurrection come Easter dawn."
-Arlen
― Evelyn Waugh, A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh & John Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes
From the first review on the books page (I think it puts into print a story I have heard many times):
"As to the contents of the book, I can appreciate the sorrow which Mr. Waugh and others felt when the Liturgy of Pope Paul VI was instituted. Lest anyone should feel the same degree of temptation to apostatize which Mr. Waugh honestly expressed (and valiantly fought against), I believe it would be a good idea to weigh what is expressed in the pages of this book with the facts laid forth in Denis Couran's work titled "The Liturgy Betrayed".
We can only imagine what liturgical infractions were occurring in the nascent Church by the Ebionites and Gnostics as they infiltrated the ranks of the Church in the spirit of Antichrist. What perversions of the celebration of the sacred Mysteries must have scandalized the faithful under the guise of Apostolic paradosis!
When I was a Protestant in search of the ancient Catholic faith, my path led me to some catholic-esque Protestant communities which I found were far more reverent, beautiful, and mysterious in their celebration of an invalid Mass than many of the Catholic parishes I attended which thought themselves to be celebrating according to the rubrics of the GIRM. Granted: irreverence, banality, and pedestrian celebrations of the sacred liturgy do not amount (in and of themselves) to an invalid Eucharist, but it was heart-breaking to feel so Protestant in the true Church and so Catholic in a false Church. It felt like I was being forced to choose between truth and beauty.
Much to my joy, I soon discovered that in my home diocese, there is a parish which our bishop gave to the priests of the Fraternal Society of Saint Peter (F.S.S.P.), a society of apostolic life established by Pope St. John Paul II who exclusively devote themselves to the celebration of the sacraments according to the liturgical books of 1962.
I share this so as to advise readers of "A Bitter Trial" not to despair if they find themselves also tasting the bitterness which the letters in this book express. There are faithful priests out there who desire to honor our Lord's sacrifice in a manner befitting His divinity. There seems to be a movement toward restoring true beauty in places where modernism has wreaked its havoc.
And even if one is not able to find such a haven, we can still have the hope that the tears we sow now will one day reap a harvest of joy if we persevere. Our Lord has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail over His Holy Catholic Church. His word is true and it cannot fail. The mystical body of Christ will always have persecutors without and wounds within. The Church militant must carry these sorrows faithfully to the end with the hope that they will be exchanged with the joy of resurrection come Easter dawn."
-Arlen
December 6, 2022
“Awe is the natural predisposition to prayer.”
—Evelyn Waugh
I feel such an affection for Waugh, especially after reading his submissions to publications and correspondence with his archbishop concerning the changes to the mass at the end of his life, which he referred to as “a bitter trial.” It is still a bitter trial, sir. Please pray for us.
—Evelyn Waugh
I feel such an affection for Waugh, especially after reading his submissions to publications and correspondence with his archbishop concerning the changes to the mass at the end of his life, which he referred to as “a bitter trial.” It is still a bitter trial, sir. Please pray for us.
July 28, 2023
The letters are interesting but the book as a collection provides little context. The book could have been much more enlightening had it provided a more thorough inclusion of the articles and texts referenced in footnotes. The book seems like an incomplete project that fails to adequately present what seems to have been the available source material.
August 23, 2020
A moving, tragic love story. I wish there were more letters (perhaps there are?). I hope Waugh can look down on us now and see the restoration that is slowly but surely happening. May he rest in peace.
January 31, 2017
I often wonder what it was like for Catholics who endured those years of modernist meddling in the liturgy of the Church that followed Vatican II, those poor souls for whom the Latin Mass was the nearest thing to heaven on earth. I’m interested because, having fallen in love with the Traditional Latin Mass myself, and as a Catholic bewildered that the Church could have so carelessly squandered such a beautiful, deep, and moving liturgy, I wonder how I would have reacted to the changes, had I been a Catholic in those dark days. I suspect, much like Evelyn Waugh.
Evelyn Waugh, English writer [of Brideshead Revisited fame] and Catholic convert (1930), expressed his sentiments on the changes in a letter dated 30 March 1966, one month before dying on Easter Sunday:
.... Easter used to mean so much to me. Before Pope John and his Council -- they destroyed the beauty of the liturgy. I have not yet soaked myself in petrol and gone up in flames, but I now cling to the Faith doggedly without joy. Church-going is a pure duty parade. I shall not live to see it restored. It is worse in many countries... [96]
A BITTER TRIAL is a slim volume of correspondence between Evelyn Waugh and Cardinal Heenan from 1962 to Waugh’s death in 1966. It also includes some letters to and from a few close friends and relatives. All correspondence concerns the Vatican II Council and the liturgical changes [abuses] it spawned, and the detrimental effect these changes had on many devout Catholics.
Every attendance at Mass leaves me without comfort or edification. I shall never, pray God, apostatize but church-going is now a bitter trial.[letter to Archbiship Heenan, 1965]
The book begins with an essay penned by Waugh and published in the British Spectator, November 1962, “The Same Again, Please.” In it, Waugh expresses trepidation as to what the new Second Vatican Council might do. He was well aware of the modernist wind blowing through the Church, and was already disappointed with the changes in the Easter Holy Week services.
In a 1965 diary entry, Waugh says:
More than the aesthetic changes which rob the Church of poetry, mystery and dignity, there are suggested changes in Faith and morals which alarm me. A kind of anti-clericalism is abroad which seeks to reduce the priest’s unique sacramental position. The Mass is written of as a “social meal” in which the “people of God” perform the consecration.
Pray to God I will never apostatize but I can only now go to church as an act of duty and obedience -- just as a sentry at Buck House is posted with no possibility of his being employed to defend the sovereign’s life. [79]
A BITTER TRIAL is an interesting look beyond all the modernist celebrations over the Second Vatican Council wreckage, and shows us the other side, one pious Catholic’s views. I’m sure Waugh spoke for many tradition-minded Catholics, as he still does today. And I’m reminded of a line from William F. Buckley, another Catholic who was none too keen on the changes in the liturgy: “I am a practicing Roman Catholic who finds attendance at the new Mass an aesthetic ordeal... I find attendance at Mass less satisfying than it used to be.”
From the Foreward by Joseph Pearce:
Waugh’s love for the Mass is evident throughout this volume, and the “bitter trial” documented in the following pages serves as a witness of the real suffering that Waugh and other Tradition-oriented Catholics experienced during those dismally dark days. As the timeless and priceless inheritance of the Church was being squandered by clueless modernists, the faithful clung to the Church with dogged and dogmatic determination. Now, after this dark night of the Church’s collective soul, we are beginning to see the restoration of the liturgy for which Waugh hoped and prayed.
Evelyn Waugh, English writer [of Brideshead Revisited fame] and Catholic convert (1930), expressed his sentiments on the changes in a letter dated 30 March 1966, one month before dying on Easter Sunday:
.... Easter used to mean so much to me. Before Pope John and his Council -- they destroyed the beauty of the liturgy. I have not yet soaked myself in petrol and gone up in flames, but I now cling to the Faith doggedly without joy. Church-going is a pure duty parade. I shall not live to see it restored. It is worse in many countries... [96]
A BITTER TRIAL is a slim volume of correspondence between Evelyn Waugh and Cardinal Heenan from 1962 to Waugh’s death in 1966. It also includes some letters to and from a few close friends and relatives. All correspondence concerns the Vatican II Council and the liturgical changes [abuses] it spawned, and the detrimental effect these changes had on many devout Catholics.
Every attendance at Mass leaves me without comfort or edification. I shall never, pray God, apostatize but church-going is now a bitter trial.[letter to Archbiship Heenan, 1965]
The book begins with an essay penned by Waugh and published in the British Spectator, November 1962, “The Same Again, Please.” In it, Waugh expresses trepidation as to what the new Second Vatican Council might do. He was well aware of the modernist wind blowing through the Church, and was already disappointed with the changes in the Easter Holy Week services.
In a 1965 diary entry, Waugh says:
More than the aesthetic changes which rob the Church of poetry, mystery and dignity, there are suggested changes in Faith and morals which alarm me. A kind of anti-clericalism is abroad which seeks to reduce the priest’s unique sacramental position. The Mass is written of as a “social meal” in which the “people of God” perform the consecration.
Pray to God I will never apostatize but I can only now go to church as an act of duty and obedience -- just as a sentry at Buck House is posted with no possibility of his being employed to defend the sovereign’s life. [79]
A BITTER TRIAL is an interesting look beyond all the modernist celebrations over the Second Vatican Council wreckage, and shows us the other side, one pious Catholic’s views. I’m sure Waugh spoke for many tradition-minded Catholics, as he still does today. And I’m reminded of a line from William F. Buckley, another Catholic who was none too keen on the changes in the liturgy: “I am a practicing Roman Catholic who finds attendance at the new Mass an aesthetic ordeal... I find attendance at Mass less satisfying than it used to be.”
From the Foreward by Joseph Pearce:
Waugh’s love for the Mass is evident throughout this volume, and the “bitter trial” documented in the following pages serves as a witness of the real suffering that Waugh and other Tradition-oriented Catholics experienced during those dismally dark days. As the timeless and priceless inheritance of the Church was being squandered by clueless modernists, the faithful clung to the Church with dogged and dogmatic determination. Now, after this dark night of the Church’s collective soul, we are beginning to see the restoration of the liturgy for which Waugh hoped and prayed.
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