Research Fellowships in Liturgical Theology

Within its remit to support scholarship in Catholic theology, the Society from time to time awards fellowships to scholars who undertake research particularly in liturgical theology. These fellowships are made possible through generous benefactions of individuals and charitable trusts, and thereby enable uniquely significant contributions to be made to theological debate in crucial areas of the Church’s life.

First Fellow: Dr. Lauren Pristas

The first fellowship was inaugurated a mere six months after the initiative began, having been awarded at the Society’s conference at Blackfriars, Oxford in October 2005. The First Fellow was Dr. Lauren Pristas, who teaches at Caldwell College, New Jersey, a Catholic liberal arts college founded by the Sisters of St. Dominic. The fellowship has provided full support for her sabbatical leave.

Dr. Pristas describes her project as:

"A study of the collects of the post-Vatican II missal in relation to their sources and the corresponding collects in the pre-Vatican II missal in order to discover whether the spiritual and theological formation that today’s Catholics receive as they worship is the same as the formation received by earlier generations. And if, as my preliminary findings indicate, this formation is different, to determine to what extent and in what ways it is different, and what this means for present and future generations of Catholics."

The results of Dr. Pristas' research will be published under the title Collects of the Roman Missal: A Study of Liturgical Reform as a volume in the Society's series Studies in Fundamental Liturgy to be published by T&T Clark (Continuum) in 2009.

Dr. Pristas has already published a number of studies analysing the processes by which the 1970 Roman Missal was edited, including close and detailed textual analyses of the changes intended versus those implemented. Writing in a calm and unpolemical tone, Dr. Pristas tests the principles of reform against the work accomplished, providing the evidence upon which future research in this area will come to rely. Her studies have been published in The Thomist (April 2003), Communio (Winter 2003), Nova et Vetera (Winter 2005), and New Blackfriars (Winter 2005).

In the academic year 2008-2009, Dr. Pristas will return to the UK to present the results of her research. The Society is pleased to be able to support her work, and will ensure that her research is made available to a wide audience, both scholarly and lay.

Second Fellow: Dr. Alcuin Reid

It has recently become possible for the Society to co-sponsor with CIEL UK a second Research Fellowship in Liturgical Theology for the academic years 2008-2010. The announcement was made during the CIEL UK 2008 Conference held at the London Oratory, Brompton on 31st May, at at which the recipient delivered the main paper on The Liturgical Reforms of Benedict XVI. Dr. Alcuin Reid gained a PhD from King’s College, University of London in 2002 for a thesis on twentieth century liturgical reform. He has spoken internationally on liturgical topics, written extensively on the Sacred Liturgy and edited and published a number of books, including Looking Again at the Question of the Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger (2003) and The Monastic Diurnal (2004). The second edition of his principal work, The Organic Development of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press, 2005), carries a preface by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.

Dr. Reid’s latest edition of Adrian Fortescue’s book, The Early Papacy, was published by Ignatius Press in April 2008. He is currently working on the fifteenth revised edition of Fortescue and O’Connell’s Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, which is due for publication by January 2009.

Dr. Reid has been awarded the Society of St. Catherine of Siena and CIEL UK Research Fellowship in Liturgical Theology in order to facilitate the writing of his second major liturgical work, Continuity or Rupture? A Study of the Liturgical Reform of the Second Vatican Council. The book will be published in the Society’s book series, Studies in Fundamental Liturgy (T & T Clark/Continuum).