Michael Davies (Catholic writer)

Michael Davies
File:Michael Davies.jpg
Born	Michael Treharne Davies (1936-03-13)13 March 1936 Yeovil, Somerset, England
Died
Occupation	Writer

Michael Treharne Davies (13 March 1936 – 25 September 2004) was a British teacher and traditionalist Catholic writer of many books about the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council. From 1992 to 2004 he was the president of the international Traditionalist Catholic organisation Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce and was responsible for the unification of Una Voce America.

Life

Davies was born to Cyril and Annie (née Garnworthy) Davies. His father, a Welshman, was a Baptist, and his mother, who was English, was an Anglican. Davies was brought up in Yeovil, Somerset, but proud of his Welsh descent. He served as a regular soldier in the Somerset Light Infantry during the Malayan Emergency, the Suez Crisis, and the EOKA campaign in Cyprus.

Davies was a Baptist who converted to Catholicism while still a student in the 1950s. While initially he was a supporter of the Second Vatican Council, he became critical of the liturgical changes that followed in its wake, which he argued were a result of distortions and misreadings of the Second Vatican Council's mandates for liturgical reform. He later supported the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X, and declined to retract that support after Lefebvre illicitly consecrated four bishops in 1988 against the wishes of Pope John Paul II, which some said "sanitised" Lefebvre.

William D. Dinges, Professor of Religion and Culture at The Catholic University of America, described Davies as "[i]nternationally, one of the most prolific traditionalist apologists".

Davies was a critic of the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje, which he believed to be false.

Davies died on 25 September 2004, aged 68, following a battle with cancer and was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary's, Chislehurst, Kent. He was survived by his wife, Marija, one daughter and two sons, one of whom is the barrister Adrian Davies.

Selected published works

• The Liturgical Revolution (Vol. I: Cranmer's Godly Order Roman Catholic Books, vol. II Pope John's Council & vol III Pope Paul's New Mass: Angelus Press)
• Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press) is a three volume book in support of the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X
• The Order of Melchisedech – 255pp, Roman Catholic Books (out of print)
• Partisans of Error (on Modernism) – 109pp, Neumann Press (1982)
• Newman Against the Liberals – 400pp, Roman Catholic Books (out of print)
• The Second Vatican Council and Religious Liberty – 326pp, Neumann Press
• I am with you always (on the Indefectibility of the Church) – 101pp. Neumann Press
• For Altar and Throne – The Rising the Vendée – 100pp, The Remnant Press
• St John Fisher – 140pp, Neumann Press
• The Wisdom of Adrian Fortescue (edited by M. Davies) – 421pp, Roman Catholic Books
• Liturgical Shipwreck – TAN Books

External links

• Video Michael Davies at St. Athanasius (Traditional Catholic Chapel), Vienna, Virginia, 1988.
• Tribute from Una Voce America.
• The Catholic Sanctuary and the Second Vatican Council, by Michael Davies, criticising post-Vatican II architectural changes
• Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre by Michael Davies, hosted by SSPX Asia.