Michael Davies (Catholic writer)

Michael Davies
Born Michael Treharne Davies
(1936-03-13)13 March 1936
Yeovil, Somerset, England, United Kingdom
Died 25 September 2004(2004-09-25) (aged 68)
United Kingdom
Occupation Writer, author

Michael Treharne Davies (13 March 1936 – 25 September 2004[1]) 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.[2]

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,[3] 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.[4]

Davies was a Baptist who converted to Catholicism while still a student in the 1950s.[5][6] While initially he was a supporter of the Second Vatican Council,[7] 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.[8] 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,[5] which some said "sanitised" Lefebvre.[9]

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".[10]

Davies was a critic of the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje, which he believed to be false.[11]

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,[12] one of whom is the barrister Adrian Davies.

Selected published works

References

  1. Matt, Michael. "The Last Letter From London". The Remnant. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  2. Darroch, Leo (27 April 2005). "Michael Davies obituary". Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  3. Foley, Michael (November 2004). "RIP Michael Davies – The passing of a true defender of the Faith". AD2000. 17 (10). p. 13. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
  4. Darroch, Leo (2004). "Michael Treharne Davies". The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales. Archived from the original on 6 October 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
  5. 1 2 "Lives in Brief". The Times. 9 November 2004. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
  6. Bishop, John (October 2004). "Michael Davies: The Last Interview". Christian Order. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
  7. Michael Davies, PhD at the Wayback Machine (archived 31 October 2007), Society of St. Pius X – Southern Africa
  8. Kieckhefer, Richard (2004). Theology in stone: Church architecture from Byzantium to Berkeley. Oxford University Press. p. 266. ISBN 0-19-515466-5.
  9. Friend Honors Author Who Criticized Abuse of Vatican II, Zenit
  10. Dinges, William D.; Martin E. Marty; R. Scott Appleby. "Roman Catholic Traditionalism". Fundamentalisms Observed. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. p. 69. ISBN 0-226-50878-1.
  11. Davies, Michael (May 2004). "Megjugorje after Twenty-One Years – The Definitive History". Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  12. Matt, Michael (8 July 2010). "Michael Davies ~ In Memoriam". The Remnant. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
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