[1] The group organised a petition for the Latin Mass in England and Wales which the Archbishop of Westminster, John Cardinal Heenan, presented to Pope Paul VI, who granted a papal indult in 1971.

The question was debated at the annual general meeting of 1969, with the writer Hugh Ross Williamson speaking against the new rite and other speakers, such as the botanist Richard Hook Ritchens, in its favour.

[6][page needed] Alfred Marnau headed the major project of organising a petition[7] signed by 56 international cultural figures to seek permission for the continuing use of the older liturgical books.

The then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal John Heenan, presented this to Pope Paul VI who granted this permission, a papal indult, in 1971, under which any bishop in England and Wales could permit celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass for the benefit of a group of the faithful.

At an audience of October 29, 1971, Cardinal Heenan had told the Pope of the discomfort of groups of converts and of elderly people who wanted to be able to celebrate Mass according to the old rite on special occasions.

In anticipation of the promulgation of Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum in 2007, the Society organised its first residential training conferences for priests wanting to learn to celebrate the Extraordinary Form; these have continued at least annually since then in a variety of locations.