A current phrase that is bandied around somewhat is "the elephant in the room" referring to a large problem or issue that overshadows all else.
Well, in Westminster Archdiocese they have a Woolly Mammoth in the room, frozen in time, long passed its sell by date ("use by 7th July 2007") and still no sign of the ice melting.
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| Mammuthus Westminsterii |
I refer to the scandalous fact that, out of all the Diocese of England and Wales, only Westminster has not moved forward one step since the Holy Father's Motu Proprio regarding the responsibilities of the clergy in providing the Extraordinary Form of Mass wherever there was a demand.
Where may you attend an EF Mass in London (Westminster) on a Sunday?
The London Oratory 9am
St James, Spanish Place 9.30am (thank you Fr Colven and the priest who comes to celebrate Mass each week (but please use a microphone)
St Edmund's, Ware (where?)
Holy Trinity and St Augustine, Baldock (one Sunday per month)
And that's it! Hardly a lavish offering, not exactly what Pope Benedict had in mind!
Westminster is small geographically but big in terms of Catholic population, it is a Diocese that includes the capital city of London - is that meagre offering good enough?
Let's just look at the profile and resources of Westminster.....
214 Parishes
417 secular priests
263 priests belonging to a religious order
49 - assorted others
That's a total of 729 priests!
Yet all that Archbishop Nichols can manage to provide is 3.25 EF Masses on a Sunday! Extraordinary! More than extraordinary it is a cause for scandal!
By my rough reckoning that makes the Sunday Mass score something like this:-
OF Masses circa................ 400
Homosexual Mass................. 1
EF Masses......................... 3.75
What are the Traditional Catholics of Westminster doing about it? Holding prayer vigils in the Piazza? Nope. Creating petitions to forward to Rome? Nope. Writing to the Papal Nuncio? Maybe.
As an ex Westminster Diocese Catholic I appeal for all to write to Archbishop Nichols in the first instance and then to Archbishop Mennini - perhaps then we can slice the Woolly Mammoth up and let the ice melt away for good.
Richard, According to their site the Oratorians still have a 9am Sunday EF in the Oratory church. I used to attend it up to summer 2006. Is this no longer true? I see their site is being rebuilt. I am very concerned.
ReplyDeleteWith my prayers,
Jane
As a former parishioner of the Cathedral when Vincent Nichols was a mere bishop, I observed enough and heard enough to conclude that writing to him would be a complete waste of paper.
ReplyDeleteI fear that not only is he an exemplar of the Worlock tendency but he is in thrall to the bureaucrats and modernists around him. He looked very ill at ease during the Pontifical Mass.
Traditionalists are often railed against for anticipating the biological solution. But it seems to me that it can be as readily applied to the "liberal" wing of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, which is why nothing changes and everything remains the same.
Genty, very eloquently put; I fear you are right, I was just trying to observe protocol.
ReplyDeleteJane, I am now in a state of confusion as for many years we attended the Sunday EF Mass in the Little Oratory - never in the main one. The website does not specify so I have sent an email to Fr Rupert for an up to the minute answer.
The answer Richard is that they moved the 10am EF Mass in the Little Oratory when the Little Oratory was being redecorated a couple of years ago; it is now a 9am Mass on the High Altar in the main church. It is vastly better attended than before the Motu Proprio. It is still a Low Mass.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe.
ReplyDeleteJane- I was a little out of date I'm afraid.
Mass is in the Main Oratory.