If the menu is blank how do you know what's on offer?

It's not "off" it just isn't there!

Can you imagine sitting down in a restaurant and being handed a menu that has gaps in the listings?

Ridiculous!

But this is what is happening in the Catholic Church at both Diocesan and Parish levels.

So many parishes that offer an EF Mass one Sunday (or Wednesday) per month do not actually show it on the church notices.

Look on the website of the parish or diocese and more (or, rather, less), of the same.

The Latin Mass is not apparent so it does not exist..........and most Catholics believe that to be the case.

So, a visitor to the region, on Googling his or her chances of finding a Latin Mass, is left with the impression that none exist. Shame.

It is shameful that some Diocesan websites totally ignore the fact that the TLM is celebrated in a few of the parishes and one cannot but arrive at the conclusion that those in authority want it to be like that so that, starved of oxygen, the patient will die or, at least, appear to die.

At the time of the 'excommunications' of the SSPX Bishops in 1988 I recall some impromptu legislation that was laid down by some Bishops with regard to the Latin Mass.

No broadcasting of its venue or timings was permitted. It could not take place on a Sunday and children should be discouraged (so it had to be held at 5pm just when they were preparing to begin the evening ritual of tea and bed).And it should not take place on the main altar but in a side chapel.

And people rejoiced when apartheid came to an end!

But, the answer to this thorny problem lies within our grasp; we must be most un-British and.....COMPLAIN........LOUD AND CLEAR (but, always with Christian courtesy).

Complain to the parish priest, to the Bishop, to the webmaster, the parish council and, finally, to the local paper if you cannot get justice.

But, above all else, complain.