I returned to find the October edition of our diocesan newspaper the Northern Cross, had published a small article by the editor on the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. The article reads:
In parishes where a stable group exists who prefer the old form of the Mass, the parish priest is asked to accede to the request for a public parish Mass- but the difficulty will be demonstrating such a stable group exists in a parish rather than in different places across the diocese.
So far there has been one request for an `extraordinary` Mass to be said in a Hexham and Newcastle parish and this has been declined as there was no recognisable group seeking the Mass.
I`m not sure what this last sentence means exactly but I am happy to say, as reported below, that we have had a Solemn High Mass on a Sunday at St Mary`s on September 23rd, following a request from the group of parishioners who attend the Saturday morning Mass and that the general feeling was that they would like it again. Maybe I should send some of the pictures to the Northern Cross!
2 comments:
It was not surprising that the 'request' was refused since it was made by a member of the SSPX congregation at Newcastle's Station Hotel. Since they have a weekly OLd Mass I can only guess that the request was made from less than pure motives.
Richard S Rainbow
If the request was made by a single person I can see that he or she was not a `recognisable group`. I wouldn`t like to speculate about motives. I thought it was meant to be a good thing if followers of the SSPX wanted to go to Mass in a mainstream church.
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