Monday, May 26, 2008

More Confusion over Holy Days



I was interested to see this report mentioned by South Ashford Priest of the Feast of Corpus Christi (which has now been moved to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday) being celebrated on the traditional Thursday after Trinity at Arundel cathedral. Not only this but the Mass for the feast was celebrated by the papal nuncio himself! All somewhat confusing. There also appear to have been no shortage of Extraordinary Form Masses for Corpus Christi celebrated on Thursday. I also heard of a church which holds the EF every Sunday not celebrating Corpus Christi yesterday but the Mass of the Second Sunday after Pentecost. I suppose it will take some time for the new way of doing things to become established.


(Picture borrowed from the fabulous Hallowed Ground blog.)

2 comments:

PeterHWright said...

Yes, I saw this report. The papal nuncio ! Very confusing. It gets more confusing in the USA where, I understand, different dioceses do their own thing.

It was pleasing to see the Pope celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi on its proper date. But I was told holy days are transferred in Italy, including the diocese of Rome ! No problem there, obviously.

The Bishops' Conference of England & Wales could of course put an end to the confusion in this country if it were to abandon its experiment with transferring holy days ..

Simon Platt said...

Dear Father,

I was fortunate to be able to assist at two traditional masses on Sunday. Both were for the second Sunday after Pentecost. The celebrant at one had gone to the trouble to consult a learned source in Rome whose opinion was (of course I paraphrase and might get this not quite right as it's third hand) that the Bishop's conference's recent press release lacked authority and that the common interpretation of it, that traditional celebrations should be translated as in the new form of mass, was wrong, and that the correct mass to celebrate was that of the second Sunday. I didn't have time to discuss this with the other celebrant, but I am confident that he will have taken care to do the Right Thing.

I understand that our bishops (individually I think, as in the USA, rather than as a group) have the right to decide on this point, but I agree wholeheartedly with Peter and pray that they will abandon this experiment, and also give us back our Saturday and Monday holy days!