MAY I JUST make a few remarks about your article, entitled: "Abbey choir row spills over" (Catholic Herald, 1 September) to set the record straight. For the last sevenand-a-half years I have been attending the 10.15 am Mass at St Michael's Abbey during which the choir performed. It is well known that pressure groups make a lot of noise, so it is in this case; however it is not at all the whole congregation that is kicking up a fuss.
For my part, I consider it quite reasonable that the prior, the Rev Dom Magnus Wilson, let the choir finish the term before disclosing his decisions concerning the future. That he then went on his holiday was of no consequence, as the undignified outbursts of a disdainful kind have proved.
It is nonsense to talk of disbandment of the choir as that is entirely dependant on the choir itself. A choir of such high musical quality, as I gladly acknowledge, should
be able to find another platform.
The aforementioned article states that the abbey church will be closed to the public as from I October of this year, but fails to add the purpose, namely for restoration after which the church will again be open to the public as a monastic oratory.
When considering two statements in the article: one, that the choir in question was formed solely to sing at Mass, and then: "We have lost... a choir of national repute, a concert venue and a tourist attraction", it becomes evident that it is out of place in a Benedictine monastery.
Are we still aware of the fact
that a Catholic church is a most sacred place, the temple of God's sacramental presence? It cannot be regarded or used as a concert venue or seen as a tourist attraction, except for its architecture. Name and address supplied