Bishop moves swiftly to end dispute over traditional Mass

BY ANNA ARCO
AN ENGLISH bishop has issued a directive providing for a number of "extraordinary form" Masses in his diocese in an attempt to defuse a heated row with traditionalists.
In a letter to the clergy of Brentwood last Friday, Bishop Thomas McMahon announced the provisions he had made for the traditional Mass in the diocese and said that he had appointed Fr Stewart Foster as the co-ordinator for the provision.
The row was prompted by the last-minute cancellation of a new regular Sunday Mass in the extraordinary form that was supposed to begin on February 3 at St Anthony of Padua, Forest Gate.
The Latin Mass Society's local representative in Brentwood, Mark Johnson, had cleared the plan with the parish priest Fr Dennis Hall and the diocesan archivist Fr Foster, who was to be the celebrant and who has been celebrating in the extraordinary form for film years,
On the evening of January 28, Fr Hall phoned Mr Johnson to tell him that Bishop McMahon had asked him not to go ahead with the Mass as the bishop was consulting on making provisions for the extraordinary form and the Mass was indefinitely postponed.
Mr Johnson said that he was unhappy about the situation and that there was no reason that the Mass could not have continued while the bishop was making his provisions at a diocesan level.
At the time John Medlin, the general manager of the LMS, said: "Bishop McMahon's action. taken at such short notice, was pastorally insensitive and left the LMS with no time to inform people, who might have travelled long distances, that the Mass was cancelled."
Mgr John Armitage, the Vicar General of Brentwood diocese, said that the regular Sunday Mass at St Anthony's had not been cancelled but that it had been postponed.
"If we're going to have the Tridentine Mass then we need to make a long-term commitment and we need to ensure that the priests are trained properly. We're going to start very soon, the bishop is dealing with it." Mgr Armitage said.
"I can't say the Tridentine Mass,. you know." he continued. "Most priests today can't because we weren't taught it. You must remember that it took five years of training in seminary to learn how to celebrate the Tridentine Mass. Just by reading Fortescue and O'Connell doesn't mean you know how to celebrate a Tridentine Mass. Now we need to ensure that there is a Mass and that priests are trained for it because of the Motu Proprio The bishop's ad derum has reinstated the 630pm Mass at St Anthony of Padua, as well as providing for a new first Sunday Mass in Leigh-on-Sea at Our Lady of Lourdes at 4pm.
Fr Hall, whose parish includes over 100 different nationalities, and Fr Foster, welcomed the bishop's letter, saying that they hoped that this would be a chance for the Motu Proprio to be implemented in a way that satisfied both the bishop and those campaigning for the traditional form.
They said that the bishop had acted in keeping with the spirit of the Motu Proprio and they hoped that the regular Sunday Mass in the extraordinary form would help bring people to the form gradually and gently.
"The bishop wants it to happen and it's a question of finding the priests to do it so that's what he's done," said Fr Hall.
Fr Foster, who is now the diocesan co-ordinator for the extraordinary form, said: "One can quite understand that people have been upset but given the availability of priests able and willing given also the fact that to change something is not easy we hope that if these Masses are a roaring success (which we hope they will be) in terms of numbers that it will be an encouragement for the extraordinary form.
But the LMS felt short-changed by the document, which it said had only made one new provision while taking over the other provisions for the extraordinary rite that they themselves have made.
Mr Medlin said: "The weekly Sunday Mass is precisely the Mass at St Anthony's, Forest Gate, organised by the LMS which Bishop McMahon peremptorily forbade on January 28.
"Now he allows it as from Easter Sunday, March 23. The bishop occasioned much pain and anger by cancelling the Latin Mass Society's Mass; a proper pastoral approach would have been to allow it to continue until his own 'official' arrangement began.
"In any case, there is no need under the provisions of Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio for the 'official' structure which Bishop McMahon has erected: the Motu Proprio leaves provision to decisions of the priests and parishioners concerned. Far from making adequate provision, Bishop MacMahon has effectively capped provision, thus ignoring the Motu Proprio," added Mr Medlin.