WITH the full co-operation of the local Angli can authorities, requiem Mass. accompanied by Gregorian plain chant, was celebrated recently at the pre-Norman Conquest church of All Souls, Brightlingsea, Essex, by Fr. Henry Peace, parish priest of St, Sabina's, Brightlingsea.
Eight students from the Franciscan friary of St. Mary's, East BerghoIt sang at the Mass in the presence of a congregation of 150, The event was the culmination of two years' negotiations with permission being granted by the Rt. Rev. John Tiarks, Anglican Bishop of Colchester, and Bishop Patrick Casey of Brentwood.
A message of greeting came from the vicar of the parish in which the old church is situated, the Rev. Michael Swindlehurst.
Over the centuries the old church had become neglected, and some local people banded together as Friends of All Souls in an effort to save it.
Fr. Peace suggested the best way of doing this would be to use it interdenominationally. As All Souls is situated between two scattered Catholic congregations, be hopes it will be possible to use it for Midnight Mass this Christmas.
Demonstrators sentenced
CAGLIARI court last
week sentenced ten persons to a total of eight years in jail in connection with a protest which marred the Sardinian visit of Pope Paul last April.
The charges arose from an incident when self-styled anarchists stoned a police car at the end of the Papal motorcade after officials seized a loudspeaker they had planned to use for protest speeches against poverty.
Pope Paul himself did not see the incident and the Vatican said newsmen had exaggerated it.