We should be grateful for space in your columns to correct an error of fact in Mr John Hirst's letter of December 15, c regarding the possibility of a Catholic grammar school for boys in York. • 1.
There has never been any question of the Bar Convent belt% involved in the education of secondary school boys in the past. The two dioceses have never sought our co-operation on this matter until last year.
In 1975, the Government announced the phasing out of the Direct Grant beginning in 1976. The options open to such schools were: to go independent; to undertake to enter the maintained system and become comprehensive '(non-selectiVe); to close the scnool.
Consecrated bread
I quite agree with Fr. Michael Hill (December 15) that the word "bread" in any of the Eucharistic Prayers must be taken in its context.
In the Roman Canon (which as your other correspondent. Fr Clifford Howell, reminds us, was saved from oblivion in the nick of time) the phrase used after the Consecration is Panem sanctum vitae aeternae; in Eucharistic Prayer IV it is ex hoc uno pane. There is, literally, an eternity of difference.
Martin Lynch Chairman, Association for Latin Liturgy. London, W5.
Disastrous Rome visit
I wish to advise any pilgrims who are planning a visit to Rome in the near future to think again about this venture until they have read my personal experience.
A group and myself have just returned from a pretty disastrous visit to Si Peter's and a negative audience with the Holy Father. Even though we had "B" tickets for the audience and arrived two hours early we were told the hall was already full.
My last visit to Rome was in Holy Year and I was very impressed by the orderly way everyone conducted themselves; but this year I felt I had mistakenly obtained tickets for a John Travolta concert. This was due to the pushing, kicking and screaming majority of Italians. 1 can only pray for our American and Australian cousins who come from so far away to see what appears to be a Polish myth.
Our only hope is to ask one of the local Romans "Excuse me! Can you tell me what John Paul II looks like? And what did he say at the audience today?"
Mary Veronica Hassett Burnley, Lancashire.
Pastoral Congress
I have been addicted to the Letters Page of the Catholic Herald for 40 years, since my student days before the war. My admiration for, and exasperation with my fellow Catholics in England have impelled me to bless and curse but never to lose interest.
Our Church is fascinating in its variety, and I would hope that the coming National Pastoral Congress in 1980 will reflect and find room for every shade of acceptable opinion as can be studied in your readers' letters.
The preparations for the congress are still very "clergyoriented". The lay Catholic societies have not yet been consulted or informed, and their members are still unaware that they have any part to play.
Perhaps your vigilant readers and letter-writers might turn their attention to the congress and say what they feel about the future of the Church in our country — its problems, its needs, its strengths and its weaknesses.
(Fr.) Kevin D. Daley Harlescott, Shrewsbury. The Bar Convent chose the second alternative. Until voluntary-aided (and comprehensive) status is accomplished, the school continues to be a direct grant school.
In August, 1977, the diocese of Leeds, with the approval of the LEA, asked the school whether it would be willing to take grammar school boys from September, 1978, at which time St Michael's, Leeds, ceased to be available to York and Selby boys aged I I.
The main difficulty in implementing this suggestion was gaining the approval of the Charity Commissioners to a change in the Trust Deed. This was not finally granted until June, 1978.
In September, 1978, grammar school boys were admitted for the first time. However, the present permission to take boys would lapse if, for any reason, the school fails to be accepted for voluntary-aided status.
T. M. Marshall
Clerk to the School Governors, Bar Grammar School, York.