MASS SAID ONCE A QUARTER HERE'

THERE are 25 places in the Northampton Diocese where Mass is said only once every three months, i.e. four times a year.
And at places such as Trimley St. Mary, near Felixstowd, special prayers for fine weather are needed each time Mass is said for the numbers are such that some people usually have to stand outside.
A report on the tremendous work. of the diocesan Travelling Mission appears in the new 1962 Northampton Catholic Directory which is now on sale. price is.
NEW CENTRES
Several new Mass centres were opened last year including one at Long Crendon, Bucks., where Mass was started on a quarterly basis on September 17th, but within a few weeks it became possible to have Mass each week to cater for the 100 or so Catholics in the village.
Blakency and Burnham Market each has its own chapel and during the summer months can have weekly Mass owing to an arrangement whereby priests spend their holidays in the villages. Irthlingborough, one of the oldest centres also has its own chapel.
Fr. Robert McCormack, the Travelling Missioner announces that a quarterly news-sheet, The [ravelling Mission News", is now being produced. Those who are unfamiliar with this large and scattered diocese will probably be surprised to learn that there are 10 American Air
Force chaplains working at U.S.A.F. and R.A.F. stations; there are 15 Polish priests working in the diocese.
There are 123,060 Catholics in the diocese and 18,770 children attend the 71 Catholic schools.
Adult conversions in 1960 were 647 (an increase of 55 on 1959); marriages (including mixed) were down during the year hut infant baptisms were up by more than 300. Fifty-eight candidates are studying for the diocesan priesthood.
Bishop Parker, in his foreword to the Directory, recalls that the Catholic population of the diocese has risen from 33,000 when he became bishop 21 years ago to over 123.000. Great development is going on including new churches and church enlargements. fine new secondary schools. beside primary and infants. and some muchneeded presbyteries.
Daring the year under review the diocese received an Auxiliary
Bishop, Mgr. Charles Grant, who
now lives in East Anglia.