Golden boy Archbishop Vincent Nichols (who can do no wrong, so long as we don't mention Catholic Education) is quoted in the newsletter of the Parish down the road...

Archbishop Nichols wrote a postgraduate thesis on John Fisher which used the phrase: "The Church doesn't need any more golden chalices, it needs golden priests." [Reminds me of something Bishop Terry said after his visitation here!].

[link]

What was it the Bishop said?

...a new set of chalices might be in order to enhance and add even more dignity to the liturgy.

[link]

That's what you call selective hearing...

From the Holy Cross Parish Newsletter...

Mass intentions for the coming week:

Sat 20th 6.30 pm Fred Knapp Thurs 9 am Harold Ward

Sun 10 am Pat Hyland Fri Holy Name 9.15 am Bill Kemp

Holy Name 11.30 am Chris Herbert Sat 9 am The Parishioners

Mon 9 am Service of the Word and Holy Communion 6.30 pm Mary Jones (RIP)

Tues 7 pm Service of the Word and Holy Communion Sun 10 am Jill Kemp

Wed 9 am Michael Whincop (A) Holy Name 11.30 am Fred Higginson

[link]

Spot the two pseudo Masses? Service of the Word and Holy Communion. So let's see, there are readings and then people receive communion. No danger of confusing that with Mass then!

The Church does allow non-ordained faithful to lead celebrations on a Sunday...

In some places in the absence of priests or deacons,(90) non-ordained members of the faithful lead Sunday celebrations. In many instances, much good derives for the local community from this useful and delicate service when it is discharged in accordance with the spirit and the specific norms issued by the competent ecclesiastical authority.(91) A special mandate of the Bishop is necessary for the non-ordained members of the faithful to lead such celebrations. This mandate should contain specific instructions with regard to the term of applicability, the place and conditions in which it is operative, as well as indicate the priest responsible for overseeing these celebrations.

It must be clearly understood that such celebrations are temporary solutions and the text used at them must be approved by the competent ecclesiastical authority.

[link]

My understanding of this, is that it refers to parts of the world where there is an absence of priests. I'm thinking remote African villages where a priest visits twice a year if they are lucky. I'm pretty sure it doesn't refer to weekday masses, but, let us be generous in our interpretation. Let's imagine it refers to a part of Hull where there is a priest living in a presbytery next to the Church. Let's imagine it includes days when there is no obligation to attend mass. Let's imagine "absence of priests" means "several priests within driving distance"

"A special mandate of the Bishop is necessary for the non-ordained members of the faithful to lead such celebrations"

It would be distinctly ungenerous to interpret the whole paragraph as referring to weekday masses and then pull a 360 when it comes to the mandate from the Bishop saying, "oh yes, but that's only for Sundays".

Has there been a special mandate from the Bishop?

I'm going with.... um.... let me think... No.

No, Because there's nobody would be so daft as to write to the Bishop saying: "Dear Bishop, Sorry to bother you but I don't want to cancel my weekday Masses and I haven't actually asked any of the priests in my area if they can cover but would it be okay if lay people ran a service instead? What's that? Sure, I'll send some texts over for you to approve right away."

What's happening here is "Women and married men can't be priests so let's try to find a way for them lead services and give out communion". Then we can 'prove' that women and married men can do these things just as well as a celibate priesthood.

The whole thing stinks.

I hope that the other priests of the West Hull deanery will ask Fr Pat about this and perhaps pass on their concerns (if they have any) to the Bishop.

So, once again I find myself. Mass at Holy Cross Cottingham. Oh no! Not a blog entry about Cottingham! James! Don't do it!

It was First Communion at Holy Cross and it took two hours. Two Hours! Doesn't Fr Pat know that mass is supposed to be One Hour!?!?!!? If it's a normal mass you pad it out with hymns and a long homily to make it take an hour. If there's a lot to do you rush it to make it fit in the hour. It's the Rules. The mass lasts 1/24th of the day and if mass were supposed to take longer than an hour then God would have put the earth further from the Sun.

In case you missed that one, I was being sarcastic or ironic or something. I don't think mass should take exactly an hour. It should take as long as it takes. Fr Pat is right to take the extra time to make sure these children's First Communion is a big deal.

But James... I don't get it. I thought you didn't like Fr Pat?

Er... Did I say that? What I said is that I disagree with some of the things he does. If you can't tell the difference between disagreeing with some of what a person does and disliking a person then I don't like you.