I have just picked up the story that Archbishop Nichols has abolished the forthnightly 'gay Mass' at the Assumption and St. Gregory, Warwick Street, Soho. Deo Gratias!
The full article is on the Catholic Herald website.
As is to be expected, there has already been considerable comment on this decision within the Catholic Blogosphere, notably by Fr. Tim, Damian Thompson, Joanna Bogle and John Smeaton of SPUC: I anticapate there will be more to come.
These Masses have long been a source of scandal: far from providing support for people of same-sex attraction who wish to live within the Church's teaching, they have become an enclave in which such people can become 'cut off' from the wider Church, and in which immoral lifestyles are condoned, and, have, indeed, become a rallying point for so-called 'gay activists' and 'gay pride', which are likely to lead those who are struggling to live a moral life down precisely the road they wish to avoid. Let's hope that the contiuing pastoral provision for these people offers something more genuinely helpful and useful.
The other great part of the news is that the Warwick Street church is to be given to the care of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. This will, I am sure, mean that this venerable old chapel will again be used, loved and cared for, and that the Ordinariate will have another base from which to begin their journey as part of the Catholic Church.
Regina in Coelum Assumpta, ora pro nobis.
Sancte Gregori, ora pro nobis.
Deo Gratias. Deo Gratias. Deo Gratias.
ReplyDeleteYou do realise that the ''Soho Masses'' have not been stopped, but simply transferred? Transferred to a bigger church, in fact, as they are so popular. It seems that smaller facilities and smaller church are more fitting for the Ordinariate than for the LGBT people...
ReplyDeletePatrick,
ReplyDeleteI hope this will not prove to be the case, and that the pastoral care of those with same-sex attraction will be managed in a more appropriate way, for example by EnCourage.
Please see Protect the Pope's comments in response to Terence Weldon's article.http://protectthepope.com/?p=6339
Call me thick but I've never understood what ''same sex attraction'' is supposed to mean. Is it supposed to be some kind of taxonomical label given in scorn?
ReplyDeletePatrick,
ReplyDeleteI would consider the phrase pretty much self-explanatory. I would certainly not intend it to be a term of contempt or scorn. I use it to indicate that there is a tendency and possibly temptations involved, and that a move towards 'acting out' or adopting a certain lifestyle is not inevitable.