Mass at your church

Would you like to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass at your church?

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You may have no provision for a Latin Mass, but despite this it is possible for you to bring the Traditional Rite to your own church.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote the Motu Proprio entitled Summorum Pontificum (here) which put in place rules whereby communities could once again celebrate this most beautiful of liturgical celebrations. Below is a step by step guide devised by the Latin Mass Society which you should read. As you can see the advice is only for the number of signatures to be in double figures. There would also be a need for someone who could serve at Low Mass which is the most regular form of Mass.

As a representative for the area it is my role to support you in organising the Mass and supporting the priest. I am happy to hear from anyone in Lincolnshire who would like to consider the celebration of Mass at their church. Please contact me initially on 

lmslincolnshire@gmail.com

 

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A Step-by-step Guide

1. Establish a ‘stable group’. Members of the group do NOT have to reside in the same parish. They do NOT have to have an attachment to the Traditional Mass going back to 1969. They must rather be a group sufficiently committed and sufficiently local that if a Mass were established for them, they would support it. There is no minimum size fixed for such groups, but to be taken seriously you need to show that numbers are at least in double figures. Your local Latin Mass Society Representative should be informed at this stage and should be able to put you in touch with other people who will support your project.

2. Write to the parish priest. You need to choose a parish either where most of the members of your group live, or one where an additional Mass would be easiest to establish (i.e. one where there are not too many Sunday Masses taking place already), or one where the priest is most friendly to your cause. If this Parish Priest is unable to help you it will be up to the Bishop to suggest to nearby parishes that they may accommodate your group if that is the best way forward.

3. Include with your letter a simple petition in its support (‘We the undersigned support this request for a Sunday Mass in the X area celebrated in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite’), and get all the members of your group to sign it, and include their postal addresses. KEEP COPIES OF WHAT YOU SEND.

4. If the parish priest does not respond within a fortnight, send your letter to him again; it may have got lost or forgotten about. Politely suggest that if you do not hear back from him within a month you will take the matter to the bishop, in accordance with the provisions of the Motu Proprio.

5. If you receive a negative response, you may be able (politely) to help your parish priest to overcome any misunderstandings about the Motu Proprio with the aid of the FAQs below. If his response remains negative, or if he does not respond at all, you must write to the bishop explaining that you have applied for the Traditional Mass under the Motu Proprio and are passing the matter to him as the Motu Proprio requires. Include with your letter to the bishop a copy of your letter(s) to the Parish Priest, and your petition.

6. With the Bishop, as with the Parish Priest in step 4 and 5: if there is no response after a fortnight, write again with a month deadline. If there are objections based on a misreading of the Motu Proprio, you may be able to respond with the help of the FAQs below. If, finally, there is a negative response or no response at all, you need to write to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

7. For this step, you should get in touch with the Latin Mass Society office. We will advise you on the wording of your letter, and we can arrange hand delivery in Rome, which will give your letter more force. You will need to include with your letter all your previous correspondence: letters to and from the parish priest and the bishop.

It is of the utmost importance that all of the letters from your side are polite, succinct, clearly written, and well informed about the Motu Proprio.

Will you get a response? 

They will read it and they will be in touch with your Bishop who the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei will negotiate with.