Soho Masses Decision: We Need Care for Souls, Not Reputations

If the Archbishop has not broken up the Soho Masses and taken the organisation of 'pastoral support' and handed it over to a group that strive to teach and live the Catholic Faith, then, far from having shown courage and leadership in 'ending' the Masses (and after-Mass speed-dating social gathering) he will be merely moving the problem. Primarily, the Archbishop of Westminster is in a position in which he care for souls, not reputations.

Far be it for me to tell the Archbishop what to do, but if the same people who have been cruising Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Streeet, will be misleading souls into the homosexual lifestyle at Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, then the Archbishop will not have addressed the fundamental problem of the 'gay masses' at all. People who get red hats should be people who care for souls - not reputations - and least of all their own.

The chief problem with the Soho Masses was always the organisers - not necessarily those attending Mass there and the names connected to the problem were those on the Soho Mass Pastoral Council. This week, Terence Weldon, who has a pretty interesting and, if I may say so, rather 'queer' understanding of Our Lord's fully divine and fully human nature, said:

"If we can make a success of developing a new model at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, we should find that although the 'Soho Masses' may end, Catholic LGBT ministry will be strengthened, and expanded."

As has been said many times, there are, in the 21st century, few parish priests and few Bishops who would reject the idea of a facility of pastoral provision for homosexuals and lesbians. Attitudes towards persons of the homosexual orientation have shifted dramatically and this includes within the Church. What should be retained is an healthy attitude of hatred for sin and a burning love for sinners. The problem with the organisers of the Soho Masses is that there is no recognition of the need for repentance and conversion of life. There is no sound and good teaching emanating from the organisers about chastity or the Church's theology of the body or any sense that the true happiness 'LGBT' people seek is in Jesus Christ alone.

One group that perhaps does have the ability to give an authentic vision of the Church's message to homosexuals and lesbians is the group Courage. Archbishop Vincent Nichols went and saw this group recently, but, as yet, there has been no sign that this group will be meeting at Farm Street to take over where Martin Prendergast, Terence Weldon and all the other figures left off.

If the power of the inner circle of scandalously liberal and frankly heretical figures is not broken by the Archbishop, and these wolves are allowed to continue to roam around infecting young and impressionable minds with their teachings, then, aside from ending some sacrilegious and politicised elements of a Catholic Mass in Soho, the same wolves will be running whatever 'pastoral event' will be taking place at Farm Street - even if this is not, in future, to be a 'Gay Mass'.

His Grace needs to stand up to these guys and read them the riot act. They should not be let anywhere near the organisation of any pastoral provision for homosexuals and lesbians. As one with a genuine concern for the treatment of homosexuals in the Catholic Church and their spiritual support, I ask myself the question - why can't His Grace tell these leeches where to go?