St Pius X Ecumenical Initiative Launched in South East England

Hidden side to St Pius X: Advocated controversial 'Balloon Masses' of 1910

Wednesday 21 August will see the first joint celebration between the Catholic Church and the SSPX in Catholic Churches for the Feast of Pope St Pius X.

The liturgical celebrations will be kicking off this week at one Catholic Church in a coastal region of the South - with final touches to the schedule being applied in the days running up to the exciting joint initiative.

So far it is known that hitherto unknown liturgical preferences which developed during St Pius X's pontificate will be a part of the Mass concelebrated by several SSPX priests with Diocesan priests in the region.

The controversial 'balloon Masses' of 1910 are being revived as the ecumenical initiative seeks to build on common ground shared by the SSPX and the post-Concilliar Church.

After the Ad Populum Balloon Mass, with a local schola singing the Gregorian chant in Latin, Catholic priests and faithful will meet and celebrate the Feast in the local community hall, where all present will sign the oath against Modernism. The new oath against Modernism defines modernism as anything that was promoted within the Church between the years 2005 and 2013 that attempted to reconcile the Church with her past.

One local priest, enthusiastic about the initiative said, "I'm really excited about this. Here we see a blending of the two rites of the Church harmonising together in absurd duality, bringing in some of the most dynamic and inflatable aspects of the Novus Ordo, alongside the beauty and ancient timelessness of the Mass of Ages."

The SSPX spokesperson was unavailable for comment, but one regular SSPX churchgoer said, "I never knew that St Pius X - that great defender of the Church from the pernicious heresies of modernism - had revived under his own pontificate the ancient 'balloon Masses' which were part of the early life of the Holy Roman Church, until these liturgical displays of devotion were destroyed amid the turbulent persecution under Diocletian. I think this will really help Catholics and the SSPX to see their relationship in a new light and bring about a greater sense of fraternity and understanding. I'm very wary of 'healing Masses' but a 'helium Mass' sounds like something else altogether."

Updates on this exciting news as they come in.